Call for papers--Artists and their art-making practices

2012 Annual Conference of the College Art Association
Los Angeles
February 22-26, 2012

Call for Participation
"Trading Zones: Strategies for the Study of Artists and Their
    Art-Making Practices"

Deadline May 15, 2011

Session co-chairs:

    Francesca Bewer
    Harvard Art Museums
    francesca_bewer<-a t->harvard< . >edu

and

    Jan Marontate
    Simon Fraser University
    jmaronta<-a t->sfu< . >ca

Session co-sponsored by the American Institute for Conservation of
Historic and Artistic Works

This session explores research on the 'spaces' where communication
about art-making occurs, considering them somewhat akin to "trading
zones", a term used in anthropology and social studies of science as
a metaphor for social (and material) spaces where people from
different cultures or disciplines collaborate, without necessarily
sharing the same values, language or understandings of what they
hope to achieve.

Proposals are encouraged about research on modern and contemporary
artists' encounters with specific sources and resources that have
inspired them to preserve tradition or to adopt innovative
art-making practices.  How has information about materials and
techniques circulated?  Was it through traditional training,
artists' handbooks, experimentation, technical literature, and/or in
conversation with others (and if so with whom: artists,
conservators, scientists, technical support people working for
suppliers of materials or instruments, or others)?  How have
artists' experimentation and needs influenced the development of
materials and techniques? What resources have art historians and
critics, curators, conservators and scientists, gallery owners and
others developed to study and document artists' creative practices
(for example, data bases of responses to survey questionnaires,
technical data from scientific analysis of works of art, interviews,
artists' and conservators' archives, or on-line social networks)?

At its best, research on communication about art making enhances
understanding of the meaning of the work and ways of preserving it.
However sharing research may also give rise to contention and risk
(eg. fueling a new generation of art forgers in the mode of van
Meegeren). What are some of the challenges faced by researchers
interested in documenting technical information on the recent
history of art-making practices? When should research about artists
and their technical sources and resources be shared?  When should it
be considered confidential?

We welcome abstracts at this point; once the roster of participants
is finalized the CAA asks for the completed participation proposal
form.  See

  <URL:http://www.collegeart.org/pdf/2012CallforParticipation.pdf>

and a short CV. Note that since this session is co-sponsored by the
AIC, we might bend the rules a bit regarding speakers being CAA
members.

Francesca G. Bewer
Research Curator
Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies
Harvard Art Museums
32 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
617-495-1643
Fax: 617-495-0322


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 24:50
                    Distributed: Monday, May 2, 2011
                       Message Id: cdl-24-50-008
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