Session at Association of Art Historians (AAH) Annual Conference, April 15-17, 2010, Glasgow, UK.

Although Martin Heidegger’s philosophy stands at the heart of the modern critique of metaphysics, his work has, with few notable exceptions, had little impact in art history. This is hardly surprising since he considered the discipline to be relatively untroubled by its two constituent terms “art” and “history”, or simply a subjectivist aesthetics barely concealed in the guise of a quasi-scientific method. Furthermore, Heidegger saw modern art as predominately “installation art”, that is to say, a form of technological enframement. Yet ultimately, he was unwilling to concede that art could no longer count for us in the deepest ways. In our era when the question of technology is more pressing than ever (and is always related to the question of art), when ecological questions are becoming increasingly hard to ignore in the discipline, when we seem to be immersed in an “experience” economy, when there is an increasing difficulty of imagining art that is not subsumed within culture, and when despite all the inter-disciplinarity fostered in academia the cult of expertise is still rife, a creative encounter with Heidegger’s thought seems more important than ever. A reengagement with Heidegger is now taking place in regards to issues of world-making, community, eco-technology, the event, mood, the everyday, and facticity. These topics offer intriguing possibilities for art history in the 21st century.

This panel welcomes papers that consider any aspect of Heidegger’s work and need not keep to his better-known essays on technology, the origin of the work of art, or the age of the world picture (though we would be happy to receive these as well). Papers might also consider Heidegger in relation to other theorists. We particularly encourage submissions that are thought provoking, even counterintuitive, and that foster imaginative interpretations of Heidegger’s thought in relationship to specific works of art and art history.

Deadline for paper proposals is November 9, 2009.