Call for Papers

7th Annual Graduate Symposium, Department of Art, University of Toronto To be held in Toronto, Ontario on January 25, 2013

Deadline: November 16, 2012

Spatial Interactions: Exploring the Artistic Environment

“Human beings do not construct the world in a certain way by virtue of what they are, but by virtue of their own conceptions of the possibilities of being. And these possibilities are limited only by the power of the imagination,” asserts British social anthropologist Tim Ingold in The Perception of the Environment: Essays on Livelihood, Dwelling and Skill (2000: 177). Artists and researchers use these conceptions and their imaginations, influenced by their social, cultural, and political environments, to construct and redefine space—the medium that connects places, people, and objects. For example, surrealists have used the notion of dreams to destabilize an individual’s sense of space, prompting a new dialogue on how the world is perceived and how social change is enacted. Anthropologists and archaeologists have analyzed how artistic representations and architectural constructions across global cultures and geographical regions portray and influence conceptions of spatial environments in different forms and scales. Reacting to restrictions imposed by society and their environments, contemporary artists can create new, physical or superficial spaces where the potential exists to transcend conventionally-accepted boundaries of space, belief, and ways of living. We invite proposals for papers spanning all time periods and geographical areas that consider how spatial and environmental constructs have influenced, and have been redefined, by the subjects of art, architecture, material culture, art-making practices and technologies, and experiences of space and environment. Topics may include, but are not limited to:

-Interactions of social, cultural, and political perspectives in the formation of artistic spaces

-Perception and (de)construction of spatial environments and landscapes through art/architecture

-The use and effects of space in architectural, domestic, and urban settings

-Materialism and the exchange of material culture across temporal and spatial scales

-How space, environment, and/or landscape are represented through depictions of time and place

-Psychological and physical spaces of artistic production or exhibition

-Influences of spatialization on perceptions and definitions of art, environment, and landscape

Please email abstracts of no more than 300 words for 20-minute papers, in addition to a short CV to gusta.symposium@gmail.com by November 16, 2012. Successful candidates will be contacted by December 1, 2012.

Organized by the Graduate Union of the Students of Art, University of Toronto http://groups.chass.utoronto.ca/gradart/activities.html