International Conference Hosted by the Visual Culture Programme
Vienna University of Technology, 21-23 October 2010

What has emerged over the last decade as one of the most significant aspects of work in Visual Culture is a persistent desire for both a critical sensitivity toward its theoretical underpinnings and an experimental elasticity in its methodological approaches. This drive is giving rise to a plethora of new investigative practices and multi-directional engagements, particularly vis-à-vis matters of geopolitical urgency and their cultural and spatial implications.

Marking ten years of Visual Culture studies at Vienna University of Technology, this conference aims to bring together a diverse group of researchers and practitioners interested in the dynamics between emergent spatial phenomena and new modes of theoretical inquiry. Examining the blurring roles of intervention and research, the conference seeks to debate how critical and creative work in Visual Culture negotiates unexpected transitions and oscillations between individual and collective, real and virtual, center and periphery, and activism and academy.

We invite submission of papers that address the current liminalities of theory and practice in Visual Culture. Participation from graduate students and early career academics is especially welcome. Topics may range from investigating the intimate, indiscreet or collaborative architectures of globalisation to discussing the genealogy of ideas, implemented utopias or unperformed failures.Current shifts in global politics and economy – financial crises, protest movements, natural disasters, worldwide migrations of people and concepts, new shadow economies – contain a myriad of micro and macro processes whose contingent interactions may offer new perspectives for an emerging culture of research as intervention. How can we conceptualise the transformations in the way we share space and the political regimes operative in these spaces? What kinds of strategies does this ambition require? Where will the novel confluences of spatial realities and practice based research lead Visual Culture as a field of critical investigation?

Confirmed keynote speakers include Jorella Andrews (Goldsmiths, University of London), Suzana Milevska (Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje) and Erica Robles (Steinhardt, NYU).

The conference will partly take place within the exhibition setting of 2 or 3 Things we’ve learned – Intersections of art, pedagogy and protest (IG Bildende Kunst, 14th Sep to 29th Oct 2010), which aims to produce a discursive space to address processes, displacements and intervention through art in education. In order to be considered for the conference, please send a paper proposal of 200-300 words (and an optional image) to the conference organisers at
conference@visuelle-kultur.net by 1 August 2010. Please also include a brief biographical sketch of the author(s) of 100-150 words. All abstracts will be reviewed by members of the conference board. Participants will be notified of the acceptance of papers by 1 September 2010.

Conference registration is free of charge. Participants are encouraged to draw on their own resources for travel and accommodation, although there might be some funding available to support paper givers from CEE countries or from outside the EU. Papers from the conference may form the basis for an edited volume. Please address all correspondence (including paper submissions, registration and additional inquiries) to the conference email address: conference [at] visuelle-kultur [dot] net
Updated information will shortly be available on the conference website: http://www.kunst.tuwien.ac.at/conference.htm

Review Board:
Gulsen Bal, Open Space – Zentrum für Kunstprojekte, Vienna
Brigitta Busch, University of Vienna
Eva Egermann, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, IG Bildende Kunst
Susan Kelly, Goldsmiths, University of London
Elke Krasny, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Architekturzentum Wien
Helge Mooshammer, Vienna University of Technology
Peter Mörtenböck, Vienna University of Technology
Irene Nierhaus, University of Bremen
Johanna Schaffer, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

Conference Organising Committee:
Karin Reisinger
Amila Sirbegovic
Stefanie Wuschitz
Nada Zerzer
Institute of Art and Design, Vienna University of Technology
Karlsplatz 13, A-1040 Vienna, Austria

12:00 Registration

1:00 Welcome

1:05-2:15 Session 1
W.J.T. Mitchell (English and Art History, University of Chicago)

2:15-4:15 Session 2 Roundtable: Education
Mark Dunhill (School of Art, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design)
Will Cobbing (Wimbledon College of Art)
Joanne Morra (School of Art, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design)
Adrian Rifkin (Art Writing, Goldsmiths, University of London)
Joy Sleeman (History and Theory of Art, Slade School of Fine Art)
Victoria Walsh (Education and Interpretation, Tate Britain)

4:15-4:45 Break

4:45-6:30 Session 3
Gary Hall (Media and Performing Arts, Coventry University)
Esther Leslie (Political Aesthetics, Birkbeck, University of London)

6:30-8:30: Reception

Friday 28th May 2010

10:00-11:15 Session 4
Keith Moxey (Art History and Archaeology, Columbia)

11:15-1:00 Session 5
Divya P. Tolia-Kelly (Geography, Durham University)
David Cunningham (Aesthetics/Urban Studies, University of Westminster);

1:00-2:00 Lunch (Not provided)

2:00-4:00 Session 6 Roundtable: Design Studies – Visual Studies – Cultural Studies
Glen Adamson (Design/Craft, RCA/V&A)
Sarah Chaplin (Architectural Humanities, Greenwich University)
Elizabeth Guffey (Design, SUNY, Purchase)
Raiford Guins (Digital Cultural Studies, SUNY, Stony Brook)
Guy Julier (Design, Leeds Metropolitan University)
Penny Sparke (Design History, Kingston University)

4:00-4:30 Break

4:30-5:45 Session 7
Lisa Cartwright (Communication, UC, San Diego) and Marita Sturken (Media, Culture, and Communication, New York University)

Saturday 29th May 2010

10:30-11:45 Session 8
Nicholas Mirzoeff (Media, Culture, and Communication, New York University)

11:45-1:30 Session 9
Joanna Zylinska (Media and Communications, Goldsmiths, University of London)
Esther Gabara (Romance Studies, and Art, Art History, & Visual Studies, Duke University)

1:30-2:30 Lunch (Not provided)

2:30-4:30 Session 10 Roundtable: The Future Institution: An International Association for Visual Culture Studies?
Michael Ann Holly (The Clark Art Institute, Williamstown)
Laura Mulvey (Screen Media, Birkbeck, University of London)
Stephen Melville (Art/Aesthetics/Philosophy, Ohio State University)
Griselda Pollock (Art Histories/Cultural Studies, University of Leeds)
Marquard Smith (Visual Culture Studies, University of Westminster)

4:30 Conference Ends