Showing posts with label call for papers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label call for papers. Show all posts

Thursday, July 16, 2015

The First Annual Morbid Anatomy Saint Florian Gowanus Pageant

The First Annual Morbid Anatomy Saint Florian Gowanus Pageant Call for Works
Sunday, August 16th

Call for works now ended. You can see full lineup and details here and below. Tickets can be found here.

Thanks, and hope to see you there!

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TALKS:
--E. P. Bell (graduate student, Rutgers University) tracing the roots of this lost ritual and how it was discovered
--Forensic Pathologist Jay Stahl-Herz, MD on the post-mortem challenges presented by bodies found in water
--Ksenya Malina on processional banners used by members of lay confraternity orders in medieval and Renaissance Italy
--AMNH's Erin Chapman with "A Short Illustrated Bestiary of the Gowanus"
--Lady Ayea on the complexities involved in finding the right patron saint for sideshow performers with sword swallowing demonstration
--Urban explorer Will Ellis (Abandoned NYC) about The Batcave, a famous Gowanus abandoned space
--Professor Amy Herzog: TBA

FILMS
--Short films curated by Imagine Science Films at the intersections of art, science and the grotesque
--Jonah Patrick King's film "the Dowsers," which follows a New Age activist cult who worship water in a world where it has been privatized
--Guilherme Marcondes' film Caveirão, an urban fable about ghost in abandoned outskirts of Sao Paulo
--Nicole Antebi's film Riparianism, an animated film which re-imagines a national anthem around the "most" polluted waterways in this country

MUSIC
--Comedian and musician Jessica Delfino with a stirring rendition of "Ghosts of Oysters Past"
--Song by Kim Boekbinder

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Original Call for Works:
We are seeking short pieces--talks, performances, screenings, spectacles--for Gowanus Canal and Saint-themed event taking place on Sunday August 16th to benefit the Morbid Anatomy Museum.

Details follow below. If you are interested, please email your proposal or area of interest to laetitia [at] morbidanatomymuseum.org or joanna [at] morbidanatomymuseum.org.


On Sunday, August 16th, please join us for what we hope will be the first annual pageant honoring Saint Florian, patron saint of flooding and firemen. Gowanus residents are keenly aware that our livelihoods rely on the Gowanus Canal not overflowing its banks. By creating a new ritual to honor and assuage Saint Florian, we can both draw attention to this predicament and develop new rituals to serve as a basis for a new community, all with a sense of whimsy and spectacle.

The pageant will begin with a procession in which we will carry a papier mâché effigy of The Saint along with (we hope) a band from the museum to the Royal Palms Shuffleboard Court on Union Street (about a 10 minute walk). A few words will be said about the ritual, and our new genesis myth for the Gowanus will be articulated.

At the Shuffleboard Court, a fictional graduate student will present a short illustrated lecture tracing the pageant back to a its also fictional 19th century Gowanus roots. Following will be a Gowanus-themed variety show with a number of short presentations and performances, and a party where guests are invited to come in costumes inspired by ideas of the Gowanus.

This is a call for short works for the party. Pieces should run 5-20 minutes of length, and respond (in at least a vague way) the idea of the Gowanus Canal or the procession itself. The monstrous, the mutated, the polluted, the toxic, the abject, aquatic life, industrial throughways, lost causes, mob deaths, gonorrhea, gentrification, ritual, religion, folklore, martyrdom, the spectacular… the list goes on. Works could be talks, performances, screenings, spectacles, projections, and more. The venue has a projector, and we will be given a small stage. We also need help with sets, props and costumes for the procession, so if you are interested in that, let us know!

Friday, May 30, 2014

Call for Papers: Lost Museums Colloquium : Brown University, Providence, RI, May 7 and 8, 2015

I would like to share with you all a very exciting call for papers for an upcoming conference devoted to "lost artifacts, collections and museums" just in from our friends at the Jenks Society for Lost Museums at Brown University. Proposals can take the form of a traditional paper but can also be conceptual, poetic, and artistic, and are due on September 15, 2014. Full details below, and you can find out more here.
Call for Papers: Lost Museums Colloquium
In conjunction with the year-long exhibition project examining Brown University’s lost Jenks Museum, the John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage, the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology, and the John Carter Brown Library invite paper proposals for a colloquium on lost artifacts, collections and museums. (Other formats—conceptual, poetic, and artistic—are also invited.) The colloquium will be held at Brown University, Providence, RI, May 7 and 8, 2015.

Museums, perhaps more than any other institutions, think in the very long term: collections are forever. But the history of museums is more complicated than that. Museums disappear for many reasons, from changing ideas about what’s worth saving to the devastation of war. Museum collections disappear: deaccessioned, traded away, repatriated, lost to changing interests and the ravages of time.

We are interested in this process of decline and decay, the taphonomy of institutions and collections, as a way of shedding light not only on the history of museums and libraries, but also on the ways in which material things reflect and shape the practices of science and the humanities, and also to help museums think about current and future practices of collections and collections use.

We invite presentations from historians, curators, registrars, and collections managers, as well as from artists and activists, on topics including:

Histories of museums and types of museums: We welcome case studies of museums and categories of museums that are no more. What can we learn from museums that are no more? Cast museums, commercial museums, and dime museums have mostly disappeared. Cabinets of curiosity went out of and back into fashion. Why? What is their legacy?

Artifacts: How do specimens degrade? How have museums come to think of permanence and ephemerality? How do museums use, and “use up” collections, either for research (e.g., destructive sampling), or for education and display; how have they thought about the balance of preservation and use? How can they collect the ephemeral?

Museum collection history: How long does art and artifact really remain in the museum? Might the analysis of museum databases cast new light on the long-term history and use of collections?
“Lost and found” in the museum: How are art and artifacts “rediscovered” in museums? How do old collections regain their importance, both in artistic revivals and in new practices of “mining” the museum as artists finding new uses for old objects?

Museum collections policy: How have ideas about deaccessioning changed? How should they change? How do new laws, policies, and ethics about the repatriation of collections shape ideas about collections?

Museums going out of business: When a museum needs to close for financial or other reasons, what’s the best way to do that? Are there good case studies and legal and financial models?
The future of museum collections: How might museums think about collecting the ephemeral, or collecting for “impermanent” collections. What new strategies should museums consider for short-term collecting? How might digitization and scanning shape ideas about the permanence of collections?

Papers from the Colloquium may be published as a special issue of the Museum History Journal.

If you’d like to present at the conference, please send an abstract of about 250 words and a brief CV to Steven Lubar, lubar [at] brown.edu. Deadline for submission of paper proposals is September 15, 2014.

Steven Lubar
Department of American Studies
John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage
Images:
  1. Gallery of classical antiquities, Brown University, about 1893. No longer in existence. Collections apparently lost. Courtesy Brown University archives.
  2. The Jenks Museum at Brown University, about 1890. Only about 10 percent of the collections once in the Jenks Museum survive, and none of the natural history specimens. Courtesy Brown University Archives.

Friday, May 16, 2014

Call for Papers: Bodies Beyond Borders: The Circulation of Anatomical Knowledge, 1750-1950, January 7-9 2015

This call for papers just in from my new friend Pieter Huistra, one of the many international attendees I had the pleasure to meet at last weekend's phenomenal Amsterdam Anatomy Weekend at the Museum Vrolik.

The conference will take place in Leuven, Belgium from January 7-9, 2015 with confirmed speakers including Sam Alberti, Sven Dupré, Rina Knoeff, Helen MacDonald, Anna Maerker, Chloé Pirson, Natasha Ruiz-Gómez and Michael Sappol.

The call for papers follow; abstracts of 300 words must be submitted by June 1, 2014 to pieter.huistra [at] arts.kuleuven.be. You can find out more here.

Bodies Beyond Borders. The Circulation of Anatomical Knowledge, 1750-1950
Leuven, 7-9 January 2015

Bodies Beyond Borders is a scholarly conference on the circulation of anatomical knowledge that indicates the heighted interest in the history of anatomy in Leuven. This conference fits in with two current projects on the history of anatomy in Leuven. The first is a research project on Anatomy, scientific authority and the visualized body in medicine and culture (Belgium, 1780-1930), that is conducted in our research group, Cultural History since 1750. The project is supervised by Kaat Wils, and co-supervised by Raf de Bont, Jo Tollebeek and Geert Vanpaemel, and has two PhD fellows, Tinne Claes and Veronique Deblon and one postdoctoral fellow, Pieter Huistra. This research project takes as its object the history of anatomy in Belgium in the ‘long nineteenth century’.

Secondly, Leuven will celebrate a Vesalius year in 2014-2015, to commemorate the 500th birthday of Andreas Vesalius. The mainstay of the programme will be the exhibition Unravelling the body. The theatre of anatomy, of which Geert Vanpaemel will serve as curator. This exhibition studies Vesalius himself, but also his work influenced representations of the human body and the tradition of anatomical research. These themes will also be included in Bodies Beyond Borders, our conference that takes up the question: how does anatomical knowledge move from site to another? Whereas our research project focuses specifically on Belgium, the conference will have a broad geographical scope in its topics as well as its speakers.

Call for Papers

How does anatomical knowledge move from one site to another? Between 1750 and 1950 the study of anatomy underwent great changes, as a part of the development of scientific medicine, through public anatomies, as well as in the interplay between the two. How did these changes spread geographically? How did knowledge about newly discovered lesions travel from one hospital to another? What was the role of anatomical models in the spread of the public consciousness of syphilis, for example? Was the spread of this knowledge hindered by national borders, or did anatomical knowledge cross those borders easily? These questions are concerned with what James Secord terms ‘knowledge in transit’. To seek an answer to these questions, a conference focusing on the circulation of anatomical knowledge between 1750 and 1950 will be organized in Leuven from 7-9 January 2015. Confirmed speakers are Sam Alberti, Sven Dupré, Rina Knoeff, Helen MacDonald, Anna Maerker, Chloé Pirson, Natasha Ruiz-Gómez and Michael Sappol.

Knowledge does not move by itself – it has to be carried. To better understand how anatomical knowledge moves from place to place, we will seek to trace the trajectories of its bearers. Some of those bearers were tied very specifically to the discipline of anatomy: wax models, preserved bodies (or parts of them) or anatomical atlases, for example. These objects are polysemic in nature, tending to have different meanings in different contexts and for different audiences. It makes the question of how anatomical knowledge travelled all the more pertinent if, for example, wax models that went from a Florentine museum to a Viennese medical training institution underwent a shift in meaning en route. But bearers of knowledge less specifically tied to anatomy were equally important: articles, books and individual persons to name but a few examples.

For our conference we welcome contributions regarding the geographical movement of anatomical knowledge between 1750 and 1950. We are equally interested in ‘scientific’ and ‘public’ anatomy – as well as in exchanges between the two domains. Therefore, we encourage contributions about bearers of anatomical knowledge as wide-ranging as persons (scientists, students, freaks), objects (models, preparations, bodies or body parts), visual representations (films, atlases, wall maps) and practices (dissections, travelling exhibitions), as well as their (transnational and intranational) trajectories.

Paper proposals must be submitted by 1 June 2014.

Please send a 300-word abstract to pieter.huistra[at]arts.kuleuven.be.

Notification of acceptance: early July, 2014.
Image: Enrique Simonet, "Anatomía del corazón; ¡Y tenía corazón!; La autopsia," 19th Century

Monday, December 16, 2013

Call for Papers: ‘Between Medical Collections and Their Audiences’ – EAMHMS Congress, London 2014

This excellent looking call for papers just in from our friend Katie Maggs of the Science Museum! If interested, you can send abstracts to her at katie.maggs [at] sciencemuseum.ac.uk. Submissions must be in by 20th January 2014.

Full details follow:
Call for Papers: ‘Between medical collections and their audiences’ – EAMHMS Congress, London 2014
EAMHMS (European Association of Museums of the History of Medical Sciences ) Congress, London 2014
‘Between medical collections and their audiences’
September 4th – 6th 2014
Science Museum, Royal College of Surgeons of England, Wellcome Collection
The European Association of Museums of the History of Medical Sciences Congress biennial meeting will be held in London, September 4th – 6th 2014, jointly hosted between the Science Museum, the Royal College of Surgeons (Hunterian Museum) & the Wellcome Collection.

The theme for the 2014 Congress is ‘Between medical collections and their audiences’.

After a thrilling conference of the European Association of Museums of the History of Medical Sciences (EAMHMS) hosted by the Charite, Berlin 2012, we would like to invite the members of the association, as well as interested scholars and curators from the community of medical history collections and museums to participate in the next meeting of the organisation – London 2014.

EAMHMS is an active global network of curators, scholars & stakeholders with an interest in medical collections. The biennial Congress is a great opportunity to present research within a vibrant forum of debate and discussion, and promotes international exchange and collaboration amongst medical history museums. The Association, although nominally European, today attracts participation from around the world and is thus the leading international body of medical museums and collections.

The 2014 Congress will focus on medical collections and audiences – looking at how medical heritage is used to intrigue, problematise, teach, and stimulate interaction and reflection about medicine of the past and of today. Who engages with our collections and which new audiences are we innovating ways to engage with? Our visitors are not passive spectators, but rather participants in the creating of and telling of stories about medical heritage – so what does that mean for the future of curating medical collections & displays?

We welcome contributions around strands such as:
  1. Retelling ‘old’ histories with new narratives – in what ways can we reinvigorate audience engagement through re-telling established histories of medicine?
  2. Medical professionals as audience – in what ways can we connect and involve our collections to medical students or retired clinicians and beyond?
  3. Communicating problematic medical heritage – such as medical controversies, human remains, medical ethics.
  4. Audiences and communicating contemporary medical practise – how might we foster contemporary collecting or engage visitors with the material culture of contemporary biomedical practices.  
  5. Histories of audiences visiting medical collections - who has historically visited medical museums, how has this changed, what impact does this have?
  6. Audiences beyond the walls of the medical museum - approaches to engaging audiences in virtual world or through outreach.
  7. Research & innovation with audiences - what do we understand about our visiting audiences through audience evaluation? What new interpretative approaches excite us?
Papers are requested to be no more than 15 minutes in length (with an additional 15 minutes allotted for questions). The language for abstracts, talks, and discussions will be English. Short abstracts will be circulated to Congress participants in advance.

As spaces for speakers are limited, we would also like to invite contributions in the form of poster presentations – which will be discussed in a dedicated session.

We ask you to choose a topic from the above-mentioned issues and send your paper or poster abstract (maximum 1000 characters) with a title, your name and brief biography, the name of your institution (if you are attached to any) and your contact details (preferably e-mail address) to Katie Maggs, Curator of Clinical & Research Medicine at the Science Museum, London:  katie.maggs@sciencemuseum.ac.uk.

Deadline for submission: 20th January 2014.

A programme committee will select abstracts for an inspiring programme. Speakers and poster presenters will receive confirmation by mid-March. If your contribution is chosen, you will be asked to send in an extended abstract (2 to 5 pages) April 2014.

EAMHMS shares costs across the congress, so unfortunately speakers do not go free. The conference fee is envisaged at about £200, but will be confirmed shortly. We look to minimise costs wherever possible.

There may be a reduced fee for a small number of student contributors.

General enrollment for this conference will open in April 2014. We’re looking forward to a thrilling conference! See you in London 2014.
Image: audience interaction at the pathological museum in Mexico City, 2013.

Sunday, July 28, 2013

Call for Papers: "Monstrous Antiquities” Archaeology and the Uncanny in Popular Culture, University College London, November 2013

"Monstrous Antiquities”
Archaeology and the Uncanny in Popular Culture
UCL Institute of Archaeology, 1-3 November 2013

Haunted ruins, cursed artefacts, arcane rituals and ambulant mummies:archaeology and the ancient world have provided some of the most effective andubiquitous scenarios for tales of horror and the supernatural. Authors andfilmmakers such as MR James, Bram Stoker and Terence Fisher have drawnheavily upon popular conceptions of both the ancient past and the work of the archaeologist.
This conference aims to study and celebrate this long and productive relationship. We are keen to hear from scholars and aficionados of the fictional world of uncanny archaeology including archaeologists, historians, writers and artists. The programme will include all genres where the ancient meets the ghastly including music, television, literature, film, and art. The conference will be held at UCL on 1-3 November 2013.
Please send abstracts of no more than 200 words to the organisers John Johnston, Gabriel Moshenska and Tina Paphitis at monstrousantiquities [at] gmail.com by 31 August.
Thanks so much to my good friend Betsy Bradley for sending this my way! Click on image to see larger, more readable version.

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Two Conferences on Death, Art and Culture: Calls for Papers

I have just been alerted to two fabulous looking death and culture conferences both of which are now soliciting papers! Full info for each follows. Apply away!

1) Art and  Death: A Series of Three Workshops
1 November 2012, 21 February and 23 May 2013

The Courtauld Institute of Art, Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 0RN

Call for Papers
Submission by 20 September 2012 for workshop 1 (1 November 2012): Anticipation and Preparation
A series of three workshops will be held at the Courtauld Institute of Art in 2012-2013 to explore the inter-relationship between art and death. These workshops have arisen from an informal group of doctoral students with shared interests in funerary monuments. The workshops will be structured to recognize that the certainty of death is accompanied by the foreknowledge and uncertainty of what may come after, and that visual representations of these phases have varied over time and between countries. The first workshop will focus on the images and objects related to the impact that the certainty of death has on individuals and the community; the second on art in the context of dying, death and burial; and the final one on representations of the perceived fate of body and soul after death, as well as the continuation of a relationship (if only in memory) between the living and the dead.

Subjects for the workshops could include, but are not limited to:

Workshop 1 (1 November 2012): Anticipation and Preparation
•    Death insurance? Religious gifts and foundations
•    Protective objects and amulets
•    Tombs commissioned during a lifetime, testamentary desire and fulfilment
•    Contemplating images of death, warnings to the living
•    The cult of the macabre, images of illness and decay
•    Apocalyptic visions

Workshop 2: (21 February 2013): Death and Dying
•    A ‘good death’
•    War and violence
•    Funerals/Professional mourners
•    Funerary monuments, memorial architecture, cemetery design
•    Post-mortem portraits
•    Images of the corpse in painting, sculpture, film, photography, etc
•    Crucifixion imagery
•    Death in museum collections

Workshop 3 (23 May 2013) Life after Death
•    Images of the soul /resurrected or re-incarnated body
•    Depictions of the afterlife
•    The incorruptible body, saints, relics and reliquaries
•    Remembering the dead, commemoration in art and/or performance
•    The ‘immortality’ of the artist, post-mortem reputations

Format and Logistics:
•    Length of paper: 20 minutes
•    Four papers per workshop
•    Location: Research Forum, The Courtauld Institute of Art
•    Timing: 10am-midday
•    Expenses: funds are not available to cover participants’ expenses

We welcome proposals relating to all periods, media and regions (including non-European) and see this as an opportunity for doctoral and early post-doctoral students to share their research.

Please send proposals of no more than 250 words to: Jessica.Barker[at]courtauld.ac.uk and Ann.Adams[at]courtauld.ac.uk by the following dates:

•    20 September 2012 for workshop 1 (1 November 2012): Anticipation and Preparation
•    10 January 2013 for workshop 2 (21 February 2013): Death and Dying
•    11 April 2013 for workshop 3 (23 May 2013): Life after Death

For planning purposes, it would be helpful to have an indication of interest in the later workshops, in advance of submission of a proposal.

Organised by Jessica Barker and Ann Adams (The Courtauld Institute of Art)

2) Graduate Student Conference: “Death: the Cultural Meaning of the End of Life”
January 24–25, 2013
LUCAS (Leiden University Centre for Arts in Society)

This conference aims to explore how death has been represented and conceptualized, from classical antiquity to the modern age, and the extent to which our perceptions and understandings of death have changed (or remained the same) over time. The wide scope of this theme reflects the historical range of LUCAS’s (previously called LUICD) three research programs (Classics and Classical Civilization, Medieval and Early Modern Studies and Modern and Contemporary Studies), as well as the intercontinental and interdisciplinary focus of many of the institute’s research projects.

The LUCAS Graduate Conference welcomes papers from all disciplines within the humanities. The topic of your proposal may address the concept of death from a cultural, historical, classical, artistic, literary, cinematic, political, economic, or social viewpoint.

Questions that might be raised include: How have different cultures imagined the end of life? What is the role of art (literature, or cinema) in cultural conceptions of death? How might historical or contemporary conceptualizations of death be related to the construction of our subjectivity and cultural identity? What is the cultural meaning(s) of death? To what extent has modern warfare changed our perceptions of death? How is death presented in the media and how has this changed? In what ways has religion influenced our reflections on death and the afterlife?

Please send your proposal (max. 300 words) to present a 20-minute paper to lucasconference2013[at]gmail.com.

The deadline for submissions is November 15, 2012.
For further information on the first workshop, click here. For further information on the second conference, click here. Special thanks to Lisa Kereszi for turning me onto the latter!

Image: Dead Toreador (Torero Mort). Édouard Manet (French, Paris 1832–1883 Paris)

Friday, March 30, 2012

Call for Works for Congress of Curious Peoples Curiosity Vendors!


To all makers, distributors, and artists of the arcane and the curious: this call for vendors for this year's just-posted-on Congress of Curious Peoples just in from Adam the Real Man of Coney Island USA:
Coney Island USA's Congress of Curious Peoples has a few vendor spots left!
The Congress of Curious Peoples is Coney Island USA's annual celebration of Oddity and Oddities. It begins with the Sideshow Hall of Fame induction event and continues with a 10-day series of performances and lectures on Curiosity and Curiosities, featuring notable faces from the sideshow world and talks by international scholars. The final weekend of the Congress includes a 2-day symposium and performances by some of Coney Island's most important sideshow stars.

Now in its 6th year, the Congress is meant to build a community of scholars, practitioners, vendors, and enthusiasts; centered around a field with its home in Coney Island. It is quickly expanding to become an important gathering of people who are interested in the past, present, and future of sideshows, dime museums, cabinets of curiosity, 19th and 20th century spectacular culture, and the obscure American performing arts that Coney Island USA is dedicated to preserving.

We expect between 500 and 1,000 individuals to pass through our doors in the course of events, and they are all committed aficionados of all things curious.

So if you're an artist who's work reflects the curious, the strange, the macabre, the bizarre and the wondrous and wishlike to be considered as a vendor, please contact congressvendors@gmail.com.
More on the event itself can be found here. Hope to see you there.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Call for Papers:" Art and Science: Knowledge, Creation and Discovery" Conference, Linnean Society, London, June 28-29


This very exciting call for papers just in from Morbid Anatomy reader Arlene Leis:
AAH Summer Symposium 2012
Art and Science: Knowledge, Creation and Discovery
28 – 29 June 2012
The Linnean Society, London

Call for Papers
Although their academic paradigms may at first seem diametrically opposed, the association between arts and sciences has survived renaissances, revolutions and beyond.

This intellectual conjunction has motivated artistic practice and production throughout history, forming the conceptual nucleus of some of the most stimulating forms of creative expression. By engaging with this inter-relationship, we hope to address the assumed divisions that have kept the arts and sciences as separate areas of academic enquiry, whilst at the same time questioning if such an alliance is necessary or profitable for either discipline.

As well as considering general ideas of artistic and scientific collaboration, this year’s Summer Symposium will investigate the interaction between art and science throughout artistic practice, theory and history. Topics for papers could include, but are not limited to:
  • Artists who work directly or indirectly with science
  • Medical and anatomical images, diagrams, and the art of science
  • Architecture and the body
  • Histories of collection, taxonomies, display and acquisition in the arts and sciences
  • The role of the science of perception in the development of perspective, figuration and abstraction
  • The idea of the modern as related to science and technology
  • The figure of the polymath
  • Neuroscience and histories of vision
  • Photography between science and art
  • Mathematics and beauty – the Golden Section
  • Technology and the evolving dissemination of art history
  • Science in art historical conservation and research
Papers should be 20 minutes in length and abstracts of no more than 300 words should be submitted with a brief biography to: aah.art.science@gmail.com by 29 April 2012.

The conference is open to all, but speakers need to be student AAH members.

Symposium Organisers
Arlene Leis, University of York
Rebecca Norris, University of Cambridge
Freya Gowrley, University of Edinburgh

Keynote speakers
Dr Craig Ashley Hanson, (Calvin College)
Dr Petra Lange-Berndt, (UCL)
To find out more, click here.

Image from call for papers PDF; Rebecca Nichols, Arbor Vitae (2007), more here.

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Seeking Volunteers for Grand Guignol Spectacular Next Saturday, December 10


Hi all! We are currently seeking a few volunteers to help with next Saturday's Grand Guignol Spectacular at The Coney Island Museum. We need a couple of folks to help with scene transitions during the show, and an experienced stage manager to help for the day of the show. All volunteers, of course, will be rewardd with free admission to the event!

Interested parties can email me here: morbidanatomy [at] gmail.com. More on the event can be found here.

Thanks so much and, either way, hope to see you there!

Image: From a Life Magazine story circa 1947 about the Grand Guignol entitled "Sick! A House of Horrors." More on that here. Caption reads: "Realistic throat-cutting, performed in The Hussy by honest farm lad on his depraved, scheming wife, is achieved by a trick dagger which contains 'blood' in the handle."

Friday, October 7, 2011

Oddities TV Show Seeking Los Angeles Based Collectors for Future Episodes!


Calling any LA, California based collectors of Oddities! We would love to feature you on the show! Send the producers an email ASAP at Odditiesshow@gmail.com.
This call for collectors just in from Mike Zohn of "Oddities," the Discovery and Science Channel series based on the unrivaled Obscura Antiques and Oddities in New York City. If you are a collector of unusual things based in Los Angeles and interested in appearing on the show--or would like additional information--email Odditiesshow@gmail.com; more about Oddities can be found here.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Call for Papers: Sensualising Deformity: Communication and Construction of Monstrous Embodiment, Edinburgh, June 15-16


I just got word of a call for papers for an excellent sounding upcoming conference. Details below:
The University of Edinburgh
Sensualising Deformity: Communication and Construction of Monstrous Embodiment
June 15-16, 2012

Confirmed Plenary Speakers:

Prof. Jeffrey Jerome Cohen
George Washington University

Dr. Peter Hutchings
Northumbria University

From freak exhibitions and fairs, medical examinations and discoveries to various portrayals in arts and literature, images of deformity (or monstrosity, used separately or interchangeably depending on context) have captivated us for centuries. The result is a significant body of critical and artistic works where these bodies are dissected, politicized, exhibited, objectified or even beatified. Nonetheless, there remains a gap, an unexplored, unspoken or neglected aspect of this complex field of study which needs further consideration. This two-day interdisciplinary conference aims to bring the senses and the sensuous back to the monstrous or deformed body from the early modern period through to the mid-twentieth century, and seeks to explore its implications in diverse academic fields.

We hope to bring together scholars and students from a wide range of disciplines to engage in a constructive dialogue, network, and exchange ideas and experiences, connecting a community of researchers who share a fascination with deformity, monstrosity, and freakery.

Possible topics may include (but are not limited to):
  • Spectacle/fetishisation of monstrosity and deformity; monstrous sexuality/eroticisation
  • The monster as a catalyst of progression/ historical perspectives
  • Monstrous symbolism, prodigality, or beatification
  • The racialised body; exoticising difference
  • Monstrosity in medical literature; disability narratives
  • Monstrous becoming; the ‘sensed’ body
  • Deformed aesthetics; monstrosity in the visual arts
  • (De) gendering the deformed body; humanisation vs objectification
We welcome proposals for 20-minute presentations from established scholars, postdoctoral researchers and postgraduate students from various teratological backgrounds, e.g. in literature, history, media and art studies, philosophy, religious studies, history of science,medical humanities, and critical and cultural theory. Proposals should be no more than 300 words, in .doc format, and should include a brief 50-word biography.

Please submit your abstracts no later than 31 January 2012 to sdefconference@ed.ac.uk

Dr. Karin Sellberg (The University of Edinburgh)
Ally Crockford (The University of Edinburgh)
Maja Milatovic (The University of Edinburgh)
For more info, visit the conference blog by clicking here.

Image: From the conference blog, where they cite the images as courtesy of the BMJ Publishing Group, BMJ 1889, June 8; 1(1484): 1288–1289.

Friday, September 2, 2011

"Cultures of Anatomical Collections Conference," Call for Papers, Leiden University, February 15-18 2012


Image: Museum of Anatomical Waxes “Luigi Cattezneo” Bologna, Italy, part of the Anatomical Theatre Exhibition © Joanna Ebenstein
Call for papers: Cultures of Anatomical Collections International Conference, Leiden University 15-18 February 2012

The conference ‘Cultures of Anatomical Collections’ will explore anatomical preparations and collections (preparations of human material as well as wax- and other models) as important parts of our cultural heritage. This means that we treat them in a similar way as we would examine other historical artifacts stored in today’s museum. Although the history of anatomy and anatomical illustrations has been a popular topic in the history of medicine during the last decade, the history of its material remains has been somewhat neglected. And yet, in particular when taking into account recent historiographies of materiality and medical practices, it offers challenging interdisciplinary questions on the history of anatomy as a whole. Possible topics include: How do the technical details of anatomical preparations tell us about the ideas of their maker; How do ideas on beauty and perfection shape preparations; How were preparations handled and used for teaching purposes: How does the interest of non-medical audiences shape anatomical preparations? On collections as a whole we can ask: How are particular collections build up; How do decisions of curators affect the build-up of collections; How does the housing of a collection affect its outlook and popularity?

The conference has keynote lectures and the following sessions:
Keynote Lectures : Ruth Richardson and Andrew Cunningham

1. Beauty, Perfection and Materiality in Early Modern Anatomical Collections Organiser: Marieke Hendriksen ; Confirmed speaker: Anita Guerrini
This session deals with questions regarding the materiality and aesthetics of early modern anatomical preparations. So far historians of medicine have described the beauty and perfection of early modern anatomical preparations using modern (post-Kantian) understandings of aesthetics. Yet, early modern anatomical preparations must be related to early modern ideas of aesthetics, which were about beauty and perfection as well as about sense perception and experiment. Possible questions include: How does the materiality of preparations tell us more about contemporary ideals of beauty and perfection and vice versa? How can changes in theses ideals be traced in the make-up of anatomical collections? How are beauty and perfection related to natural philosophical ideas on sense perception and experiment? How do ideas of beauty and perfection relate to the morality of the early modern anatomical theatre?

2. Anatomical Collections and Scientific Medicine in the Nineteenth Century Organiser: Hieke Huistra; Confirmed speaker: Simon Chaplin
With the birth of the clinic and the introduction of laboratory methods, medicine in the nineteenth century changed profoundly. At first sight it would seem as if these changes would pose a threat to the position and function of anatomical collections in research and teaching. This was, however, not the case – institutional anatomical collections flourished in the nineteenth century. In this session we explore questions such as what were the status and function of early modern collections in the nineteenth century? How were old (in most cases early modern) preparations displayed and used in the new scientific medicine? How did the use, content, accessibility and display change during the nineteenth century? How did the new collections relate to the ‘new’ disciplines of comparative anatomy and pathology?

3. Handling Anatomical Collections
Organiser: Rina Knoeff; Confirmed speakers: Sam Alberti, Tim Huisman
This session is directed at exploring the role of the curator of the anatomical museum. Almost invisible and hardly discussed in historical discourse, he is daily busy and literally in touch with the collections. He has always been of utmost importance for the making of preparations and the general outlook of anatomical collections. Possible questions include: What are the tasks of a curator and how have they changed over time? How did/does a curator determine the outlook of a preparation and collection? How did/does he influence the focus, significant silences and boundaries of collections? How did/do his responsibilities oscillate between professional medics and the public? How did/does he merge the interests of these two groups?

4. Anatomical Collections as Public History Organiser: Rina Knoeff; Confirmed speaker: Anna Maerker
This session is about the role of the public in the making and survival of anatomical collections. Faced with recent controversies surrounding the public exhibition of human material (in particular Körperwelten) anatomical museums are faced with the questions of which exhibits should be on show, for what purposes (teaching or general interest?) and how they should be exhibited. Yet, these questions are of all times – after all, anatomical collections have almost always been publically accessible. Studying the history of anatomical collections from the public perspective can answer questions such as how are historical preparations presented in (today’s) museum and how have their public meanings transformed over time? How has public curiosity been regulated? How has the public eye influenced the presentation of a preparation?

5. Comments and Final Discussion Organisers: Rina Knoeff, Marieke Hendriksen, Hieke Huistra, Rob Zwijnenberg.

Contact: Rina Knoeff on r.knoeff@hum.leidenuniv.nl

Deadline: Proposals for 20 mins. papers can be send to Rina Knoeff until 16 September 2011.
You can find out more about this excellent looking conference here. Thanks to Kristen Ehrenberger for sending this along!

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Morbid Anatomy Library Seeking Volunteer(s)!


The Brooklyn-based Morbid Anatomy Library is currently seeking a volunteer to watch over the library on Saturdays from 12-6, do a bit of book cataloging, and take on assorted odd jobs. The position would begin the weekend of May 21-22; Class credit can be worked out if applicable.

For those who have not yet visited, the Library (see photo above) is an open-to-the-public research library and private collection housing books, photographs, artworks, ephemera, and artifacts relating to medical museums, anatomical art, cabinets of curiosity, death and dying, arcane media, collectors and collecting, and curiosity and curiosities broadly considered. You can find out more information about the library here.

If interested, please email me at morbidanatomy [at] gmail.com.

Thanks!

Above photo of the library by Shannon Taggart.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

"Naming The Animals" Call for Works, Curious Matter and Proteus Gowanus


A very exciting looking call for art works just crossed my desk; full details below:
Curious Matter is announcing its new Call For Entries, "Naming The Animals." If you believe that this will be of interest to your artist members, please make it available to them. Thank you for your cooperation.
Curious Matter

We're absolutely delighted to announce this special collaboration between CURIOUS MATTER and PROTEUS GOWANUS. Details are below and attached as a pdf file. Cheers!

CALL FOR ENTRIES

Naming The Animals

Entries Due: March 4, 2011

Exhibition dates: April 3 - May 15, 2011*

Naming The Animals is a collaboration between Curious Matter in Jersey City, NJ and Proteus Gowanus in Brooklyn, NY. The exhibition will be presented in two parts concurrently at Curious Matter and Proteus Gowanus. The curators will select the location for the artwork. The exhibition is a complement to the yearlong multi-disciplinary inquiry hosted by Proteus Gowanus on the theme of Paradise. A catalogue will accompany the exhibition.

Theme: In our collective effort to understand the world we're driven to catalogue and name everything around us. From Adam’s task to name the animals in paradise, to cave painting to modern ecology and zoology, we’re compelled to describe and render the creatures that share our planet. Medieval bestiaries, and the work of Ernst Haeckel and John James Audubon are vivid examples, as are the installations of Mark Dion and the ecological works of Alexis Rockman. These various efforts are not necessarily purely aesthetic or scientific; naming and cataloguing can also include the assignment of moral or metaphorical associations–implicit is the desire to declare and understand ourselves.

We invite contemporary artists to submit work that draws inspiration from the natural world and the human drive to understand and catalogue the world around us. We're taking a broad approach to the theme and are particularly interested in work that looks beyond a literal interpretation.

Media/dimensions: All media will be considered. Artworks should not exceed 24"(framed) in any direction for wall hung work. Small sculptural work and bookarts particularly welcome, larger sculptures will be considered individually. Video artists must provide their own equipment.

Eligibility: All artists working in any media.

Submissions: (Please include all information. Late, incomplete, or weblink submissions will not be considered or responded to.)
1. Up to 5 images. Postal submissions should include 35mm slides or letter-sized color printouts. Do not send original artwork. Digital file submissions will only be accepted via email and must be in JPEG or PDF format, resolution set to 72 dpi, no larger than 800 X 800 pixels and no larger than 2MB. Please number images to correspond to Image List.
2. Image list. Numbered to correspond with your image submissions. Include image #, your name, title, date of work, medium, size and price. You may include a brief description for each image, however this isn’t required.
3. One page résumé. Please include a three line bio, your
contact information and an email address.
4. Artist’s statement. No longer than 300 words.

Fees: NO FEE TO ENTER, accepted artists pay a nominal materials fee of $35.

Deadline: Entries must be received no later than March 4, 2011.

Return of Submission Materials: Include a SASE if you want your materials to be returned. Make sure there is sufficient postage. Materials without postage will not be returned.

Notification: Accepted artists will be notified via email by March 7, 2011. NOTE: Accepted artists must confirm their participation by March 8 and provide a print-quality digital image for the catalogue by March 11.

Drop Off: Drop off of accepted artwork will be March 26 and 27, noon to 2pm at Curious Matter. Mailed artwork must arrive by March 25 and include return shipping label/postage/etc.

Pick Up: Artists are responsible for picking up artwork on May 21 noon to 2pm. Return of mailed artwork with return postage will begin on May 16, 2011.

Email Submissions To: CuriousMatter@comcast.net
By Post: Curious Matter, 272 Fifth Street, Jersey City, NJ 07302

* works selected for exhibition at Proteus Gowanus will remain on display until mid-July as part of the Paradise exhibition.


CURIOUS MATTER is an exhibition venue for contemporary visual art located in downtown Jersey City, NJ. Curious Matter exhibitions and publications evidence the pursuit to understand and articulate our individual and collective experience of the world, real or imagined. We examine fantastic notions, confounding ideas and audacious thoughts. Curious Matter strives to foster dialogue among artists at all career stages with a calendar of regular exhibitions. Our commitment extends to our audience as we endeavor to open a door to appreciating contemporary art in an atmosphere that encourages engagement and curiosity. The gallery is open Sundays noon to 3pm and by appointment during exhibitions. Curious Matter is a non-profit organization, and a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit service organization.

PROTEUS GOWANUS is a gallery and reading room located on the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, NY. A collaborative project, the gallery develops exhibits of art, artifacts and books and hosts events that revolve around a yearlong theme linking the arts to other disciplines and to the community. Proteus Gowanus incorporates the rich and diverse cultural resources of several non-profit organizations into its exhibits and programming. This year’s theme is PARADISE, an exploration of the light and dark sides of spiritual ascent and sensual escape, in which we invite artists and workers in other disciplines to respond to the siren song of that which is easy to imagine but difficult to attain.

CURIOUS MATTER
272 Fifth Street, Jersey City, NJ 07302,
[T] 201-659-5771 [E] curiousmatter@comcast.net
curiousmatter.blogspot.com
follow us on facebook!
There is no fee to enter, and submissions are due on March 4th; Click here for more information. To find out more about Proteus Gowanus gallery, click here; to fine out more about Curious Matter, click here.

Image: Illustration by artist/naturalist/monist Ernst Haeckel, 19th Century, via zannestars.com.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Call for Vendors of the Curious and the Unusual for The Congress for Curious People, 2011


Some of you might remember Morbid Anatomy's coverage of last year's wonderful and amazing Congress for Curious People. I am now in the process of co-organizing this year's Congress, which will also serve as the launch event for my new exhibition at the Coney Island Museum entitled The Great Coney Island Spectacularium.

For this year's 10-day Congress--which begins on April 8 and ends on April 17th, 2011--Coney Island USA is keen to add a kind of arts, crafts, and curiosities fair featuring all things uncanny, unusual, or sideshow related.

Below is the official call for vendors. Please feel free to pass this along to interested parties:
The Congress of Curious Peoples is seeking unusual vendors for it’s Colonnade of Curiosities. April 8-17. High end, low brow and things in between. But your products must be interesting. Art, Jewelery, sideshow related items, the strange, the bizarre and the macabre...

Please email: congressvendors@gmail.com with a full description of your work and a link to a website and or photos. Due to the many submissions and limited space, we will contact only those we are considering.
To find out more, or if you would like to submit work, please email: congressvendors@gmail.com. To find out more about last year's Congress, click here; to find out about The Great Coney Island Spectacularium, click here.

Image: From Obscura Antiques and Oddities

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Observatory Call for Works: RETROFUTUROLOGY


Calling all artists and makers:
RETROFUTUROLOGY
How the Past Saw the Present // How the Present Sees the Future

A group show of visual art at Observatory, Brooklyn, curated by the Hollow Earth Society, Ethan Gould & Wythe Marschall, Founding Colonels

The imagination (as a productive faculty of cognition) is a powerful agent for creating, as it were,a second nature out of the material supplied to it by actual nature. —Kant

To have an imagined future, you must simultaneously have an imagined present and an imagined past.

A DeLorean decked out in flashing lights and complicated-looking wires: It's a modest-budget promise that, yes, the technologies of our age—our new computer chips and LED lights and cars with doors that open upright like a space pod—can puncture the time barrier, with the right old-fashioned mad scientist at the steering wheel! Where to go? A rowdy 1950s, wherein a white kid can invent rock and roll? A steampunk 1800s? A future wherein the promises of kaleidoscopic, holographic advertising from the late 1980s come to fruition—a world with yet another layer of retrofuturist dreaming added onto the small-town diner...?

Our visions of the future are nested.

Our conception of time is hyperreal. In explaining the visual gimmicks of a single cultural artifact such as the Buggles's "Video Killed The Radio Star," we must refer to the heyday of radio; the future promised by television executives in synthesizer advertisements; science fiction pulp covers from the 1950s; the neon-on-black-and-white aesthetic of MTV in its early years, not to mention the gallery scene that birthed that aesthetic; 1950s diner-decor futurism; the late-1970s body-posturing and dystopic styling of Devo; Fritz Lang's Metropolis, looking forward to 2026; the garb of mad scientists in movies from the 1940s;—and the sigh that comes with opening a magazine and seeing all of this, compressed down into an ad for sunglasses for hipsters.

Or not even for hipsters: The retrocamp fashion exemplified by an irritating blend of past and future has been recompressed and sold in shopping malls internationally. This isn't marginal pulp—

This is the process on which the present runs.

You are invited to join us for a group show

The Hollow Earth Society seeks artists working in drawing, printmaking, and painting, and possibly sculpture and video/multimedia art (space is limited) for RETROFUTUROLOGY, a group show focused on past- and present-futures, to be up from January 29 to March 5, 2011, at Observatory (observatoryroom.org). Submissions are due January 8, 2011.

How to submit:
Include all information listed below. Late or incomplete submissions will not be considered unless they are mind-staggeringly fantastic and presented with great humility.

Send us up to five images. Digital submissions will be accepted via email. Files must be in JPEG or PDF format. Please number your image files to correspond to your image list.

Send an image list. Double check that the numbers on your list correspond to the numbers in the names of your actual files. In your list, include for each image: an image number, the work's title, the date of work, the medium, and its size and price.
Along with the list, please include a brief description of each image.
Send a three-line bio, your contact information and an email address. You may also submit a résumé.

If you like, send an optional artist’s statement, no longer than 300 words.

THERE IS NO FEE TO ENTER.

Deadline: All email submissions must be received no later than January 8, 2011. (All accepted work should be physically received at Observatory no later than January 24, 2011.)

Return of submitted materials: Include a SASE and make sure there is sufficient postage, or pay for shipping and we will ship your work back to you. If work is two-dimensional, the Hollow Earth Society is more than happy to have it on file for future shows and keep it exhibited for sale on our website. The same 30% commission for art sold will apply.

Drop-Off: If you have been accepted into the show and are in the NYC area, you may wish to drop off your art at the gallery. Email us (gallery@hollowearthsociety.com) to schedule a date and time.

Pick-Up: Return of mailed artwork with return postage will begin on March 12, 2011.

Email submissions to:
gallery@hollowearthsociety.com

By post:
Observatory
543 Union Street
Brooklyn, NY 11215
To find out more, click here.

Friday, September 24, 2010

"Paradiso Contrapasso," Upcoming Exhibition at Observatory, Call for Works, Deadline October 5


Hi All! Sorry for the silence; I am on the road, and the internet has been scarce!

I break the silence with an exciting announcement; the next Observatory exhibition is in the works, and the curators--Gerry Newland of Observatory along with friend of Morbid Anatomy Lord Whimsy and his wife Susan--have put out a call for works! You can find out more about the show--wonderfully entitled "Paradiso Contrapasso,"--and all the specifications for submissions below; hope to see your work in the show, or, if not, than to see you at the opening party on Thursday October 14th!

Full call for works follows:
A Call To Artists: Observatory presents: Paradiso Contrapasso

Submissions due: October 5, 2010
Pieces Due: October 11, 2010
Exhibition dates: October 14 - November 28th, 2010

To compliment the recent opening of Paradise, a year long event at Proteus Gowanus, Observatory explores the theme: Paradiso Contrapasso. In Dante's Inferno, Paradiso Contrapasso distinguishes each sinner by making his or
her punishment uniquely appropriate to the committed sin, so that every soul inhabits a Hell all its own.

For example, consider the story of Paolo and Francesca:
An unlikely marriage is proposed between the beautiful Francesca and the rich, but ugly Gianciotto. Paolo, the handsome brother of Gianciotto seduces the young bride and they become lovers. When Gianciotto discovers their indiscretion, he murders them both. In Hell, Paolo and Francesca are fused together in an eternal embrace, wishing only to be separated.

As Dante journeys through Purgatorio and Paradisio, he does not revisit this technique of contrapasso. For our event, however, Observatory encourages artists to consider divine comedic retribution in all of its possible representations, and from sources such as the Bible and religious and esoteric cosmologies, the ethical
philosophies of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas, Symbolist poetry, the works of Roald Dahl, the Wizard of Oz, Cautionary Tales, Folklore and Fairy Stories, the Twilight Zone, Modern Dystopias, etc. The emphasis should be on "Divine" and "Comedy", and on our superstitious fear of getting what we wish for!

G.F. Newland, co-founder of Observatory Gallery, and Allen and Susan Crawford of Plankton Art Co. will co-curate.

Eligibility: All artists working in any media. (There is limited space for sculptural and free-standing works.)

Submissions: (Please include all information. Late or incomplete submissions will not be considered.)
  1. Up to 5 images. Digital file submissions will be accepted via email. Digital files must be in JPEG or PDF format, resolution set to 72 dpi. Please number images to correspond to Image List.
  2. Image list. Numbered to correspond with your image submissions. Include image #, your name, title, date of work, medium, size and price. You may also include a brief description for each image, however this isn’t required.
  3. A one page résumé. Please include a three line bio, your contact information and an email address.
  4. An artist’s statement. No longer than 300 words.
Fees: NO FEE TO ENTER

Deadline: Submissions must be received by October 5; All pieces must be received no later than October 11th, 2010.

Gallery commission for sold art: 30%

Return of Submission Materials: Include a SASE if you want your materials to be returned. Make sure there is sufficient postage. Materials without postage will not be returned.

Drop Off: Drop off of accepted artwork will be October 11th and 12th noon to 2pm. Mailed artwork must arrive by October 11th and include return shipping label/postage/etc.

Pick Up: Artists are responsible for picking up artwork on TBA. Return of mailed artwork with return postage will begin on November 28th.

Email submissions to: gfnewland@gmail.com.
By post: Observatory 543 Union St #1E, Brooklyn, NY 11215
See below for full details; for more information or to submit work, email Gerry Newland at gfnewland@gmail.com.

Image: The Souls of Paola and Francesca from Gustave Doré's Illustrations to Dante's Divine Comedy

Friday, July 2, 2010

Thanatopolis, Alternative Artist-Created Memorial Park/Space, Call for Works, Deadline July 12


The seed for Thanatopolis was planted in 1983. It was an emotional response to the frustration of I-Park’s founder with the available options offered by the cemetery, funeral home and monument dealer upon the death of a loved one. There had to be a more fulfilling way to honor a special individual in one’s life upon their passing. And, it was felt, there needed to be a greater role for creativity and personalization in this process.
--Why Thanatopolis?, http://www.i-park.org/WhyThanatopolis.html

What is Thanatopolis?
• a special space for creating serious, fitting, moving memorials to individuals from all levels of society, a place where the longing to create and do something meaningful for the deceased can be satisfied

• a physical place, a concept and appropriate imagery for attenuating memory

• a harness/focal point for the agony and creativity unleashed by death
• a natural setting for experimentation in the rituals of interment and memorialization

• a new home for the ‘living memorial’ idea...

--Thanatopolis at I-Park, http://www.i-park.org/Events.html
This just in: A call for artworks from I-Park Arts towards the creation of "Thanatopolis," an alternative, artist-imaged memorial park/space seeking to fill the gap left by empty and irrelevant contemporary memorial practice. Work is sought from visual artists, landscape artists, performance artists and more. Full call for works with all relevant links below; Submission deadline is July 12th.
Thanatopolis at I-Park
I-Park’s major inter-disciplinary project for 2010 is Thanatopolis, an alternative memorial park/space in the advanced conceptual stage of development. I-Park is soliciting memorial-themed proposals in the following fields:

Music Composition/Sound Sculpture
Visual Arts/Environmental Sculpture
Theater/Choreography/Performance Art
Landscape/Garden Design
Architecture
Landscape Architecture

Selected projects will be presented at the Thanatopolis Exhibition on October 2, 2010.

Submission deadline is July 12, 2010.

For a copy of the general Call for Proposals, click here.
For the specialized Call for Entries in the field of Music, click here.
For the specialized Call for Entries in the field of
Performance, click here.
For context, click here for ‘Why Thanatopolis?’
For complete program information, click here.
Image: St. Michael's Cemetary: Foundation of Pensacola.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Reminder: Call for Papers, Congress of the European Association of Museums of the History of Medical Sciences, Copenhagen, September 16-19


This year's Congress of the European Association of Museums of the History of Medical Sciences will take place from September 16th-19th at the Medical Museion at the University of Copenhagen. As I said in an earlier post on this topic, "if the Museion's awesome blog Biomedicine on Display is any indication, this conference--which aims to investigate ways in which museums can respond to the challenge raised by the "molecularisation, miniaturisation...digitalisation and intangibilisation" of new medicine--will be thought-provoking, innovative, and revelatory."

I just received a reminder from Thomas Soderqvist, the conference organizer, for paper submissions. The deadline is March 29th. For more, see Thomas' email below:
Just to remind you about the forthcoming meeting in Copenhagen in September about the challenge to museums posed by contemporary developments in biomedical science and medical technology.

How do museums today handle the material and visual heritage of contemporary medical and health science and technology? How do curators wield the increasing amount and kinds of more or less intangible and invisible scientific, medical and digital objects? Which intellectual, conceptual, and practical questions does this challenge give rise to?

We're aiming for two intensive days with visually enhanced presentations, good discussions and excellent food in beautiful surroundings.

Read the full call here:
http://tinyurl.com/ylx5atx or here:
http://www.corporeality.net/museion/2009/12/09/contemporary-medical-science-and-technology-as-a-challenge-for-museums-copenhagen-16-19-september-2010

Further information here: http://www.mm.ku.dk/sker/eamhms.aspx

Send proposals for presentations, panels etc. to ths@sund.ku.dk, not later than Monday 29 March.

Program committee:
Ken Arnold, Wellcome Collection, London
Robert Bud, Science Museum, London
Judy Chelnick, National Museum of American History, Washington, D.C.
Mieneke te Hennepe, Boerhaave Museum, Leiden
Thomas Soderqvist, Medical Museion, University of Copenhagen (chair).
If you would like further information or have any questions, please contact Thomas Soderqvist at ths@sund.ku.dk. You can visit the Medical Museion website by clicking here, and its immensely readable blog "Biomedicine on Display" by clicking here. Visit the EAMHMS website by clicking here. Information about the last awesome EAMHMS conference can be found by clicking here.

Image: David Gregory & Debbie Marshall, Wellcome Images; SEM of blood corpuscles in clot. Scanning electron micrograph of red blood corpuscles and a single white blood cell entangled in the fibrin mesh of a clot, computer-coloured red/yellow/white; Scanning electron micrograph 2003; Collection: Wellcome Images

Thursday, March 4, 2010

"Kinetica: An Exhibition of Automata, Kinetica, Mechanica, Robotics, and New Media," Call for Works


This looks like it could be a really great show. Please help spread the word to any interested artsy/engineering/builder types! Call for works follows:
* EXHIBITION ANNOUNCEMENT & CALL TO ARTISTS *

Please note: This is not a typical art show. Not all participants are artists. Inventors, mechanics, and people who ordinarily have nothing to do with the art world are involved in this exhibition. That said, I encourage artists to make use of their whimsy. This show is about wonder, as well as craft, science, mathematics, and experimentation.

"Kinetica" is an exhibition of kinetic, automatic, mechanic, robotic, &etc. sculpture.

It will be held at the Candle Factory in New Orleans. The two main events are the opening on Saturday, April 24, and the closing on Saturday, May 8. The events are scheduled to begin at 6pm.

Proposals-only deadline: March 20th. Send idea, space required, special requirements, etc. to Myrtle von Damitz lll at myrtlered@gmail.com

I will consider late proposals but must begin to map out the installation as early as possible.

INSTALLATION will begin on Saturday, April 17. Artists are responsible for installation. Work that has to be shipped must include detailed installation instructions, and arrive by April 17.

Also important: whether your piece can only be run by you, its creator, or whether I or anyone else running the exhibition can turn it on when needed.

Participants are responsible for display arrangements, ie: tables, pedestals, etc.

The Candle Factory is a warehouse situated on the west side of the Industrial Canal, and is a known events destination & a good crowd is expected. There is a great electrical set-up and room both inside and outside for a wide variety of work. The owner, Charles Handler, lives inside the warehouse and security is good. However, please take note that this IS a warehouse space and not a pristine gallery.

The show will not run on regular gallery hours, but will be on in full force for both opening and closing events, leaving room for multiple event-specific possibilities. I would like very much to find anyone or any group working on Rube Goldberg Machines!

I'm working towards arranging school field trips to view the work and for the artists to speak to the kids about their ideas and how they work. If you are part of the show, I'd like to know if I can schedule you to be present on any of these days (TBA!).

I will be able to work out showings by appointment, as well, for however many pieces can be operable during the run of the show.

Questions: myrtlered@gmail.com or 504 908 4741
Image: Vaucanson's mechanical duck. More on that wonderful 18th Century creation, which "could flap its wings, eat, and digest grain," here.