CFP: Fun and Games: The Principle of Pleasure in Art and Architecture

23rd Annual Graduate Art History Symposium, 7-8 March 2008
The University of Iowa School of Art and Art History, Iowa City, Iowa

Keynote Speaker: Margaretta Lovell, University of California, Berkeley

Art and architecture are serious stuff. We have no time for fun and games. Or do we? References to play, entertainment, and leisure abound in the discipline-- from an Athenian amphora adorned with dice players and signed by Exekias to enigmatic Maya "ballcourts"; from Judith Leyster's paintings of comic figures to woodblock views of festivals by Utagawa Hiroshige; from Marcel Duchamp's "malic" chessmen to much of Claes Oldenberg's entire oeuvre. In the last half a century or so, an interest in the subject has permeated the scholarly literature and become integral to a range of methodological approaches. Robert Venturi offered lessons on the forms of the Las Vegas Strip, while T.J. Clark drank in the leisure activities of modern life. And Jacques Derrida took pleasure in jouissance, while Henry Louis Gates "signified" a provocative reading of African American trickster figures.

The graduate students of The University of Iowa Art History Society have decided that it is high time we made time to consider this zenith of "lowbrow" subject matter. AHS hereby solicits applications for participation in our 2008 graduate student symposium on Fun and Games: The Principle of Pleasure in Art. Papers may treat works of any genre, historical period, or geographical designation. Proposals must take the form detailed below. Final papers must be 20-25 minutes in length. Proposals must be postmarked by December 7, 2007. Topics might include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Art that treats, or relates to, pleasure, play, leisure, and entertainment (subjects might include tourism, sports, reading, shopping, games, dancing, music, gardening, or humor)
• "Entertainment architecture"?spaces and places created for amusement,sport, or leisure activities (for example, museums, opera houses, festivals, world fairs, tourist attractions, and gardens)
• Artists/architects as entertainers

Proposals must include the following components:

• A 1-2 page, double-spaced abstract conforming to Chicago Manual of Style guidelines
• A copy of the applicant's curriculum vitae
• A brief letter of support from the applicant's graduate advisor

Proposals should be sent, as hard copies, to the following address:

Attn: Megan Masana
University of Iowa
School of Art and Art History
150 Art Building West
Iowa City, Iowa 52245-7000

With the authors' permission, a selection of participants' papers will be published in Montage, the online journal of The University of Iowa graduate Art History Society (http://www.uiowa.edu/~montage/). AHS will provide a small honorarium to accepted participants, as our final budget permits; further information will be provided upon acceptance.
Participants will be required to submit their papers, in full, four weeks prior to the event.

For more information, please contact symposium chairwoman, Megan Masana,
at masanam@aol.com.