CFP: Digital Humanities for Academic and Curatorial Practice (Rome, 23 – 24 May 18)

Biblioteca Angelica di Roma and American Academy in Rome
Italy
May 23 – 24, 2018

Deadline: Mar 1, 2018

DIGITAL HUMANITIES FOR ACADEMIC AND CURATORIAL PRACTICE

The Digital Humanities have challenged all disciplines of Art History to engage with new interdisciplinary methodologies, learn new tools, and re-evaluate their role within academia. In consequence, art historians occupy a new position in relation to the object of study. Museums have been equally transformed. The possibilities of creating virtual realities for lost/inaccessible monuments poses a new relationship between viewer and object in gallery spaces. Digital Humanities interventions in museums even allow us to preserve the memory of endangered global heritage sites which cease to exist or are inaccessible (celebrated examples including the lost Great Arch of Palmyra reconstructed with a 3D printer). Curatorial practices are now trending towards a sensorial and experiential approach.

Is the role of Digital Humanities, in academic as well in museum settings, to “reveal” the object itself, through empirical display of extant material, or to “reconstruct” something of the original experience of the object to engage spectators? Can we propose a reconciliation between these two ‘poles’?

The Sixth International Day of Doctoral Studies promoted by RAHN aims to investigate the role of Digital Humanities by promoting a dialogue between the protection of cultural heritage sites, museology, the history of art, and the digitalization of Big Data. We are accepting papers that engage with particular dimensions of the dichotomy between ‘Revealing’ and ‘Reconstructing.’ Possible topics include:

  • How can the Digital Humanities preserve our global heritage?
  • Do Digital Humanities interventions make historical material more accessible to non- specialists?
  • What are the moral obligations of the Digital Humanities within the museum context?
  • How is Digital Humanities changing the practice of Art History? Do they provide a more empirical alternative to connoisseur/style-based approaches? The call for papers is open to art and architectural history graduate students and those working in the field of Digital Humanities.

We invite candidates to submit 15-minute reports that, by means of study cases or theoretical observations, point to the centre of this methodological practice. The conference will take place in Italian and English and papers will be accepted in both languages.

Proposals must be submitted in abstract form (up to 400 words) together with a short CV (max. One page) by the 1st of March to the following email: romearthistorynetwork@gmail.com The conference will take place on the 23rd and 24th of May 2018 at the Biblioteca Angelica di Roma and American Academy in Rome.

Curated by:
Angelica Federici (Rome Art History Network/ University of Cambridge)
Joseph Williams (American Academy in Rome/ Duke University)

Coordinator: Matteo Piccioni (Rome Art History Network/ Sapienza Università di Roma )

 

Previous Editions

  • In situ / Ex situ. L’arte di esporre l’arte: relazioni nel contesto spaziale tra arte e architettura (27-28 aprile 2017)
  • Now or (n)ever. I tempi dell’opera: temi, teorie e metodi nella storia dell’arte (28-29 aprile 2016)
  • Tra assenza e presenza: opere perdute e frammentarie (19-20 marzo 2015)
  • Sopravvalutata, sacrosanta, scandalosa? La figura dell’artista nella storia dell’arte oggi (3-4 aprile 2014)
  • La storia dell’arte tra scienza e dilettantismo. Metodi e percorsi (24 aprile 2012)

Reference: CFP: Digital Humanities for Academic and Curatorial Practice (Rome, 23 – 24 May 18). In: ArtHist.net, Jan 22, 2018. <https://arthist.net/archive/17192>.