Call for Papers

Probing the Interior, 1800-2012

25 May 2012, The Courtauld Institute of Art and King’s College London, UK

Bodily, psychic and spatial interiors can be mapped, traversed and violated in multiple ways. This one-day conference will interrogate and re-evaluate the contested terrain of the interior in its varied forms. It will examine the interlacing and overlapping of different types of interiors, and seek to re-position the ‘interior’ in critical terms. Moreover, it will attempt to develop new ways of thinking about the relationship between the decorative arts, furniture, bio-technologies, anatomy and space. The conference will take place in The Courtauld Institute of Art Research Forum and conclude with a keynote address in the Anatomy Theatre at King’s College London.

The conference will be built around three themes: Threshold, Incision and Autopsy. We encourage prospective speakers to outline how their papers engage with one or more of these themes.

This conference welcomes papers from across a wide range of periods and regions. Issues addressed might include, but are not limited to:

  • Modes of mapping space
  • Figurative and literal gateways/boundaries
  • Temporality and space
  • Space and subjectivity
  • Domestic interiors
  • Decorative arts and the body
  • The fabrication of furniture
  • Anatomical drawing
  • Different types of medical imaging
  • Medical portraiture

Please send your proposals of no more than 250 words (20-minute papers) by 30 November 2011 to probingtheinterior@gmail.com

Organised by Dr Lucetta Johnson (The Courtauld Institute of Art) and Dr Keren Hammerschlag (King’s College London)