Graphic Designer

Hey guys!

This is a little late to bring up right before our meeting, but I wanted to float the idea of asking this guy, http://mike-rinaldi.com/, to do our poster design.

I spoke with him today and he said the $50 honorarium would be fine. He makes some beautiful stuff.

Let me know what you think :)

beginnings of our official website!

Lookit! Justin has been hard at work on our new Wordpress site!

http://ahcsconference.wordpress.com/

Thanks Justin :) we can talk more about how this is shaping up tomorrow at our meeting,

Cheers!

D

Final meeting time

Hey all! I've just emailed you about this but here's the doodle poll to finalize our meeting time.

http://www.doodle.com/p64gvydyb23sgsp7

see you all soon!

D

Tangible Thoughts :)

 Hey everyone. Below is a list of topics that could be in line with the theme:

-Troubling the tangible could include scholarship that explores or provides counter-narratives to those thought of as concrete fact. For example, I am interested in alternative press coverage and would be interested to see projects that explore the alternative press as providing spaces where oppositional narratives can be found. 

-Tangible communication could include language systems involving symbols and touch, for example when pictures are used to convey meaning for people who can’t communicate through speech or sign language. This could be an attractive area for disability theorists.

-Tangibility could be connected to archive studies. What are the issues that accompany archiving tangible objects (books, newspapers, personal possessions etc.)? Also, we could see projects that explore efforts to digitize the tangible? Projects in this area could make the digital tangible by drawing attention to the network of servers, archivists, and policy makers that are part of the process of digitizing the tangible.

-The tangible could be include trauma and affect theorists, by asking what role the tangible plays in connecting victims of traumatic events to past, as well as the tangible and it’s connection to catharisis? Basically, what is the risk involved in holding onto the tangible when it could affect you negatively?

These are just some ideas. Sorry it has taken me so long. I am holed up in my office trying to finish two papers and drinking as much coffee as possible.

Paul

MEETING TIME before the holidays

Hi everyone -

I do REALLY want to meet once before everyone scatters for the holdiays. I know this is especially tricky this time of year, but it would be good to delegate some (small) tasks to do over the hols, get a sense of where we are with the CFP and to get a sense of where we stand/make some decisions together (esp. taking action on some keynote stuff). 

 I'm here until the 16th and I'd happily meet at any point, provided that we're quick and efficient so we can all get back to our own coursework/other things (although Mondays or Tuesdays are especially good for me).

I thought I'd just informally ask for now, is there a particular week that works best for everyone? this week, next, the week after? After I get a general sense of when works for the majority of us, I'll set up another doodle poll so we can decide on a specific time.

See you all soon!
D 

Some design ideas

Ok so I'm clearly just procrastinating! But I started fiddling around making potential headers for use on our CFP or website or wherever, I was inspired by Tomasz's point towards the Doubting Thomas image by Caravaggio, it's great! I have no design/photoshop skills, this was just me messing about with images and powerpoint.

(also don't know if we should be worried about using more contemporary images for our publicity, because of copyright or whatever...)

Anyway! These were easy to make and infinitely customizeable... these were just the first images that came to my head (my brain is mush right now)

And also, Wendy might have a lead on a *proper* graphic designer who might be able to do some work for us for a small stipend! But for the time being, this might be a quicker/easier thing to put out on a CFP...

The Tangible, some thoughts

Hi all !

Sorry for the delay in sending these notes ! I should have written this message the day we had our meeting before I got caught up in everything else !

So here are my thoughts :

I first thought of the tangible as a way to try to take a step back from all the theoretical frenzy surrounding the virtual or the cyberspace and maybe arouse original perspectives on it. To me, this theme also opens the door to ways of thinking about culture that could challenge the postmodernist stance and question the repudiation of our faith in perception and our constant focus on discourse as a way to analyze culture and society (see, below, the references to Belting and Jay).

In art, the tangible can evoke themes such as realism or still lives (it can be interesting to reflect on maybe some actualizations of these themes); modernist issues such as materiality, found objects, waste or trash; or more contemporary practices related to questions as actual as ecology in an era of global warming or, from a more technical point of view, practices that make use of gigantic, architectural or oppressing materiality (think of the Monumenta event in Paris or of the work of Serra, Kapoor, Eliasson,  Christo to name a few artists that are interested in scale and matter).

The tangible might also raises issues related to the spectator's experience and the impact of new technologies on it. I remember, for instance, how this guy working at DHC described people's reaction to the recent exhibition of Ryoji Ikeda and his captivating, almost immersive video installations.  Not suprisingly, the guy noticed that if most visitors really liked the pieces, older visitors (baby-boomers and older) would sometimes have a hard time getting interested in it.

Inevitably, then, the tangible can be related to questions raised by the growing extent, in our everyday lives, of medias, technologies and the virtual extension of our lives and imaginary : should it be opposed or considered as a threat to tangible objects (e.g. newspaper, books, photo albums, cd, etc.) and experiences (e.g. social encounters, sexuality, etc.) or as a mere reconfiguration of them or even, as an evolution ? 

For Hans Belting (An Anthropology of Images) our relations to virtual images are anchored in the same triadic relation between the image, the body and the medium (defined as that which makes the image visible). It seems even inappropriate to say of an image that it is virtual. For an image, as long as it is not mental, is always made visible through a material support (a screen, a computer, a pad, etc.). Therefore, what is transformed in virtual images is merely the surface on which they are made visible. However, the new technologies bear witness to our distrust toward the material world and the utopia of a disembodied reality. What is really threatened by these images is the relation that ties them to places or localizations. In the age of globalization, the physical territory of a culture and its referents is people themselves and their memory.

Seen from that angle, the tangible is deeply connected to anthropological approaches of art and communication as well as to studies on memory. It can give rise to reflections on patrimony, inheritance and spirituality.

But of course, it can also be further developed with reference to affect theory, theories of perception, phenomenology and so on. It is also connected (negatively) to certain forms of iconoclasm, to a valorization of idea or even — from a lacanian perspective — of symbolization (language) against image or imaginary (see, on these issues, Martin Jay's Downcast Eyes, the Denigration of Vision in Twentieth-Century French Thought, 1993).

I put some thoughts into the choice of our keynote speaker and, personally, I really liked the idea of Jane Benett, Bill Brown (although I think he is in sabbatical this year) and David Freedberg. I would also suggest these names : Lorraine Daston (Objectivity, Things that Talks), Constance Classen (The Deepest Sense: A Cultural History of Touch, The Book of Touch) and Martin Jay (Downcast Eye).

As for an image, I really like the Carravagio's Doubting Thomas (see Thomasz's post). I have had the same thought. But I am sure we could also think of evocative fonts or the use of a generic image.

That's about it for now ! I hope it helps !

Maryse