The Seeing with Animals conference will run in conjunction with the Living with Animals conference at Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, Kentucky, from March 22-26, 2017. The theme of this year’s conference is Co-Existence. http://livingwithanimals.eku.edu
Seeing with Animals, in keeping with the theme Co-Existence, will explore the ways that images of animals have been deployed—both historically and in contemporary practices in art, visual culture, and media studies—to mediate (or not) human-animal relationships, promote understanding of animal worlds, and/or serve as cultural commentary.
CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS:
Seeing with Animals will feature two keynote speakers. The conference will open Wednesday morning, March 22, with a talk by Brock University Visual Arts Professor Keri Cronin, who will present a talk entitled Looking Back: The Art of Early Animal Advocacy Campaigns. Chair of the Advisory Council for The Animal Museum, Cronin has a new book ‘Do Not Refuse to Look at These Pictures’: Visual Culture and Animal Advocacy, 1875-1914, which will be published in 2017.
On Thursday evening, as part of the current EKU Chautauqua Lecture Series on the theme of “Order and Chaos” (http://chautauqua.eku.edu/), distinguished art historian and animal studies scholar Professor Steve Baker will give a lecture entitled The Disorderly Animal in Contemporary Art. Baker’s most recent book is Artist|Animal. (2013, https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/artist-animal).
A portfolio review for artists attending the conference. Artists will be invited to sign up for on-site portfolio review sessions during the conference with prominent artists, critics and art historians.
An on-site juried art exhibition entitled Co-Existence Art Exhibition. For more information about entering this exhibition please visit our website, https://seeingwithanimals.wordpress.com.
Break out lunchtime discussion sessions about contemporary topics of interest.
ABSTRACTS:
Seeing with Animals, the conference, invites abstracts for pre-formed panels, individual papers, individual artist talks and posters that broadly address the subject of animal imagery and representation. We especially invite individual artists to submit abstracts to speak about their own art works in the form of individual artist talks. While topics in keeping with the theme of Co-Existence are preferred, any topic related to animal imagery (or artistic practices engaging animals in other ways) is welcome. We also welcome topics related to pedagogical approaches to animals and art/art history/media. We are open to alternate forms of presentations including performance art, artist demonstrations or workshops, and onsite installation art.
Potential topics for papers, artist talks and posters addressing art, animals and co-existence include but are not limited to:
companion animals.
the invisibility/visibility of domestic or wild animals in contemporary/historic contexts.
humans, non-humans, extinction and extirpation.
therapeutic co-existence.
animals in advertising and/or social media.
art practices deploying live animals.
understanding co-existence historically through art practices.
For questions about the Seeing with Animals conference or submission process, contact us at seeingwithanimals@gmail.com.
DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: December 12, 2016 (Late submissions will be accepted, although the selection process will start mid-December)
Selected participants will be notified by December 31, 2016.
Visit us at: http://livingwithanimals.eku.edu | https://seeingwithanimals.wordpress.com.
