NORDIK 2015 — Mapping Uncharted Territories The 11th Triannual Nordik Committee for Art History Conference

This session studies the emergence of modern architecture by examining  the relationship between architecture and new public media in the 19th  and early 20th centuries. A marked shift in architectural publication  took place in this period in which the treatise was supplemented by  genres capable of efficiently disseminating visual and textual  information to a large audience beyond the academies. The session,  then, looks at how the new public sphere manifested itself  architecturally not only in the form of buildings but also as debates,  programs, reactions and negotiations in and over public space, making  architecture a key vehicle for what Jürgen Habermas came to call the  structural transformation of the public sphere.

[M]odern architecture only becomes modern with its engagement with the  media” writes Beatriz Colomina in her ground-breaking study Privacy and  Publicity: Architecture and Mass Media from 1994. This session studies  the emergence of modern architecture by examining the relationship  between architecture and new public media in the 19th and early 20th  centuries. A marked shift in architectural publication took place in  this period in which the treatise was supplemented by genres capable of  efficiently disseminating visual and textual information to a large  audience beyond the academies. The new public press played a  particularly important role in this process, promoting a debate that  placed the built environment firmly at the centre of modern public  culture. In the early 20th century, newspapers and journals were  supplemented by a rich array of popular genres such as ladies magazines  and advertisement, presenting both the private home and the public  monument as matters of profound cultural importance. Integrating words,  images, and buildings – real or imaginary – in entirely new ways, these  media contributed to shape a new public discourse on architecture, and  to propel architecture into a novel visual culture.

The session invites papers that explore new forms of architectural  discourse in the 19th and the early 20th century, looking particularly  at how architecture was disseminated in new media and to new audiences.  Newspapers, illustrated journals, exhibition catalogues and ladies  magazines provided their readers with a rich chronicle of architectural  culture and contributed to break the hegemony of classicism by opening  up a new and heterogeneous field of architectural expression and  deliberation. Furthermore, these media put architecture at the service  of an entirely new public; the modern bourgeoisie. The session, then,  looks at how the new public sphere manifested itself architecturally  not only in the form of buildings but also as debates, programs,  reactions and negotiations in and over public space, making  architecture a key vehicle for what Jürgen Habermas came to call the  structural transformation of the public sphere.

We particularly welcome papers investigating the relationship between  words, images and buildings in new public media, and encourage  interdisciplinary contributions drawing on fields such as publication  history and word-image studies, in addition to architectural and art  history. Along with newspapers, magazines, journals, and catalogues,  papers might look at photographic albums, travel guides, adult  education programs and textbooks. The session invites papers from any  part of the world to explore the public mediation of modern  architecture in the designated period; an urgent task, it seems, at a  time when public space is being rapidly reconfigured, both as a  physical structure and a mediated environment.

Please submit a 1–2 page abstract, brief c.v. (two pages max.), and  full  contact information by September 25, 2014.

Please direct your communication to the three chairs at the email  addresses above and to the  conference organisers at papers.nordik2015 at listfraedi.is

SESSION ORGANIZERS: Mari Hvattum, Oslo School of Architecture and Design.  Mari.Hvattum at aho.no Mari Lending, Oslo School of Architecture and Design.  Mari.Lending at aho.no Wallis Miller, University of Kentucky. wmiller at uky.edu