challenge
the past /
diversify
the future
March 19-21, 2015
Gothenburg, Sweden
A Critical Approach to Visual and
Multi-Sensory Representations for
History and Culture
A conference for scholars and practitioners who study the implementation
and potential of visual and multi-sensory representations to challenge and
diversify our common understanding of history and culture.
Abstracts for research papers, posters, visual
and multi-sensory demonstrations of ongoing
projects, workshops, panels, and organised
sessions on the conference themes will be
accepted until November 20, 2014.
[email protected]
@ctp2015 (twitter)
Supporting partners
Critical Heritage Studies
(University of Gothenburg)
HUMlab (Umeå University)
Visual Arena Research
challenge the past / diversify the future
A Critical Approach to Visual and Multi-Sensory
Representations for History and Culture
Call for Abstracts
Deadline: November 20
This call reaches out to scholars and practitioners
who study the implementation and potential of visual and multi-sensory representations to challenge
and diversify our common understanding of history
and culture.
In collaboration with HUMlab at the University of
Umeå, as well as Visual Arena Research in Gothenburg and Critical Heritage Studies at the University
of Gothenburg, we invite to a multidisciplinary conference to be held in Gothenburg March 19-21, 2015.
Taking account of how cultural ideas, traditions and
practices are constructed (and are constructing), transferred and disseminated in society, the goal of the conference is to connect a wide range of researchers and
practitioners within heritage studies, digital humanities, history and adjoining disciplines.
Our knowledge of the past is often at odds with how
it is used and reflected in contemporary society. Mediated through both popular and scientific visualisations, the multi-faceted, complex past is constantly
simplified in the interest of communication. Indeed,
when cultures, history, peoples and their performative practices and lifestyles are solidified through
elaborate acts of representations, reconstructions or
descriptions, there is little initiative to diversify and
question. Through the representation thereof, the
past is being globalised as an assemblage of agreed
upon symbols that becomes our heritage rather than
reflect it. To paraphrase Witmore on archaeological
media and other modes of representing, they translate certain aspects of the corporeality, specificity and
multiplicity of things into compatible and standardised “modes of documentation”.
An understanding of the processes that make up these
modes of documentation through which we communicate those places, events and performative practices
that are part of our cultural heritage is crucial, since
the communicative conventions these make use of
constitute a large part of the public’s apprehension of
past cultures and people. The senses themselves have
been characterised as gateways to the mind and the
body and so they mediate between the individual and
the social world. However, the ways in which different
senses are experienced varies greatly both between
and within cultures. The recreation of the senses often requires us to think beyond narrative and ocularcentrism: they require the speculation and estimation
of ‘sensory artefacts’ of history and archaeology, including sound and movement, as well as a transformation into methodologically tangible materials.
While representations of the past are often expressed
through artificial conventions masked as fact, current
technology facilitates visual and multi-sensory approaches that have the potential to bring us closer than
ever to our subject(s) of inquiry. To challenge the established conventions that make up our past is to diversify the
fabric from which our future is constructed.
We invite participants to critically address visual, audible, and multi-sensory representations in a number
of topics including but not limited to:
• Modes through which visual, audible, and multisensory representations can challenge, diversify or
uproot currently dominant and (often problematic) ideas of place, people and culture.
• Challenges and methodological tools in representing tangible and intangible artefacts – enactments
of past or geographically disparate cultures.
• Alternative modes of archiving narratives and other modes of cultural production.
• The ways in which cultures and heritage are interpreted and practiced within the politics of memory
production and identity/subjectivity politics.
• The ways in which visual tropes are used in connection to the commodification and consumption
of the past.
• The importance of technological tools in the process of representation.
• Differentiation between tools for cultural heritage
display, education, and research.
challenge the past / diversify the future
A Critical Approach to Visual and Multi-Sensory
Representations for History and Culture
Abstracts for poster presentations, research papers (20 min.), visual and multi-sensory demonstrations of
ongoing projects, workshops, panel suggestions, and organised sessions on the conference themes will be
accepted until November 20, 2014. The abstracts should be a maximum of 300 words in English.
Submit your abstract to [email protected]
Follow us on twitter @ctp2015
For questions, or requests for additional information, please send us an e-mail. To get the latest news on keynote and invited speakers follow us on twitter or register for our newsletter by sending us an e-mail. Details
for registration and accommodations will be announced soon.
We hope you will find this conference to be of interest and we look forward
to seeing you in Gothenburg in March!
About Critical Heritage Studies
Critical Heritage Studies (CHS) at the University of Gothenburg is a priority research area devoted to critical and interdisciplinary studies of the many layers of cultural heritage as a material, intangible, emotional and intellectual field. Its
activities are framed in three research areas: Urban Heritage, Staging the Archives, and Globalising Heritage.
About HUMlab
HUMlab is a vibrant meeting place for the humanities, culture and information technology at Umeå University. Current
research and development is covering fields such as interactive architecture, religious rituals in online environments,
3D modelling, the study of movement and flow in physical and digital spaces through using game technology, geographical information systems, and making cultural heritage accessible through interpretative tool sets. HUMlab is part of
large research programmes with Stanford University, and collaborates widely on an international level.
About Visual Arena Reserch
Visual Arena Lindholmen is a neutral environment to support innovative development projects through the use of visualisation. We run visualisation networks, offer interactive meeting places and can demonstrate the latest visualisation
technology at our studio at Lindholmen Science Park. The overall aim of Visual Arena is to enhance visualisation as an
area by highlighting new and sometimes unexpected applications where visualisation can become a tool to show complex relationships or how technology can be used in education. The vision is also to create a world-class visualisation
environment that offers academia, industry and public sector a common arena for interaction and innovation.