International Conference and Photography Exhibition
American Studies, Catholic University of Eichstaett-Ingolstadt, December 5-6, 2014
“To be in the world, to be situated at all, is to be in place,” writes philosopher Edward Casey. In a culture dominated by images, photography is the prime medium for situating us in such specific places, as photography relates to place in multiple ways. Place, for one, is captured on the photographic plate or a digital file as what the photographer chooses to see — to place — in front of the camera’s lens. Place also involves questions of perspective and “practices of looking” (Sturken/Cartwright). Photographic practices are intricately interwoven with the ideological implications of how past and contemporary places have been rendered in pictures. How are subjects positioned – “placed” – and hence constituted in photographic practice, and how do we read these emplacements in both their political as well as aesthetic senses? We will investigate the sense of place created by photographers, both past and contemporary, and photography’s still powerful allure of having captured a specific moment in time and space. We will also look at the place of photography in contemporary society, its political uses and functions as well as its place in the arts and the academy at large.
Organizers: Kerstin Schmidt, Julia Faisst
Sponsors: KU Eichstaett-Ingolstadt, Bayerische Amerika-Akademie, Bayerische Forschungsallianz
Speakers:
Miles Orvell (Temple University)
Kathy Kubicki (University for the Creative Arts, Canterbury/Farnham)
Liam Kennedy (University College Dublin)
Gerd Hurm (Universität Trier)
Stefanie Diekmann (Universität Hildesheim)
Joseph Imorde (Universität Siegen)
David Lubin (Wake Forest University)
Anke Ortlepp (Universität Kassel)
Eric Sandeen (University of Wyoming)
Katharina Fackler (Universität Regensburg)
Simon Robinson (University of the Arts, London)
Mitchell Schwarzer (California College of the Arts)
Emily Setina (University of Nevada)
Shamoon Zamir (New York University Abu Dhabi)
Photo Exhibition:
Hubert P. Klotzeck, “Non-Places: Stone Quarries Near Eichstaett”, Galerie Bildflaeche
For more information, see http://www.ku.de/slf/anglistik/amerikanistik/conferences or contact Julia Faisst at julia.faisst@ku.de.