Art As A Mode Of Enquiry: Graduate Sysposium Call For Abstracts

University of Oxford, June 16 - 17, 2012

DEADLINE: April 20th

Venues:    St. John's College, The University of Oxford (16th)
                 The Ashmolean Museum of Art & Archaeology (17th)

"Art as a Mode of Enquiry" is a graduate symposium organised by doctoral students in art and art theory at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, The University of Oxford. The two-day interdisciplinary conference will take place on the weekend of the 16th and 17th of June 2012 and will be accompanied by an exhibition of site-specific works at the Ashmolean Museum by current DPhil students.

Confirmed keynote speakers:
Professor Adrian Piper (APRA Berlin): "On the Very Idea of Artistic Research"
Professor Shearer West (University of Oxford): title TBA

Drawing on a spectrum of disciplinary approaches, the conference seeks to investigate the theoretical underpinnings of the advanced degrees in art that have recently become established in many universities in the UK and abroad. In what ways might art practice constitute a form of research? What kinds of knowledge can it produce and how can these be evaluated? How can artists learn from, critique, and productively contribute to other disciplines? What historical precedents might be used to explore this relationship?

We invite postgraduate presentations from all disciplines, including fine art, art history, philosophy, cultural studies and psychology. Themes covered may include but are not limited to:

-         the relation between the arts and other humanities disciplines
-         the relationship between science and art
-         the place of art within the evolving university framework
-         artists' writings and the notion of an "academic" practice
-         alternative forms of research presentation
-         psychological and philosophical accounts of the cognitive value of art

Papers will be 25 minutes long, followed by 10 minutes for questions. We welcome proposals as abstracts of between 300 and 400 words, accompanied by a short CV. Submission deadline is the 1st of April and notification of acceptance will be provided shortly thereafter. Please submit the proposal and CV as attachments to

gradsymposium2012@ruskin-sch.ox.ac.uk