Appel à publication : « The Void in Visual Culture » (Fusion Journal)

Anonymous: The Void in Visual Culture (Fusion Journal)

Deadline: Aug 3, 2015 Anonymous: The Void in Visual Culture (Fusion, Issue 9, 2016)

Editors: Dr Sam Bowker, Charles Sturt University & Professor Craig Bremner, Charles Sturt University

Ever since Vasari published the ‘Vite’ in 1550, art history has been skewed in favour of named individuals whose biographies can be unveiled or re-evaluated. However, the majority of contributions to visual culture do not fit this criterion. If it is impossible to determine an artists’ name, some of the most significant cultural and commercial imperatives for new scholarship are lost. Due to related methodological prejudices, analyses primarily drawn from material culture have been reserved for ‘inferior’ contributions to visual culture. The presentation of anonymous objects has been avoided or maligned by art galleries, because the public wants names. Museums, by contrast, do not appear to have this problem. The distinction between high art and low art may no longer be a concern for researchers, but anonymous visual culture remains the preserve of a brave few. For this reason, fusion invites submissions that consider the roles played by anonymous creators, the ways in which the problem of anonymity has shaped visual culture, and the consequences (or benefits) of anonymity for contemporary art, communications, and design. Interdisciplinary papers and original creative responses might include:

– Narratives of unknown and obscured individuals (portraits, archives, fragments)

– Methods of identification and attribution (or ‘workarounds’)

– Forgotten makers, owners, and histories

– Those who seek anonymity, through alias or omission, or who imposed it on others

– Service without seeking recognition (Prodesse Quam Conspici)

– Cultural, historic, and contemporary attitudes to anonymity

– Global and local implications of anonymity in the creative industries

– Must regionalism override individuality? (For example, in the stylistic attribution of textiles and other crafts by their region, not their maker or designer)

– The use of anonymous sources in journalism and other media

Please submit abstracts (up to 250 words) before 3 August 2015. Publication schedule: Abstract deadline: Monday 3 August, 2015 Acceptance of abstract: Monday 31 August, 2015 Submission deadline: Monday 11 January, 2016 Reviewer’s return: Monday 22 February, 2016 Resubmission deadline: Wednesday 30 March, 2016 Publication: April 2016 For inquiries about the submission process, please contact the fusion Production Editor, Ms Michelle O’Connor – moconnor@csu.edu.au http://www.fusion-journal.com