CFP: Access (2/28/06; journal issue)

full name / name of organization: 
pamela karimi
contact email: 

Call for submissions

Thresholds, the bi-annual critical journal of architecture, art and media culture
produced by editors in the Department of Architecture of the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology, is currently accepting submissions--scholarly papers as well as
creative projects--for its Spring 2006 issue. The topic of this issue is "Access."
For more information, Please see below or go to http://architecture.mit.edu/thresholds/

Submissions due: 28 February 2006

Inquiries to Pamela Karimi <pamelak_at_mit.edu>

--History, Theory and Criticism of Architecture and ArtDepartment of Architecture, MIT___________________________________________________thresholds 32accessSubmissions due: 28 February 2006 thresholds 32 aspires to shed light on an interdisciplinary range of interpretations and meanings associated with the themeof access.Restricted access to certain architectural spaces is a phenomenon found in all cultures at all times, transcendinglimitations of genre, period, belief system, and nationality. Does the notion of access have any impact on the definition ofarchitecture and more specifically on the theorization of certain architectural styles? How might an artwork or architecturalspace allow or prevent access? As globalization and technology give us greater "virtual" access, we are becoming arguablymore restricted in a physical sense. Why do we still question what is accessible in our world of globalization and "virtual"nomadic wandering?Call for PapersFor the Spring '06 issue of thresholds, we seek submissions from graduate students and scholars in a wide range of fields,including media and visual arts, architecture, and art history. We are interested in diverse inquiries related to the conceptof accessibility, from purely theoretical and historical analyses to actual works of art and architecture.To whom is access to a given space granted? Is it offered based on criteria that are economic, psychological, physical,geographical, political, or conferred according to national affinity, identity, religious orientation, ethnic background, andso on? Many minority communities in different societies have been denied access to places outside of their neighborhoods,whether these neighborhoods are actual ghettos or not. How do such physical restrictions interact with the related conceptsof history, memory, nostalgia, nationality, politics, and power?Similar restrictions extend also into the academic realm. Art and architectural history relies partially on archivalevidence. How do we evaluate the historiography of art and architecture with regard to the accessibility of archives? InArchive Fever: A Freudian Impression (1995), Derrida reminds us how, through turning Freud's house in Vienna into a museum,the secretive became public. How does the accessibility of such sources affect our perceptions of the past? Moreover, thereis a distinction between actual archives (official places for the retention of records, with systems of storage,organization, cataloging) and those that are often accessed through memory. How can a historian access memory, in acollective sense?Historically, it has been possible to gain access to a restricted place through masquerade and transvestite disguise. MikhailBakhtin describes how in the medieval carnival there was a leveling of performer and spectator, a reversal of hierarchy,where boundaries were eliminated and the distances between people were suspended. Throughout the centuries, homosocial spacesgained ground in many Islamic societies due to the inaccessibility of the harem to outside men, and to the forbidden natureof public spaces to most women. Indeed, these processes are strategic rather than incidental. What particular role dopoliticians, architects, or even the police play in allowing or preventing access?Submissions may address the above issues, but need not be limited to them.___________________________________________________Submissions due: 28 February 2006Please send all submissions to thresh_at_mit.eduor send your file on a CD or a disk to the following address :Pamela Karimi, EditorthresholdsMIT Department of ArchitectureRoom 7-33777 Massachusetts Ave.Cambridge, MA 02139___________________________________________________submission guidelinesthresholds invites submissions, including but not limited to scholarly works, from all fields. thresholds attempts to printonly original material. Manuscripts for review should be no more than 2,500 words. Text must be formatted in accordance withThe Chicago Manual of Style. Spelling should follow American convention and quotations must be translated into English. Allsubmissions must be submitted electronically, on a CD or disk, accompanied by hard copies of text and images. Text should besaved as Microsoft Word or RTF format, while any accompanying images should be sent as TIFF files with a resolution of atleast 300 dpi at 8" x 9" print size. Figures should be numbered clearly in the text. Image captions and credits must beincluded with submissions. It is the responsibility of the author to secure permissions for image use and pay anyreproduction fees. A brief author bio must accompany the text. ========================================================== From the Literary Calls for Papers Mailing List CFP_at_english.upenn.edu Full Information at http://cfp.english.upenn.edu or write Jennifer Higginbotham: higginbj_at_english.upenn.edu ==========================================================Received on Mon Dec 05 2005 - 13:14:32 EST