Theater plays, performance scripts, architectural drawings, musical scores, pantomimes, screenplays, dance notations, opera and ballet librettos, video game scripts—these and other similar types of artifacts and writings seem to belong to a common category, often referred to as ‘notations.’ A notation can be tentatively described as an artwork that responds to the situation of producing another artwork.

Even though notations are historically an indispensable part of most artistic practices, their aesthetic value has been subject to debate since at least the Early Modern period. This is most likely because notations typically feature a functional aspect: they are used to produce an artwork and are generally written with this potential use in mind. At the same time, some types of notations have been historically canonized as autonomous works of art and literature. Theatrical plays gained the status of literary works at the time of Elizabethan theatre; the Berlin Museum for Architectural Drawing presents its exhibits as works of graphic art; and film scripts have been published as books and in literary journals since the earliest days of cinema. Notations therefore represent at least a double interest: as artifacts providing insight into the artistic process and as artworks in their own right.

In accordance with this twofold significance, the volume Notations in the Arts seeks to investigate the term “notation” and its potential for various research fields, objects, and goals. To this end, the individual contributions explore to what extent and in what sense the concept of notation is established in the respective research fields; how the term is conceptualized within the contribution; and what is the ‘added value’ of approaching the artifacts in question as a kind of notation. The contributions address these questions from a theoretical standpoint as well as in case studies of individual artworks and artistic practices.

We are seeking chapters on notations in the following areas:

• Theater & Performance (theatre plays and performance scripts as notations);
• Film (film scripts / screenplays as notations);
• Opera (librettos as notations);
• Fashion (fashion drawings as notations);
• Design (sketches in product / industrial design as notations);
• Video Games.

Proposals in other areas are also welcome; however, we already have confirmed contributions in the following areas: music, dance, code, conceptual art, pantomime, and architecture. 

Please send an abstract of max. 500 words to: anna.luhn@fu-berlin.de and a.ksenofontova@fu-berlin.de by May 31st. Earlier submissions are very welcome. Chapter drafts will be due by October 14th, 2024. 

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any further queries. We are looking forward to receiving your proposals.

The Editors

Dr. Anna [Anouk] Luhn and Dr. Alexandra Ksenofontova are postdoctoral researchers at the Berlin Cluster of Excellence "Temporal Communities: Doing Literature in a Global Perspective".