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Modes of Perception for Early Modern Architecture.

Appel à communication expirant le 1er juin 2012.

dimanche 25 mars 2012, par Guillaume Berthon

Buffalo, New York, USA
Deadline : Jun 1, 2012

Session for the Society of Architectural Historians 2013 Annual
Conference, Buffalo, New York, USA, 10-14 April 2013

A conundrum stands at the heart of early modern architecture : treatise
authors argued for reasoned analysis by the hypothetical viewer, yet
they also suggested responses that slipped beyond the strictures of
reason’s control. One could calculate mathematical proportions
precisely in one’s mind, and one could develop a cogent argument about
a building’s purpose or the status of its owner from logically
organized observations of its design. The fifteenth-century Leon
Battista Alberti, however, argued for the psychological impact of
beauty, while the eighteenth-century LeCamus de Mézières explored how
buildings were sequential stage-sets that manipulated response. Such
accounts mirrored enigmas inherent to the basic human process of
perceiving the surrounding world, as it was described by early modern
philosophers : the fallible senses, the deceptive imagination, and the
tug of war between reason and the passions.

Scholars have considered the early modern viewer across architectural
history, art history, science, and philosophy. Underpinning these
approaches is a certainty about the human body : it can both reason and
be reasoned about. Early modern architectural, philosophical, and
scientific theorists, though, agreed that reason was as likely to be in
collaboration as in competition with other human faculties. We invite
papers that explore this conundrum of rational analysis, psychological
response, and idiosyncratic imagination. What are the approaches and
sources that could open up a multi-faceted, malleable relationship
between the early modern viewer and the built environment ? Topics to
consider include : representations of viewer and building,
contemporaneous recommendations about perception, building types
evoking multi-faceted responses (e.g., social reform structures,
theaters), memory spaces, and studies of particular viewers reacting to
specific buildings.

Please submit a CV and an abstract of not more
than 300 words by 1 June 2012 to : Freek Schmidt, Vrije Universiteit,
De Boelelaan 1105, 1081 HV Amsterdam, Netherlands, +31205986372,
f.h.schmidt@vu.nl ; Kimberley Skelton, 50 Avalon Drive, #7222, Milford,
CT 06460, USA, 443-253-5529, kcskelton1@gmail.com. It is also
possible to submit these materials online .

Voir en ligne : H-ArtHist, Mar 21, 2012.

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