Envisioning Science: Imaging the Body. Node Workshop at UofA Sept 10-11, 2010
A workshop investigating "how we see, how we are able, allowed, or made to see, and how we see this seeing or the unseen therein."
KEYNOTE Friday Sept. 10, 7pm
Lisa Cartwright, University of California-San Diego
“Critical Art Practice in the Era of Biological Citizenship”
Confirmed Speakers:
Lianne McTavish, University of Alberta
Steven Turner, University of New Brunswick
Cameron Murray, York University
Alex Choby, University of Alberta
Marilene Oliver, Rio de Janiero
Letitia Meynell, Dalhousie University
Description:
Visual perception might seem to be a strictly natural process, and yet it
has a history. Scholars from a range of disciplines now study visuality,
moving beyond biological understandings of vision to examine historically
and culturally specific ways of seeing the world. Our goal for the
conference is to encourage the investigation of "how we see, how we are
able, allowed, or made to see, and how we see this seeing or the unseen
therein." Visuality emphasizes practices of looking as well as concealing,
noting how they are informed by conceptions of gender, status, and power.
Diverse research has revealed complex `scopic' regimes or ways of seeing in
ancient, medieval, and early modern times, but many recent publications
feature modern visuality and consider the scientific modes of looking
produced by microscopy, ultrasound and MRI in particular. Much of this
research demonstrates how ways of seeing and the technologies that
facilitate them become embedded in cultural life, creating new identities,
social institutions, ethical questions, or ways of relating. Inspired by
this research, the conference "Envisioning Science: Imaging the Body," to be
held at the University of Alberta in Edmonton on September 10th and 11th
2010, addresses issues of seeing, looking, and imaging in relation to
scientific and medical practices, both past and present.
Principal support for the Workshop has been provided by the SSHRC funded `Cluster Grant' on "Situating Science: Science in Human Context."
For more information, please contact Alex Choby (choby@ualberta.ca).
