CFP: Material Culture Area of ACA/PCA

The Material Culture Area of PCA/ACA (Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association) is pleased to announce the Call for Proposals for the 2011 National Conference, to be held in San Antonio, Texas, Wednesday, April 20 - Saturday, April 23. You are invited to submit proposals now through December 15, 2010.


Material Culture Area
The study of material culture offers an exciting area for interdisciplinary research and conversation, as it brings together those engaged in scholarly inquiry in areas as diverse as history, art history, design, decorative arts, cultural studies, consumer studies, literature, communications, anthropology, and sociology. If your work touches on the study of designed objects and consumer goods, we would love to learn more about it at this year's conference in San Antonio. Academics, practitioners, graduate students, museum professionals, and public historians are welcome.

Past presentations in this area have focused on decorative arts and the construction of literary characters, the material culture of poverty, commemorative items, historic and modern furnishings and fashion, branding and marketing trends, and a wide range of associated topics, if you think your work might fit in the material culture area, we encourage you to send an abstract.

Selected works may be published in an edited volume after presentation.


Submission Guidelines:
If you are interested in presenting, or have any questions, please send an abstract of between 150-350 words to:

Dr. Alex Bitterman
School of Design
Rochester Institute of Technology
3404 Booth Hall
73 Lomb Memorial Drive
Rochester, NY 14623-5603
alexbitterman@gmail.com


Deadline for submission:  Midnight EST, December 15, 2010.

Public Lecture: "Wax Coral and Woolen Pac-Men: The Domestic Handicraft Paradigm, 1810-2010"

Dec. 2, 2010 4pm 7191 Helen C. White Hall "Wax Coral and Woolen Pac-Men: The Domestic Handicraft Paradigm, 1810-2010" Amateur domestic handicraft had become an enormously popular hobby by the middle of the nineteenth century. Women pasted shells on boxes, formed wax flowers, designed scrap screens, cut cardboard into workbaskets, sewed fish scales to silk, twisted wire, spattered ink over ferns, stuffed birds. Through close readings of Victorian craft discourse, this talk analyzes the way women articulated their cultural concerns through handicraft. Domestic handicraft gave women a way to articulate their own modernity and industrial prowess, while simultaneously critiquing the modern financial world in which they lived. The talk concludes by explaining how the core values of contemporary craft actually update ideas first articulated by the Victorians. Talia Schaffer is an associate professor of English at Queens College CUNY and the Graduate Center CUNY. She is the author of The Forgotten Female Aesthetes; Literary Culture in Late-Victorian England (2001); co-editor with Kathy A. Psomiades of Women and British Aestheticism (1999); editor of Lucas Malet's 1901 novel, The History of Sir Richard Calmady (2003); and editor of Literature and Culture at the Fin de Siècle (2006).  Novel Craft: Fiction and the Victorian Domestic Handicraft (Oxford, forthcoming), is about the history of amateur handicraft and codes of aesthetic and economic representation in the mid-Victorian novel. She has published widely on noncanonical women writers, material culture, popular fiction, aestheticism, and late-Victorian texts.

New Course for Spring 2011!!!

Kate Smith, visiting post-doc fellow at the Chipstone Foundation, will be teaching a course next semester on 18th century British design:

Art History 565:

The Idea of Design in Britain’s Long Eighteenth Century

Prof. Kate Smith

Rm. 166, Elvehjem Building (Chazen)

Thursday, 2:00-4:00

Course Description

This course explores “design” as a process, a concept and a form of technology in the context of eighteenth-century Britain. As well as surveying different design styles, this course also interrogates the idea of design as a system of knowledge and a technology of thinking.

Overview

This course explores “design” as a process, a concept and a form of technology. Beginning with an analysis of design in terms of “style” and aesthetics, this course goes on to examine design in the context of eighteenth-century Britain, a context dominated by a new focus on economy, science and the dissemination of knowledge, to view its impact on society and culture at large. It interrogates the idea of design as a system of knowledge and a technology of thinking to assess how the professionalization of design and its increasingly widespread practice affected systems of thought.

The course will teach students to use and interrogate a variety of primary sources including objects, source books, pattern books, drawing books, correspondence and accounts. Students will particularly benefit from first hand interaction with the Chipstone Foundation collection in Milwaukee as part of the course. The course materials also draw on a wide selection of secondary readings covering the work of scholars of eighteenth-century Britain, design studies, material culture, economics, technology and visual culture.

Photos from Charles Hummel's Visit

One page of the many Dominy shop records, now in the ownership of Winterthur Museum and Garden, Winterthur, DE.

Patterns used for table legs, and turned pieces.

Bedsteads made by the Dominys.

The best sort of scholarship: written records to go along with objects!

A carving tool with decorative scroll work on the blade.

A Visit from Charles Hummel

Charles Hummel, a retired curator at Winterthur Garden and Museum, gave a public talk on the Dominy family workshops on November 9 and was the guest speaker the following day in Prof. Martin's Early American Decorative Arts Class.  The Dominys owned a woodworking and clock shop in East Hampton, New York, from the mid-1700s to the mid-1800s.  For the audience's viewing pleasure, here is a clip of Dr. Hummel answering a question that Theresa Haffner-Stearns has about chair legs.

Lynn Sorgatz, The Pen Dude; Guest Post by Emma Silverman and Amy Brabender

Lynn Sorgatz in his workshop.

Lynn displays some of his handiwork.

Lynn Sorgtatz's studio: in the foreground, cellulose acetate pen bodies, in the background, some of the machines Lynn uses to make them.

Emma and Amy listen attentively about Lynn's process.

An example of Lynn Sorgatz's work- a pen made of ivory-like cellulose acetate and pearl.

Another example of Lynn Sorgatz's work- his patented Triad pen made of cellulose acetate.

A colorful display of raw materials used for pen bodies: cellulose acetate, celluloid, hard rubber, and acrylic.

Emma, Amy and Stefan, members of the Exhibition Committee for the Material Culture Conference this spring, went on a research trip last Friday. They ventured out to Orfordville Wisconsin to visit the workshop of Lynn Sorgatz, an artist-engineer. Sorgatz is one of a handful of craftspeople in the United States who restore and construct fountain pens using vintage designs and materials. He uses labor-intensive techniques such as lathing and polishing acrylic and cellulose acetate for the pen bodies, hand tooling metals for ornamentation, and carving shells to decorate the exteriors. Sorgatz's pens will be exhibited on campus in conjunction with the conference, and he will be lecturing about his work and the history of pen making in Wisconsin on the first evening of the conference. 

The Knitted Bus Shelter Cozy That Rocked State Street, Sept. 30-Oct. 1

Although the shelter cozy is gone, visions of its bright exterior remain.  Thanks to members of the Design Studies Department and the MadisonKnitters' Guild for their hard work.  The Handmade Meaning blog has a nice recap by one of the participants.  Check out other news stories that accompanied the cozy:

from the Design Gallery: http://www.designgallery.wisc.edu/exhibits/knitta/index.html
from the Isthmus: http://www.thedailypage.com/theguide/details.php?event=250151&name=Cozy-Shelter

The Wisconsin Decorative Arts Database

In October 2010, Wisconsin Heritage Online newsletter featured the Wisconsin Decorative Arts database for its user-friendliness: "The Wisconsin Decorative Arts Database uses a different subject heading thesaurus and a thorough description of the item to make the collection material highly retrievable."

Emily Pfotenhauer created the database as an offshoot of the work she did for her master's thesis in the Art History department.  Each object record contains a wealth of information researched and documented by Pfotenhauer.  Some of the items in the database will be featured in an upcoming exhibition at the James Watrous Gallery.  To show the richness of the object records, one only needs to look at a hair wreath from Mayville.   

This database, along with many others, is connected with the Wisconsin Heritage Online, allowing users to enter a search term and receive a variety of results, including decorative arts objects, books, documents, photographs, diaries, newspapers, and more.

CFP: Fashion and Middlebrow Modernism

"Fashion and Middlebrow Modernism
National Conference of the Popular & American Culture Association

April 20-23, 2011 San Antonio, TX
San Antonio Marriott Rivercenter

The Popular Culture Association and American Culture Association will hold its National Convention at San Antonio, Texas, on April 20-23, 2011. Proposals are now being accepted for a panel on Fashion and Middlebrow Modernism.

The conception of modernism has been expanded to include literature and culture outside high modernism and the avant-garde. This panel will explore the intersections of highbrow modernism with middlebrow modernism, as well as the development of middlebrow modernism outside of the avant-garde, through the discourses of fashion and beauty culture. Papers on a range of genres and topics are welcome, including:

Fiction, autobiography and biography

Literary production and reputation

Art and art collecting

Film

High fashion

Ready to wear

Fashion cycles

Fashion markets

Designer furniture and décor

Advertising

Popular Culture

Beauty culture

Children and fashion

Pets and fashion

Gender and sexuality and fashion

Class, race, age and fashion

Abstracts of 300-400 words may be submitted to Professor Lisa Walker (lwalker@usm.maine.edu) by December 15, 2010. Please include a working title and a brief biography of 100 words with your submission. Email submissions are preferred. Registration and conference information is available at http://www.pcaaca.org/conference/national.php.

Visions of Belter

Allusions to Belter.

The artist, Josh Hebbert, looking artsy and contemplative.

Inspired by Prof. Martin's Early American Decorative Arts class and the field trip to the Milwaukee Art Museum, artist Joshua Hebbert created a  wooden bench reminiscent of the Belter sofa in  the Chipstone Foundation's collection.  "I used a pallet for the basic structure, and then added decorative elements out of OSB to give it a backrest and armrests," he says.  Nice work!


Here was the work day that led to the sofa:
 

1.  made coffee

2.  paced around and feel listless

3.  made a to do list

4.  got necessary items crossed off to do list

5.  decided that I should sit down and collage

6.  realized that I didn't have room on my table to collage

7.  started cleaning off the table, only to find that I didn't have any space to put my stuff

8.  made a bench

9.  made it Victorian

Joel Huntley's Ceramic Demonstration

Huntley with AH363 students.

Joel Huntley, a local potter, recently demonstrated 18th century ceramic techniques for Prof. Martin's class, "Early American Decorative Arts: 1620-1840" at the Art Lofts.  Techniques included: slip trailing, joggling, and mocha diffusion, seen here in the photograph.   This process employs a tobacco and oxide mixture that, when dripped onto the slip, creates spider-like motifs.  Huntley owns the Wisconsin Pottery in Columbus, Wisconsin, and his work is featured at the Smithsonian Institution, among other locations.

Public Lecture: "The Dominy Craftsmen: Who, What, When, and Why?"

Tuesday, November 9, 5:30pm, L140 Elvehjem Building

The Dominy Craftsmen: Who, What, When, and Why? Charles F. Hummel, Curator Emeritus and Adjunct Professor, Winterthur Museum and Garden, will explore aspects of the lives and products of a family of craftsmen who lived and worked in East Hampton Village. For more than one hundred years, ca. 1750-ca.1850, four generations of the Dominy family supported themselves and their families with the products of their craft activity. "The Dominy Craftsmen: Who, What, When, and Why?" explores the social, economic and cultural factors that help to explain why they prospered and the factors that shaped the products of their shops. 

Sponsored by the Material Culture Program.

The Parker Collection Will Temporarily Go Into Storage

Moving in, moving out, and moving back in!

The James Parker Collection of early American furniture, graciously loaned by the Caxambas Foundation to the Chazen Museum of Art since 1993, will go into storage beginning November 1, due to the museum's expansion project, which will double the exhibition space available.  Prof. Ann Smart Martin incorporates the collection into her class, "American Decorative Art and Interiors: 1620-1840".  She asks her students to write as essay comparing two of the objects in the collection, writing object labels in addition.

The collection will in spring 2011 in an expanded form, with more furniture, paintings, and other decorative arts objects, and it will encompass the entire third floor mezzanine gallery.

For more information on the closure and removal of other collections, please see the "South Entrance Closure" news release.

American Ceramics Circle Conference, November 3-7, 2011

The American Ceramic Circle comes to Milwaukee for its annual conference this year.  They have generously agreed to allow UW students interested in ceramics to attend the entire conference for free!  The conference coincides with the Milwaukee Art Museum's opening for "Art in Clay: Masterworks of North Carolina Earthenware".  Kate Smith, a postdoctoral fellow at the Chipstone Foundation will be presenting a paper there.  Other talks will address the Jamestown archaeological site and mid-19th century Parian ware.

Welcome to New Faculty Members!

The program welcomes three new core faculty members:

William Aylward, Classics Department
Lauren Kroiz, Art History Department
Sissel Schroeder, Anthropology Department

Aylward focuses on art and technology in the ancient Mediterranean, teaching a class in the spring entitled "Eureka! Technology and Practice in the Ancient World".  Kroiz studies the visual and material culture of the United States, especially notions of race and gender.  She is currently editing her forthcoming book, Cocktails, Composites, and "Ellis Island Art": The Struggle for an American Modernism, for which she won the 2010 Phillips Book Prize.  Schroeder researches the spatial distribution and sociopolitical identities of ancient Native Americans in the Midwest, working on sites in Kentucky and Wisconsin.

Spring 2011 Material Culture Classes

Here's the list of Material Culture classes for next semester:

Anthropology

ANTH 490: Undergraduate Seminar (Archaeology of Craft Specialization and Trade) (Kenoyer)

W 1:20p-3:50p, Social Sciences 5128

ANTH 696: Archaeological Methods of Curation (Benden)

Hours vary by individual student.

Practicum in the curation of prehistoric stone, bone, and ceramics. Involves handling materials, identification of artifacts, conservation techniques, preparation of materials for storage or display.

Art History

AH 304/704: The Art and Archaeology of Rome (Cahill)

(Meets with Classics 304/704)

MWF 8:50a-9:40a, Elvehjem L140

Explores the art and archaeology of ancient Italy, the Roman Republic, and the Roman Empire from the Iron Age to Late Antiquity.

AH 431: Topics in Theory (Approaches to Visual and Material Culture) (Phillips)

TR 9:30a-10:45a, Elvehjem L150

Introduces philosophy and theory relevant to the study of art history and visual cultures with a focus on a particular body of theoretical work and an organization in terms of key questions and concepts.

AH 432: Multiculturalism and the New Museology (Mithlo)

TR, 11:00a-12:15p in Elvehjem L140

This course critically analyzes how the museum operates as a social agent in both reflecting and informing public culture.  Students will gain an understanding of historical and current trends in museum studies and how these movements are impacted by shifting professional and popular standards.

AH449: Topics in Architectural History (Frank Lloyd Wright II) (Menocal)

MW 4:00p-5:15p, Elvehjem L150

Assessment of how cultural phenomena help shape a given architectural development.

AH 457: History of American Vernacular Architecture & Landscape (Andrzejewski)

TR 1:00p-2:15p, Elvehjem L150

Survey of American vernacular buildings and landscapes from the colonial period to the present. Emphasis is on acquiring descriptive tools and developing interpretive frameworks to explore the significance that these vernacular environments have had for their makers and users.

AH 525: Proseminar: Italian Renaissance in the Decorative Arts (Geiger)

T 4:00p-6:00p, Elvehjem L170

AH 567: Proseminar: The Conflation of Architecture and Literature: Louis Sullivan (Menocal)

R 4:00p-6:00p, Elvehjem L170

AH 621: Mapping, Making, and Representing Colonial Spaces (Chopra)

T 4:00p-6:00p, Van Hise 1051

Spatial legacy of colonialism; explores important ways in which the population, landscape, architecture, and urban environment of colonies were mapped, made, and represented, particularly in the 19th and 20th centuries; theoretical and empirical analyses from diverse disciplines and spatial terrain.

AH 800: Seminar: Vernacular and Outsider Art

W 4:00p-6:00p, Elvehjem L166

Classics

Classics 304/704: The Art and Archaeology of Rome (Cahill)

(Meets with Art History 304/704)

MWF 8:50a-9:40a, Elvehjem L140

Explores the art and archaeology of ancient Italy, the Roman Republic, and the Roman Empire from the Iron Age to Late Antiquity.

Classics 373: Topics in Classical Culture (Roman Architecture) (Aylward)

MW 2:30p-3:45p, Van Hise 114

This course explores selected aspects of Classical culture (e.g., sports, women, family, and warfare, with emphasis on literary remains).

Classics 379: Eureka! Technology and Practice in the Ancient World (Aylward)

MWF 1:20p-2:10p, Social Sciences 6102

This course chronicles the development of technology and engineering in the civilizations of ancient Greece and Rome with attention to earlier advances in Mesopotamia and Egypt. Imparts and appreciation for the legacy of ancient science and technology in modern culture.

Design Studies

DS 355: History of Fashion (Gordon)

TR 4:00p-5:15p, Sterling Hall 3425

Changing form and meaning of costume in the West from the Renaissance to the present.  Dress considered in relation to social/cultural milieu and as an art form.  Includes treatment of the body, ethnic/class variations, couture, and “anti-fashion”.

DS 420: Twentieth Century Design (Boyd)

M 2:25p-4:55p Elvehjem L120; W 2:25p-4:55p, Elvehjem L120

Design, including interior, furniture, graphic and textiles, is viewed through broader social and cultural issues including: an aesthetic to express a new age; processes, materials, and marketing techniques; roles for designers; consumer versus designer initiated production. Visits to local collections.

DS 640: Ethnographic Textiles (Topic: Textiles of the Americas) (Gordon)

(Meets with Folklore 640)

TR 1:00p-2:15p, Sterling Hall 1335

Ethnographic survey of non-western textiles: technological, aesthetic, function and historical aspects considered. 

Folklore

Folklore 530: Cultural Landscapes: Writing, Research, & Conservation (Gilmore)

(Meets with Landscape Architecture 677; 1-3 credits)

TR 2:30p-3:45p

The course begins with discussions of what cultural landscapes are, includes a landscape history resources overview, and spends much of the semester reviewing various landscape preservation types from local to international.  Issues of policy and history of preservation are embedded in the readings, and understanding is deepened through class discussion and individual research projects.  Speakers representing various types of cultural landscape preservation come to class and present on the type of preservation work they do in varied work settings.

Folklore 640: Ethnographic Textiles (Topic: Textiles of the Americas) (Gordon)

(Meets with Design Studies 640)

TR 1:00p-2:15p, Sterling Hall 1335

Ethnographic survey of non-western textiles: technological, aesthetic, function and historical aspects considered. 

Landscape Architecture

LA 677: Cultural Resource Preservation & Landscape History (Gilmore)

(Meets with Folklore 530; 1-3 credits)

TR 2:30p-3:45p

The course begins with discussions of what cultural landscapes are, includes a landscape history resources overview, and spends much of the semester reviewing various landscape preservation types from local to international.  Issues of policy and history of preservation are embedded in the readings, and understanding is deepened through class discussion and individual research projects.  Speakers representing various types of cultural landscape preservation come to class and present on the type of preservation work they do in varied work settings.

LA 720: Critical Inquiry into Landscape Design Expression (Dennis)

WF 11:00a-12:15p, Agriculture Hall 14

Normative design theory as it relates to historical and contemporary aesthetic expression in landscape design. Review of critical theory and meaning associated with a broad landscape architecture typology.

Lecture: "The Architecture of Harry Weese" November 5, 2010

"The Architecture of Harry Weese"
A public lecture given by Dr. Richard Bruegmann
5:30pm, Friday, November 5, 2010
Rm. L150, Chazen Museum of Art

During a career that spanned half a century from the 1930s to the 1980s, Harry Weese (1915-1998) produced a large number of significant designs ranging from small but highly inventive houses, larger institutional structures like the George L. Mosse Humanities building and the Chazen Museum of Art, to massive urban scale commissions like the Washington, D.C. Metro system. Bruegmann’s book on the architecture of Harry Weese takes its place within a fast-growing revival of interest in the work of Weese and a number of his friends and contemporaries with shared assumptions and sensibilities. As important as Weese’s buildings were, though, they were only one part of what almost all his contemporaries recognized as his seemingly inexhaustible creativity. His work was characterized by a deep respect for older buildings and existing urban patterns and a fondness for unexpected, often idiosyncratic design decisions.

ROBERT BRUEGMANN, a historian of architecture, landscape, and the built environment, is University Distinguished Professor of Art History, Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His most recent book is The Architecture of Harry Weese (WW Norton).

Handmade Meaning Exhibit-Get Excited!

Beginning last spring, the Art History department's Exhibitions Class, under the direction of Professor Ann Smart Martin, put together an exhibition on 19th century crafts made by women and the contemporary objects that respond to them entitled "Handmade Meaning: The Value of Craft in Victorian and Contemporary Culture".  Taught with the help of Martha Glowacki, director of the James Watrous Gallery, and Emily Pfotenhauer, Outreach Specialist with Wisconsin Heritage Online, and creator of the Wisconsin Decorative Arts Database, the class chose and researched the objects.

The Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters' publication, Wisconsin People and Ideas, featured an article written about the exhibit, in which Emily lays out the collaborative process used to create this exhibit and some of the concepts found in the show, notably notions of nature, memory, community, and amateurism.  Also in conjunction with with the exhibit is a blog which features more in-depth research on objects, related craft information and events, and the community art project that accompanies "Handmade Meaning".  Thanks to Art graduate student Andrea Miller for coordinating this effort!  Please take a look at the blog, and thanks to Design Studies graduate student Rebecca Keyel for creating and managing it!

Handmade Meaning: The Value of Craft in Victorian and Contemporary Culture
December 17, 2010 to February 6, 2011
James Watrous Gallery, Overture Center for the Arts
201 State Street

A Visit to Metalsmith Fred Fenster's Home and Studio

Fred Fenster with his UW Metals predecessor, Kim Cridler.

A design for a kiddush cup and allen wrenches with golf ball handles for a better grip. 

Fred creating a folding line on his piece of silver through the use of an allen wrench.

A plethora of tools in Fred's studio.

Fred and Kim with Material Culture program director Ann Smart Martin.

Another wall of tools in Fenster's studio.

On Sunday September 26th, metalsmith Fred Fenster graciously welcomed the "Makers: Historic American Studio Craft" seminar class into his home and studio.  To our surprise, he had a table full of snacks and drinks waiting for us, and after settling into his living room, the class sat around while he talked about his long and fruitful career, from his training at CUNY to his graduate work at Cranbrook Academy, and about his long teaching career here at the UW.  After this, we went down to his studio where he demonstrated some of his signature techniques and spoke about the plethora of tools that he owns, many of them intended for other purposes, which bespeaks his creativity and practicality.

UWM Symposium: "Embodied Placemaking in Urban Public Spaces"

Embodied Placemaking in Urban Public Spaces
Friday, October 8th
Curtin Hall, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (beginning at 9:00 a.m.)


A Center for 21st Century Studies one day, interdisciplinary symposium, which focuses on our engagement with the urban environment in its material and social contexts, will include speakers Swati Chattopadhyay, Associate Professor of History of Art and Architecture at UC-Santa Barbara; Jennifer Cousineau, architectural historian with Parks Canada; Charlotte Fonrobert, Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Stanford; James Rojas, urban planner, artist, and founder of Latino Urban Forum in Los Angeles; Joseph Sciorra, Associate Director for Academic and Cultural Programs at Queens College's John D. Calandra Italian American Institute; and Karen E. Till, Associate Professor of Urban Affairs and Planning at Virginia Tech.


Co-sponsored with the Center for 21st Century Studies, UWM Buildings-Landscapes-Cultures Initiative, Center for Jewish Studies, Cultures & Communities Program, Peck School of the Arts, Departments of Anthropology and Geography, and the Urban Studies Program.  The symposium organizers Arijit Sen (Architecture) and Lisa Silverman (History) and coordinator Kate Kramer offer a special thank you to Simone Ferro (Dance).

For more information, please visit http://www4.uwm.edu/c21/conferences/2010embodied/embodied_fall.html