An International Forum on “Contemporary Islamic Art, Design and Architecture: Where/How does the North meet the East?” is to be held 7-9 October 2015 as a joint Conference of School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University, Association for Modern and Contemporary Art of the Arab World, Iran and Turkey (AMCA), and Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar.
In October 2015, the School of Art, Design, and Media at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore will bring together designers, artists, architects, and academics for a multi-disciplinary conference on contemporary Islamic art, design, and architecture. Although each discipline has its own practice and methodology, when collectively grouped under an Islamic identity, we are forced to redefine the term “Islamic.” While new forms, spaces, images, typographies, symbols, colors, and materials of contemporary Islamic art, design, and architecture share distinct cultural narratives from individual geographies, it remains essential to address how comparative and connective perspectives reorient our understanding of contemporary Islamic visual communication. This three-day conference, scheduled to take place October 7-9, is an unprecedented forum dedicated to convening professionals and scholars from throughout Asia, Europe, and America who share an investment in contemporary Islamic art, design, and architecture.
The conference will focus on two primary issues:
1) How might we define contemporary art, design, or architecture as Islamic? Is it an aesthetic, through the faith of the maker or patron, geography, a connection to the historical period of Islamic art? Or, is it a combination of these factors?
2) How might the dimensions and dynamic of cross-cultural dialogue in today’s globalized world effect the broader field of contemporary Islamic art, design and architecture?
The organizers invite the submission of abstracts for individual papers and panel proposals (not to exceed 300 words). Abstracts should be submitted via email to Gül Inanç [ginancATntu.edu.sg] and contain the following: title of the presentation, first and the last name, current academic or professional affiliation.
Themes can include but are not restricted to the following topics:
patronage; art residency programs; commodification and marketing; exhibitions and display; art and architecture in times of war; cultural heritage and preservation; art in translation; education and curricula development.
Submission Deadlines
Panels and individual papers: October 15, 2014
Announcement of Acceptance: November 15, 2014
Online Registration opens: December 15, 2014
Program Announcement: May 15, 2015
Organization Committee
Prof. Nada Shabout, Assoc. Prof. Dina Bangdel, Assist. Prof. Peer Sathikh, Sarah Rogers, Ph.D. and Gül Inanç, Ph.D.
Contact and Information
Sarah Rogers- sarrogATyahoo.com and Gül Inanç- ginancATntu.edu.sg