The Window as Protagonist in British Architecture and Visual Culture

This conference will explore the multifaceted, multi-purpose nature of the window as protagonist, with an emphasis on its place in British architecture and visual culture, broadly conceived. A range of interdisciplinary papers presented by international scholars will provide a platform for dynamic and engaging discourse that forefronts the cultural and social significance of the window in its many guises as object, as boundary, as frame and as mediator.

CONFERENC PROGRAMME

9–9.45am: Registration

9.45–10am: Welcome and Introduction by Sria Chatterjee (PMC) and Rebecca Tropp

10–10.05am: Introduction to PANEL 1: THE ART OF DISPLAY: FROM MUSEUMS TO
SHOP WINDOWS

10.05–10.20am: Laura Harris (Senior Research Fellow, University of Southampton)
“Art Gallery Windows”

10.20–10.35am: Naomi Polonsky (assistant curator, House and Collection, Kettle’s Yard)
“‘The Vision of the Mind’: Windows In and Out of Art at Kettle’s Yard”

10.35–10.50am: Alexandra Ault (Lead Curator of Manuscripts (1601–1850), British Library) “Re-glazing the Print Shop Window: The Impact of Glass Technology on the Commercial Display of Fine Art Prints ca.1850–1900”

10.50–11.05am: Birgitta Huse (social anthropologist, independent researcher)
“More Than a Glimpse ‘In Passing’: Reflecting on Shop Windows as Provocateurs Between Art, Commerce and Cultural Traditions”

11.05–11.30am: Q&As

11.30–12noon: Refreshment break

12noon–12.05pm: Introduction to PANEL 2: ARCHITECTURAL MANIPULATION

12.05–12.20pm: Steven Lauritano (lecturer in architectural history, Leiden University)
“Windows of Learning: Robert Adam, William Henry Playfair and the Old College, University of Edinburgh”

12.20–12.35pm: Rebecca Tropp, “Windows and the Picturesque”

12.35–12.50pm: Q&A

12.50–2pm: Lunch break

2–2.05pm : Introduction to PANEL 3: TRANSPARENCY AND MATERIALITY

2.05–2.20pm: Alice Mercier (PhD researcher, University of Westminster)
“Photographic Looking Before Photographs: Watching Through Windows in the Early-mid Nineteenth Century” [remoting in]

2.20–2.35pm: Ruth Ezra (lecturer in art history, University of St Andrews)
“Muscovy Glass, from Fenestration to Demonstration”

2.35–2.50pm: Deborah Schultz (senior lecturer in art history, Regent's University London)
“The Window as a Lens in the Work of Anna Barriball”

2.50–3.10pm: Q&As

3.10–3.40pm : Refreshment break

3.40–3.45pm: Introduction to PANEL 4: CINEMATIC AND LITERARY HORRORS

3.45–4pm: Vajdon Sohaili (assistant professor of art history and contemporary culture, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University) “Glass, Darkly: Equivocal Windows and the Architectural Paratext in Don’t Look Now’”

4–4.15pm: Francesca Saggini (professor in English literature at the Università della Tuscia), “The Horror at the Window”

4.15– 4.30pm: Q&As

4.30–4.45pm: Concluding remarks by Rebecca Tropp (archivist, Crosby Moran Hall)

4.45–6pm: Drinks reception

Host or Publisher Paul Mellon Centre