Call for Papers: 7th International Biennial Conference of Museum Studies “Museums in the Age of the Anthropocene – Art, Science and Changes in Contemporary Society”

2016-05-13

Call for Papers: 7th International Biennial Conference of Museum Studies  “Museums in the Age of the Anthropocene – Art, Science and Changes in Contemporary Society”

7th International Biennial Conference of Museum Studies

　epochal role and innovative actions of museums in this era in which we face social change and acute changes in climate and environment. The event will be organized by National Taiwan Museum, Taipei National University of the Arts, the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle (France) and the Chinese Association of Museums. The call for contributions is now opened until 29th April 2016.

　This year’s biennial conference has the following aims:

　I. Through the emphasis on the openness and vagueness of the anthropocene, as well as raising the breadth of scientific, social, cultural and ecological questions arising under the concept of the anthropocene, to rethink the current character of museums.    

　II. To test museums’ roles in constantly updating, especially the way in which museums create dialogue in different communities, and, through such communicative media as exhibitions, provide diverse perspectives.  

　III. To explore the imperative for, and challenges involved in, blending art and science in contemporary museum exhibition narratives.

IV. To explore how museums enhance visitors’ sense of responsibility and their spontaneous responses

1. How do museums face the current environment and social changes? How do museums exhibit the anthropocene? How do museums promote conservation of ecological diversity and sustainable development? What can museums learn from reviewing history? How can they respond to what they learn from so doing?  

2. Through the conceptual framework of the anthropocene, to reflect on the functions of contemporary museums and shifts in cultural paradigms, especially as regards nature/binary opposition in culture, different academic disciplines or the increasingly vague developmental trends between the boundaries of different types of organization.

3. To explore how the current fiercely competitive media environment influences museums to begin to attach importance to the scientific effects of social, cultural and environmental change. To explore, also, how discussion of scientific issues is influenced by society, ethics and even politics.

4. To analyze how art and science interact in contemporary museum exhibitions. How do they converse? From the perspective of an artist, how

5. should the different structures of the different narratives of art and science, etc., be analyzed? How should artists understand and interpret scientific issues? Should they do so with an orientation of artistic creation, a creative orientation that cares for society and the environment and actively intervenes? What different thoughts will artists have as they cooperate with science museums? How do artists utilize and interpret the collections of science museums?   

6. From the perspective of museums, why do contemporary science museums value cooperation with artists? What are their purposes and considerations? From the point of view of the promotion of the popularization of science, what new conceptions arise from contemporary art’s serving as a medium? How do science museums seek collaboration with contemporary artists? What methods and cases exist for sharing?

7. From the perspective of visitors, how do visitors react to the ways museums deal with multiple questions of contemporary social changes? Did visitors play different roles in the past? If so, what were they? How can museums collect feedback from visitors.