Tag: Architectural History

New Book | Building a new world: a history of the State Library of Victoria 1853–1913 – Harriet Edquist

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Building a new world: a history of the State Library of Victoria 1853–1913 By Harriet Edquist A free e-book published by the State Library of Victoria, November 2013 For the young colony of Victoria, the 1850s was a time of optimism and hunger for social change. Buoyed by gold-rush wealth and the freedom to create a new kind of society, key thinkers in government, arts and industry set about creating an ambitious urban vision for Melbourne as a modern city combining the best of old Europe with the spirit of progress, democracy and opportunity for all. One of the grandest innovations at this time was the building of Australia’s first public library in 1853. The Melbourne Public Library (as it was then known) was envisaged as a pantheon of the world’s knowledge, open to any citizen over the age of…

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Art and Art History News | September 20th 2013

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 Art and Art History News Katrina Grant The Atlantic asked its readers to tell them why Humanities PhD programs (in the US) haven’t collapsed (and in some cases are growing) if there is no job market? They elicited an interesting range of responses, I think my favourite is ‘Perhaps there is simply an inverse ratio between how much a person loves something, and how carefully they consider the economic wisdom of pursuing it.’ Indeed.  A thoughtful piece on ABC arts by Barnaby Smith asks whether curatorial choices in the new Royal Academy show in London, Australia,  show perpetuate British ideas of Australian art. A piece in The Atlantic Cities on why American University campuses embraced Gothic Architecture – ‘”The newer the campus was, the older it appeared to be.” Is a smuggling scandal about to erupt around the looting of…

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Lecture | Stephen Orgel ‘Real Places in Imaginary Spaces: Architecture, Theatre and the World of Jonson and Shakespeare’

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Real Places in Imaginary Spaces: Architecture, Theatre and the World of Jonson and Shakespeare Stephen Orgel The architect Inigo Jones’s settings for the fantastic masques he designed for the Stuart court often have a specific, recognizable topography, anchoring what Bacon called toys, Shakespeare called vanities, Samuel Daniel called punctilos of dreams, in a very solid social and architectural reality. Increasingly, moreover, the masque façades are buildings designed by Jones himself. This lecture, illustrated with slides of Jones’s architectural and stage designs, discusses the intersection of theatre and architecture at a critical moment in the development of the Renaissance stage. Stephen Orgel is the Jackson Eli Reynolds Professor in the Humanities at Stanford University. He has published widely on the political and historical aspects of Renaissance literature, theatre, and art history. His most recent books are Spectacular Performances (Manchester/ Palgrave, 2011), Imagining Shakespeare (Palgrave, 2003), and The…

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Lecture | The logic of Joseph Reed’s many styles

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The logic of Joseph Reed’s many styles Chris Wood A free talk at the State Library of Victoria by Christopher Wood, director of ASA cultural tours, about Melbourne’s major nineteenth-century architect, Joseph Reed (1823–90). Reed’s use of Classical, Romanesque, Gothic, Palladian and many other styles for ‘monuments’ like the Melbourne Public Library, Town Hall, Independent Church (Collins Street), Scots’ Church (Collins Street) and the Melbourne Exhibition Building seems at first sight to follow no logical thread, other than showiness. This lecture will demonstrate that Reed, a highly educated polymath, evolved the styles of buildings from the functional needs of his patrons and the purpose of each building, and that the ideation he used in evolving designs was both highly intelligent and eminently logical; it was this logic that won him the majority of Victoria’s architectural competitions. The lecture draws on…

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Phd Scholarship | Griffith University PhD Scholarship in Architectural History

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Griffith University PhD Scholarship in Architectural History About the scholarship Griffith University’s architecture discipline welcomes applicants for a PhD scholarship in architectural history. The PhD project will complement research on the ARC-funded Future Fellowship recently awarded to A/Prof Andrew Leach (2012-16), which will investigate the status of architectural ideas in the contemporary city (focussed on Australia’s Gold Coast) in light of the recent history of architectural theory. There is scope for the PhD candidate to study any aspect of the intellectual history of architectural culture since the 1960s. Research may concentrate on material concerning the intellectual history of Australian architecture or an aspect of the broader development of architectural theory since the 1960s. Research may also focus on aspects of the Gold Coast case. Working principally under the supervision of A/Prof Leach, the PhD candidate will join a rapidly expanding…

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Event | The Italian Renaissance in Australia – a tribute to Villa I Tatti

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The Italian Renaissance in Australia – a tribute to Villa I Tatti This public and free event brings together for the first time Australian scholars who have, over the previous years, held fellowships at the prestigious Harvard Center for Renaissance Studies at Villa I Tatti in Florence. This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of this extraordinary institution and these scholars wish to pay tribute to the contribution it has made to their research by presenting their own work as well as that of some of their American I Tatti colleagues. The event begins on the afternoon of Thursday 19 July with a seminar by two American scholars and former Tattiani, Elizabeth Horodowich and Timothy McCall, who will discuss their latest research. That evening there will be a talk by internationally renowned Harvard scholar and head librarian at Villa I Tatti,…

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Call for Papers | OPEN: The Thirtieth Annual Conference of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand

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OPEN | The Thirtieth Annual Conference of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, 2-5 July 2013 On behalf of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand, we invite proposals for contributions to the Society’s thirtieth annual conference, to be staged principally at Griffith University’s Gold Coast campus in Queensland, Australia. Our theme is OPEN. While papers may address any chronology or geography in the history of architecture, we invite contributors to reflect on what they regard to be the open questions in the history of architecture at the present moment. These open questions might relate to elisions and problems within the treatment of specific historical subjects, or to the way architecture’s past is historically construed. They may concern techniques of historical analysis, or the evidentiary field on which architectural history rests.…

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Call for Papers | Transitory, Transportable and Transformable: Temporary Conditions in Architecture

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Transitory, Transportable and Transformable: Temporary Conditions in Architecture Symposium of the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain, London, May 2013 Proposals are invited for papers addressing the theme of TEMPORARY CONDITIONS IN  ARCHITECTURE to be presented at the 2013 Annual Symposium of the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain, to be held Alan Baxter Associates, 75 Cowcross Street, London  EC1M 6EL, on Saturday 18 May  2013. Architecture is generally regarded as being, for the most part, permanent, static and immutable.  However some significant buildings are intended to be temporary, whereas others are designed to be moved from one location to another or even to be flexible enough to alter their form and appearance as the result of changing requirements.  This symposium intends to explore the temporary condition in architecture and to question whether architecture needs to be either permanent, static or immutable. Transitory:  Many buildings…

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Public Forum | Modernism, Art and Architecture at MUMA

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Modernism, art and architecture Narelle Jubelin: Vision in Motion teases out some of the historical and theoretical intersections underpinning contemporary art’s engagement with modernist architectural discourses. Join Vision in Motion guest curator Ann Stephen, who will discuss the exhibition, together with the legacy of modernism on art, architecture and design, with a guest panel including artist Callum Morton and architectural historian, theorist and critic Karen Burns. Dr Ann Stephen is an art historian and curator whose work spans modernism and Australian art. In 2009 she curated an exhibition on Narelle Jubelin’s work Cannibal tours, at Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne to accompany Modern times: The untold story of modernism in Australia, 2008-9. Her recent exhibition and books include: On looking at looking: The art and politics of Ian Burn, 2006; Modernism & Australia: Documents on Art, Design and Architecture…

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Funding | SAHANZ David Saunders Founder’s Grant 2012

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The Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand (SAHANZ) calls for applications for the David Saunders Founder’s Grant 2012 Aim The aim of the David Saunders Founders Grant is to foster new research in architectural history and theory. Applications can be made to apply for funds to assist in field-work, archival assistance, printing and reproduction costs in preparation for publication. The award cannot be used to fund conference travel or registration. The grant will total AUD$2000. Eligibility Applicants are required to be financial members of SAHANZ at the time of submission and to maintain their membership during the period of the award. Applicants are required to be emergent or early career researchers, including postgraduate students, recent graduates and those in the first few years of full-time academic employment. Applicants must be resident in Australia or New Zealand or, if resident…

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Talk | Andrew Dodd on JJ Clark Architect of the Australian Renaissance

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Andrew Dodd  ‘JJ Clark Architect of the Australian Renaissance’ JJ Clark designed many important government buildings in Melbourne and throughout Victoria and interstate but is the largely unknown. Andrew Dodd will discuss Clark’s life, his artistic talents and his chequered career in Australia and NZ. Dr Andrew Dodd is a journalist and is currently a Senior Lecturer in Journalism at Swinburne University of Technology. He has just completed a biography of JJ Clark. Brought to you by the National Treasury Building. Date: Monday 07 May 2021 at 6:30pm Venue: Readings Carlton, 309 Lygon St, Carlton, Victoria, 3053 Free event but please book on 9347 6633. See Readings website for more detail or updates to event.

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What are you looking at? | David R. Marshall – Bernini’s Raimondi Chapel in S. Pietro in Montorio, Rome 1638–48

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Bernini’s Raimondi Chapel in S. Pietro in Montorio, Rome 1638–48 David R. Marshall The Raimondi chapel in S. Pietro in Montorio is proof of the triumph of sculpture over painting. At 8.30am on a cold winter’s morning, when the church opens, it is the one well-lit part of the church (Fig. 1). Opposite, Sebastiano del Piombo’s Christ at the Column is plunged in gloom, from which it is barely rescued by artificial lighting (Fig. 2). To be sure it is a question of condition, but then the condition of the Raimondi chapel is not great either, with loose pieces of marble lying about, but it does not affect the experience. What stands out is the sarcophagus below the right hand Raimondi (Monsignor Girolamo, died 1628) (Fig. 3). The Bernini conceit of hinging back the top of the sarcophagus (which I…

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Call for Papers | Society of Architectural Historians Annual Conference 2013

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Call for Papers Society of Architectural Historians 66th Annual Conference Buffalo, NY, April 10-14, 2013 The Society of Architectural Historians is now accepting abstracts for papers for its 66th Annual Conference in Buffalo, NY, April 10-14, 2013. Abstracts of no more than 300 words are due on June 1st. There are themed sessions and open sessions for those whose research does not match any of the themed sessions. Those submitting to the open sessions will follow the same deadline and process as those submitting to a thematic session. Abstracts should define the subject and summarize the argument to be presented in the proposed paper. The content of that paper should be the product of well-documented original research that is primarily analytical and interpretative rather than descriptive in nature. Papers cannot have been previously published or presented in public except to…

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Funding | James Ackerman Award in the History of Architecture

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James Ackerman Award in the History of Architecture The aim of the James Ackerman Award for the history of architecture is the annual publication of an original study in the field of architectural history. Manuscripts realized by two authors are also eligible for consideration, with the condition that neither author have yet published a book. All periods are eligible within the field of architectural history, and there are no restrictions as to the nationality of the author. The text may be submitted in Italian, English, German, French or Spanish. Only manuscripts ready for publication, with the complete illustration apparatus for which every aspect relative to copyright law has already been arranged by the author, will be accepted for consideration. Those wishing to participate in the selection for the annual Award must have a PhD or have published an original study…

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Lecture | Music, Architecture & Acoustics in Renaissance Venice: Recreating Lost Soundscapes – Deborah Howard and Malcolm Longair

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Music, Architecture & Acoustics in Renaissance Venice: Recreating Lost Soundscapes  Professor Deborah Howard and Professor Malcolm Longair  During the Renaissance in Venice, composers such as the Gabrieli and Monteverdi created some of their greatest masterpieces for performance in the great churches on festive occasions. But what would the music have sounded like, given the complexity of the music and the long reverberation times of the large churches? These issues have been addressed in an interdisciplinary project involving musicologists, architectural historians, acoustians and physicists. Using the most up-to-date technology, virtual acoustic models have been created for four of the great Venetian churches, including the Basillica of San Marco. The music composed for these churches can then be simulated as it would have been heard on the great festive occasions. Many animations and simulations will be demonstrated showing how modern techniques can address…

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