World Art: Call for Papers

The content of World Art will be broadly themed according to a number of generic categories, however, not every category will necessarily appear in each issue of the journal and others may be added:

Studies

We look for original and creative contributions to world art studies. We are keen to see work that examines issues in production, reception and interpretation of art; looks at contexts, localities and methods for study; or reviews existing viewpoints, values and histories, but takes a fresh start from new perspectives. We favour comparative studies, the questioning of values from one culture to another, or from one period to another. We are looking for short contributions or longer considered essays in which opinions can be freely aired on issues of critical importance concerning cultural politics, migrations, colonialism, museology, archaeology discourses of display, religion, values, funding, power, heritage and patrimony, identity.

Interventions 

Exploratory projects include critical interventions that have been made across and between cultures, art-forms or media. Projects may feature archaeological, historical, anthropological, linguistic or geographical studies; they may be political, discursive, experimental, aiming for exchanges or appropriations of methodology or media between subject areas. Issues of cultural or linguistic translation will be pertinent and performances or performative situations may be described.  This category of content will also feature artistic or creative interventions by any arts practitioner in relation to different places or institutions. Interventions may be practical, theoretical or academic.

Dialogues 

Dialogues are about exchange, reflection, the balancing and sharing of alternative viewpoints. They may take the form of discussions between two or more people, which have been worked up into a considered form. We expect dialogues to be crafted into a coherent set of arguments, interweaving points of view and we are interested in creative variations of this format. Sometimes when several contributions to the journal are offering to tackle related subjects, the editors will set up a dialogue. Also, the editors will be pleased to facilitate dialogues in subjects critical to world art, which can inform content for future issues.

Special Themes 

Issues alternate between those that are general in content and those that pursue specific themes. Subjects for themed volumes will be announced, as calls for papers, approximately three years in advance of publication. 

Art is a global phenomenon. Through art people remake themselves and their worlds, while commenting on their values and beliefs. Making, using and learning from artworks is fundamental to human social life and sensory engagement. In the process they continually remake themselves, their values, their cosmologies and thus their worlds.

In the context of the reassessment of the collecting, display and interpretation of cultures, the study of art as a global human activity challenges categories of mainstream and marginalised arts and allows new histories to emerge, highlighting different standpoints and disciplines.

World Art aims to engender an imaginative approach to visual and material culture. It has the potential to redefine the concept of art for future scholars, students and visual producers by addressing the intersections of theory and practice. It provides a forum for redefining the concept of art for scholars, students and practitioners, for rethinking artistic and interpretive categories and for addressing cultural translation of art practices, canons and discourses. Furthermore, it promotes innovative and comparative approaches for studying human creativity, past and present.

World Art welcomes contributions that promote inter-cultural, inter-national, inter-practice or inter-disciplinary concerns. Submissions can take the form of articles or art-works, based on individual or collaborative research. Audio and video materials may be included to accompany the on-line version of the journal.

The following themes may be of particular interest to potential contributors:

• Comparative and trans-cultural approaches relating to art history, anthropology, archaeology, museum studies or heritage studies
• Material-focused studies, questioning the relationships between images, artefacts and knowledge
• Questions of locality, nationhood and internationalism, in construction of community identities and the negotiation of boundaries and margins
• Bodily forms of making, in understanding gestures, practices, techniques and technologies
• Real and imagined environments, and representations of landscapes, ecologies and geographies
• Institutional practices and discourses, in comprehending how canons and concepts are articulated and questioned
• The use of language-oriented models in world art studies, and the limits of academic and creative writing
• Time, memory, history and heritage, in framing issues of voice, vernacularism, ownership and rights

Journal Editors 

Dr. George Lau, Lecturer, Sainsbury Research Unit for the Arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas, UK

Dr. Daniel Rycroft, Lecturer in the Arts and Cultures of Asia, School of World Art Studies, UK

Dr. Veronica Sekules, Head of Education and Research, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, UK

Editorial team

Simon Kaner, Deputy Director, Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures

John Mack, Professor of World Art, School of World Art Studies and Sainsbury Research Unit

Christina Riggs, Lecturer in Ancient Mediterranean Art, School of World Art Studies

Margit Thøfner, Senior Lecturer in European Art History, School of World Art Studies

Davide Quadrio, founder and director of BizArt and Arthub, Shanghai/Hong Kong

Please submit outlines and proposals to the editors at worldart@uea.ac.uk 

Completed manuscripts will be due by 14 June 2010. Publication of first issue: March 2011. 

Shorter contributions, interventions: Max. length, 2000 words, 3 images. Deadline 30 April 2010 

Research articles: Max. length, 5-8,000 words and 5-8 images 

Visual essays: Max. length, 15 images and 3,000 words. Deadline 14 June 2010 

All submissions to be accompanied by summary biographical data, max. 150 words. 

Copyright for images and content must be cleared as soon as publication has been agreed.

All contributions are peer-reviewed under the guidance of the Editorial Advisory Board.