Call for Article: LIVING IN THE PAST: HISTORIES, HERITAGE AND THE INTERIOR

(Vol. 2 Issue 1 – March 2011)
LIVING IN THE PAST: HISTORIES, HERITAGE AND THE INTERIOR

The editors Anne Massey and John Turpin invite contributions to the journal’s 2011 special issue Living in the Past: Histories, Heritage and the Interior.

This issue will examine the theme of the interior as a marker of history. Deeply embedded in historical processes, interiors are mutable spaces, shaped and re-shaped over time. The issue will seek to reveal the numerous ways in which interiors register and mark the passing of time and question the ways in which time and the effect of social, cultural, political and economic factors shape our understanding and assessment of the interior.

• The editors welcome submission of articles addressing the following themes:
• History and the Interior. How do interior designers, decorators, architects and industry use or work with history?
• The concept of history as it informs design practice
• The challenge of working with/within historic buildings
• Historicism and revivalism in the work of architects, interior decorators and designers
• The trade in architectural interiors
• Re-modelling as a design practice
• The Re-designation of Interiors. How have interiors figured in practices and discourses of urban and economic regeneration?
• The re-development of war or disaster damaged buildings
• The re-purposing of obsolete industrial/commercial/recreational/religious spaces
• Histories of alteration of re-use within a single building type
• Hybrids (the preservation of the architectural facade / tensions between modern interior/historic exterior)

Heritage and the Interior. How do curators and those working within the heritage industry address the question of history?

• Consider issues of conservation, preservation or renovation
• Explore the curatorial challenges of working with and presenting historic interiors (e.g. periodisation, narrative)

The Interior as History/Memory. How do interiors register changing patterns of social activity or human presence and in what ways do historic interiors act as a focal point of social negotiation/cultural exchange?

• Explore agents of change and the re-assignment of the use of interiors in response to the changing needs of particular communities
• Consider histories of alteration and re-use through study of a single site (e.g. functional shifts from domestic to commercial or religious to secular use)
• Consider re-modelling and the erasure of history/histories

Submissions reflecting the latest research on the interior from historians, practitioners and theorists are particularly welcomed. Principal articles of 5,000 to 7,000 words, including notes and references, with 4-8 illustrations are invited, and should be sent as an attachment to interiors@bergpublishers.com by 1st June 2010.

Further details of the Journal, including Notes for Contributors, are available at www.bergjournals.com/interiors If you have any queries about the Journal or about submitting an article, please contact