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.

CONFERENCE PROGRAMME

2–2.15pm: Welcome and Introduction to Conference by Rebecca Tropp
(archivist, Crosby Moran Hall)

2.15–2.20pm: Introduction to PANEL 1: VISIONS OF LIGHT
Chair: Ruth Ezra (lecturer in art history, University of St Andrews)

2.20–2.30pm: Benet Ge (student, Williams College) “Looked Through: Edward Orme’s Transparent Prints and Masculinizing Georgian Windows” [remoting in]

2.30–2.40pm: Francesca Strobino (independent) “The Window as a Test Object W.H.F. Talbot’s Early Photographic Experiments with Latticed Patterns” [remoting in]

2.40–2.50pm: Victoria Hepburn (postdoctoral associate, Yale Center for British Art)
“A ‘Luminous Framework’ but not ‘Glass of a Modern Kind’: William Bell Scott’s Painted Windows for the Ceramic Gallery at the South Kensington Museum” [remoting in]

2.50–3.05pm: Q&As

3.05–3.35pm: Refreshment break

3.35–3.40pm: Introduction to PANEL 2: SOCIAL RELATIONS
Chair: Vajdon Sohaili (assistant professor of art history and contemporary culture,
Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University)

3.40–3.50pm: Shaona Barik (assistant professor of English literature at Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan, India), “Health, Hygiene, Sanitation in Colonial Bengal: Case Study of Windows (1860–1920)” [remoting in]

3.50–4pm: Albie Fay (writer), “Through the Broken Glass: The Window as a Symbol of Social Unrest in Britain and Northern Ireland”

4–4.10pm: Ellie Brown (PhD candidate, University of Warwick) “The Window as a Frame and Boundary in the Shopping Centre”

4.10–5pm: curator’s talk

5–6pm: Drinks reception

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Paul Mellon Centre and online, 16 Bedford Square, London, United Kingdom