Once Upon a Place – Haunted Houses & Imaginary Cities

Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, Portugal

Architecture is always the product and expression of desires and dreams in much the same way as fictional narratives. In today’s context, urban environments like theme parks, great urban exhibitions, Las Vegas or Abu Dhabi, but also the idea of home and the domestic, illustrate the porosity between fact and fiction, desire and reality – very much as it happens in projected homes, haunted houses, virtual architectures, urban scenarios or video games’ spatial simulation.

This international conference will tackle the reciprocal contamination between architecture and fiction, whether in literature or in other forms of expression associated with visual narratives and popular culture. Non-fictional works are usually considered factual and adequate sources to think and discuss architecture, even if fiction itself can also stimulate a legitimate and compelling reflection about architectonic creation. Space and the objects that surround us  “tell” stories while revealing, in their own genesis, biography and form, an entangled chain of relations between content and narrative intention, whether these may be related to art, science, social conditions, personal circumstances and aspirations. Aiming at approaching architectural culture beyond its traditional limits, this multidisciplinary conference hopes to explore and debate the relations of similarity, permeability and contamination between fiction and architecture. In so doing, it will gather faculty members, historians, essayists, architects, artists and authors who will engage in a dialogue on an emerging issue, which we hope will lead to the creation of an international group dedicated to architectural cultural studies.


THEME TRACKS

In order to discuss the possibilities contained in the idea that “form follows fiction” and the relationships between architecture and fiction, this conference will address several themes, based of the different motivations and expressions of fictional narratives and forms, such as:

• the literary function of architectural spaces
• the formal relocation of architectonic representation (comics, movie sets, etc.)
• architecture as fictional construction (architecture as confabulation/idealization/forgery)
• characters and architectonic roles (architecture and architects as protagonists)
• historical and temporal approaches to architectural knowledge and its fictions
• science fiction visions, devices and settings
• phantasmagories of the domestic
• urban fictions

 
ORGANIZATIONAL DETAILS
 
Conference organizers: 

Susana Oliveira (CIAUD/FAUTL)
Pedro Gadanho (AND.FAUP/CUC)

Conference languages: English.

The conference will take place in Lisbon, on 12, 13 and 14 October 2010, as a parallel event to the Lisbon Triennial of Architecture 2010. The conference Once Upon a Place will be hosted by CIAUD/Faculty of Architecture Universidade Técnica de Lisboa with the collaboration of CUC-Centro Cultura Urbana Contemporânea, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian and IAWIS – International Association of Word and Image Studies.

The international Conference Once Upon a Place will feature guest keynote speakers, scheduled in addition to eight thematic sessions (a total of 24 presentations), as well as a parallel program of social and cultural events.

Proceedings: To be published in 2011, following a post-conference Call for Full Papers.
 
Submissions: Proposals should relate to the thematic research tracks outlined above. Each abstract proposal will be reviewed anonymously by two members of the Scientific Committee. The organizers will select four 20-minute contributions per session. Abstracts (up to 1500 words maximum + images inserted on a doc file up to 2Mb), accompanied by a short CV of the author(s), are to be made online through the conference website.
 
Schedule:

6 April 2010 - Abstracts due
30 May 2010 - Authors informed of results
30 September 2010 – Full conference program
12-14 October 2010 - Conference in Lisbon

Contact:

Susana Oliveira or Pedro Gadanho
onceuponaplace@gmail.com