ARTEFACTS XIX “Environing Exhibits: Science, Technology, and Museums in the Anthropocene”

Location: Deutsches Museum, Munich

Convener: Helmuth Trischler (RCC/Deutsches Museum)

ARTEFACTS is an international network of academic and museum-based scholars interested in promoting the use of objects in studies of the history of science and technology. The network was established in 1996 and since then has held annual conferences and published several books examining the various ways that this can be accomplished.

The next conference will be held at the Deutsches Museum in Munich, Germany, 26–28 October 2014. The conference is co-sponsored by the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, a joint center of the Deutsches Museum and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich.

In 2000, the fifth ARTEFACTS conference discussed the topic of “Artefacts and the Environment.” In the very same year the atmospheric chemist and Nobel Laureate Paul Crutzen, together with the ecologist Eugene F. Stoermer, proposed the new geological epoch—the Anthropocene—which is shaped by the deep impact of humankind on the environment at a planetary scale.

Since then, with climate change and global warming gaining ever more momentum, the concept of the Anthropocene has found ever more followers not only in the natural sciences but also in the cultural sciences and the humanities. The idea of the Anthropocene has developed into a vibrant field of studies which examines the inextricable interrelations between nature and culture, environment and society. This year’s ARTEFACTS conference will embark on this inspiring agenda. It aims to discuss the material culture dimensions of the Anthropocene.

ARTEFACTS conferences are friendly and informal meetings with the character of workshops. There is plenty of time for open discussion and networking. Each contributor is allocated a 20 minutes slot for her or his talk plus ample of time for questions and discussion. Please send your proposal for sessions or individual papers (500–700 words) along with a brief CV to Helmuth Trischler, h.trischler@deutsches-museum.de no later than Friday, 4 July 2014. Please remember that the focus of presentations should be on artefacts.

The full program can be downloaded here. (PDF, 164 KB)

Click here for the Call for Proposals (pdf, 125 KB)