CFP:   The Construction of Meaning at the Interface of Art & Science 
(1871-1933)  at the German Studies Association Conference (Oct. 7-10, 
2010, Oakland, CA)

    In the decades on both sides of the turn of the 20th century, a 
number of the most eminent German intellectual and cultural critics 
commented on the increasing dissolution of an objective sense of truth 
and meaning.  Whether in the form of Max Weber’s famous dictum about 
the “disenchantment of the world” or Nietzsche’s notorious remark that 
“God is dead,” German thinkers observed this phenomenon with a mixture 
of celebration and alarm that paralleled what has been seen as the 
characteristically modern experience of ambivalence.  With the 
fragmentation of Truth, however, meaning and more especially the 
construction of meaning became both a cultural and a personal problem.  
How did various contemporaries attempt to adapt to an ever more complex 
and incongruous world?  How did the fields of science and art interact 
with one another in establishing new forms of truth?  What kinds of 
truth were they capable of producing?  Is this a purely German 
phenomenon or does the increasing interface between these two fields 
reveal something deeper about the fundamental nature of modernity?
We invite papers that discuss the dynamic interaction between 
scientific and artistic endeavor in Germany between 1871 and 1933 to 
create meaning in and of the world.

Possible topics might include:

•the scientist as artist / the artist as scientist
•the relationship between science and aesthetics in the creation of meaning
•the relationship between form and/or method and the production of meaning
•the transmission of meaning from production to reception
•the role of the body in the creation of meaning
•experimentation as meaning
•occult sciences and creativity

Please send 300-word abstracts to both session organizers: R. Kurt 
Johnson ([log in to unmask]) and Claudia S. Schlee 
([log in to unmask]).  The deadline for proposals is Thursday, February 
4, 2010.  We will notify you of decisions by February 10, 2010.  If 
selected, please be ready to submit a short bio and any of your 
technology needs by Friday, February 12. (The GSA deadline for 
proposals is February 15, 2010).  All presenters must be current GSA 
members.

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