Review: Who’s In and Who’s Out of Fashion (Studies)?

Despite its relatively recent growth, the field of fashion studies is already known for its many transformations. This year’s College Art Association of America (CAA) Annual Conference featured an exciting new panel on the interdisciplinary nature of dress, entitled Who’s In and Who’s Out of Fashion (Studies)? Chaired by Sarah Scaturro, chief conservator at the Cleveland Museum of Art, and Ann Tartsinis, doctoral student at Stanford University’s Department of Art & Art History, the session addressed the question “Is there a correct or wrong way to do fashion studies?” and aimed to explore what is traditionally defined as “fashion studies” within the discipline. This panel review includes an introduction to the development of the field of fashion and dress, an overview of the topics and case studies presented during the session, and a question and answer session with the Co-Chairs of the panel.

In/Complete

Written by the volume’s co-editors, this introductory chapter frames the book, situating its intellectual contribution within the broader scholarly landscape of miniaturization and fragmentation studies. The chapter begins with an overview of current theoretical and methodological approaches to issues of miniaturization and fragmentation. A description of the volume’s inception, its relationship to the original conference session at the College Art Association Annual Meeting from which it emerged, and a summary of each contributing chapter is then provided. The chapter concludes with further thoughts on the study of miniatures and fragments.

Diversifying the Art Tech World

In this transcript of a panel discussion at the 2018 College Art Association conference, participants discuss the gender gap in the art tech world. Against a backdrop of both the current political climate and recent reporting into the gender gap in the tech industry, panelists gave short presentations of their work with commentary on their early access to technology, mentors and other support structures that helped them to create significant artwork. Questions focused on how, going forward, we can support younger, female and trans new media artists, particularly artists of color.

Alternative Beginnings

In this paper, we discuss three alternative approaches to the dominant histories of techniques of illusion and interaction that emerged in the context of the panel “Alternative Beginnings: Towards an-Other history of immersive arts and technologies” sponsored by the New Media Caucus presented at the 2018 College Art Association Conference. Bringing together recent insights by media archaeologists (Huhtamo and Parikka 2011, Parikka 2012), decolonial thinkers (Mignolo 2011a, b), feminist and indigenous media scholars (Zylinska 2014, Todd 1996, Todd 2015) we invited papers that gave visibility to diverse genealogies of immersion, outside the dominant western art historical canon, to contextualize our current interest for embodied and multi-sensorial experiences. Focusing on the Latin American context – both geographically and epistemologically— the three critical approaches proposed include a discussion on the decolonizing potential of immersion as it moves away from a purely ocular regime towards an embodied one, an exploration of strategies that delink the development of immersive technologies from the military and for-profit game industry, and an emphasis on how localized sites can highlight the decolonizing potential of the local/global relationship in our possible rethinking of immersive technologies.

An Alternative Approach to Establishing a Studio Doctorate in Fine Art

As soon as the creative arts migrated from academies into colleges and universities, questions about accreditation and evaluation arose. From its inception, the master of fine arts (MFA) degree has been problematic. Although the College Art Association published standards for the MFA in 1977, confusion remains between this terminal degree and the nonterminal master’s degree (MA) in fine arts. Some believe that the solution to this problem is to establish the PhD as the terminal degree in fine arts; however, this solution is problematic in other ways: Standard approaches to research and publication in PhD programs do not mesh with the reality of studio-based creative inquiry and production. A better solution might be the development of a doctor of fine arts (DFA) degree.