CfP: Colors in Technology – Technology of Colors
The 40th History of Technology Conference will be held at the
Klostergut Paradies in Schlatt near Schaffhausen, Switzerland on 17
and 18 November 2017. The Conference has served as an out-standing
platform for the exchange of ideas between research, teaching and
industry since 1978. The speakers and the invited guests come from
universities, libraries, collections and museums or contribute their
business and industrial experience. The conferences are renowned for
the breadth and topicality of the papers presented. You can find
information on previous conferences at: www.eisenbibliothek.ch.
This international and interdisciplinary event is organized by the
Iron Library (Eisenbibliothek), Foundation of Georg Fischer Ltd.
Responsibility for the content of the conference is in the hands of
a scientific advisory board consisting of Dr. Gisela Hürlimann (ETH
Zurich), Prof. Reinhold Reith (University of Salzburg) and Prof.
Friedrich Steinle (TU Berlin), and it is they who decide on the
selection of the speakers.
We kindly invite interested persons involved in research, teaching
and practice to apply to present a paper.
Conference topic in 2017: Colors in Technology – Technology of
Colors
Throughout history, human cultures have used color to decorate their
artifacts – amphorae and motor cars, textiles and smartphones – and
technological processes have always been involved in obtaining and
producing these colors, whether they are dyestuffs, pigments or
paints. The 2017 Conference on the History of Technology will focus
on Colors in Technology and Technology (or Technologies) of Colors,
both in a European perspective and from a global-historical
viewpoint.
The subject raises a host of different questions and aspects. How
were such 'colors' manufactured? By whom and for whom? And how was
trade organized? What is the social status associated with specific
colors (dyes, pigments, and paints), with the painter's or dyer's
trade and with other related trades? What are the gender-specific
roles? Dyeing textiles and leather has long played an important role
in society. Indigo and madder, to take but one example, have
undergone societal and economic ups and downs depending on the
particular constellation of requirements, resources, processes and
markets. In early modern times, for instance, indigo production in
India, along with the commercial network that grew up around it,
spelt the end for the flourishing woad trade in Europe, but in turn
it largely collapsed under the onslaught of the chemical synthesis
of indigo in the 19th century. Is this pattern repeated elsewhere?
How and when were hazards to health and the environment detected,
and what was the impact on the manufacture and use of dyestuffs? The
early modern age began to standardize colors, starting with 17th and
18th century color charts to the binding norms, say, of the RAL
color chart – what was the background to this standardization in
terms of natural history, trade and fashion? How were color
standards designed and developed and how did they gain acceptance
given the well-known difficulties of quantifying color?
When did people start coloring – painting and dyeing – technical
artifacts? Which individuals – if any – were involved in the
decision to do so? What viewpoints are important here, in terms of
the societal situation and cultural emblems on the one hand and
technical or economic possibilities and scientific results on the
other? Where and how was color expertise developed? These and
similar questions apply to colors used in architecture and on
vehicles, colors used in signaling and on uniforms and clothing, and
colors applied to machinery and objects of everyday use. How did the
economic, social, and scientific dynamics develop that underlie the
now ubiquitous use of colors to distinguish goods and trademarks
with their distinctively gender-specific component? Lastly, how have
colors been used – and how are they used today – in painting, in
other figurative arts, and in the media, starting with medieval
manuscript production to color printing, photography and film right
up to modern-day display technologies?
The reconstruction and restoration of historical coloring is
becoming increasingly important, be it in works of art, in
architecture or on technical objects. In what circumstances are such
issues of interest? What practices and techniques, what
historiographical and natural science research findings are
in-volved, and how do the results affect science and society in
turn?
Proposals for papers on these and other color-related subjects are
welcome.
Format: The papers may be read in English or in German. Papers in
German will be translated simultaneously into English at the
Conference. The papers should not be more than 20 minutes in length.
Papers that have been prepared to scientific standards may be
selected for publication in the specialized journal Ferrum, which is
published annually by the Iron Library.
Interested applicants are kindly invited to submit a synopsis of
their paper – no longer than two A4 pages (4'000 characters) – in
English or German, along with an up-to-date resume, by 30 April 2017
to the Head of the Iron Library, lic. phil. Franziska Eggimann (franziska.eggimann@
Organizational matters: The Iron Library, Foundation of Georg
Fischer Ltd, will assume speakers' travel expenses and the cost of
room and board during the Conference. We expect that speakers will
attend the entire Conference.
We request you to submit your synopsis by 30 April 2017.
The selection of the speakers will be completed by the end of May
2017.
Date: 17–18 November 2017
Venue: Klostergut Paradies, Schlatt, Switzerland
Organizer: Iron Library, Foundation of Georg Fischer Ltd
Deadline: 30 April 2017
Contact person
Franziska Eggimann Head Iron Library and Corporate Archivist Georg
Fischer Ltd franziska.eggimann@