 ICDAD

Submission deadline: 15 May 2023

“Ornament is not only produced by criminals; it itself commits a crime,” So said architect and designer Adolf Loos in his 1910 lecture-turned-essay “Ornament and Crime,” where he described the effort in designing and creating ornaments as superfluous and wasteful and helped to set the stage for the minimalist, stripped-down forms that would shape modern architecture and design for much of the twentieth century. More than fifty years later, postmodern designers rejected the strict functionalism of modern design, with Robert Venturi declaring, “more is more, less is a bore,” and Ettore Sottsass poetically describing decoration as “a state of mind, an unusual perception, a ritual whisper.”

 The debate over ornament—what is its purpose, what should it look like, how should it be applied, and is it even necessary at all—chronologically and geographically transcends any of these figures and is in fact as old as the field of decorative arts itself. Skilled craftspeople have been producing ornament-laden decorative arts for more than a millennia. Throughout the world, cultures have developed complex relationships to ornament, making it an ideal topic for ICDAD’s 2023 annual meeting. 

This year’s ICDAD conference invites papers that consider the many dimensions of ornament and its multiple roles in decorative arts and design. For instance, what is its role today? How have relationships to decoration evolved over periods of time?  What are its social and political functions? Does ornament enhance or obscure meaning and use? How do different cultures address ornament and decoration, and where have they served as a connector between communities? How does decoration function in global art history, and how might the approaches taken by artists and makers in non-western countries illuminate alternative relationships to ornament? 

Lisbon is an interesting site for this productive dialogue; a city marked by its centuries-old tradition of decorative tile as well as gilded and polychrome wood carving. Lisbon is also the home of present-day designers rethinking associations to material and aesthetics. The ICDAD meeting in Lisbon will take full advantage of this fertile ground, visiting significant historical sites and museums throughout the city and the surroundings while engaging with contemporary collections and makers. 

The after conference tour shall be to Coimbra and Porto, in the north of Portugal, on 13 and 14 October.

How to apply

Send an abstract of 250–300 words, including a short CV to:  icdad.lisbon23@gmail.com

Proposals must be written in English, and participants will also be expected to give their presentations in English.

Presentations should be 15 minutes in length and include a visual presentation component (Powerpoint, Google Slides, etc.). Participants will also have the opportunity to publish their papers in the ICDAD conference publication.

Presentators will be expected to cover their own registration, but travel grants for young ICOM members are available. More information about travel grants will be released shortly. 

Please note: ICDAD welcomes abstracts from museum professionals worldwide, members and non-members. However, all participants must be individual members or representatives of institutional members of ICDAD at the time of the conference.

Find more information about how to become a member of ICOM and ICDAD here: https://icom.museum/en/get-involved/. 

If you are already a member of ICOM, please log in to the IRIS memberspace and choose ICDAD as your primary International Committee: https://icom-museum.force.com/login

Schedule

Submission deadline: 15 May 2023 to icdad.lisbon23@gmail.com

Notification of acceptance: 30 June 2023

Annual Conference and General Assembly: 10–12 October 2023

Post- Conference Tour: 13–14 October 2023

Contact: icdad.lisbon23@gmail.com

The call for papers for ICDAD's individual sessions and joint session (with ICOM Glass and Costume) at the Prague 2022 General Conference is now open! ICDAD's sessions will be held on 22, 23, and 25 August, in both hybrid and in-person-only settings. We welcome session papers that address the power of collecting as a formative or transformational force within decorative arts and design collections. The deadline for submission is 31 March 2022. 

The full CFP is below: 

Conference Artist and Carpet: Today and Tomorrow

Due to the pandemic, ANCM re-imagined the format of the conference and concluded to organize it this fall simultaneously in person in Baku and online with the content delivered via Zoom for those who couldn't make it to Baku.

International Carpet Sketch Contest

The Heydar Aliyev Foundation, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Azerbaijan, and the Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum announce the international carpet sketch contest dedicated to the 880th birth anniversary of the Azerbaijani poet Nizami Ganjavi. Creative people over the age of 20 are welcome to take part in the contest. Send your carpet sketch scanned at 600 DPI JPEG format to carpetmuseum.contest@gmail.com until May 15, 2021.

The winner will receive a cash prize. The judging panel will announce the first-place winner on May 30, 2021. Following this, the ANCM's Traditional Technology Department will weave a carpet based on the winner's sketch. If the winner is a foreign citizen, the museum will cover his/her travel and accommodation expenses to attend the carpet's presentation ceremony.

The 2020 Annual Conference and General Assembly of ICOM International Committee for Museums and Collections of Decorative Arts and Design will take place online from October 15 through October 16, organized around the theme of "Hidden Gems."

The previously scheduled conference in Lisbon, organized around the theme of "Revivals," will be postponed until 2021. All original submissions for that conference will be considered again at that time, and a CFP will be reposted at a later date.

Click here for the 2020 CFP: ICDAD CFP Hidden Gems 2020

Image: Storeroom – National Palace of Ajuda, Lisbon

Due to the pandemic situation, the ICDAD board decided to postpone the deadline of the annual call for conference papers to June 30, 2020.

As this is a rapidly-evolving situation, it is not possible to provide advice about travel in the near future. Also, we do not know what the financial situation in the museums will be after shorter or longer periods of closedown. For the moment we have decided to go on planning the conference in Lisbon on October 14-16, 2020. Therefore, we encourage you to participate in the round of call for papers and would like to inform you that alternatives are considered currently for the conference timing and format. You will be informed by the end of May about all possible changes in the plans.

Stay safe!