Tourism: Visuality and Memory.
An interdisciplinary conference

University of Plymouth 3 – 5th August 2015

Organised in collaboration with the Tourism Committee of the Royal Anthropological Institute

Call for papers

From the early days of the Grand Tour and the collecting of paintings and drawings, to the advent of the first still and movie cameras, via postcards, travel posters and travel documentaries to our contemporary use of digital cameras, camcorders, camera phones and travel blogs, tourism has always been intertwined with the technology of visual imagery. The use of such technology is more than a means to simply record and remember events and places, as it is embedded in complex social practices that encompass notions of both private and cultural memory as much as the creation and consumption of leisure time/spaces.

The aim of this interdisciplinary conference is to examine the relationship between tourism, personal and cultural memory and the technologies of visual imagery in a number of interrelated ways: first, to focus on the social practices involved in the production and consumption of tourist imagery in both contemporary and historical contexts; and secondly, to address the relationship between public and private memory and tourist imagery, and thirdly, to address the use of visual methods in tourism research.

Possible themes include film and TV tourism, including documentaries and films about tourism; the ways in which the visual informs tourist behaviour; the use of personal photographs, home movies and videos; the use of digital images in travel blogs; using photography and video as a research method; analysing photo and film archives and tourism history; analysing postcards and visual memorabilia such as travel posters and other ephemera.

We welcome contributions from a range of disciplines including filmmakers/video producers and photographers who have focussed on tourism or who have worked with the tourism industry in the production of visual promotional material.

Submissions:  Abstracts of no more than 250 words can be submitted to members of the organising committee by June 26th on the email addresses below.

Fellows of the RAI are entitled to a reduced registration fee.

In addition we strongly encourage people to offer works for screening and exhibition as well as posters, for further details please send an outline of your proposed exhibition/screening to Kevin Meethan / Graham Busby.

Organising Committee:

Kevin Meethan, Plymouth University kmeethan@plymouth.ac.uk
Hazel Andrews, Liverpool John Moore’s University H.J.Andrews@ljmu.ac.uk
Graham Busby, Plymouth University gbusby@plymouth.ac.uk
Les Roberts, Liverpool University les.roberts@liverpool.ac.uk
Matthew Pontin, Fotonow, Plymouth matt@fotonow.org

Registration fees:
Full Conference                 £135
Fellows of the RAI            £110
Registered Students         £90
Single day rate                  £75

Online registration and payment system will be coming soon.