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Sophia Journal

7th Sophia Journal International Conference - 28 - 29 Sep. | FAUP

Sophia Journal Vol. 7 | Landscapes of Care: the emergence of landscapes of care in unstable territories | Editors: Susana Ventura and Andreia Alves de Oliveira | Guest Editor: Armin Linke.

1. Armin Linke, Lake Assal, extraction of salt, Djibouti, Africa, 2012. Courtesy Armin Linke and Vistamare / Vistamarestudio, Pescara / Milano.

International Conference: 28 - 29 September 2022

Manuscript deadline (Journal): 5 September 2022
Publication date (tbc): by December 2022

Sophia Journal is currently accepting submissions for its third thematic cycle “Landscapes of Care”, addressing contemporary photography and visual practices that focus on how architecture understood in a wide sense can help to heal a broken planet. The concept of “Landscapes of Care” has increasingly been adopted by diverse areas of study, from health geography to the arts and architecture. It allows us to understand architecture, city and territory as living and inclusive organisms, constituted by multifaceted landscapes with complex social and organisational spatialities which embody the difference and the other, the strange, the unfamiliar, the indigenous, the human and the non-human. Our aim is to explore the ways in which the image can be used as a meaningful instrument of research about the multifaceted complex socioeconomic, political, historical, technical and ecological dimensions of architecture, city and territory that testify, question or emerge from those relationships of care.

For the 7th issue of Sophia Journal and first issue in the cycle, we are focusing on the emergence of landscapes of care in unstable territories. These territories may be, but are not exclusive to: the desert, the icy lands, the rainy forests; territories within uncertain boundaries, e.g. between land and water; territories inhabited by native communities; territories that dramatically alter their configuration due to extreme weather conditions and scarce resources, or which natural resources are violently exploited and violated. Such territories hold vital information about patterns of resistance, flexibility, transformation and metamorphosis, enlightening the problems of vulnerability and resilience in the unforeseen future while opening up new perspectives of design, including new ways of poetically inhabiting the world as a place of encounter between species (following Haraway’s motto “staying with the trouble” and Guattari’s demand: “We need new social and aesthetic practices, new practices of the Self in relation to the other, to the foreign, the stranger”), protecting the ecosystems and understanding architecture, more than the distribution of spaces, as the distribution of the sensible.

Accepted submissions engage with the issues above in the form of theoretical papers, visual essays, interviews, and critical reviews of publications, exhibitions, and conferences.

A first selection of theoretical papers and visual essays abstracts took place in order to be presented at the International Conference we are helding in connection with the 7th issue of Sophia Journal. This will take place at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto (FAUP) and it will encompass a live and videoconference programme organised by the Centre for Studies in Architecture and Urbanism (CEAU) at FAUP, in partnership with other institutions to be announced.

Submission instructions (closed)

To submit your proposal please send a 500-word abstract (including references and a maximum of five images) and a short bio for each author (up to 70 words each) by the 27th of December 2021. Submission of abstracts is done through our OJS platform, by registering and submitting at: https://www.up.pt/revistas/index.php/sophia/index

Selected authors will be notified by the 1st of February 2022 and will be expected to deliver a full paper (between 3000 to 6000 words) or a visual essay (length between 6 to 8 pages, plus text between 500 to 1000 words), by the 28th of March 2022.

After the conference authors will be asked to edit their papers or visual essays based on reviewers comments and the issues raised with the debates that have taken place sending the new version for publication until end of October, 2021.

Please note that all theoretical papers will be subject to peer review. The other modalities of submissions we publish (visual essays, interviews and critical reviews) are not subjected to peer review. Acceptance of an abstract in any of these modalities does not guarantee publication.

For guidelines on the submission process and our editorial policies, please visit our website at: https://www.up.pt/revistas/index.php/sophia/index

For any queries:

Please contact our Editors at info.sophiajournal@arq.up.pt

About Sophia Journal

We are an academic, peer-reviewed journal, published by the Centre for Studies in Architecture and Urbanism (CEAU) / research group Architecture, Art and Image (AAI) at the Faculty of Architecture, University of Porto, Portugal. Created in 2016, Sophia Journal publishes theoretical articles and visual essays that investigate and think critically the intersections between the image and architecture. We understand both terms in a wide sense: the image of photography, painting, drawing, cinema, video, T.V., new media; and architecture as landscape, territory, city, spatiality, built environment.