Music and the Moving Image: The Moving Image in Music
The deadline for proposal submissions has been extended to 12 April 2026.
For the upcoming interdisciplinary Conference “Music and the Moving Image – The Moving Image in Music,” which will take place at the Universität der Künste Berlin from 3 to 5 September, the Association Répertoire International d’Iconographie Musicale (RIdIM) invites scholars and researchers to submit proposals. The Conference explores the aesthetic, cultural, historical, and technological dimensions of the moving image in music, addressing the many ways in which visual media and musical practices intersect. It invites contributions that examine how images function within musical contexts and how music, in turn, shapes the perception, interpretation, and circulation of visual material. A crucial requirement for all submissions is a clear and strong engagement with visual source material that is directly connected to musical subject matter, whether historical or contemporary.
The Conference welcomes interdisciplinary approaches that investigate these relationships across diverse media, genres, and cultural contexts. Submissions may draw on perspectives from musicology, film and media studies, sound studies, art history, cultural studies, cognitive sciences, or related fields. Of particular interest are contributions that analyze how sound and image interact to produce meaning, how audiovisual configurations influence aesthetic experience, and how they shape perception, cognition, memory, and affect. In addition, the Conference encourages contributions that address the perception of the moving image in iconographical form. This includes studies of still images, visual motifs, and representational conventions that capture, translate, or condense movement and musical action into static visual formats. By bringing together scholars working across disciplines, the Conference aims to foster dialogue on the dynamic and evolving relationship between music and the moving image.
Possible Conference topics include, but are not limited to:
- Music and film: historical, theoretical, and analytical approaches
- Historical perspectives on music in the moving image, from early cinema to contemporary media
- Cultural, societal, and political narratives articulated through audiovisual forms
- Scoring, sound design, and strategies of audiovisual narration
- Music videos, visual albums, and hybrid audiovisual formats
- Archival, curatorial, and preservation practices related to audiovisual materials
- Audiovisual composition, expanded cinema, and multimedia performance
- Audience perception, cognition, and affect in audiovisual contexts
- Technology, digital tools, and interactive media environments
Film still from Berlin Calling (2008). Director: Hannes Stöhr; Screenplay: Hannes Stöhr; Cast: Paul Kalkbrenner, Corinna Harfouch, Rita Lengyel, RP Kahl, Araba Walton
Submission Guidelines
- Possible formats include individual paper presentations or panel sessions consisting of three papers.
- All submissions will be reviewed by the Program Committee.
- Abstracts in English (including a brief CV) of max. 2’000 characters (incl. spaces) should be submitted by 12 April 2026 (new deadline) using the Conference Abstract Application Form available online.
Further Information
- A website dedicated to the conference is available here.
- The conference is designed as an in-person event; hybrid or virtual participation formats are not planned.
- Presentations are preferably to be delivered in English.
- The conference fee will be € 240. There will be reduced fees for students, see Practical Information.
Program Committee
- Antonio Baldassarre, President Association RIdIM
- Zdravko Blažeković, Research Center for Music Iconography, City University of New York
- Daniela Castaldo, Università del Salento
- Dorothea Hilzinger, Universität der Künste Berlin
- Christine Hoppe, Universität der Künste Berlin
- Timur Sijaric, Hochschule Luzern – Musik
- Arabella Teniswood-Harvey, University of Tasmania
