Call for Papers: Protest Participation international conference

Protest Participation in Variable Communication Ecologies: Meanings, modalities and implications

Alghero (Sardinia, Italy)
24-­26 June 2015

Contemporary collective action, social movements, civic and political protests are characterized by a growing complexity of actors, contents, repertories, contexts, and effects. Grappling with the implications of late modernity, scholars worldwide have reflected on the cross-fertilization of individual practices and collective mobilizations. They have foregrounded unconventional forms of engagement, through reflexive, expressive and embodied acts of dissent cutting across the cultural, political, and social domains, in persistent as well as increasingly transient modes of organisation and belonging. Within this field, some accounts graft social media as an independent variable that would mitigate the democratic deficits of mass-mediated and institutionalised politics. Others would warn of the power imbalances and the inequalities in participation particularly social media reinforce or heighten.

Seeking to kindle an imagination that situates social media in lived experience and practice, this conference intends to unpick the history and the present of linkages but also of any signs of a conscious uncoupling of network technologies, broadcasting media and physical places where protest participation is enacted. In doing so, we aim to tackle the significant challenges posed to democratic politics, social theory and research by resultant variable communication ecologies.

The organizers invite theoretical reflections and empirical analyses tracking continuities and changes in protest participation arising in the blurred lines between social media, broadcasting media and physical places.

Following the Conference, participants will be invited to submit a revised version of their papers for consideration by the journal iCS – Information, Communication & Society which will dedicate a special issue to the conference proceedings.

Further information and submission details: protestcommunicationecologies.com
Deadline for abstracts: 30 January 2015

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Summer is a’coming in

More pleasant warm weather in Adelaide today – it’s a sign of the long hot, dry summer to come, along with a reminder to dig out the sunscreen, mulch the garden, check the watering cans and hoses – and review the backlog of unread publications that might yet make it onto my summer catch up reading list…

Here’s my long, if not exactly comprehensive, list (so far):

Reports/Guides

• (2013) How a Nation Engages with Art. Highlights from the 2012 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts, Research Report #57, September 2013, National Endowment for the Arts, USA
• (2013) Making Art with Communities: A Work Guide, Arts Victoria, VicHealth and Castanet. [“expert, practical advice for artists and communities who aspire to establish projects in their local area”.]
• (2013) Public Art: A Guide to Evaluation, 3rd edition, March 2013, IXIA

Books

• Elizabeth Grierson and Kristen Sharp (eds) (2013) Re-Imagining the City: Art, Globalization and Urban Spaces, Intellect
• Glenn Harper and Twylene Moyer (eds) (2013) Artists Reclaim the Commons: New Works / New Territories / New Publics, University of Washington Press and ISC Press

Journal Special Issues

• Beyond practice-led research, TEXT #14  2012
• Creative Practice as Research, New Scholar 2(1) 2013
• Exploring policies on participation and engagement in the arts, Cultural Trends 22(2) 2013
• Memorials 2: The Culture of Remembrance, Public Art Dialogue 3(1) 2013

Journal Articles

• Fiona Allon (2013) ‘Ghosts of the open city‘, Space and Culture 16(3): 288-305
• Eleanor Bavidge (2013) ‘The ‘when’ of memory: Contemporary memorials to distant and violent pasts‘, International Journal of Cultural Studies 16: 319-334 
• Michael Buser, Carlo Bonura, Maria Fannin & Kate Boyer (2013) ‘Cultural activism and the politics of place-making’, City 17(5):606-627
• Vanessa Chang (2013) ‘Animating the City: Street Art, Blu and the Poetics of Visual Encounter‘, Animation 8(3): 215-233
• Maria Chatzichristodoulou (2013) New Media Art, Participation, Social Engagement and Public Funding Visual Culture in Britain 14(3):301-318
• Francesca da Rimini (2013) Reinscribing the City: Art, Occupation and Citizen Journalism in Hong Kong, Globalizations 10(3): 465-479
• Ray Gastil (2013), ‘Prospect parks: walking the Promenade Planteé and the High Line’, Studies in the History of Gardens & Designed Landscapes 33(4):280-289
• Pepita Hesselberth (2013) ‘Between infinity and ubiquity: perspectives in/on Rafael Lozano Hemmer’s Body Movies’, Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, 27(4):585-599
• Yannis Kallianos (2013) ‘Agency of the street: Crisis, radical politics and the production of public space in Athens 2008-2012′ City 17(4):548-557
• Philippe Koch (2013)‘Bringing Power Back In: Collective and Distributive Forms of Power in Public Participation’,Urban Studies 50(14):2976-2992
• Sybille Krämer and Horst Bredekamp (2013) ‘Culture, Technology, Cultural Techniques − Moving Beyond Text‘, Theory Culture Society 30(6):20-29
• Terry Kurgan (2013) ‘Public Art/Private Lives‘, Cultural Studies 27(3): 462-481
• Cobi Labuscagne (2013) ‘Crime, Art and Public Culture‘, Cultural Studies 27(3):357-378
• Kara-Jane Lombard (2013) ‘Art Crimes: The Governance of Hip Hop Graffiti‘, Journal for Cultural Research 17(3):255-278
• Alison McClean (2013) ‘England’s Rivera: The Lost Murals of Viscount Hastings 1931–1939′, Visual Culture in Britain 14(2):199-217
• Malcolm McCullough (2013) ‘On the nature of attention, with ambient interfaces at street level’, Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies 27(4): 505-513
• Nick Mahony & John Clarke (2013) ‘Public crises, public futures’,Cultural Studies, 27:6, 933-954 [There’s a pre-print version of the same article here.]
• Andries Oliphant (2013) ‘Freedom Park and Postcolonial Monumentality‘, Third Text 27(3):303-314
• Patricia Skinner (2013) ‘Three in a million: An epistemological study of a Portsmouth art project‘, International Journal of Cultural Studies 16(6): 615-626
• Sally Weller (2013) ‘Consuming the City: Public Fashion Festivals and the Participatory Economies of Urban Spaces in Melbourne, Australia’, Urban Studies 50(14):2853-2868

Call for masterclass participants: Re-presenting Community-based Arts

Re-presenting Community-based Arts: the challenge for curators, critics, and researchers

3-4 February 2014
Melbourne

Presented by the Centre for Cultural Partnerships, University of Melbourne and Birkbeck, University of London on 3 – 4 February 2014 as part of the international conference in Melbourne, Australia: Spectres of Evaluation: rethinking art/ community/ value.

Convened by Dr Marnie Badham and Dr Danielle Wyatt, the Centre for Cultural Partnerships is seeking applications from PhD and early career researchers to participate in an intensive two day workshop involving:

• lectures from international experts: Dr Sophie Hope (Birkbeck, University of London, UK curatorial studies);
 Associate Professor Ted Purves (Californian College of the Arts,  USA, social practice); and 
Professor W.F. Garrett-Petts  (Thompson Rivers University, Canada, Associate Vice-President Research & Graduate Studies);
• a discussion of selected pre-assigned readings’;
• a walking tour of artworks at designated artworks and art spaces;
• participant generated discussion’; and
• artistic and/or academic publication output.

Selection is competitive and will be limited to 20 participants whose research engages with the themes of ‘Re-presenting Community-based Arts: the challenge for curators, critics and researchers.

The master class is free of charge to successful applicants, including lunches. Master class participants are also provided a bursary to participate in the Spectres of Evaluation conference, free of cost. (Participants must cover their own travel and accommodation costs.)

Deadline for  applications is 15 October 2013
Submission guidelines and further information here

Art Out There

Adelaide artist Trevor Rodwell’s 2011 PhD thesis,  Art on Mars: A Foundation for Exoart (University of Canberra), is now available online for download.

Abstract

It could be claimed that human space exploration started when the former Soviet Union (USSR) launched cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin into Earth orbit on 12 April 1961. Since that time there have been numerous human space missions taking American astronauts to the Moon and international crews to orbiting space stations. Several space agencies are now working towards the next major space objective which is to send astronauts to Mars. This will undoubtedly be the most complex and far-reaching human space mission ever undertaken. Because of its large scale and potentially high cost it is inevitable that such a mission will be an international collaborative venture with a profile that will be world-wide. Although science, technology and engineering have made considerable contributions to human space missions and will be very much involved with a human Mars mission, there has been scant regard for artistic and cultural involvement in these missions. Space agencies have, however, realised the influence of public perception on space funding outcomes and for some time have strived to engage the public in these space missions. This has provided an opportunity for an art and cultural involvement, but there is a problem for art engaging with space missions as currently there is no artform specific to understanding and tackling the issues of art beyond our planet. This thesis involves research to recognise these issues and establish a foundation for a form of art that I refer to as Exoart, from which art can build a bridge to connect meaningfully with our new space future.

Keywords: Land Art, space exploration, Mars, public engagement

Just a reminder, you can also find Trevor’s 2008 conference papers “Messages for the Future: The Concept for a First Human Landing Marker on Mars” here; and “MARS: An Empty Space or a New Place”  here.

Happy summer reading!