[Discussion] UPDATE: Performing the Matrix: Mediating Cultural Performances (Germany) (6/25/05; 7/30/05-8/4/05)

[Sule Tarakcioglu]

From: "Walkenhorst, Birgit" <walkenho@uni-mainz.de>

UPDATE: !!! extended deadline for submission of abstracts: 25 June 2005

Call for Papers for the Conference

PERFORMING THE MATRIX - MEDIATING CULTURAL PERFORMANCES

30 July - 4 August 2005, University of Mainz, Germany

While matrix is a well established concept within different scholarly 
fields, it
has recently become a popular catchword through the homonymous Wachowski
brothers' film. As both a traditional concept and a popular phenomenon, 
"matrix"
can take on a new value when reconsidered in the light of performance 
studies.
Contemporary discussions on cultural performances necessarily reflect on the
medial preconditions of these performative activities themselves. A
behind-the-scenes look at theatre, ritual, sports, events will reveal a
productive mediating structure metaphorically described as "matrix". The
conference, organized by the International Postgraduate Programme 
"Performance
and Media Studies", will be structured in three different sections, for
which papers are invited:

A       Contemporary Approaches to the Theories of Performativity and Media

Taking as a starting point the recent discussion of mediatization and
representation in the field of performance theory (Philip Auslander, Peggy
Phelan), this conference group sets out to investigate the performative
dimensions of the new media. Participants in the meetings of this group are
invited to give papers focusing either on theoretical problems or on more
practically-oriented case studies, addressing such issues as the tension 
between
text, score, structure and its performance, liveness and mediality, 
fictionality
and reality. How can performance both as cultural performance and as 
theoretical
concept be related to the intertwined media landscape? How can we understand
effects of presence and resistance within a system of reproducibility and
mediatization?


B       Mediated Narrative - Telling (hi)stories

Media perform (hi)stories of the matrix. The logic of these narratives 
calls for
a re-reading of methodological approaches. Accordingly, analysis of 
contemporary
and historical narration must invest in a double perspective: 
Investigating the
different narrative structures (genre, authorial perspective, hybridity,
citational logic of sujets) on the surface while also observing how 
narratives
are shaped by the performance of the media-matrix. Given this, how can 
we come
to terms with the analysis of visual media forms? Which tools of 
analysis are
available? How can they be applied effectively? There is not one predominant
form of representation within the amalgamate of image, text and sound. 
How do
narrative conventions and new forms of narration influence present day
communicative processes? How do the narrative bodies of historical 
performances
inscribe themselves into the performance of cultural memory and archives of
particular theatre and media forms? In one panel we will approach 
contemporary
media forms from the angle of expanded narratology. In a second panel we 
will
deal with images and texts as resources for historiographic writing and
performance iconography.


C       Politics of Performance - Performance of Politics

This panel seeks to examine the interrelation of performance and 
politics within
a postcolonial context. What are the social and political achievements of
postcolonial performance today? In an age where the performative trope 
pervades
public spaces, can subversive action still be theatrically reclaimed? On the
other hand, can performances truly mark forms of public intervention and
socio-political action? The panel will present papers which examine how the
spheres of political and theatrical action increasingly merge into a liminal
space and suggest ways to fruitfully understand their dialectics. The focus
will be either on analysing the performativity of political events or on the
relationship between performance, postcolonial theory and identity politics
related to case studies in the field of theatre/dance.

For further information please go to: www.performedia.uni-mainz.de

Johannes Gutenberg-Universitat Mainz
IPP Performance and Media Studies
Birgit Walkenhorst, M.A. (Programm-Koordination)

Welder Weg 18
55099 Mainz
Tel.:+49/6131/3925507
<mailto:walkenho@uni-mainz.de> walkenho@uni-mainz.de
<mailto:walkenho@uni-mainz.de>
www.performedia.uni-mainz.de <http://www.performedia.uni-mainz.de/>




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