[Bilimsel Haber] CFP: Theorizing Cultural Activism: Practices, Dilemmas and Potentialities

[Sule Tarakcioglu]

  CFP: Theorizing Cultural Activism: Practices, Dilemmas and Potentialities

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From: B.O.FIRAT <bfirat_at_uva.nl
<mailto:bfirat_at_uva.nl?Subject=Re:%20CFP:%20%5BCultural-Historical%5D%20Theorizing%20Cultural%20Activism:%20Practices,%20Dilemmas%20and%20Potentialities>> 


Date: Tue, 4 Sep 2007 16:42:08 -0400 (EDT)

Thamyris/Intersecting: Place, Sex, Race invites articles for an upcoming
volume in its series,
titled Theorizing Cultural Activism: Practices, Dilemmas and
Potentialities, which will focus on
contemporary cultural activism that deals with issues of gender, race,
queer, inter-cultural
dialogue, political agency and societal transformation within the
broader framework of
contemporary anti-capitalist, anti-consumerist and
alternative-globalization struggles with their
particular forms, existing practices, and their further implications and
potentialities.
The Yes Men, the Guerilla Girls, Adbusters, Reclaim the Streets,
Critical Art Ensemble,
Genderpranks, the Rebel Clown Army, Reverend Billy, Bansky, the Space
Hijackers, Yomango,
®TMark, Biotic Baking Brigade and Billboard Liberation Front are now as
famous and inspiring as
T. W. Adorno, Guy Debord, or Jean Baudrillard. The actions and campaigns
of such groups have
brought about alternative modes in which political activism can be
innovative and destructive.
Simultaneously they proved to be inspiring forms of political art that
moves beyond its
institutional boundaries as well as beyond the dichotomy between
autonomous and committed
art. These contemporary practices, all of which are directed towards
disturbing and reorienting
the cultural and political sphere by attacking the narratives of truth
in the society in one way or
another can be summed up under the notion of a cultural activism that
involves different tactics,
such as culture jamming, sousveillance, media hoaxing, adbusting,
subvertising, flash mobs,
street art, hacktivism, billboard liberation, and urban guerilla, to
name but a few. While
theoretical and historical roots of these cultural practices can be
found in the avant-garde art
movements of the past ?from Dada and Surrealism to Situationist
International? the socio-
cultural contexts in which these actions take place differ greatly from
that of the historical avant-
guards and hence deserve to be theorized in their contemporary specificity.
Therefore, we invite scholars and activists to think together to provide
various responses
and establish a productive dialogue between the theorizations of the
intricacies of our times and
activist/subversive practices that deal with them. The encounter between
the insights of political,
social and critical theory and activist visions, suggestions and actions
is both urgent and
appealing. We aim to explore this confrontational collaboration, its
limits and productiveness,
both in theory and in practice.
An important concern is to contextualize practices both in their
specificity and in a broader
framework, by considering their predecessors, their temporal and
theoretical neighbors, and
allied or hostile relatives. By doing so, the various manifestations of
activist practices in different
localities and their transnational qualities can be elucidated.
Activist practices are situated at the juncture of power, desire,
identity, political practice,
political agency and the dialectic of subversion and recuperation.
Contributions should try to
engage with these coordinates so as to generate various suggestions
about the present and
future, subjects and politics, as well as the formation and reformation
of images, spaces,
meanings and everyday life. Contributions are expected to be concerned
with rethinking and
exploring theoretical concepts and tools through practice, and
comprehend and develop political
practice by the help of theories, both for a better understanding of
theory and practice, and more
importantly, for new practical transformatory critical suggestions for
our times.
Please send an abstract of your contribution (300 words maximum) and a
short biographical note
by October 15, 2007 to Aylin Kuryel - aylinkuryel_at_gmail.com and Begum
Ozden F?rat -
B.O.Firat_at_uva.nl. The deadline for the final articles is February 1,
2008.

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