[Bilimsel Haber] CFP: Performance Studies International 2010

[Gonul Pultar]

From: Marlis Schweitzer [schweit at yorku.ca]


*Call for Proposals*
*
*
*Annual Conference of Performance Studies international
*
*PSi 16 Performing Publics*
*Toronto, 9-13 June 2010*

PSi 16, Performing Publics, will take place in Toronto as part of a
collaboration between York University's Faculty of Fine Arts and the
Ontario College of Art & Design. The conference will investigate the
power of performance to intervene in, reshape, and reinvigorate the
public sphere at the beginning of the twenty-first century. We invite
proposals that take up notions of "public" in a variety of ways,
pointing to the critically generative and fraught aspects of the term as 
it has been adopted within performance studies.

The conference will theorize the relationship between performance,
"official" public culture (public culture framed and sanctioned by state
and/or corporate institutions), and the production of what Michael
Warner calls "counter-publics" (social formations developed in
opposition to the discourses and interests of the official public
sphere). As such, it will explore the coming together of individuals as
a social totality -- as a community, nation, organization, etc. -- and
the enactment of public as a form of social activism, as a means of
rehearsing, querying, and producing alternative forms of local and
global citizenship. In both contexts, performance has the potential to
frame affective and critically nuanced responses to public events,
issues and crises and thus to model politically and ethically engaged
forms of public life. The conference also seeks to problematize the idea
of "publics" as it has been applied to performance by exploring the
limitations of this term and the kinds of social exclusions that it
often has been used to rationalize.

Guiding questions will include: How are we hailed by various publics, 
and how does this shape our behaviors and social interactions? How are
publics spatially and temporally constituted? In what ways do publics
participate in forms of activism, civic engagement, and "poetic
world-making" (Warner)? What affects and effects are produced by such
utopian interventions? Our discussion of these issues will reflect the
vibrant history of urban intervention and "public spacing" movements in
Toronto in which artists and activists have worked together to change
the shape of our shared local and civic spaces.

Proposals might address (but are not limited to):

    - publics and counter-publics

    - issues of public space

    - performance and civic engagement

    - performance as an act of public witness

    - performance and public relations

    - the audience (live or virtual) as public

    - public events: rallies, protests, flash mobs, etc.

    - the relationship between the public and the private

    - the role of gender, sexuality, race, and class in performing publics

    - public feelings and affects

    - performative utopias and utopian performatives

    - site-specific performance and urban intervention


The conference will be staged during Toronto's annual Luminato Festival,
and will provide several opportunities for participants to experience
and reflect on its dynamic arts programming. Luminato is a
multidisciplinary festival that celebrates music, dance, theatre, film,
literature, and the visual arts, and showcases the work of local,
national, and international artists.  As part of its mandate to offer
"accidental encounters with art," Luminato is committed to presenting a
variety of free events in public spaces. These public art projects run
concurrently with exciting performance premieres at venues throughout
the city.

*Paper proposals (Due November 15):*

Proposals for individual papers should include a 250-word abstract.
Conference papers are normally allotted 20 minutes. Traditional and
performative papers are welcome.

*Panel proposals (Due November 15):*

Panel proposals and proposals for other discursive formats (roundtable
discussions, position papers, etc.) should include a 250-word abstract,
along with the names, paper titles (if applicable) and affiliations of
participants. Panels are normally allotted 1.5-2 hours. Proposals that
interweave traditional and performative papers are welcome.

*Shift proposals (Due November 1):*

Continuing the explorations of PSi 15, we invite proposals for "shifts":
innovative session formats that push the boundaries of the
well-constructed panel. These may include workshops, performances, and
interactive events. We welcome shifts that engage with "Performing
Publics"---e.g., site-specific projects that activate public space, the
urban landscape, or the immediate environs of the conference site.
Proposals should include a 250-word abstract. Please note that shifts
and panels will receive the same basic level of AV support, and there
will be a limited number of places for shifts at PSi 16.

All proposals should be submitted online by filling out the PSi 16
"Proposal Form" at: http://psi16.com/cfp/submissions/

Questions about the conference can be directed to: info at psi16.com
<mailto:info at psi16.com>

___________________________
Marlis Schweitzer
Assistant Professor
Department of Theatre
York University