Dear Colleagues
Apologies for cross-posting.
We are holding a one day symposium/conference at Art University Bournemouth (AUB) on the 27th March 2019. The CFP is below and we would welcome submissions of papers or artistic projects in photography, visual arts and through wider interests in social media and the performative. We are inviting submissions of abstracts for inclusion in the programme and have extended the deadline for submissions until 15th February 2019.
Please circulate this to interested parties.
VISUALISING CHANGING REALITIES IN THE AGE OF THE SOCIAL MEDIA CELEBRITY (CFP)
A one-day conference organised by The Photographic Research Group at Arts University Bournemouth (AUB)
Wednesday, 27th March 2019
CALL FOR PAPERS
Keynote speaker: Stephen Bull (University of Brighton)
The social media celebrity may yet be considered iconic of the digital age, such appears to be the impact of early 21st century popular visual cultures upon society. The ubiquity of lives displayed via social media platforms such as Instagram and YouTube - considered in parallel with the persistence of a photographic ‘truth-to-reality’ - blurs the boundaries of realism.
In the digital age, celebrity selves appear genuine, accessible - achievable. This is a quiet amplification of the idea of the self, a self commoditised. This new extension to celebrity bypasses a talent for entertainment, the product for consumption is simply ‘me’.
The Irish playwright, Oscar Wilde, understood the power of photography to promote his increased popularity as ‘celebrity’. Walter Benjamin famously wrote about mass reproduction of images in his 1936 essay, ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’. More recently, Sam Taylor Wood depicted David Beckham sleeping as part of her artwork, ‘Sleeping Beauty’. Commercial artist Alison Jackson faked behind the scenes celebrity scenarios and, in 2014, the academic Peter Conrad revisited Roland Barthes’ landmark publication, ‘Mythologies’, concentrating on 21st Century mythologies that investigated, amongst other topics, the notion of celebrity focusing on ‘the selfie’ and the media savvy Kardashians.
Photography and realism are long intertwined. Whether the camera and the photograph can realistically speak of the world is fiercely under debate. From perceptions that photographs were nothing more than mechanical reproductions of reality through documentary created to persuade of social and political truths; into an age of abundant fake news, hyper-realistic CGI and the proliferation of tools that enable easy manipulation of image and video. Add to this, the changes in visual practices such as those employed from paparazzi to citizen journalists and the move into the 5th moment of photography with the iPhone, photographic realities in many contexts are changing.
Creative and visual practices that use photography as methods in academic research are accelerating in use. There are contradictions in the way that photography ‘sees’ the world out there and in the ‘truths’ it claims.
This conference asks how changes in realities can be visualised within a context that explores an increasing social media celebrity culture. It asks how the photograph can be used to visualise changes in reality.
We seek proposals for 20-minute papers that offer new perspectives on the visual representation of the changing realities of celebrity culture. We especially invite PG and ECR researchers working with a photographic practice to submit and we welcome papers that encompass artistic projects, films and visual presentations alongside theoretical papers.
Areas of interest include, but are not limited to
The self as commodity
The selfie
Reality, realism and social media
The social media celebrity
Representation and celebrity
Abstract Submission: Please send abstracts of up to 250 words by 15th February 2019 to Sian Gouldstone at the Arts University Bournemouth: [log in to unmask]
Please prepare for a paper or presentation of 20 minutes.
There is no charge for attending the conference.
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