Date: 9-10 November 2020 (Monday and Tuesday)
Organiser: Centre for Chinese Visual Arts (CCVA) at Birmingham City University
Venue: Birmingham School of Art, Birmingham City University *
Deadline for abstracts: 31 May 2020
This is our special conference call for paper responding to the Covid-19 pandemic.
At the end of 2019 or the beginning of 2020, when the coronavirus first emerged, Wuhan became the first city worldwide affected by this deadly disease. It then rapidly spread to the entire country, and further on to Europe, America and the rest of the world. Restrictions of travel, instructions of keeping social distance, and finally the lockdown of districts, towns and cities were enforced to help slow down its transmission, but so far, nothing can stop it. We are all facing this unprecedented challenge.
China, a country with a population of almost 1.5 billion, has to implement the strictest measures to rapidly and efficiently control the situation in its own way. We envisage, however, a tension between the Chinese government’s official narrative and public discussions emanating from social media; and we have seen light shows in Wuhan as a display of collectivism in overcoming the crisis, Chinese visual propaganda relating to the pandemic, dancing patients in the coronavirus hospitals, and mask-wearing in conformity. In Italy, where the virus arrived as a national disaster, its 60 million people were quarantined to control the spread, and yet, residents sang and performed, sharing music on their home balconies to long for a normal life and to imagine the outside world. In the UK, hundreds of thousands of citizens across the country applaud on Thursday evenings to support NHS workers, whilst pictures of rainbows created by school children have shone in windows in response to the outbreak as a prayer and, a sign of hope.
During the current strange times, many of us have experienced self-isolation, either voluntarily or by force, either with family or alone, either due to fear or for love – we stay at home. This lets us recall Michel Foucault’s examination on a strict spatial partitioning through inspections. More recently, Jean-Luc Nancy appropriates the term ‘communovirus’, suggesting, essentially, ‘a virus that communises us… That this has to involve the isolation of each of us is simply a paradoxical way of experiencing our community’. Digital technology, on the one hand, is gratefully received as, possibly, the only means to stay in touch; on the other hand, sometimes, online communications seem to be too artificial when basic in-person meetings are completely prohibited, with no hand-shaking, hugs or kisses. We keep united by distancing ourselves from each other; we smile with our face masks on; we display our love for others by turning ourselves away from them. We witness the emptiness of streets, squares and cities everywhere; endless information and disinformation circulating on the Internet; heated debates around democracy, freedom, openness and transparency; racist views and actions, and increasing political and cultural conflicts, and ultimately, the challenge to our humanity. We experience a spatialised daily life – the social distancing measures, and perhaps more importantly, the increasing distance between China and the world; we suffer but benefit from the distance and because of it, we estrange from and yet connect with each other. One day, we will meet again, to recapture the world that is two metres away from us.
CCVA is a unique research hub in the UK to foster new knowledge in the field of Chinese contemporary art and visual culture, and also an intellectual platform for us to share, encourage and value views from different cultural and political backgrounds. This two-day interdisciplinary conference invites researchers and scholars at all stages of their careers to revisit their experiences and perceptions in this pandemic, to discuss and speculate its impacts, and to make a contribution to our understanding of the COVID-19 in the context of contemporary China, arts and culture in China and beyond. Possible keywords and perspectives to be re-examined during the lockdown include (but are not limited to) the following:
• Art and community
• Spatialising the everyday and social distancing
• Collectivism and conformity
• Surveillance, censorship and quarantine
• Isolated private and public spaces
• Visual information, disinformation and spectacle online
• Artists, art institutions and museums’ responses
• Post-Covid-19
Please submit an abstract of up to 300 words, a 100-word biography, contact information and any institutional affiliations, by 31 May 2020 to Dr. Lauren Walden ([log in to unmask]), with a subject titled ‘13th CCVA Annual Conference’. Conference presentations should last no more than 20 minutes. Successful proposals for conference contributions will be notified by 5 June 2020. Invited full papers will feature in the Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art (Intellect) and should be submitted by 31 March 2021, for a special issue to be published in autumn of that year.
* As this is a constantly unfolding situation both physical and virtual presentation proposals will be accepted, with the flexibility to alternate between the two as circumstances dictate. If permitted, physical presentations will take place at the Lecture Theatre, the School of Art, Birmingham City University, UK.
特别年会征稿
伯明翰城市大学CCVA第十三届学术年会
两米以外的世界
日期：2020年11月9日至10日（周一和周二）
主办单位：伯明翰城市大学中国视觉艺术中心（CCVA）
地点：伯明翰城市大学伯明翰艺术学院 *
申请截止日期：2020年5月31日
这是我们针对新型冠状病毒疫情的特别年会征稿。
2019年底2020年初，当冠状病毒首次出现时，中国武汉成为全球第一个受到这种致命性病毒影响的城市。随后迅速蔓延到整个国家，并进一步扩展到欧洲、美洲乃至世界范围。各国政府限制旅行，要求民众保持社交距离，最后封区、封城、封国，以助减缓传播；而至今，病毒依旧横行于世。我们正面临着一场前所未有的挑战。
中国，一个拥有近十五亿人口的国家，通过自己的有效方法及时控制了局势。我们看到了中国政府令人鼓舞的报道和数据统计；我们从微信上也听到了来自民间的不同声音；我们看到了武汉的灯光秀来作为克服危机的集体主义的展示，种种与病毒有关的视觉宣传，方舱医院里患者的广场舞，以及戴着口罩的人群。在意大利，疫病是一场突如其来的全国性灾难，六千多万国民被隔离以控制病毒蔓延。然而，人们依然渴望正常生活，在自家阳台上载歌载舞，呼唤外面的世界。在英国，每周四晚上，全国数十万市民如约为国家医疗服务体系的医护人员鼓掌，学校孩子们所创作的彩虹图画从每个住家的窗户里闪闪发光——盼望的确据，祈祷平安。
在当前这个特殊的时期，我们中的许多人都经历过或正在经历着自我隔离，无论是自愿的还是被迫的，无论是与家人一起还是独自一人，无论是出于恐惧还是出于爱——深居简出。这样的情形不禁让我们想起米歇尔·福柯对监测严格空间划分的思考。最近，又有吕克·南希使用了“共有病毒”一词，来探讨这种病毒从本质上的“共有性”，及其“只有相互隔离才能体验团体的悖论”。我们一方面应当感谢数码技术仍然可以将我们勉强维系在一起；另一方面，当最基本的面对面交流被完全禁止，又能感受到一个没有握手，没有拥抱，没有亲吻——一个远离真实的社会关系。我们隔屏相遇，我们在口罩背后微笑问候，我们通过保持距离来展示对他人的关爱。我们目睹了世界各地空旷的街道、广场和都市，在互联网上真真假假的各种信息，关于信息公开透明的诉求，关于民主、自由的再思考，关于种族歧视的作为，政治的文化的冲突，以及最终，我们面对着疫情对人道的挑战。随着政府实施的措施，我们正经历着一个被空间化的日常——社交的距离，或许更为重要的，是中国和世界之间日益加剧的距离。我们不仅仅拥有这种距离，并在其中困扰并受益，疏离并交流。总有一天，我们将再次相会，把这个在我们两米之外的世界夺回来。
CCVA是英国唯一一个着眼于中国当代艺术与视觉文化的研究中心，引领着该领域的学科实践和研究。而更重要的是，她搭建了一个知识平台，让我们在这样一个跨文化的语境中可以分享、鼓励和尊重不同的意见和观点。这一为期两天的跨学科研讨会邀请身处职业生涯各个阶段的研究人员和学者去重新审视在这在一举世之灾给我们带来感受和思考，讨论和推测其影响，并基于当代中国、艺术和文化的语境中，对新冠疫病的理解作出贡献。鉴于以上视角，本届年会期待从以下（但不限于）这些视角的研究报告：
• 艺术与社区
• 日常空间化和社交距离
• 集体主义和一致性
• 监视、审查和隔离
• 被孤立的私人和公共空间
• 真假信息与网上景观
• 艺术家、机构和美术馆回应
• 后新冠时代
欢迎诸位学者或艺术家请在2020年5月31日前，向劳伦博士（[log in to unmask]）提交一份300字（英文）的摘要和100字的个人简介、联系信息和机构名称，主题请命名为“第十三届CCVA年会”。会议演讲（英文）不超过20分钟。本次会议的成功提案将于2020年6月5日前得到通知。我们另将邀请高质量的研讨会发表者在2021年3月31日前提交论文全文。论文全文经业内评审后将在英国《中国当代艺术研究》（Intellect）秋季特刊中出版。
* 本届特别研讨会计划于英国伯明翰城市大学艺术学院讲座厅举行。但随着世界疫情的不断更新变化，我们同时也欢迎以线上加入方式作为备选方案。
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