With full apologies for the receipt of cross-posts
PLYMOUTH COLLEGE OF ART ANNOUNCE:
3RD AND FINAL CALL FOR ABSTRACTS FOR ACADEMIC PAPERS AND PRACTICE-
BASED
CASE STUDIES
MAKING FUTURES
THE CRAFTS IN THE CONTEXT OF EMERGING GLOBAL SUSTAINABILITY
AGENDAS
CONFERENCE WEBSITE AT: http://makingfutures.plymouthart.ac.uk/
CONFIRMED KEYNOTE SPEAKER: PROFESSOR RICHARD SENNETT (USA)
‘Making Futures’ will be held on Thursday 17th and Friday 18th September
2009 within the magnificently sited Mount Edgcumbe estate on the River
Tamar opposite the city of Plymouth, Devon, UK.
This is the 3RD AND FINAL CALL FOR ABSTRACTS.
PLEASE NOTE THAT THE CLOSING DATE FOR RECEIPT OF ABSTRACTS HAS
BEEN
EXTENDED TO FRIDAY 1st MAY 2009.
The first two calls have generated an excellent response from Europe and the
Anglophone world, but the closing date has been extended by one month to
allow
the call to disseminate further on East Asian networks.
‘Making Futures’ invites submissions from craft practitioners, curators,
historians,
theorists, campaigners, activists, and representatives from public and private
institutions with an interest in the relationship between the contemporary
crafts and
sustainability issues.
CONFERENCE AIMS:
The aims of the ‘Making Futures’ research conference are to improve
understanding
of the ways in which the contemporary crafts are responding to ideas and
agendas
connected with global environmental and sustainability issues. Also, to try to
discern
whether these new imperatives present opportunities for the crafts to redefine
and
reconstitute themselves as less marginalised, more centrally productive forces
in
society.
The crafts, perhaps more than many areas of creative practice, have
instinctively
strong affinities with concerns for environmentally responsible and sustainable
development. For example, Western craft ideals (perhaps less so realities)
have
typically sought to mobilise aesthetic experience as a key dimension and
expression
of responsible living in the face of mass industrialization - through their
empathy
with natural materials and the natural world, and through ‘slow’ and
cooperative
models of living. Indeed, important initiatives in pursuit of ethical and
sustainable
development objectives continue to take place within craft enterprises and
agencies
today. But the fact remains that our understanding of the interactions
between the
contemporary crafts and the modern environmental and
sustainability ‘movements’
remains largely uncharted, unrepresented and under-theorised.
‘Making Futures’ takes up this challenge and will explore the ways in which
environmental and sustainability discourses might be leading to new
formulations, or
re-articulations, of craft practices, identities, positions and markets, in ways
that
might engage more directly with contemporary social, cultural and economic
needs.
Perhaps even, to recover ideological purpose.
CONFERENCE SCOPE:
The conference scope is international and will welcome accounts from non-
western
contexts, especially those experiencing rapid industrial and urban development
and
newly expanding consumer markets. These will be contrasted with analysis
from
within the so-called post-industrial economies of the West in order to
generate
comparative insights and heighten awareness of the trans-national nature of
many of
the issues. The conference is therefore interested in inputs arising from across
the
full spectrum of crafts practice today. This includes makers of individual works
who
place a premium on traditional processes, locales, skills and haptic qualities;
designer-makers producing limited editions and batch-produced artifacts; and
artist-
craftspeople whose work might be more conceptually-based - perhaps
consciously
drawing upon cross-disciplinary and hybridized practices to critically reflect
upon
global dialogues and forms of exchange.
This inclusiveness of practice and trans-cultural perspective will in all
instances be
grounded in studies that evince convincing connections with ethical,
environmental
and sustainability concerns.
FOR FULL DETAILS PLEASE VISIT THE CONFERENCE WEBSITE AT:
http://makingfutures.plymouthart.ac.uk/
For further information, contact <[log in to unmask]>
Please circulate this call as appropriate.
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