The
Senses of Science Fiction: Visions, Sounds, Spaces
An international conference organized by the Speculative Texts and Media
Research Group, American Studies Center, University of Warsaw
December 5-7, 2019
University of Warsaw, Poland
For most of its history, or at
least since the late 19th century, the core conversations of science
fiction (SF) have not been kind to the senses. For different reasons in
different decades, the creative communities and the critical circles
have focused on the genre’s status as the supreme expression of western
technomodernity, its imbrications with the discourses of science and
technology, and its subversive political potential. While always already
present in SF’s structural, material, and creative dimensions, the
formal, the aesthetic, and the sensible have been largely neglected at
the expense of the functional, the political, and the cognitive. The
questions of language and literary style have been discussed only with
regard to selected writers, such as J.G. Ballard or William Gibson,
while spectacle in film and television has been treated with a degree of
suspicion and distrust—as something that dilutes the core values of
rigorous speculation. Other less narrative media—forms in which the aesthetic plays the central
role—have received very little or virtually no
critical attention. And yet, for all its scientific bent and political
urgency, science fiction has always strived to appeal to the senses and
to instill in its audiences a sense of the beautiful, the harmonious,
and the sublime.
The notion of aisthesis, that is
sense perception, has recently regained prominence in humanities,
playing a significant part in the philosophy of speculative realism, the
turn towards the posthuman, and the shift away from anthropocentrism
brought about by the increasingly widely embraced paradigm of the
Anthropocene. In recognition of this newfound appreciation of the
aesthetic, this conference seeks to recuperate the invisible and
forgotten history of the sensible in the cultures of science fiction. It
also seeks to find new ways of talking about these dimensions of SF
texts across all media that in one way or another appeal to and engage
all things sensible: sight, hearing, touch, movement, composition, but
also smell, taste, auras, and speculative senses. Such attentiveness to
the sensory in science fiction does not entail abandoning narrative,
political, or scientific perspectives. Indeed, historically, many
cultural forms have successfully intertwined formal elegance with
political agency and emotional appeal with philosophical reflection. We
believe science fiction is—and has always been—among
these forms.
While the conference
specifically namechecks science fiction, we follow in the footsteps of
Sherryl Vint, Mark Bould, and John Rieder, treating the genre as a
practice and a discourse, rather than an object of finite parameters. In
fact, from a more traditional perspective, many SF texts that appeal to
the senses as much as to the mind have been generically “impure,”
borderline, slipstream, or otherwise hybrid.
Possible topics and areas of
inquiry include, but are not limited to, the following:
- styles and schools in science fiction literature and media
- aesthetics and politics
- aesthetics and fantastic identities (race, gender, sexuality)
- science fiction sublime(s)
- science fiction art, illustration, graphics
- science fiction music, radio, and podcasts
- fantastic architectures: real, visionary, speculative
- design and typography
- science fiction and stage arts: theater, opera, dance
- SF art in/of the Anthropocene
- outsider art
- non-western SF aesthetics
- speculative avant-gardes
- new materialist perspectives on science fiction
- affects, senses, and sensations in science fiction
- hapticity and tactility in science fiction texts
- immersive worlds of science fiction
- the virtual and the actual
- fantastic synaesthesias
- senses and sensations of SF universes and franchises
- SF soundscapes in movies, television, music, and games
- science fiction fashion: upcycling, recycling, DIY, slow fashion, haute couture
- sounds and spaces of Ethnofuturisms: Afrofuturism, Sinofuturism, Gulf Futurism, and others
- material-discursive entanglements of science fiction
- spatial dis/orientation
- science fiction aesthetics around the world
- social inequalities and aesthetic differences
For individual papers, please
send proposals of up to 300 words. For multiple participant formats
(e.g. discussion panels, roundtables, etc.), proposals may be up to 500
words long. We also welcome and encourage non-traditional forms of
participation and presentation: performances, lightning presentations (1
slide & 5 minutes), speed panels, poster discussions, and others.
Pre-formed multiple participant panels that are all-male will not be
considered for inclusion in the conference. All submissions should be
sent to [log in to unmask] by May 1, 2019. Applicants will receive a
response by May 15, 2019.
Keynote speakers will be
announced in early April 2019, when the conference website opens.
Any questions and inquiries can
be addressed to [log in to unmask] .
The Organizing Committee:
Filip Boratyn
Jędrzej Burszta
Paweł Frelik (chair)
Agnieszka Kotwasińska
Stanisław Krawczyk
Anna Kurowicka
____________________________________________
Pawel Frelik, D.Litt., Ph.D.
Science Fiction Research Association: Immediate Past President
International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts: Science Fiction
Division Head
Speculative
Texts and Media Research Group: Lead
Associate Professor
American Studies Center
University of Warsaw
Al. Niepodleglosci 22
02-653 Warsaw, Poland
Tel.: +48 22 553 3321
Fax: +48 22 553 3322
E-mail: [log in to unmask]; [log in to unmask]
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8027-2708
Publons: https://publons.com/a/1621714/