*Dear Colleagues*
We invite paper proposals for a panel at the 2015 SIEF International
Conference entitled *On Simultaneity: The Utopia of Play and Paradox in the
Making of Mundane Sociality*. The panel is convened by Dr. Matan Shapiro
(UCL and Haifa University) and Dr. Beata Switek (UCL and Max Planck
Institute). The discussant will be Prof. Don Handelman (Hebrew University).
Aiming for a comparative analysis of simultaneity as utopia we welcome
papers that present ethnographic theories of play, uncertainty and paradox
in the unfolding of mundane sociality.
The conference will be held in Zagreb, 21-25 June 2015. Please submit
abstracts by January 14 through:
http://nomadit.co.uk/sief/sief2015/panels.php5?PanelID=3488
*Abstract*
Philosopher Eugen Fink (1968) suggests that intrinsic to play is a property
of simultaneity: the capacity of players to be themselves from within a
play-zone and at the same time appear as others to themselves from without
that zone. This, he claims, collapses the ontological barrier between
reality and fantasy. To date simultaneity has mainly been studied in the
context of ritualized play and isolated heterotopic spaces such as
religious theme parks, sacred sites of pilgrimage, and shopping malls. The
globalization of technology in late-capitalism - especially the internet
and its derivatives - nonetheless takes simultaneity beyond demarcated
public events into the realm of everyday practice. Cross culturally people
play with currency (stock-exchange market), subjectivity (social media,
reality shows, online games), text (messaging, blogs), image (Photoshop,
Instagram) and sound (sampling) in ways that obscure the singularity of
place, figure, value, name and map. In that sense play and simultaneity
produce utopian spaces within the flow of everyday life, wherein
mutually-exclusive representations of self and other, local and global or
presence and absence temporarily fuse into sublime perfection. What
contextual situations entail the experience of simultaneity in different
cultural settings? Are they contingent on particular technologies,
techniques or manuals? In what ways these events differ from framed
ritualized contexts? Does the material dimension of simultaneity attribute
aesthetic values to utopia? What affects characterize moments of
simultaneity (e.g. embracement, rage, confusion, wonderment)? Aiming for a
comparative analysis of simultaneity we welcome papers that present
ethnographic
theories of play, uncertainty and paradox in the unfolding of mundane
sociality.
Apologies for cross-posting,
Kind Regards,
Matan and Beata
Dr. Matan Shapiro
Honorary Research Associate
Department of Anthropology
University College London (UCL)
14 Taviton Street
London
WC1H 0BW
U.K.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Anthropology Department
Haifa University
Mount Carmel
Israel
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