Copy-Past.
Revaluating History, Memory and Archive in Cinema, Performing Arts and Visual Culture
Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj, Romania
May 18-19, 2018

Recent developments in academic scholarship and artistic practices in various fields have seen an increasing interest in the productive and intellectual potential of interpreting history, memory and archive. This preoccupation opened up a wide space of analysis and debate that sees the past not only as a passive “has-been” but rather as a probable “would be” - for better or worse. It is noteworthy that one of the most frequent warnings today regarding the political evolution in certain contexts points to the risk of repeating the past - about making the present an uncritical and blind “Copy-Past.” However, internalizing the significant moments of the past is part of our contemporary cultural construction in which history, memory and archive are the catalysts for some of the most progressive endeavours. The idea synthesized by the phrase “Copy-Past” is, after all, the motor of our cultural system of representation, the source-model conceived and symbolized through—and departing from—the indicators of the past.

The conference Copy-Past - Memory, archive, revaluations in cinema, performing arts and visual culture proposes a double articulation of the concept of past: it proposes equally a discourse of history and a discourse on history. That is, on the one hand, it proposes a discussion addressing the historical factuality (and its historiographic understandings) as well as the mechanisms to work, interpret and visualize historical facts and their relevance in contemporary artistic practice and critical thinking. On the other hand, it proposes to reflect on the methodological and theoretical interpretations stemming from and critically departing from various historicist approaches. More precisely, it expects to theorize on the very possibility of historicity: the interpreting solutions addressing the evolution of ideas, methodologies and systems of historical and critical research of artistic creation, in relation to the social and political contexts.


Topics could include, but are not restricted to:

• Appropriation and recycling images
• Adaptation and remediation in cinema, theatre and visual culture
• Critical re-evaluations of artistic production: between ethics and aesthetics.
• The critical discourse as interface between the artist and the audience
• Criticism and normativity: what history has to do with it
• New Historicism 2.0.
• Media archaeology
• Found footage film and alternative history
• Preservation / archiving historical artistic production.
• Curatorship – capitalizing the artistic heritage.
• Historical “truth” vs. the transmedial question
• Post-production as post-history
• New-new historicism
• Collective memories vs. Collected memories

REGISTRATION:

Abstract and keywords submission deadline: March 1st, 2018.
The abstracts (maximum 2000 characters), accompanied by keywords, will be sent to the organizers by February 15, 2018 at the following addresses: [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask]
Accepted participants will be notified by March 15, 2018.

Accepted papers will then be subject to a peer-reviewed process, and the selected papers will be published in a conference proceedings volume by the end of 2018.

PARTICIPATION FEES AND CONDITIONS:
• Academics / researchers: 100 Euros
• PhD candidates: 70 Euros
• MA students: 50 Euros
Proposals for accepted works from the organizing institutions are exempt from the participation fee.
The deadline for paying of the participation fee is 1 May 2018. The participation fee covers the costs of logistics, equipment and promotion, 2 coffee-breaks and lunch. The accommodation and transport costs will be supported by the participants.

For other details please visit: http://teatrutv.ubbcluj.ro/conferences/copy-past/