Department of Slavic Languages at Columbia University
announces a workshop
TECHNOLOGY, ART AND MODERNITY
IN RUSSIA AND EASTERN EUROPE
Deadline for proposals: October 25, 1999
Full text of presentation: January 23, 2000
Workshop: March 31-April 1, 2000
Chagov came into the dormitory and sat down at the drafts of his
beloved machine, at his great project which he was creating as if it
were a poem.
Andrei Platonov, "In the Starry Desert."
This workshop will examine the following hypothesis: since the
beginning of the twentieth century technology has not only enabled
the introduction of new artistic techniques and modes of
representation, but it has become a metaphor and a model for modern
artistic practice. To a generation of modern artists technology
suggested a new way of seeing and perceiving culture. It offered a
conceptual framework that set modernity apart from the preceding era
and, ostensibly, this framework has remained emblematic of the
modernist project within the arts ever since.
We seek proposals which deal with any aspect of technology and
technological experience as it is manifested, throughout the
twentieth century, in the works of Russian and East European
modernists. We are particularly interested by investigations of the
ways in which the cultural meaning and uses of technology across the
boundaries of Russian and East European arts complicate established
theories and histories of modernism. Some areas we want to explore
are:
-the concept of technology in the Russian/Slavic intellectual
tradition. Did the Russian/Slavic intellectual tradition develop a
specific and distinct concept of technology and if not, why?
-the relationship between technology, modern art and tradition/
national traditions;
-the relationship between technology, modern art and the state;
-the relationship between technology, modern art and war;
-the way technology is used to periodize the modern age (also, the
modern/post-modern divide);
It is more than with academic interest that we wish to raise these
questions, to investigate and comment on the way technology, in its
various guises, influenced the ideas and the works of Russian and
East European modern and contemporary artists. The goal of the
workshop is not to privilege a particular moment in history, but to
establish continuities which would contribute to an understanding of
our present.
As a special feature of the workshop we encourage submissions in all
media. We also welcome paper proposals on the work of Andrei
Platonov, whose centenary is being celebrated this year.
All papers should explicitly engage the questions of methodology. All
presentations will be followed by discussion. Some essays will be
published in a collection. Special consideration will be given to
graduate students. Please send, fax or e-mail all inquiries and a 200
-300 words description of your proposed papers or panels to :
WORKSHOP
Nadia Michoustina
Department of Slavic Languages/Columbia University
Mail Code: 2139
NY, NY 10025
fax. 212. 854. 5009.
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Nadia Michoustina, MPhil candidate
Department of Slavic Languages
Mail Code: 2139
Columbia University
New York, NY 10025
Fax. 212.854.5009
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