|
The PSi # 14 conference entitled Interregnum: In Between States represents the collaboration of several institutions in the Øresund region, and seeks to encourage interdisciplinary approaches to the concepts of vision and visuality within Performance Studies. The conference will include areas beyond traditional theatre studies approach by emphasizing Performance Studies in relationship with visual arts. At the same time we wish to stress vision and visuality as areas of interest within disciplines other than art history, visual culture studies and media studies. This interdisciplinary focus on vision and visuality will be captured and developed throughout the conference under the theme of Interregnum.
Interregnum is a term designating the exception, traditionally the period in between monarchs, but in a wider sense any state of disorder and discontinuity. Interregnum thus does not only apply to a temporal break, but also to spatial in betweens or terrain vagues as well as to social and psychological states of exception. As a metaphor Interregnum further refers to that which is in between disciplines, that which is interdisciplinary, postdisciplinary or simply ‘undisciplinary’.
Three themes
To investigate Interregnum of our present condition is to ask not about the fixed state of affairs but about the gaps between. Interregnum as concept will guide the PSi conference and focus attention on the brief moments of instability or surplus that exist between two sets of conditions. We ask what shapes the transition from one phase to another, what initiates a change in perspective and perception.
For each of the three main days of the conference we choose a subtheme for inquiry that relates to Interregnum. The subthemes are:
- In Between States of Spaces/Geographies
- In Between States of Disciplines
- In Between States of Subject/Body
In Between States of Spaces/Geographies
A focus on In Between States of Spaces/Geographies deals with the upcoming of new spaces of belonging and of changing geographies. We wish to discuss how the concept of the nation state worldwide is challenged by both regionalism and globalism. New conceptions of both place and space are coming into effect as a result of these changes. How are our concepts of place and space, of belonging and longing, affected by the ongoing negotiation of ‘borders’? How does ‘place’ connect to spaces of identity? How is visual culture and imagery in general mobilized to reinforce ideas about belonging within changing and unstable geographies? How are we made to look upon ourselves as simultaneously situated and disconnected subjects? The concept of Interregnum addresses relationships and exchanges between cultures, changing geographies, and changing spaces.
In Between States of Disciplines
Investigating the In Between States of Disciplines involves a discussion of artistic and academic identification, a look into the politics of research and culture. The area of performance studies is in itself often perceived as an Interregnum between conventional fields of research, as a discipline that challenges definitions of borders between aesthetics and social sciences. Interregnum creates a space for asking new questions about disciplinary, interdisciplinary and ontological positions. In this regard, the role of vision and visuality as inherently interdisciplinary phenomena is particularly relevant. How is disciplinarity and interdisciplinarity performed in various academic contexts? Can there be such a thing as a discipline in between disciplines?
In Between States of Subject/Body
In Between States of Subject/Body turns towards states conceived as mental, emotional and bodily. By this subtheme we want to consider what happens to the body that is in-between: In between sexes, races, ages or in between states of emotions. Bodies exist in phases of Interregnum and hybridity when social conditions change, when nations form or disintegrate, when individuals move from one place to another, from one culture to another. Bodies transform from human to cyborg in interaction with machines and technology. How are bodies imagined and imaged in various contexts of ‘change’,‘fluidity’ and ‘hybridity’. Questions may be raised concerning the readability of ‘in-betweens’ who challenge distinct categories such as object and subject, suggesting instead a shift in focus towards the performativity of embodied interpretation itself.
Response to subthemes
Each day of the conference will refer to one of the three subthemes of Interregnum. Keynote speakers at the morning plenum sessions will address one of the subthemes as a way of opening up for a broad disussion to be continued in panel sessions or performances, in workshops or over a cup of coffee throughout the day. Read the abstracts of the three keynote speakers here.
Interregnum: In Between States invites papers, panels, and performances that consider the notions of vision and visuality in relationship to the field of performance studies in general, as well as to the three subthemes in particular. Deadline for proposals was January 1. 2008.
|
