[ecrea] CFP - Watching Politics: an interdisciplinary symposium on the impact of visual culture on politics

*CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS*

* *

*                Watching politics: an interdisciplinary symposium on 
the impact of visual culture on politics*

*
*

*                                                                      
 Friday 31 May 2013*

*
*

*Jointly hosted by the Department of Film and Television Studies and the 
Institute of Advanced Study, University of Warwick*

*
*

*Deadline for abstracts: MONDAY 15 APRIL 2013*


This symposium will explore the ideological, psychological and 
sociological impact of the ‘aestheticisation’ of politics in mass media 
and visual culture – cinema, television, radio, photography and on the 
internet. The aestheticisation of politics has been a significant avenue 
of popular and scholarly discourse for decades – where once the media’s 
influence inspired concern regarding the possibility of demagoguery, it 
has now become a discussion about whether it has created a superficial 
politics entirely lacking in substance. In its most extreme terms, 
visual culture has either humanised politicians and provided clarity to 
our political processes, or has resulted in a catastrophic ‘dumbing 
down’ of political debate. Where do the answers lie?**


‘New’ media (e.g. user-generated video-streaming platforms such as 
YouTube, social networking sites like Twitter) has opened up fresh and 
urgent areas to consider: the internet has played significant, 
contrasting roles in partly facilitating the ‘Arab Spring’, but also 
provided a forum for instantaneous satire of figures like Nick Clegg and 
Mitt Romney. Moreover, supposedly ‘old’ media continue to have 
significant influence on our understanding and conceptualisation of 
political processes and issues – this year’s Oscar-nominated films like 
/Argo, Lincoln, Django Unchained /and /Zero Dark Thirty /all generated 
significant argument surrounding issues of continued political 
importance (American intervention in the Middle East, and the legacies 
of slavery).


Cinema, television, radio, photography, and now the transfusion of 
aspects of these forms through the internet have had, and continue to 
have, enormous impact on our politics. This symposium aims to examine 
the contours of this relationship, exploring its historical significance 
as well as providing a forum to debate its contemporary effects. Have 
these forms played a role in critiquing our politicians and political 
processes, or have they provided uncomplicated reinforcement to dominant 
ideological and mythological constructs?  How have these forms changed 
politics, and how might the rapidly changing media environment further 
alter our relationship with politics and politicians in the future?


_*20-minute papers might address (but are not limited to) the following 
areas:*_

_*
*_

·         * Representations of political processes in cinema and television

·         * ‘New’ media and politics: parody and protest

·         * Politics and/in digital culture

·         * Politicians, performance and the media

·         * The political biopic in film and television

·         * Politics and television satire

·         * Historical perspectives on the impact of media on politics

·         * The sociological impact of media on political activity, 
engagement and understanding

*
*

*Please send abstracts (max 200 words), and a brief biographical note to 
**(G.R.Frame /at/ warwick.ac.uk)* <mailto:(G.Frame /at/ warwick.ac.uk)>* by MONDAY 15 
APRIL 2013.*


Thank you and best wishes,

Dr Gregory Frame
Early Career Fellow in the Institute of Advanced Study
University of Warwick
Coventry
Warwickshire
United Kingdom
CV4 7AL