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[ecrea] CFP: Rest and the rest, Aesthetics of Idleness, Visual and Cultural Studies Graduate Conference
Fri Nov 09 19:55:04 GMT 2018
/Call for Papers/
Rest and the rest: Aesthetics of Idleness
12th Visual and Cultural Studies Graduate Conference
at the University of Rochester
April 12-13, 2019
Keynote: Jean Ma, Associate Professor of Art and Art History, Stanford
University
_https://dslab.lib.rochester.edu/vcsconference/_
Idleness suggests slack and stasis. It evokes empty, wasted time, and
thus the dangers of being useless. It even recalls the religious notion
that there is something satanic about not being occupied with work. But
what are the aesthetics of idleness? In what ways does being idle
function as a cultural or artistic practice? How can we theorize
idleness, and perhaps do so idly? Or does treating idleness as a site of
cultural analysis and critical theory undo the danger of it?
Idleness covers a wide range of activities in the past few centuries: to
name a few, resting and sleeping, leisurely activities outside of
capitalist production, and even spiritual and mental sloth that is
counter to societal good. Yet many of these idle activities are
reparative and restorative too. As primordial functions, sleep and rest
not only let us regenerate, but they also, through dreaming, give us a
palpable experience of the unconscious that challenges our understanding
of self-possession and embodiment. And when sleeping is shared with
another, it may connote intimacy, sex, relationality, and vulnerability.
Beyond the rest we take in private and personal spheres, resting in
public often becomes a source of anxiety and a matter to control. In the
medical field, for example, fatigue is a pathology. Someone who gets
“too much sleep” may receive a diagnosis of lethargy, narcolepsy, or a
variety of mental health issues. People who are homeless often find
themselves subject to punitive measures for using public resources to
rest. The politics of race, class, and gender turn the legitimized
leisure of some into the illegal loitering of others. This unequal
distribution of idleness points to the political economy of this
activity, especially the exclusive nature of certain modes of respite,
such as vacation time, the indulgence of “treating yourself,” and
#selfcare. The ability to display one’s access to the luxury of
idleness--particularly through social media--becomes an act of
conspicuous consumption.
This conference invites emerging scholars and practitioners in the
humanities, arts, and social sciences to consider the ways in which
idleness works across cultures. How might the concept of idleness be
seen as a space of inquiry and contestation, and how might it become
generative and productive? Hosted by the University of Rochester’s
Graduate Program in Visual and Cultural Studies, this conference aims to
foster an environment for interdisciplinary communication, knowledge
exchange, and collaboration. Possible topics may include and are by no
means limited to:
* Rest as a break or a point of departure
* Pauses (visual, literary, musical)
* Isolation, fatigue and exhaustion
* Craft studies
* Liminality/in-betweenness
* Leisure and labor/Wasted or unproductive time
* Intimacy and vulnerability
* Health, illness, and convalescence (mental and physical)
* Slow cinema
* Idleness in digital and new media
* Imagery of/around the sleeping body
* Boredom, lethargy, apathy
* Posthuman/non-human notions of idleness or rest
* Dreaming and the unconscious
* Morality, sinfulness, sloth
We invite individual submissions as well as pre-constituted panels (of
3-4 presenters) in the form of 300 word abstracts (for 20-minute paper
presentations) and 100 word bios for each presenter. All materials are
to be submitted to the conference website
(https://dslab.lib.rochester.edu/vcsconference/cfp/submit-an-abstract/) by
January 17, 2019. Select presenters may be invited to revise
presentations for publication at/ InVisible Culture: An Electronic
Journal of Visual Culture/ (http://ivc.lib.rochester.edu
<http://ivc.lib.rochester.edu/>) as part of an issue devoted to the
aesthetics of idleness. Successful applicants will be notified of
acceptance by February 1, 2019. This conference is organized by PhD
students in the Graduate Program in Visual and Cultural Studies at the
University of Rochester. Please email the conference co-chairs, Amanda
Ju and Madeline Ullrich, at (vcsconference /at/ gmail.com)
<mailto:(vcsconference /at/ gmail.com)> with any questions.
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