[ecrea] Creative practice research in the age of neo-liberal hopelessness

We are delighted to remind you of our conference to take place between 
10-12th May 2018 focusing on the importance of practice research in 
generating knowledge. The conference will take place at our Luton 
campus, which as you know is 22 short minutes from London. We invite 
filmmakers, writers, scholars, practitioner scholars as well as 
theorists and performers to have a couple of days of remembering why 
creativity matters even in today’s grim climate. 
https://www.facebook.com/Creative-Practice-Research-in-the-Age-of-NeoLiberal-Hopelessness-conference-472743596453012/


Our keynote speakers are *Professor Catherine Grant*, Birkbeck, 
University of London, who has moved from the traditional scholarship to 
video essay making, and *Professor Thomas Elsaesser,*Columbia 
University, who after a life time of acclaimed books and papers, has 
turned his hand to making of a personal documentary featuring his 
family’s archive.  With the help of our keynote speakers, we will be 
considering the following:

• Why did they decide to include practice in their work?
• What have they learnt that they can share?
• Can a practitioner generate theories and how?
• What is the relationship between traditional knowledge and artistic 
research and professional practice?
• To what extent can creative practice research tap into areas of 
experience unavailable to traditional patriarchal scholarship?
• Do first person narratives unveil profound knowledge even though they 
are deeply subjective?

We want to celebrate the importance of individual reflection vis-à-vis 
the work one creates, echoing the feminist poet Adrienne Rich’s thought 
on the personal and creative work:

We are, I am, you are
by cowardice or courage
the one who find our way
back to this scene
carrying a knife, a camera
a book of myths
in which
our names do not appear.
(From Diving into the Wreck: Poems 1971–1972)

In film, can practice research move beyond a narrow discussion of the 
filmmaking practices into discussion on philosophy, ethics and gender? 
What do we learn through creative practice research that we cannot get 
at through ordinary routes? What is the relationship between ‘high’ 
theory and practice then? We will be hoping to tackle these and other 
questions in a number of 'nomadic' ways (paraphrasing Braidotti).


*Additional information about the conference*

Theorists and practitioners from all fields and disciplines are welcome. 
We invite individual papers of about 20 minutes, pre-constituted panels 
of 3 members plus a respondent as well as workshops and other forms of 
screenings and performance.
The conference fee is £140 to include coffee breaks, lunches and a wine 
reception. PhD students register at £75 with the proof of their status. 
Please email me at (agnieszka.piotrowska /at/ beds.ac.uk) or contact my PhD 
student Priyanka Verma on (priyanka.verma /at/ study.beds.ac.uk) before 20th 
March 2018.


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