[Commlist] International Visual Methods Conference Seven, Cape Town Dec 2021

The final deadline for contributions to the seventh International Visual 
Methods Conference hosted by the Department of Applied Design, Cape 
Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), is now the 30th April 2021. 
The conference is scheduled to take place from 13/14 December 2021. It 
will primarily take place as a virtual event, with potential ‘offline’ 
activities in Cape Town, South Africa. The platform of the conference is 
under consideration and will be announced shortly.
The theme of this year’s event is ‘Decolonising Design’ - a pressing 
concern for the creative arts in the global South in general and for 
post-apartheid South Africa in particular. Discourses of decolonisation 
have gained traction in recent years, in the domain of higher education 
and not least in the arts and humanities. At a conceptual level, 
decolonisation implies a ‘dismantling’ of the dominant epistemological 
assumptions that have historically shaped the arts and humanities. These 
assumptions are often rooted in Western ideas (and ideals) of knowledge. 
They typically neglect perspectives and contributions from the 
historically disenfranchised - the Other, the colonised - and minimise 
the influence of scholars, designers, and artists in the Global South.

In the visual and applied arts, including design, we seek to 
problematise, explore, and embrace the social and cultural perspectives 
of those at the peripheries of Western knowledge. We therefore invite 
contributions that discuss or explore, in a critical manner, the 
following aspects:
- Ideological and ethical underpinnings of modern visual methods
- The portrayal and interpretation of cultural knowledge through visual 
and narrative means
- Collaborative and participatory methods that go beyond traditional 
design disciplines (e.g., participatory video, digital storytelling, 
photo elicitation)
- Underrepresented, marginalised or resurgent visual methods
- Design thinking as a decolonising practice
- Depicting ‘small/mundane stories’ in the Global South
- The role of visual methods in communicating disruption and complexity
- Construction of non-Western representational systems
- Exploring indigenous methodologies and concepts, e.g. land as 
pedagogy; practices of refusal We invite contributions from various 
disciplines, including media theory and practice, applied arts and 
design (fashion, graphic, industrial, etc.), visual anthropology, 
architecture, communication studies, urban planning, computing and the 
social sciences. Contributions can be in the form of extended abstracts, 
panel proposals, workshop proposals, and/or proposals for visual 
exhibitions or physical activities. We particularly encourage creative, 
interactive ways of engaging online, such as digital exhibitions, online 
workshops, live but virtual tours, virtual public art, digital guided 
walks - photo safaris, digital drawing-based activities, cultural tours, 
and treasure hunts.

We also encourage multi- and transdisciplinary contributions from 
researchers. The programme has additional open strands designed to 
capture strong proposals: •	Narrative and Visual Methods, •	Exploring 
Digital Visual Methodologies •	Critical Perspectives on Visual Methodologies
Scholars and other visual practitioners to submit proposals for panels, 
 papers or other types of contributions in one of the conference themes.

All submissions must be made via Easychair at 
https://easychair.org/my/conference?conf=ivmc2021#
Submissions are to be made as abstracts, with a maximum word count of 500.
Submissions will be reviewed by a panel of international and local experts.

Full details here - https://ivmc7.visualmethods.info/cfp/

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