[Commlist] Keep It Simple! Make It Fast (KISMIF) International Conference 2022 CFP

*Keep It Simple! Make It Fast (KISMIF) International Conference 2022*

Conference Theme: DIY Cultures, Sustainability and Artistic Ecosystems

July 13th-July 16th, 2022

University of Porto, Portugal

We are pleased to announce the sixth edition KISMIF International 
Conference ‘DIY Cultures, Sustainability and Artistic Ecosystems’ 
(KISMIF 2022) which will take place in Porto, Portugal, between July 13 
and 16 2022.

The KISMIF Conference provides a unique /forum /in which participants 
can discuss and share information about alternative cultures and DIY 
practices from around the world. KISMIF focuses on cultural practices 
often opposed to more conventional, mass-produced and commodified forms 
of cultural production and mediation and the anti-hegemonic ideologies 
around aesthetic and lifestyle politics that are typically embedded in 
DIY culture. KISMIF is the first, and to date only Conference in the 
world that examines DIY culture theory and practice as an increasingly 
significant form of cultural practice in a global context. The 
conference has a multi-/transdisciplinary approach, accepting 
contributions from academics, artists and activists involved in all 
aspects of alternative scenes and DIY cultures, and based on various 
methodologies – quantitative, qualitative and multi-methodological 
analyses. The aim is to discuss not only music, but also other artistic 
fields such as cinema and video, graffiti and street art, theatre and 
performing arts, literature and poetry, radio, programming and editing, 
graphic design, illustration, cartoons and comics.

Seeking to respond to the wish reiterated by researchers, artists and 
activists present at previous editions of the KISMIF conference, the 
sixth KISMIF will focus on ‘DIY Cultures, Sustainability and Artistic 
Ecosystems’. The world is currently experiencing a whirlwind of social 
change. Alongside issues of migration, populism, and a resurgence of 
nationalism; we are faced with growing antagonisms facilitated by 
austerity, displacement, racism, class tensions, economic crises and 
climate change. The world is becoming an increasingly precarious place – 
which has been made visible and amplified with COVID-19. In this 
context, we believe that DIY cultures-and the diverse processes and 
forms through which they function-offer real resources and forces of 
hope and change for artistic-musical ecosystems and their corresponding 
sustainability. As a cultural form and practice, DIY has evolved from 
its beginnings during the punk era of the 1970s to become an innovative 
matrix of trans-local culture. At its core is a willingness to blur 
disciplinary and thematic boundaries, demystify processes and provide 
spaces for marginalised, subaltern, and diverse voices and communities 
from the Global North to the Global South. For all its thorny 
confrontations, punk’s cultural practices-its DIY ethos, networks, 
spaces, and media (albums, styles, fanzines, film, performances, video 
art, design and other diverse creativities) – facilitated and enabled 
inclusivity and agency. While not neglecting or forgetting its origins, 
such an ethos can be evidenced when we talk about issues of ongoing 
social change. Within DIY practice, there is the potential to break down 
existing hierarchies, to respond to many challenges and to relate 
constructively to social, territorial, racial, sexual, gender and health 
differences, among others.

The fact that DIY is a vital component of the artistic process is 
extremely relevant. In fact, there are many collaborative and 
community-oriented art practices originating in DIY cultures, such as 
socio-cultural centres, urban scenes/atmospheres and art projects deeply 
embedded in local communities. The arts have never been a mere 
commercial product of hegemonic powers; on the contrary, they are 
expressions, reflections and interpretations that encompass a wide range 
of meanings. They have always been a means of semiotic protest and 
exploration; they have constantly seen things differently and served as 
a resource for creative action. They can be discreetly or openly 
disruptive; they can be pacifying as a distraction or function as a 
means of relation. However, through creativity, people acquire 
knowledge-find and express emotions and take control of their 
surroundings. We intend to explore DIY cultures and other related 
alternative cultures building a matrix to convert art into action as a 
determinant for the sustainability of contemporary 
artistic-musical-cultural ecosystems. DIY cultures are important for 
finding strategies for action, for connecting and uniting communities 
and for strengthening resilience in the face of future social change. 
Through research and collaborative practices, we seek to demonstrate 
innovative ways of making and co-creation, but also to resist and make 
contexts more resilient and sustainable. Using examples of empirical and 
artistic relationships with multi-generational DIY scenes around the 
world, we will reveal how, over the past 50 years, these seemingly 
‘peripheral’ arts have accumulated a variety of practices to 
simultaneously highlight and promote themes of democracy and social and 
spatial justice; of upholding human rights; of promoting decolonial 
content. Indeed, they provide multifaceted responses to the challenges 
of our world, promoting seminal ideas for a better future especially in 
this (still) pandemic context.

In 2022, KISMIF’s scientific programme will again be accompanied by a 
diverse offering of social and cultural contents, characterised by a 
series of artistic events with a special focus on the sustainability of 
musical-artistic-cultural ecosystems. The aim is to provide a unique 
experience in terms of transglobal and inclusive DIY cultures. 
Symbolically, the first day of the conference takes place 37 years after 
Live Aid, a music event that aimed to draw attention to and raise funds 
to address a pressing global challenge of its time. The KISMIF 2022 
Conference will be preceded by a Summer School entitled ‘Rebels with a 
Cause’ that will take place 12 July 2022 at the Teatro Municipal do 
Porto- Rivoli [Porto- Rivoli Municipal Theatre]. This Summer School will 
offer the opportunity to all interested parties, including Conference 
participants, to attend workshops given by experts in these fields, 
namely within the arts-based-research approach. Informations about the 
Summer School will be progressively disseminated on the KISMIF 
Conference website: www.kismifconference.com 
<http://www.kismifconference.com>.

The submission of abstracts for this Conference is open to researchers, 
academics, activists and artists working in all areas of sociology, 
anthropology, history, cultural economics, cultural studies, geography, 
philosophy, urban planning, media and cognate disciplines such as 
design, illustration, popular music, film, visual and performing arts. 
This initiative follows the great success of the past four KISMIF 
Conferences (held in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2021) and brings 
together an international community of researchers, artists and 
activists focusing on alternative music-art scenes and do-it-yourself 
cultures.

** Themes**

The KISMIF Convenors welcome abstracts pertaining to the following 
topics, taking into account the KISMIF 2022 theme – DIY Cultures, 
Sustainability and Artistic Ecosystems:

  *
      o New spheres/platforms/processes/locations of cultural, artistic
        and musical production through the use of cutting-edge digital
        technologies
      o Developments in social theory around artistic ecosystems, art
        worlds, music fields, artistic fields and
        local/trans-local/virtual music scenes
      o Interdisciplinary environments, atmospheres, sounds and
        perceptions around music and DIY cultures: music in cities,
        musical cities, and post-musical cities
      o Musical-artistic-cultural ecosystems and ecologies from the
        North to the Global South
      o Theoretical and methodological challenges/dilemmas in
        investigating artistic and cultural differences in different
        ecosystems around the world
      o Sustainable spaces/venues and music-artistic consumption in a
        time of climate challenges
      o Subcultures, post-subcultures, scenes, post-scenes,
        musical-artistic-cultural ecosystems and ecologies from North to
        Global South
      o The role/importance of social spaces/locations/territories in
        alternative music scenes and DIY cultures at local, trans-local
        and virtual levels
      o Peripheral and/or rural music-artistic-cultural scenes, economic
        development, social value, empowerment and social justice
      o Post colonialism, decolonisation, transglobal art and music
        scenes and citizenship
      o New artistic and musical productions and intermediations that
        support social/spatial justice and environmental sustainability
      o Re-evaluation of the social, cultural and economic values of
        music, arts and culture
      o Cities, ecosystems and contemporary countercultural
        resistance/resilience in social, musical and artistic practices
      o City, aesthetics and gentrification: resistance to
        gentrification and the role of music-art scenes
      o Transitions towards sustainability in DIY youth scenes and new
        sustainable DIY (sub)cultures
      o ‘Green’ art-cultural movements that seek to improve the lives of
        local communities, combat environmental challenges, and promote
        sustainable development
      o Music, arts, green movements, green concerns and environmental
        activism
      o Urban micro-economies, DIY careers and the evolution of music
        mediation processes
      o Digital markets and /non-fungible token/ (NTF) trading:
        overviews and challenges for a sustainable economy based on
        creative contents
      o Cultures and arts of sustainability and their relationship with
        resilience processes aimed at preserving diversity (social
        systems, ecosystems, and digital technologies, among others)
      o Gender, migration, diasporas, refugees, artistic/musical
        movements and cultural dimensions of inclusion and sustainability
      o The sociological forms of contemporary migrations and their
        relationship with artistic spaces and cultures of resistance
      o Undoing the gender(s): subjectivities, (cis)temic rupture and
        contemporary artistic-musical manifestations
      o Pedagogies and interventions based on artistic/musical DIY and
        socio-ethnic justice
      o ‘The old world agonises, a new world is slow to be born, and in
        this light-dark monsters appear’: totalitarianisms and the role
        of youth cultures and the arts in the constitution of (r)existences
      o Artivisms, DIY, post-contemporary art, and alternative systems
        of decolonial artistic-musical-cultural production: rethinking
        culture in the Anthropocene
      o Music, fashion, art, film, and literature as resilient symbolic
        fields: imagining possible futures
      o New local, regional and virtual social movements and emerging
        artivists processes
      o Cultural heritage, (post-)cultural and creative industries,
        memories, and archives and decolonial vision: strategies for
        artistic, musical and cultural development, historical
        reparation and community sustainability
      o Protection of cultural, artistic, and musical artefacts and
        assets from anthropogenic threats
      o Digital arts, artistic co-creation and extended dynamics of
        musical-artistic and cultural participation involving
        stakeholders, social innovators and citizens
      o Arts, inclusion, music, wellbeing, mental health, and quality of
        life
      o Ecological, political, socio-political, collective and
        individual climates and their respective impacts on
        artistic-musical creation
      o Impacts of the pandemic on musical and artistic ecosystems in
        the Global North and South.
      o DIY cultures in times of global climate crisis
      o Lessons learned from the COVID-19 crisis for sustainable
        post-crisis management of society
      o Festivals, events and the festivalisation of culture in a
        post-pandemic context
      o Utopias, post-utopias, dystopias and public policies for
        creativity, arts, culture and music
      o Challenges and imagined futures in the design of policies for
        arts, culture and music in the post-pandemic
      o Arts-based-research and cultural policies in the Global North
        and South actively interfacing with communities, local,
        regional, or national authorities and sectoral social partners

The language of the conference is English. All proposals must be written 
in English and submitted no later than 31 March 2022, to the KISMIF 
Conference website: 
https://www.kismifconference.com/call-conference/abstract-submision/ 
<https://www.kismifconference.com/call-conference/abstract-submision/>

The call can also be viewed here; 
https://www.kismifconference.com/call-conference/ 
<https://www.kismifconference.com/call-conference/>



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