CALL FOR PAPERS/PANELS
Viral Ports, Virtual Currents: Interconnections of Media, the Arts and
the Everyday in Southeast Asia and its Diasporas.
October 2-4, 2009
University of California, Riverside
Keynote speaker: Rolando Tolentino
http://www.seatrip.ucr.edu
Media use has escalated greatly throughout the world, leading to more
extensive and varied visibility of the arts. Using metaphors of the
ocean in cooperation with the viral and the virtual ties popular
imaginaries of Southeast Asia with the ability of media to spread and
replicate ?virally?. As Jean Burgess uses Henry Jenkins? argument
about the ?spreadability? of values within the dynamic relationship
between media and cultural production/consumption, ?Through reuse,
reworking and redistribution, spreadable media content ?gains greater
resonance in the culture, taking on new meanings, finding new
audiences, attracting new markets, and generating new values??
(Burgess 2008, 3). Media outputs then become ports of contact and
inspiration for other members of the social network.
In this fascinating process, the arts are inevitably expanding and
evolving into an outlet or carrier for (re)thinking identities in
relation to socio-political and economic issues, discussed and solved
in what Ien Ang et.al. calls the ?field of culture? (2000). This field
contains uneven complexities, contradictory approaches, avoidances,
identifications, disidentifications, collusion and conflict that form,
articulate, and contest hybrid identities ?in and through artistic
expression, media representation, popular culture consumption,
cultural criticism and intellectual reflection? (Ang et. al.,
2000:xxx).
The emphasis on the arts and media in this conference should open more
comprehensive ways of thinking about Southeast Asia and its diasporas
as a whole. This conference reflects on Arjun Appadurai?s call for a
?new architecture of area studies? which is driven by the concept of
process geographies?areas are spaces of action, interaction, and
motion (Burgess 2004: 127). The theme of ?arts and media in everyday
life? engages with these geographies in motion by highlighting the
dynamic, multidirectional networks of culture within Southeast Asia
and through its diasporic communities throughout the world in addition
to addressing complexities that make a contribution to developing new
approaches of thinking.
We define media broadly to include (but is not limited to) genres of
film, TV, radio, Internet, digital games. Media connects with various
forms of the arts such as dance, music, and theatre that bind and
detach Southeast Asia and its diasporas. We invite graduate students,
artists, scholars, and community/cultural workers to submit work based
on the theme.
Viral Video Festival: Please read more about viral video upload
instructions after sample topics.
Topics might include, but are not limited to:
*Reality Bites: Southeast Asian youth culture, viral videos and the
influence of transnational television programming.
*Herzfeld?s Arenas of Agency: Sensing the feel and sound of Southeast
Asian diasporas.
*?Bebot, Ikaw Ang Aking ?? Pop Music Links to Philippine Transnational
Ethnic Identities
* Everyday Nationalism in the Arts: Artists joining together in
national expression from the ground up.
*Capital Movements: Revitalizing classical Cambodian dance through
tourism, globalization, and political policy.
*Upload/Download: Internet ties and communicating community through
cyberspace.
*Screening SEADs: ecological filmic representations of performing
Southeast Asian diasporic subjects.
*Scoring High Karma: the Ethics (Video) Game sharing Thai Buddhist
morals around the world.
*Indonesian Pop Divas negotiating Islam and Sex for the record.
*The Culture Show Wars: Fighting for community and identity in
southern California college Vietnamese culture shows.
*Media fiksi, Mekanis berharap: Nationalism, science fiction, and
media imagery in modern Indonesian graphic novels.
*TRANS-itions in Sound, Venus Fly Trap: music video vixens engendering
space and feminine bodies for multisensory consumption.
Call for VIRAL VIDEO Uploads based on the conference theme!
We invite submissions of viral videos of no more than 5:00 minutes
from all over the world exploring our conference theme. Share your
stories and issues about Southeast Asia and its diasporas! Please
upload your video to http://www.youtube.com and send us your YouTube
screenname and email address. You may also send us a hard copy of your
video on CD through snail mail. Please make sure videos are saved with
extensions that can be read in both MAC and PC format (e.g. avi, mov,
mpg, wmv). Early submissions are encouraged. Deadline for submission
is September 4, 2009. You may send hard copies to:
SEATRiP
c/o 2009 Conference
3149 Interdisciplinary Building
University of California, Riverside
900 University Avenue
Riverside, CA 92521
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:
Papers may be submitted individually or as part of organized panels.
Creative panel formats that encourage discussion and exchange are
especially welcomed.
INDIVIDUAL PAPER proposals should include the full title and a brief
abstract of the paper (250 words or less). Individual papers will be
assigned to a panel according to topic and should be short enough to
present in 15 minutes.
A SELF- ORGANIZED PANEL consists of 3 or 4 papers organized around a
common topic or theme, and a chair (who may also be one of the
panelists). All panel proposals should include: a title and brief
abstract of the panel (250 words or less) along with a title and brief
abstract for each paper (250 words or less). Panels will run for an
hour and a half, and papers should be short enough to allow for
questions and discussion.
All panel and paper proposals must include the name and full contact
information of all participants, and can be submitted through email to
(paul.atienza /at/ email.ucr.edu)
Please address all inquiries to the email address shown above.
Submissions are due no later than June 15, 2009. Notification of
acceptance: July 6, 2009.
REFERENCES:
Ang, Ian, et al. Alter/Asians: Asian Australians in Art, Media and
Popular Culture Sydney: Pluto Press, 2000.
Burgess, Chris. ?The Asian studies ?crisis?: Putting cultural studies
into Asian studies and Asia into cultural studies,? in International
Journal of Asian Studies 1.1 (2004) 121-136.
Burgess, Jean. ??ALL YOUR CHOCOLATE RAIN ARE BELONG TO US??
Viral Video, YouTube and the Dynamics of Participatory Culture,? in
Video Vortex Reader: Responses to YouTube, Geert Lovink and Sabine
Niederer (eds.), (Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, 2008)
101-109.
