Utrecht University now accepts proposals for papers at an international
conference on "Futurisms: precursors, protagonists, legacies", to be
held in Utrecht from 1 till 3 December 2009. Confirmed keynote speakers
are Günter Berghaus (Bristol University), Giovanni Lista (CNRS, Paris),
Marjorie Perloff (Stanford University) and Jeffrey Schnapp (Stanford
University); confirmed invited speakers are Walter Adamson (Amory
University, Atlanta), Timothy Campbell (Cornell University), Silvia
Contarini (Paris-X Nanterre) and Luca Somigli (Toronto University).
Programme
A century after the launching of the first Futurist manifesto in 1909,
and 65 years since Marinetti's death on December 2, 1944, Futurism seems
to be the one avant-garde movement that was most successful in
enduringly inspiring artists and writers around the world and in thus
bridging the gap between theory and praxis. This conference aims at a
better/deeper understanding of Futurism's significance by focusing on
the (relative) innovative qualities of the movement (Precursors),
lesser-known actual Futurist projects and careers (Protagonists) and its
lasting cultural and political relevance (Legacies).
Like most avant-garde movements Futurism suggested to present a clear
break with the art and ideas of the past. Yet many of its defining
characteristics can be traced to earlier movements, artists and
currents. Futurism's defining forwards looking rhetoric tended to
obscure these relationships as well as its own regressive character. The
Precursors-segment of the conference will try to address these issues.
The canon of Futurist works and artists is fairly limited. The scope of
the movement has been demonstrated in major exhibitions (catalogues),
but many major works, concepts and careers remain relatively unknown. In
the Protagonist-section the conference acknowledges the diversity of the
Futurist project by showing, analyzing and discussing contributions that
even most specialists, scholars and curators tend to leave out of the
picture.
The Legacies-part deals with the heritage of Marinetti's programme,
which is overwhelmingly present, in the arts as well as in society at
large. New internet applications have abolished boundaries of time and
space. WiFi offers the opportunities already advocated in Marinetti's
concept of 'wireless imagination'. Emerging young poets all over the
globe engage in destroying syntax and introducing mathematical sign
language, thus accomplishing on a worldwide scale Marinetti's Futurist
poetics of telegraphic language. After the success of concrete poetry
and musique concrète in the 1950s, multimedia, mixed media and
inter-mediality presently reign in the arts world. And also
ideologically the Futurist legacy has not lost its topicality, nor its
highly controversial impact, considering the re-emergence of Futurist
ideas on the hygiene of war in the rhetoric on the war on terror.
Futurism's presence in today's world calls for reflection, both on the
topicality of the futurist legacy during the past century and on its
transformations. In mapping Futurism's development and presence in
technological, artistic and political terms, the conference hopes to
gain better understanding of the movement's legacy as well as of the
cultural dynamics of transgression vs regression which in the long run
determines Futurism's lasting success.
The conference will host a (neo)futurist event on the evening of
December 2, to mark Marinetti's death exactly 65 years earlier. It will
also include a reflection on the many initiatives, from the major
exhibitions in Paris, London and Rome through the series of conferences,
organized in the year 2009 to mark the centenary of Marinetti's Futurist
Manifesto.
Call for Papers
Proposals are invited for 20 minute-papers. Proposals should include a
brief description of the paper (maximum 250 words), name, mail and
postal address, aca
demic affiliation. Please submit only by mail at:
(futurisms /at/ uu.nl).
Deadline for submission: June 15, 2009. Notification on acceptance will
be given by July 1, 2009. A selection of the conference papers is
eligible for inclusion in an edited volume on the conference topic, to
be published with a major international academic publisher. Deadline for
submission of the selected and reworked papers is June 1, 2010.
Paper topics may include, but should not be limited to, the following
fields:
Precursors:
* Symbolism/Futurism (antagonism, continuity)
* D'Annunzio-Marinetti: the concept of war; Fiume
* The dynamics of transgression vs regression and of elitism vs
populism
* Futurism considered within the dynamics between avant-garde and
arrière-garde movements
* Time-related concepts (past, future, modern, classical, memory,
heritage) and their expression in specific and distinct styles
Protagonists:
* Careers and enjeu of Paolo Buzzi (poetry and collage), Francesco
& Pasqualino Cangiullo (parole in libertà ), Fortunato Depero (toys,
design), Enrico Prampolini, Valentine de Saint-Point
* Lesser known projects of Marinetti, Carrà , Balla, Severini and
Russolo
* The transgression of national boundaries: the positioning of
futurism as an Italian or international movement (including
international performances, itinerant exhibitions, and the diaspora of
futurists)
* War & Futurism 1909-1915-1945
Legacies:
* Past and present telecommunication technologies as Futurist
writing systems (telegraphy, radiophony, cinematography, videography,
SMS, HTML)
* The intermediality in the arts, cross-over forms of expression
(verbal-visual-aural-performative) undermining current concepts of
mediality
* The Art of Noise - sampling, soundscapes, ambient
* War aesthetics, war spectacles
* The topicality of the Futurist "art-action" programme, the
positioning of art versus/within society and politics (including the
relationship between Futurism and Fascism)
Organisors
* Geert Buelens (chair of modern Dutch literature, University of
Utrecht)
* Harald Hendrix (chair of Italian Studies, University of Utrecht)
* Monica Jansen (assistant professor in Italian Studies,
Universities of Utrecht and Antwerp)
* Wanda Strauven (associate professor in Film Studies, University
of Amsterdam)
Information
Conference website: www.hum.uu.nl/futurisms
<https://webmail.ua.ac.be/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=https://solismail.uu.nl/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=https://solismail.uu.nl/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.hum.uu.nl/futurisms>
Mail: (futurisms /at/ uu.nl)
Dr Anna Notaro
Programme Leader
Contemporary MediaTheory
Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, 13 Perth Road,
Dundee DD1 4HT (UK)
Phone: ++44 1382 385654
Fax: ++44 1382 226136
personal homepage:
http://www.notarofam.com/annawork/
"Practice is a set of relays from one
theoretical point to another, and theory is a relay from one practice
to another." (Deleuze)
