[ecrea] CfP: Visualising Spatial Injustice and Exploitation, University of Kent

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS // MIRANDA PENNELL // ALBERTO TOSCANO

https://visualisingspatialinjustice.weebly.com/

As the noted political geographer and urban theorist Edward Soja has 
suggested, under current socio-political conditions, “relations of power 
and discipline are inscribed into the apparently innocent spatiality of 
social life… human geographies become filled with politics and 
ideology.” Within an epoch structured around the machinations of 
transnational global capital, authoritarian state (and supra-state) 
governance, the birth of an obfuscated neo-colonialism and neoliberalist 
political hegemony, how can contemporary moving image practices 
capture—and, concomitantly, offer modes of resistance to—the spatial 
machinations of contemporary power relations?
Several contemporary theorists—from Frederic Jameson and his notion of 
“cognitive mapping” to Alberto Toscano and his formulation of mapping 
the “social totality”—have tried to understand how aesthetic practices 
can be employed to expose the semi-discreet, yet interrelated, inner 
workings of: late-capitalism, authoritarian state governance, 
neo-colonialism, illegal occupation and internment, natural resource 
extraction, indigenous displacement and gentrification/urban 
re-structuring. These spatial exploitations have devastating effects on 
peoples and communities.
Moving image practice presents tools for exploring these processes of 
exploitation and injustice in new and novel ways. These tools are 
resources for bearing witness, and bringing into view, the voices of 
peoples and communities affected. These media forms may offer 
significant powers of spatial visualisation, hitherto neglected in the 
foregrounding of their temporal properties. The work of Allan Sekula, 
James Benning, Ursula Biemann, Patrick Keiller, Susan Schuppli, Jonathan 
Perel, (amongst others), testifies to the fecundity of this focus of the 
moving image.
The aim of this symposium is to further examine how moving image can 
play a key role in exposing such spatial injustices and exploitations. 
Indeed, we contend that such practices have a crucial role to play in 
undermining the apparently “seamless” functioning of such spatialised 
power relations; helping to throw into sharp relief their fissures, 
cracks and contradictions. What strategies of intervention and 
visualisation have been developed? Which remain underexplored or 
underdeveloped? This symposium seeks to bring together an 
interdisciplinary range of scholars and media-makers to explore these 
questions.

This symposium welcomes both traditional paper proposals and media 
research-creation projects.
​
Possible areas of inquiry include but are not limited to:
Visualising late capitalism
Anthropocene/capitalocene debates
Place and affect
Carceral geographies
Media logistics and infrastructure
Migration and bordering
Indigenous displacement
Gentrification
Spaces of riot and protest
Uneven development
Spatial fixing
Marxist geography
Natural resource extraction
Illegal occupation and internment
Paper proposals should be no more that 500 words and should include a 
brief biography.

Research-creation proposals should be no more than 400 words and should 
include some footage/visuals from the project.

Post-conference, we hope to collect extended essays from participants 
into a book, possibly with an additional online component to showcase 
research-creation projects.

Please send proposals to:
Stephen Connolly ((stephen.connolly /at/ ucreative.ac.uk) 
<mailto:(stephen.connolly /at/ ucreative.ac.uk)>), Matthew Gibson 
((mceg2 /at/ kent.ac.uk) <mailto:(mceg2 /at/ kent.ac.uk)>) and Patrick Brian Smith 
((patrickbriansmith /at/ gmail.com) <mailto:(patrickbriansmith /at/ gmail.com)>) by 
March 1st 2018.

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