[ecrea] CFP: Rest and the rest, Aesthetics of Idleness, Visual and Cultural Studies Graduate Conference

/Call for Papers/

Rest and the rest: Aesthetics of Idleness

12th Visual and Cultural Studies Graduate Conference

at the University of Rochester

April 12-13, 2019

Keynote: Jean Ma, Associate Professor of Art and Art History, Stanford 
University

_https://dslab.lib.rochester.edu/vcsconference/_

Idleness suggests slack and stasis. It evokes empty, wasted time, and 
thus the dangers of being useless. It even recalls the religious notion 
that there is something satanic about not being occupied with work. But 
what are the aesthetics of idleness? In what ways does being idle 
function as a cultural or artistic practice? How can we theorize 
idleness, and perhaps do so idly? Or does treating idleness as a site of 
cultural analysis and critical theory undo the danger of it?

Idleness covers a wide range of activities in the past few centuries: to 
name a few, resting and sleeping, leisurely activities outside of 
capitalist production, and even spiritual and mental sloth that is 
counter to societal good. Yet many of these idle activities are 
reparative and restorative too. As primordial functions, sleep and rest 
not only let us regenerate, but they also, through dreaming, give us a 
palpable experience of the unconscious that challenges our understanding 
of self-possession and embodiment. And when sleeping is shared with 
another, it may connote intimacy, sex, relationality, and vulnerability. 
Beyond the rest we take in private and personal spheres, resting in 
public often becomes a source of anxiety and a matter to control. In the 
medical field, for example, fatigue is a pathology. Someone who gets 
“too much sleep” may receive a diagnosis of lethargy, narcolepsy, or a 
variety of mental health issues. People who are homeless often find 
themselves subject to punitive measures for using public resources to 
rest. The politics of race, class, and gender turn the legitimized 
leisure of some into the illegal loitering of others. This unequal 
distribution of idleness points to the political economy of this 
activity, especially the exclusive nature of certain modes of respite, 
such as vacation time, the indulgence of “treating yourself,” and 
#selfcare. The ability to display one’s access to the luxury of 
idleness--particularly through social media--becomes an act of 
conspicuous consumption.

This conference invites emerging scholars and practitioners in the 
humanities, arts, and social sciences to consider the ways in which 
idleness works across cultures. How might the concept of idleness be 
seen as a space of inquiry and contestation, and how might it become 
generative and productive? Hosted by the University of Rochester’s 
Graduate Program in Visual and Cultural Studies, this conference aims to 
foster an environment for interdisciplinary communication, knowledge 
exchange, and collaboration. Possible topics may include and are by no 
means limited to:

  * Rest as a break or a point of departure
  * Pauses (visual, literary, musical)
  * Isolation, fatigue and exhaustion
  * Craft studies
  * Liminality/in-betweenness
  * Leisure and labor/Wasted or unproductive time
  * Intimacy and vulnerability
  * Health, illness, and convalescence (mental and physical)
  * Slow cinema
  * Idleness in digital and new media
  * Imagery of/around the sleeping body
  * Boredom, lethargy, apathy
  * Posthuman/non-human notions of idleness or rest
  * Dreaming and the unconscious
  * Morality, sinfulness, sloth

We invite individual submissions as well as pre-constituted panels (of 
3-4 presenters) in the form of 300 word abstracts (for 20-minute paper 
presentations) and 100 word bios for each presenter. All materials are 
to be submitted to the conference website

(https://dslab.lib.rochester.edu/vcsconference/cfp/submit-an-abstract/) by 
January 17, 2019. Select presenters may be invited to revise 
presentations for publication at/ InVisible Culture: An Electronic 
Journal of Visual Culture/ (http://ivc.lib.rochester.edu 
<http://ivc.lib.rochester.edu/>) as part of an issue devoted to the 
aesthetics of idleness. Successful applicants will be notified of 
acceptance by February 1, 2019. This conference is organized by PhD 
students in the Graduate Program in Visual and Cultural Studies at the 
University of Rochester. Please email the conference co-chairs, Amanda 
Ju and Madeline Ullrich, at (vcsconference /at/ gmail.com) 
<mailto:(vcsconference /at/ gmail.com)> with any questions.


---------------
The COMMLIST
---------------
This mailing list is a free service offered by Nico Carpentier. Please
use it responsibly and wisely.
--
To subscribe or unsubscribe, please visit http://commlist.org/
--
Before sending a posting request, please always read the guidelines at
http://commlist.org/
--
To contact the mailing list manager:
Email: (nico.carpentier /at/ vub.ac.be)
URL: http://nicocarpentier.net
---------------