CALL FOR PAPERS
CRISIS IN FILM AND VISUAL MEDIA
An international conference hosted by Vilnius University (Vilnius, Lithuania), September 19-20, 2014
Co-organized by Contemporary Art Centre (Vilnius, Lithuania), and Lithuanian Film Centre (Vilnius, Lithuania),
With the participation of keynote speakers dr. Dina Iordanova
(University of St. Andrews, Scotland), dr. Ewa Mazierska (University of
Central Lancashire, England), dr. Diane Negra (University College
Dublin, Ireland) and a filmmaker Arash T. Riahi (Golden Girls
Filmproduktion, Austria).
The discourse of crisis has been frequently used in contemporary media
and visual arts to reveal the dysfunctionality of political, economic,
social and even artistic systems of capitalist states and encourage
critical discussions on it. Since 2009, we have noticed a “revival“, and
over-escalation of the discourse of crisis in media. This phenomenon is
often scrutinized from the point of view of social economy, political
theory, cultural studies, etc. in the context of global and national
frameworks, such as economic and political instabilities, social
disasters, moral declines, epistemological breaks and similar. However,
contemporary philosophy (i.e. Felix Guattari, Michel Foucault, Naomi
Klein) sees crisis as a certain potential or/and pre-condition for a
historical change and transformation. Therefore crisis can cause an
emergence of a new productive or destructive powers and a constitution
of a new historical subject. For Paul Virilio contemporary art is a
“victim” and a product of major social upheavals and challenges, like
wars or terrorism.
Postmodern philosophers (including Neomarxists) and ideologists (i.e.
Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman) as well as critics (i.e. Slavoj Žižek)
of neoliberal theory point out that all types of crisis, which are
experienced by capitalist societies, are inevitable, because they are
caused by the very economic and political systems. Film and visual media
are part of this system, therefore are periodically affected by the
cyclical re-occurrence of crisis and even serve as producers of the
discourse of crisis in the society. Moreover, visual media and art can
be seen as a certain commentary on and an evidence of the ongoing crisis
of representation in contemporary media and arts.
The focus on the crisis phenomenon in this conference is global and
interdisciplinary. We expect proposals of papers and panels tackling a
variety of approaches on crisis and different visual media and in
diverse theoretical, cultural and geopolitical contexts and frameworks.
The speakers are encouraged to look at the representations and
reflections of political, social, economic, moral and artistic crisis in
film, television, games and photography, both from the point of present
day as well as historical perspective. We hope that the conference will
contribute to the critical platform formation in order to develop new
insightful approaches to theoretical and empirical studies on crisis in
film and other visual media.
We invite papers and panels which focus but are not limited to:
– A historical reflection of economic and political effects on film and
visual media development;
– Theoretical and critical approaches to crisis in film and media;
– Film and media reactions to the recent economic crisis in the
capitalist world, political crisis in Ukraine and Arab countries and
other regions of the world;
– Crisis as an opportunity and challenge for the society and arts;
– Crisis of representation in film and visual media;
– Identity crisis of nation-state and national cinema;
– The representations of crisis in interactive and news media;
– Ethical aspects of crisis and its representation in visual media;
– Ecological crisis in film and photography;
– The representation of the crisis “vinitiator” and those affected by
it in visual media.
The deadline for submitting a paper and panel abstracts is June 10,
2014. Submission form and more information on the conference at
www.filmconference.kf.vu.lt/
Notifications of the Scientific Committee’s decisions will be sent out
by June 20, 2014.
Participants are invited to cover their travel and accommodation
expenses (no reimbursement foreseen). For more logistical information
please visit www.filmconference.kf.vu.lt/.
Conference participation is free, but online registration is required
at www.filmconference.kf.vu.lt
Regarding questions on the conference please e-mail at
renata.sukaityte@kf.vu.lt