VB Previz #6 – Event

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VB PROPOSAL:

VB09 – Event

Our culture today is driven by the event, driven by spectacle. We crave manufactured moments that have putative meaning, regardless how thin that veneer may be. We identify more with our virtual worlds of media celebrities than our physical relationships. How many people care more about what Paris Hilton does than about what their own family members do. Nothing you can say to my face is ever as compelling as the possibility implicit in the beeping of my mobile devices. Like a modern CPU, our lives are interrupt driven.

Are these interrupts, these events, this yearning for spectacle, truly meaningful? Can they ever satisfy our inner hungers, or are they only events that fade into noise as they are replaced by the promise of the next event.

In Zen, in meditation, in yoga, in churches, in art museums, people sometimes pause from their relentless consumption of vaporous spectacle to contemplate on a different time scale. To breathe.

In Event, we propose a two hour performance by 16 – 25 avatars. The avatars will be static, motionless, frozen in the long now. The event will occur in 40 minute time cycles. At a randomly determined, unknown in advance, moment during the 40 minutes of stillness, the avatars will suddenly break out into a 2 minute pillow fight. They will attack each other and the audience. They will exist with relentless, unbridled intensity, their only purpose in life to attack, to attack as if this were their last two minutes of existence. Pillows will also be available for the audience.

After the raw intensity of 120 seconds of peak exertion, the 40 minute interval will begin again. The avatars will be frozen until a random moment drawn in that window, when life will, for a tiny sliver of that window suddenly erupt again.

CONFERENCE PROSPECTUS:

Conference
time · transcendence · performance
Monash University, Caulfied Campus, Melbourne, Australia
The School of English, Communications and Performance Studies
1‐3 October 2009
http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/drama‐theatre/conferences/ttp2009/
Email submissions and enquiries: ttp2009@arts.monash.edu.au
DEADLINE FOR ABSTRACT AND PROPOSAL SUBMISSIONS
FRIDAY 19 JUNE
Call for Papers, Presentations and Performances
The number of motion in respect of before and after? Irrecuperable diachrony of pure passingness? Reversible? Relative? Real? Living present? Original transcendence? Structure of consciousness? The various Western philosophical traditions have, since their inception, continuously attempted to grapple with the question of time, but still, the problems remain unsolved, the paradoxes tangled, the contradictions unsettled.

Performers and artists understand time as an essential dimension of their media. Many contemporary artists foreground the temporal as a theme in their practice and making.
Movements, rhythms, bodies, sounds, objects, experiences, memories, dreams, imaginings and dwellings are recorded, performed and activated in their duration, moment, event and passing. time transcendence performance brings together the expertise and experiences of scholars and artists in a format that permits the thinking and doing of time with an aim towards mutual elucidation. Drawing together papers, panels, diverse performance practices, exhibitions, installations, screenings and workshops, this transdisciplinary conference and inter‐media event initiates a global discussion, investigation and critique of temporality in its performative, phenomenological and transcendental dimensions. The tangible consequences of this crossfertilisation offers promise for researchers, scholars and artists alike.

To begin this gathering and discussion, this conference invites presenters across discourses, disciplines and media, questioning and emphasising the taken for granted yet complex and mysterious phenomenon of time.

Confirmed Keynote Speakers include:
Professor Alphonso Lingis (Emeritus, Penn State University, US)
Professor Anthony J Steinbock (Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, US)
Professor Brian Massumi (Université de Montreal, Canada)
Assistant Professor Lanei Rodemeyer (Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, US)
Associate Professor Ian Maxwell (The University of Sydney, Australia)
Professor Andrew Benjamin (Monash University, Australia)
Dr Erin Manning (Research Chair, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada)
Please see website: http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/drama‐theatre/conferences/ttp2009/
for updated list of Speakers and Guest Artists and program of events.

Draft Program of Events
1‐2 October – Key Note Speakers (4), papers, panels, presentations, ongoing screenings,
exhibition at Caulfield Campus, Monash University and activities in Second Life
1‐2 October – Workshops, practice‐based research at DanceHouse, Carlton and activities in
Second Life
3 October – Key Note Speakers (3), showings and performances
Evening 1 October – Messianic Dinner Installation (outside); screenings
Evening 2 October ‐ Guided temporal walk through City; screenings
Evening 3 October – Closing Reception
Bohemian Ball ‐ live music and performances, City location

‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐

Proposals are invited in, but not limited to, the following categories:
1. Paper Presentation (20 mins)
2. Panel Presentation (1 Hour)
3. Discussion Group (I Hour max)
4. Workshop for conference participants
5. Practice based research with showing
6. Performance or performative event
7. Exhibition of solo or group work
8. Screenings or Machinimas
9. Installations
10. New media work (subject to own technical provision) – at Melbourne only
11. On‐line presentation

Proposals are invited on ‐ not limited to ‐ the following suggested areas from any discipline.
Papers, presentations, performances will be considered on any related theme.
temporalities of performance • the temporalization of time • timebased performance • time as performance • performing the past • presenting, awaiting, remembering • memory • body as a site for/of transcendence • the performance of the everyday • time as transcendence • performative transcendences • the infinite • the problem of immediacy • being in the moment • audience temporalities • diachrony • digital time • time and realism • flow • rhythm • time and movement • change • kinaesthetic temporality • death and finitude • time and place • revelation, creation and redemption • the transcendental ground of time • the actual and the possible • messianic time • kairos and chronos • the fullness of time • the right time • ripeness • the now • being here • passing • birth, growth, senescence, decay • present and presencing • duration • the present expanse • endurance • time and violence • in god’s time • time and technology • mediated time • lost time • boredom • durational performance • ectstasis • irreal time • world time •••••••••••••

Submission Guidelines for Papers and Presentation Proposals
Email abstracts and presentation proposals to: ttp2009@arts.monash.edu.au
A reply of receipt will be made within two days of submission. Please re‐send if you fail to receive one

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: FRIDAY 19 JUNE
Please email abstracts and proposals as an attachment. Save document in either PDF format; or as Word 97‐2007 Document (.doc). Submissions not adhering to the guideline specifications will not be considered.

• Paper abstracts and presentation proposals 300 words
• Panels, discussion groups and workshop proposals 500 words

Make clear your name, contact details, affiliation and title of your paper, presentation, performance, or artwork at the top of the page. All academic abstracts and proposals are subject to peer review by a selection committee., complying with DEET DEEWR and individual university workload accreditation requirements .

Notification of acceptance will be made by email.
A refereed collection of selected work from the conference will subsequently be published, and an ongoing journal/forum for continuing the investigation established.
Submission Guidelines for Performances, Practicebased Research, Screenings and other Media

Please submit an ‘Expression of Interest’ (up to 500 words) to: ttp2009@arts.monash.edu.au
outlining:

• How you propose to engage with the conference theme
• What medium/s you are working in
• Number of people involved
• Space requirements; type of location
• Technological requirements (please note that there are a limited amount of resources
that can be provided)

All proposals are subject to review by a panel comprised of academic and professional artists. In the event that your proposal is considered, you will be contacted for further discussion and invitation to submit supplementary material such as footage or images.

Timeline of events
(Please check website: http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/drama‐theatre/conferences/ttp2009/
regularly for changes and updates)
• Friday 19 June 2009 – Deadline for all submissions
• Friday 3 July 2009 – Notification of Acceptance for all submissions
• Tuesday 17 July 2009 – Deadline for early bird Registration
• Friday 14 August 2009 – Full paper deadline for Conference proceedings on‐line
publication (optional)
• Friday 28 August 2009 – Peer‐review feedback
• 1, 2, 3 October 2009 ‐ Conference at Caulfield Campus, Monash University and
DanceHouse, Carlton and in Second Life

For any enquiries regarding your submission or information about the conference,
email: ttp2009@arts.monash.edu.au
or in‐world contact: Ninoo Nansen

ttp is a joint venture between:
ECPS – The School of English Communications and Performance Studies, Monash University
The Centre for Performance and Social Aesthetics
The Faculty of Art and Design, Monash University
The School of Architecture and Design, RMIT
Dancehouse
The Bohemian Ball