MEDIATING THE SPATIALITY OF CONFLICTS INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

John Hanna Announcement
Location
Netherlands
Subject Fields
Architecture and Architectural History, Art, Art History & Visual Studies, Colonial and Post-Colonial History / Studies, Geography, Middle East History / Studies

MEDIATING THE SPATIALITY OF CONFLICTS

International Conference

(6-8 November 2019, Delft)

Borders & Territories Research Group

Deadline for Abstracts Submission: 15 May 2019

Following the understanding of ‘space’ as a relational product of social action and its enabling material conditions, the international conference to be held at the Faculty of Architecture of the TU Delft will include keynote speakers, paper presentations, workshop sessions, panel & round-table discussions, an exhibition and film screenings curated by Ilona Jurkonyte. The conference is intended to become a platform of knowledge exchange and critical thinking on different approaches that explore the relation between space and conflict.

Conflict, when dislodged from its conventional understanding as a process and system of war and destruction exclusively, may be apprehended as an experimental method for analysis and synthesis, as a potent resource for pedagogy, for disruptive design and for the production of theory. In this sense, conflict produces more than the eradication of (the possibility of ) life and its supporting structures: conflict produces transitional spaces at different scales, of differentiated material ecologies and site-specific meanings in relation to their global position. Conflicts are both locations and explanations of often ‘seductive’ images of destruction offered by popular (and other) media: ruined architectures, dead (or barely alive) bodies, forced migratory movements, impermanent infrastructures and settlements, as well as the tracing and construction of borders, real-estate driven post-war reconstruction processes, etc.

The emphasis on the mediatic aspect in the concept of conflict, may be seen as a way of triggering trans- and interdisciplinary discussions, conversations and encounters that serve as a negotiation between conditions of violence and new — or alternative — possibilities for everyday life. Artistic mediations could be as effective as violence in resolving conflicts, but operate through other means and through other channels, thus truly producing new power relations and alternative ways of political struggle. This exposing of conflict and violence through the artistic work is an activist act, but more importantly an artistic and technological mediation. The agency of the artistic work in terms of conflict, then, is situated in the capacity of visualising the conflict, creating awareness of its consequences, its side-effects, its collateral damage. And the creating of awareness and the becoming of fertile ground for protest and the creation of alternative realities.

We invite researchers, scholars, activists, practitioners and artists to submit proposals for individual papers that address the relationships between spatiality, mediation and conflict from a variety of perspectives. In addition to academic paper contributions, we welcome other proposals in different formats and media: audiovisual material (film, video, photography), digital or physical archives, experimental design proposals, installations, performances, etc. While we are open to all contributions relevant to the thematic core of the conference, we encourage proposals that explore new — or innovative — theoretical and methodological approaches and insights on the topics (namely on: (1) Spaces of conflict as transitional spaces of material interactions between violence and everyday life; and (2) Spaces of memory as transformative space of violence).

Proposals should not exceed 300 words and will be accompanied by a short biographical note. They should be sent by May 15, 2019 to the conference organizers, through the Abstract Submission page (http://www.mediatingconflicts.nl/home/author).

Abstracts will be selected based on the thematic relevance and nature of the proposals. The deadline for full paper contributions is September 30, 2019. Selected paper contributions will be included in a future issue of the peer-review journal Footprint (http://journals.open.tudelft.nl/index.php/footprint).

Participants interested in joining one of the workshops are kindly requested to submit a short motivation letter and CV indicating their workshop preference no later than May 15, 2019, through the Abstract Submission page (http://www.mediatingconflicts.nl/home/author). For queries please contact the workshop organizers: Armina Pilav (a.pilav@tudelft.nl) and Aleksandar Staničić (a.stanicic@tudelft.nl).

 

KEY–NOTE SPEAKERS

Professor Caren Kaplan,
American Studies, University of California at Davis
(militarized visual culture, cultural geography, transnational feminist cultural studies)

Affiliated Professor Pelin Tan,
Nordland Art and Film School
(territorial conflict and entanglements of things, conditions of labor and transversal methods in research)

Professor Andrew Herscher, A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Michigan
(spatial politics of violence, humanitarian and human rights issues, exile and migration)

WORKSHOP 1 Photogrammetry, by Ariel Caine
The proposed photogrammetry workshop will focus on methods of photography and computational processes for three-dimensional scanning. We will be using simple cameras, working from the scale of a small object to entire environments comprised of multiple scans. Throughout the workshop specific attention will be given to existing examples of civic application of these technologies and practices and the ways in which this specific mode of record could be mobilized within wider constellations of aesthetic and political production.

WORKSHOP 2 3D Semantic Data Modelling, by Paola Ronzino
The proposed workshop aims at investigating the potentiality of semantic data modelling in addressing issues related to the virtual reconstruction of damaged architectural heritage. After a brief introduction of the CIDOC-CRM ontology and its extension for the built heritage (CRMba), participants will be encouraged to reflect on their experiences and to discuss how ontology can help exploring new research opportunities.

Film program curated by Ilona Jurkonyte, film and moving image researcher and curator, Venier Scholar at Concordia University, Montreal, Film and Moving Image Program.

For submission details and all other inquiries about the conference, please contact the organizers (mediatingconflicts-bk@tudelft.nl) or visit (http://www.mediatingconflicts.nl). 

Deadline: 15 May

Conference organizers: drs. John Hanna; dr. Armina Pilav; dr. ir. Marc Schoonderbeek; drs. Gabriel Schwake; dr. ir. Heidi Sohn; dr. Aleksandar Stanicic, Borders & Territories research group

Contact Email
mediatingconflicts-bk@tudelft.nl