[Candrama] Call for Participation: Critical Costume 2018

[Marlis Schweitzer]

FYI...


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Call for Participation:

*Critical Costume 2018*

An international conference and exhibition

**

*12^th  – 14^th  September 2018*

*University of Surrey, UK*

**

*Theme: ‘Costume Ethics’*

*Deadline: 16th May 2018*

*criticalcostume.com* <http://criticalcostume.com/>

There is something risky about costume. Acts of costuming can render 
bodies as highly visible, yet discourses of ‘the body’ all too often 
assign this distinctive agency to acting or systems of social aesthetics 
that collapse ‘self’ into appearance. The risky act of costuming is 
magnified when considering how costume performs notions of gender, race, 
national and cultural identity as well as how costume authorship is 
attributed. From conception to reception, costume has the potential to 
complicate political, moral, and aesthetic systems that flatten costumes 
into bodies and bodies into costumes. Whether acts of cultural 
appropriation or the apparent invisibility of costume designers and 
makers within the analysis of bodily art practices, the intersection 
between ethical relativism and the potential for costume to claim bodies 
– to (dis)empower, enact politics, or be risky – exposes the critical 
territory and social paradoxes that acts of costuming negotiate.

For /Critical Costume 2018,/ we ask what are the principal opportunities 
and challenges that the provocation(s) of ‘costume ethics’ poses to 
designers, artists, and scholars. We approach the peculiarity of costume 
as a liminal method of appearance that is consciously designed and 
performed. Yet, this same transitional state can partition costume as 
unstable (when compared to normative orders of bodily representation) 
that highlights an innate ‘risk’ inherent within the design, 
construction and wearing of costume. Consequently, we invite 
contributions that debate the permissibility, authorship, or risk of 
costume and costuming.

Accepted contributions will be considered for publication following the 
model established at previous Critical Costume events: for examples see 
criticalcostume.com/publications.html 
<http://criticalcostume.com/publications.html>

Potential topics include (but are not restricted to):

·*Costume censorship: *ownership and the collaborative processes of 
costume design; makers of costume and systems of recognition; 
anti-theatricality and costume, interdisciplinarity and the 
(in)visibility of costume.

·*Risky costumes*: protesting through costume; danger and costuming; 
social norms and costumed-participation; violence and costume; live art 
and costuming; the agency of costume in performance on stage, screen and 
street.

·*Costuming as an (un)ethical act*: Ethical models of costume 
construction and design; sustainability and costume; cultural 
appropriation and costuming; representation and costumed-bodies; 
morality and costume.

·*Queering costume*: Queering as a critical methodology for costume 
theory; Queer theory and acts of costuming; queering bodies, costuming 
and gender(ed) performances; representations of queer bodies in 
performance and media; Queer practices of costuming; Queer cultures of 
costume.

**

Established in 2013, /Critical Costume/ is an international research 
networked focused on the promotion of new costume scholarship and 
practice (see our website for details: criticalcostume.com 
<http://criticalcostume.com/>). At its heart is a commitment to costume 
as an interdisciplinary field of study that includes practitioners and 
academics from film and television, theatre and performance, dance and 
anthropology, along with cultural studies and fashion. In this regard, 
costume is approached as an inclusive umbrella for investigating 
contemporary and historical bodies caught in the act of appearance.

**

*_Submission Formats:_*

Critical Costume 2018 at the University of Surrey, UK, is a conference 
and exhibition that includes the following distinct presentation formats:

  * an exhibition of artistic work and practice research;
  * a conference comprised of academic presentations on current research;
  * Flash Talks – short presentations by artists;
  * Performances and installations;
  * film and media screenings.

In that regard, we invite all interested parties to submit their 
proposals stating which presentation format you wish to be considered for:

  * 20min paper presentation (title and 200-word abstract)
  * Flash Talk presentations (title and 200-word summary)
  * Exhibition or Installation work – physical or mediated object (title
    and 200-word description)

Note: We welcome applications to present in more than one format. The 
event language is English. All delegates attending this 3 day event in 
person will need to a pay registration fee, but significant discounts 
will be available for postgraduate researchers and independent artists. 
There will also be a 1 day registration option available.

*_How to submit:_*

Please send your *title,* *200 word abstract* with *50 word 
biography* for the *16th May 2018* to: cc2018 at criticalcostume.com 
<mailto:cc2018 at criticalcostume.com>

Any questions or queries, please contact Rachel Hann as lead convenor 
for CC2018 at r.hann at gsa.surrey.ac.uk <mailto:r.hann at gsa.surrey.ac.uk>

Dr. Sofia Pantouvaki

Professor of Costume Design for Theatre and Film

/Costume in Focus/Research Group

Editor, /Studies in Costume and Performance <http://bit.ly/1nkWkbL>/

Principal Investigator, /Costume Methodologies/ research project

Aalto University |School of Arts, Design & Architecture |Department of 
Film, Television and Scenography

E: sofia.pantouvaki at aalto.fi <mailto:sofia.pantouvaki at aalto.fi>

M: +358 50 5992288

Postal address: P.O.Box 13300, FI-00076 AALTO, Helsinki, Finland

Street address: Otakaari 7B, 02150 Espoo, Finland

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