CFP Performance Research

[Denis Salter]

Performance Research
Vol. 12 No. 4 (December 2007)

'On Objects' - Call for Contributions

Issue Editors:
Laurie Beth Clark, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA
Richard Gough, Centre for Performance Research, UK
Daniel Watt, University of Loughborough, UK

In this issue of Performance Research we hope to explore the various transformations of the object in theatre and performance, from sacred to sacrilegious, fetishised to worthless, functional to aesthetic, craft to commodity, unstable yet enduring.  Contributions might focus on very specific objects or sets of objects and/or provoke more thought about some of the questions and themes below. We are interested in the presence of objects in a variety of theatrical and performance media from Futurism and Surrealism to forms of puppet theatre, the Bio-objects of Tadeusz Kantor to the boxes of Joseph Cornell. We are also interested in the philosophical designation of objects and their relation to the stage, from Heidegger's things to the ghostly trace of Derrida, from the body without organs of Deleuze and Guattari to Bachelard's dreamy geometry of shells.

We invite scholars and practitioners to engage with some questions about objects, performance and culture in the form of essays or artist pages. We encourage you to consider all manner of objects: props, icons, antiques, artifacts, salvage, inventory, tchotchkes, flotsam, jetsam, lagan, fetish objects, sex toys, digital objects, waste, detritus, prostheses, souvenirs...

Contributions might focus on very specific objects or sets of objects and/or provoke more thought about some of the questions and themes below.
 
*              What is an object? How is its ontological status determined and what are the differences
         between things and objects?
*              What does it mean for an object to perform?
*              How are objects deployed in creative and quotidian contexts?
*              How is the status of an object determined and contested?
*              Why do we still care about things?
*              How are the boundaries between objects and subjects drawn, affirmed, re-instated or
         transgressed?
*              How is the study and deployment of objects differently inflected across established
         disciplines (art, theatre, history, archeology, anthropology, sociology) and emerging
         interdisciplines (performance studies, food studies, tourism studies)?
*              Do the environments of theatre and performance offer a unique arena for the reassessment
         of the status of the object?
*              What are the possibilities and constraints for to the use of objects in a theatrical space?
*              How has (endurance obsessed) archival culture contributed to the enhancement or stagnation
         of objects?
*              What are the pleasures of objects?  What are objects of pleasure?
*              What does it mean to think about the body as an object?
*              What about bodies that are merged with objects?
*              What professions (like curating) have special relationships with object culture?
*              What do objects teach us?



Deadlines are as follows:

Proposals: 15th January, 2007
Finalised material: 18th May 2007
Publication date: December 2007

ALL proposals, submissions and general enquiries should be sent direct to:

 Linden Elmhirst - Administrative Assistant
 Performance Research
 Dartington College of Arts, Totnes,
 Devon TQ9 6EJ UK
 tel. 0044 1803 861683
 fax. 0044 1803 866053
 email: performance-research at dartington.ac.uk
 web: http://www.performance-research.net

Issue specific enquires should be directed to:

Laurie Beth Clark: lbclark at wisc.edu
Or
Daniel Watt: D.P.Watt at lboro.ac.uk
For complete Guidelines for Submissions please see:

http://www.performance-research.net/pages/guidelines.html

Performance Research is MAC based. Proposals will be accepted in hard copy, on CD or by e-mail (Apple Works, MS-Word or RTF). Please DO NOT send images without prior agreement.

Please note that submission of a proposal will be taken to imply that it presents original, unpublished work not under consideration for publication elsewhere. By submitting a manuscript, the author(s) agree that the exclusive rights to reproduce and distribute the article have been given to Performance Research



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" . . . we have to accept that our tragedy lies always in our past, that we have to live with our ancestors' folly and suffer for it, just as they, in their turn, suffered, and as we, through our vanity and ignorance, ensure the pain and suffering of our own children. How to correct history, that's the thing."--Robert Fisk
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"In 2005, the world . . . pass[ed] the trillion-dollar mark in the expenditure, annually, on arms. We're fighting for $50 billion annually for foreign aid for Africa: the military total outstrips human need by 20 to 1. Can someone please explain to me our contemporary balance of values?" --Stephen Lewis.
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Denis Salter
Professor of Theatre
McGill University
853 Sherbrooke St. West
Montréal, QC
H3A 2T6
Tel (514) 398 6592 
Regular Fax (514) 398 8146
Computer Fax (309) 294 0444
denis.salter at mcgill.ca
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