Collision 2006

Collision 2006
Interarts Research and Practices
September 21 - 24, 2006
University of Victoria, BC, Canada

Call for Papers, Performances, Collaborations and Workshops
Deadline for Submissions: March 1, 2006

In September 2005, the Collision Symposium brought together researchers,
performers and artists to present their work on interarts and
interdisciplinary performance and creation. Collision, a term that denotes
forceful impact of masses moving in different directions, was used as a
theme for the kind of interarts processes often used to create and merge art
forms. Often by design, and sometimes by chance, these processes do not
result in seamless integration of the arts, but instead create a friction of
disciplinarity that promotes rupture or erasure and creates detritus that
exists in liminal states. Building on some of the themes and discussion from
the previous symposium, Collision 2006 requests abstracts and proposals from
artists, researchers and performers for the following:

Performances and Creative works - gallery and performance space is available
for interarts works. Please include the specifications for presentation
(type of venue, dimensions), all the technical requirements, and an
audio-visual sample of the work along with your abstract. If the work is
performance-based, please list its duration.

Lecture-presentations - we encourage traditional lecture format
presentations as well as artist talks, dialogues and lecture-demonstrations.
These presentations will be the standard 20 minutes with 15 minutes for
discussion.

Performative Lectures - presentations that operate as an amalgamation of
art/performance and research. These presentations will be the standard 20
minutes with 15 minutes for discussion.

Workshops and Roundtable Discussions - hands-on practical topics including
but not limited to "Teaching interdisciplinary collaboration", "Methods to
merge theory and practice" and "Interarts terminologies/histories".
Workshops will be limited to 1 hour.

Collaborations and Activities - we invite you to lead a collaboration or
other activity for a mixed group of artists, researchers and performers on a
topic that relates to interarts practices. Collaborations and Activities are
limited to 1 hour and 30 minutes. For the 2006 Collision Symposium we will
have several thematic areas of focus. As well as general submissions on any
subjects of interarts and interdisciplinary creation, we also invite
submissions that address the following topics:

1. Practice and Performance as Research, Theory as Performance/Art:
Following the Art and Language group, philosopher-artists have taken an
approach to research and discourse that presents theory as a performance or
creative work. What are the current forms that these practices take?

2. Interdisciplinarity as a Social Force:
How do theories of power, legitimacy, and inclusion change when applied in
an interdisciplinary context? How is gender performed interdisciplinarily?
How does intersectional feminist theory inform interarts work? Is activist
art inherently interdisciplinary? How can interarts practice enrich or
transform community-based or site-responsive projects?

3. First Nations Interarts Creation:
What is the role of participation, interaction and community-building in
First Nations interarts practices? How are storytelling practices
transformed in interarts creation?

4. Technology:
What are the roles, potential, and dangers of technology in
interdisciplinary artworks? How do information and communications theories
intersect with artistic practices?

5. Between Architecture and the Arts:
Artistic explorations of built environments or imaginary structures. How do
artists and performers integrate architecture as a part of their practice?

6. Conscious Interdisciplinarity:
Current academic and artistic research, art production, and performance are
often interdisciplinary almost as a matter of course. So what does it mean
to refer to one's practice as 'interdisciplinary'? How is this label
strategic? Aesthetic? Fetishistic?

7. Non-Western Interdisciplinarity:
What might we learn from non-Western manifestations of interdisciplinarity
or interarts practice (or from cultures where the concept of artistic
disciplines may not even exist)?

8. Interdisciplinary Art and Spirituality:
Where does ambiguity in art intersect with spirituality? Are there parallels
between interdisciplinary creation and spiritual pursuits (eg. art as
process)? Can nonverbal artistic imagery for which no authoritative
tradition of interpretation exists become a catalyst for spirituality?

All accepted presentations from the 2005 and upcoming 2006 Symposia will be
considered for a planned publication on interarts and interdisciplinary
research and practices.

Abstracts should be no more than 250 words in length and must be sent as a
doc. or rtf. file attachment to interart@finearts.uvic.ca. Please DO NOT
send audio-visual documentation as attachment files. Instead, please send
all materials - slides, CDs, VHS video and DVDs in NTSC format only to:

Collision 2006 Organizing Committee
C/O Visual Arts Department
University of Victoria
PO Box 1700 STN CSC
Victoria BC V8W 2Y2 Canada

Further inquiries can be addressed to: Dylan Robinson at
interart@finearts.uvic.ca