*CFP* CALL FOR PARTICIPATION, I INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE VISUAL MOTIFS OF POWER AND THE PUBLIC SPHERE

I International Conference Visual Motifs of Power and the Public Sphere

Universidad Pompeu Fabra

20 & 21 September, 2021

 

 

There is a significant tradition of studies on political iconography inspired by the central figure of Aby Warburg, which is continued on through Erwin Panofsky, Horst Bredekamp, Monica Centanni, Georges Didi-Huberman, and Patrick Boucheron, as well as the aforementioned Carlo Ginzburg. His emphasis on the central role played by visual motifs in the construction of public space converges with the investigations carried out by a large number of theorists from other fields, such as theory and art criticism (Boris Groys, Hito Steyerl, Harun Farocki), political philosophy (Giorgio Agamben), film studies (Nicole Brenez, Alain Bergala, Emmanuelle André), photography theory (Ariella Azoulay), social semiotics (Theo van Leeuwen), cognitive iconology (Ian Verstegen) and production studies (Banks, Caldwell, Du Guy, Thompson, and Burns), all of which pay attention to the levels of awareness and control over the images produced, whether in film and photojournalism, in the praxis of TV documentaries and reports or in online productions.

*CFP* "PERFORMING ANIMATION, ANIMATING PERFORMANCE", BOOK CHAPTER

We are seeking proposals for additional chapter contributions for an edited collection on the intersection of animation and performance.

From the early animators who appeared in whole or in part in their films (think of J. Stuart Blackton, Emile Cohl, or Winsor McCay) to the more recent debates about the creative ownership of motion capture characters, performance is a spectre that is present in all forms of animation. ‘Acting’ and performance are often considered integral to the practice of animation, particularly the process of animating characters. In his 2013 book Shadow of a Mouse, Donald Crafton considers animated characters as performers. At the same time, notions of ‘animation’ and coming to life underpin conceptions of performance, coming to bear on how we might understand and theorise performance across multiple disciplines. 

 

This book aims to put ‘animation’ and ‘performance’ in a productive dialogue in a way that will enhance our understanding of animation and performance, both separately and together.

*CFP* "SEEING THE (IN)JUSTICE OF SUSTAINABILITY: VISUALIZING INEQUALITY AT THE CENTRE OF CLIMATE CHANGE COMMUNICATION", SPECIAL ISSUE, JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MEDIA

We know that environmental change due to massive global warming negatively influences the world’s poorest and most-marginalized the most, as do the corporate and collective actions themselves that drive greenhouse gas emissions. With greater urgency, media scholarship – and practice – must now turn to the wicked problems associated with forms of human inequality that are sometimes linked to efforts to develop local and global sustainability: racialized gentrification of urban areas to form wetlands creates a forced migration of residents. The development of environmentally sound (and expensive) housing pushes out the poor. Mainstreamed media narratives of climate change activists elevate particular people and parts of the world over others. And yet such effects of sustainability are often invisible or missing from mediated discourses and arenas.

As notions of sustainability become more normalized as key to our shared social futures, they can remain tied to long-standing issues of racialized environmentalism shaping government and corporate decisions, as well as individual and collective interpretations of curbing climate change. ‘Climate change is the result of a legacy of extraction, of colonialism, of slavery’, Elizabeth Yeampierre, cochair of the Climate Justice Alliance, told PBS in the US in 2020. ‘The truth is that the climate justice movement, people of color, indigenous people, have always worked multi-dimensionally because we have to be able to fight on so many different planes.’ We share in this concern.

*CFP* CALL FOR CANDIDATES, THESSALONIKI INTERNATIONAL MEDIA SUMMER

School of Journalism and Mass Communications of Aristotle University Thessaloniki (AUTh), Jean Monet of European Union Public Diplomacy along with other partners, University of Zagreb, University of Novi-Sad, Beijing Foreign Studies University, Hallym University (Korea), Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Center for Media and Information Literacy at Temple University, Deutsche Welle Akademie (DW Akademie), Panteio University, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Proof organization “Media for Social Justice” and “Digital Communication Network Global” and VII Academy organise every year Thessaloniki International Media Summer Academy.

Thessaloniki International Media Summer Academy is a major forum where current issues and research developments around media and communication are presented. In today’s world, accurate information is an increasingly critical resource for our understanding of the world. This year the 5th Thessaloniki International Summer Academy on Media will take place on 16-23 July 2021 under the title: “New trends in Media and Journalism: Turning crisis into opportunity”. 

Special emphasis will be given on the topics:

*CFP* "VISUAL POLITICS IN THE GLOBAL SOUTH", EDITED VOLUME

This edited volume examines the novel ways in which political actors and citizens are producing, disseminating and consuming visual products in an increasingly diverse media landscape. Research on the role of the visual in politics is gaining momentum in scholarly work concerned with the current social media landscape. While governments, NGOs and politicians increasingly use visual forms of communication to promote themselves in social media platforms, the significance of the visual in political communication is also evidenced in citizens’ sharing of images and memes to make political statements, and in activists’ creative use of images and stylised objects to communicate and connect with wider audiences. While there is a growing body of scholarship in the field of visual political communication, most of this research has a strong empirical focus on the USA and Europe and neglects forms of visual politics that can be found in different sites across the Global South (Veneti et al., 2019; Holtz-Bacha et al., 2017; Grabe and Bucy, 2009).

Little is known about the ways in which scholarship in the Global South might challenge and resist western approaches to the study of the visual. Against this backdrop, the proposed volume seeks, on the one hand, to respond to pressing calls for a de-Westernisation of critical media studies (Milan and Treré, 2019) and, on the other, to present a range of original case studies that are specifically concerned with visual politics and communication in the Global South.

*CFP* "FOTOGRAFÍA EN, SOBRE Y DESDE CENTROAMÉRICA", DOSSIER TEMÁTICO, REVISTA ISTMO

“¿Cómo leer las imágenes literarias de Centroamérica sin sentirnos obligados y obligadas a mirar sus imágenes fotográficas y artísticas?, ¿cómo hemos aprendido a leer las imágenes literarias sin mirar las imágenes fotográficas y artísticas …?”. 

Con estas dos preguntas Pablo Hernández Hernández abre su ensayo sobre testimonio y fotografía en América Central, en el que propone que ambas plataformas estéticas, a pesar de su asociación con la referencialidad, producen y materializan un sentido. Las preguntas invitan a relacionar palabras e imágenes o, como sugiere el autor, “actos de palabra y actos de imagen”. Sin embargo, estas mismas preguntas conducen también hacia otro tipo de reflexión: ¿Dónde están las imágenes fotográficas sobre, desde Centroamérica y/o producidas en el Istmo? ¿Cómo circulan? ¿Cómo y dónde se estudian? 

Estas interrogantes no son fortuitas. Los dos volúmenes titulados Sueño de la razón. Fotografía sudamericana (Santiago de Chile, 201X y 2016) no incluyen a ningún fotógrafo o fotógrafa centroamericano/a, si bien México parece pertenecer a esa “Sudamérica”. 

*CFP* "FASHION AND PHOTOGRAPHY", 2ND INCLUSIVE INTERDISCIPLINARY CONFERENCE

Fashion and Photography: 2nd Inclusive Interdisciplinary Conference

Progressive Connexions

12th-13th March 2021

Lisbon, Portugal

Due to th epostponement of this event in relation to the Covid pandemic, we are delighted to be able to unexpectedly reopen the Call for Submissions for the newly rescheduled dates.

In the early 20th century, fashion and photography were indelibly wedded through the efforts of a number of photographers, fashion designers, and magazine publishers. Once these cultural power shapers created the form, fashion photography took on a life of its own and became—perhaps always was—art. This art form has since been elevated to heights such that being a fashion photographer can be seen as very important chapter in many well-known photographers’ career: designers rely on them; models request them; magazines use their work: celebrities choose them for shoots; and the power they have to represent others is beyond compare in today’s, 21st century image-driven world.

*CFP* "MOTIVOS VISUALES Y REPRESENTACIONES DEL PODER EN LA ESFERA PÚBLICA", NÚMERO MONOGRÁFICO, COMMUNICATION & SOCIETY JOURNAL

Este número monográfico de Communication & Society busca el diálogo y la interacción entre expertos en cine, artes visuales e investigadores de la comunicación social y política, con el objetivo de establecer principios troncales del sistema de autoproducción de imágenes del poder que caracteriza nuestro tiempo.

Con frecuencia, las imágenes que representan los diferentes ámbitos del poder y la esfera pública en los medios de comunicación se articulan a través de motivos visuales procedentes del cine, la pintura y otros legados iconográficos. Lejos de apartar a las imágenes de sus fuentes tradicionales, la expansión de las redes sociales ha rubricado la importancia del bagaje del usuario- espectador frente a las formas de autorrepresentación de los diversos escenarios del poder en la esfera pública –político, económico, judicial, policial, de los propios movimientos sociales-. Nuestra hipótesis es que existe un conjunto organizado de motivos para representar situaciones habituales en el devenir de la vida pública, que apelan al conocimiento previo del espectador de estos modelos de puesta en escena, configurando así un espacio fértil de reflexión sobre su ambigüedad y su eficacia comunicativa y política.

*CFP* "LITERARY JOURNALISM IN THE GERMAN-SPEAKING WORLD", SPECIAL ISSUE, LITERARY JOURNALISM STUDIES

Journalism’s ‘information paradigm’ has been under scrutiny not just since the digital transformations of our mediascape in the last decades. For almost half a century, Gaye Tuchman’s diagnosis of a ‘strategic ritual of objectivity’ has served as a foil against which many critiques of conventional news journalism can be projected, e. g. its lack of transparency and bias towards institutional sources and ideologies as well as the impersonal stance news journalism often assumes to report and comment on events and ideas in the here and now. The recent crisis of media trust and accountability may arise in parts from these deficits. At any rate, it is largely undisputed that journalism needs to reflect (and possibly: adapt) its professional identity and its modes of presentation if it wants to continue to fulfil its social function in the long run.

In this context, it is worthwhile to turn attention to alternative forms of journalism that rely much more on personal experience, in-depth research, the presentation of different perspectives, and an authentic journalistic voice to make news, but also overcome social boundaries and engage readers emotionally. One of these approaches can be found in the concept of Literary Journalism.

*CFP* "DARKROOMS AND REPRESENTATIONS: HISTORIES OF PHOTOGRAPHY, FILM AND EXPLORATION", CONFERENCE

Darkrooms and Representations: Histories of Photography, Film and Exploration Conference.

2nd - 3rd April 2020. National Maritime Museum, Royal Museums

Greenwich, UK.

Keynote Speakers: Geir Kløver (Director, The Fram Museum), Dr Lawrence Napper (Senior Lecturer, King’s College London), Bryony Dixon (Curator of Silent Film, British Film Institute).

The role of photography and film has often been relegated to that of illustration, yet its uses - as a visual record, in scientific research, education and travelogues – have been varied and at times ingenious. From experimentation with technologies in extreme environments (telephoto lenses, glass plate negatives, flashlight photography, chrono-photography, photomicrography, cinematography) to the practices that have emerged through ethnographic studies, meteorology, astronomy, oceanology, cartography and the documentation of wildlife, the mediation of photography and film has made otherwise inaccessible geographies visible. Yet, this ‘window’ on to the world is constructed, it is made using materials and techniques which tell a story: from a physical trace of the environment to a record of scientific and cultural practices. 

*CFP* “LOCAL, REGIONAL, COMMUNITY AND PROXIMITY MEDIA”, UBI CONFERENCE 2019

Local Media Fal(l) School 

Local, Regional, Community and Proximity Media

19-21 de septiembre de 2019

University of Beira Interior 

Covilha, Portugal

The project Remedia.Lab - Laboratory & Incubator of Regional Media and LabCom.IFP (University of Beira Interior, Covilhã, Portugal) recognize the existence of increased interest in local media in the form of diverse scientific, academic, professional, normative and empirical approaches. Local Media Fal(l) School assumes the role of local journalism in the new digital ecosystem as an fall school around local, regional, community and proximity media. To this end, it develops from September 19 to 21 an event that seeks to respond to this need and brings together some of the best academics and practitioners in a dynamic and mobilizing environment where team spirit and the exchange of knowledge are essential. To meet various needs and profiles, this school launches a call, proposing a flexibility of registrations that allow to satisfy several profiles and approaches.

*CFP* "FOTOGRAFÍA, DE LA CÁMARA OSCURA A LA POSTFOTOGRAFÍA", VOL.23 Nº 3_106 REVISTA RAZÓN Y PALABRA

La fotografía ha sufrido cambios comportamentales, tecnológicos y narrativos desde su aparecimiento. Inicialmente considerada como el substituto del arte, la fotografía ha pasado a registrar acontecimientos, transformándose en la herramienta más importante del periodismo hasta la llegada del cine y enseguida de la televisión. Simultáneamente, la fotografía ha sido para las personas el registro del tiempo, a partir de la materialización de recuerdos imagéticos familiares.

Sin embargo, es importante reconocer que en ese período de existencia – más de 200 años, considerando el surgimiento de la cámara oscura por Thomas Wedgwood, en 1790 – la fotografía se ha transformado en diversos momentos. Podemos considerar que jamás hemos tenido la misma fotografía, sino varias fotografías en términos de tecnología. Mientras tanto, la esencia de la fotografía jamás ha cambiado. La imagen sigue ocupando un espacio en las recordaciones de la sociedad, sea en la construcción de la historia, registros de acontecimientos o mismo como recuerdos personales. Por otra parte, el “hacer” de la fotografía es distinto, especialmente por la falta de materialización del registro.

*CFP* "PERIODICALS AND VISUAL CULTURE", 8TH CONFERENCE OF EUROPEAN SOCIETY FOR PERIODICAL RESEARCH 2019

8th ESPRit Conference 2019, Athens, Greece

National Library of Greece

Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center

11-13 September 2019

The subject of the 2019 European Society for Periodical Research (ESPRit) Conference will be the visual culture of periodical literature, viewed in its broadest sense and in a comparative context. This approach is intended to encompass all visual aspects of periodicals, including typography, covers, format, illustration, fine and avant garde art, cartoons, advertising copy, photojournalism, fashion, portraiture, illustrated travel accounts and ethnographic studies, religious imagery, propaganda and all other dimensions of the visual culture of the printed page. Of particular interest are the development and use of new print technologies for the reproduction of images, the juxtapositions or interactions of imagery and text (at the level of the page or the opening, the issue or the series), the evolution of visual tropes/memes (for example in propaganda and advertising), innovation in design, the emergence of new markets, studies of reader reception of and engagement with visual cultures, the formal (legal) or informal (editorial) regulation of the printed image, and the influence of periodical illustration on art and photography more broadly and on the use of imagery in the daily press in particular.