<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; "><div class="Section1"><div style="margin-top: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: rgb(31, 73, 125); "><o:p> </o:p></span></div><div><div style="margin-top: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span lang="EN-GB">(Apologies for cross-posting - please forward to anyone who might be interested in submitting a proposal)</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><br></div></div><div><div style="margin-top: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span class="apple-style-span"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; ">Call for papers |Conference 2009 |<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Tickle Your Catastrophe!</i> </span></b></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; "><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Georgia" size="6"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 19px;"><b><br></b></span></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; ">We cordially invite you to submit a proposal for the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Tickle Your Catastrophe!</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>conference, which will take place from<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b>6 to 7 March 2009</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>at the Vooruit Arts Centre, in Ghent, Belgium, during the arts festival<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>The Game is Up! How to Save the World in Ten Days</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(from 4 to 14 March 2009). This conference is a joint initiative of the NGE (Dutch Aesthetics Society), Ghent University, KASK/Hogent<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span style="color: blue; "> </span>(Academy of Fine Arts, College University Ghent) and Vooruit.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.catastrophe.ugent.be" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline; ">www.catastrophe.ugent.be</a></span><span lang="NL"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div><div style="margin-top: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Georgia" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px;"><b><br></b></span></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; ">Programme:</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: blue; "><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div><div style="margin-top: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; ">Whereas the twentieth century was dominated by political extremism and (coping with) trauma, it is the fear of the inevitable and complete catastrophe that reigns at the beginning of a new century.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: blue; "><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div style="margin-top: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; ">Although worst-case scenarios have always been part of our cultural identity, the catastrophe has taken on a different form at the beginning of a new millennium. The impending depletion of the world’s oil resources and the implosion of the global economy, international terrorism, the breakdown of the financial market, overpopulation, unsustainable exploitation of natural resources, pollution, major climate change, disastrous floods and new epidemics… Not only have we become increasingly aware that the threat of a catastrophe is real and inevitable, we also realize that we are not exactly innocent when we consider the causes of these catastrophes, and therefore cannot blame divine providence, fate or forces of nature. Yet we know that we alone cannot change the world.</span><span lang="NL"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; ">Tickle Your Catastophe! doesn’t want to wallow in doom and pessimism, but wants to question our idea of a catastrophe and the role it plays in philosophy, art and science today. As the original meaning of the conference title suggest, we want to give this concept ‘a kick up the bum’ in order to discover how the catastrophe was and is represented in art and philosophy. What is its significance when we shed the light of tomorrow on it, and when we compare it to the shadows of the past? What is the point of these visions and what is their disadvantage? Does this vision paralyse us with fear or can we see it as a comforting release? Do we have a death wish or do we simply see it as a great excuse to embrace hedonism in the here and now? Does it offer us the illusion of a chosen downfall or does it force us to act and take up responsibility, right before it is too late?</span><span lang="NL" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; "><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; ">Starters:</span></b><span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: blue; "><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 10.5pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; color: black; ">To face this many-headed monster, we start with the introduction of two antagonistic images of our downfall. We use them as a starting point, to stimulate our mind, as something to go on, or never to return to.</span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: blue; "><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; ">1# The Svalbard Global Seed Vault</span></i><span lang="NL"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div><div style="margin-top: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; ">In 2007, on the Spitsbergen archipelago (Norway), the Svalbard Global Seed Vault was opened, or rather, sealed off. In this underground vault, deep in the arctic rocks, specimens of seeds of millions of plants are preserved to assure the diversity of vegetation in case of a global crisis. This futuristic-looking complex, which was built to resist any possible catastrophe - from global warming to a nuclear holocaust - functions as a sort of time machine. It should enable us to turn back time and return to a past unaffected by the catastrophe.</span><span lang="NL"><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div style="margin-top: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; ">The Seed Vault raises some important questions: can we imagine a ‘Noah’s Ark’ for philosophical ideas, scientific theories or works of art? What is the value of a masterpiece or the Western canon in light of a catastrophe? And what do we NOT want to save for the next generation? What’s the difference between plants and weeds? Isn’t the idea of a new beginning, a life after the future, nourished by our lack of initiative and our inability to take action now, whether it be on a political, environmental or economic level? Are we being held hostage by traumas of the past, making it impossible for us to dream, and instead only safeguarding what we might lose? Are the arts condemned to a similar immobility, as they are locked behind the doors of the market and the museum? Or is art where we’ll find a seed, ready to grow and bring forth new life?</span><span lang="NL"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div><div style="margin-top: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; ">Keywords are (but are not limited to): art and commitment, messianism, transhumanism, the environment, revolution; art as time capsule; creativity and scientific survival strategies</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: blue; "><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div style="margin-top: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; ">2# Albert Speer’s ruin value</span></i><span lang="NL"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div><div style="margin-top: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; ">As the chief architect of the Third Reich, Albert Speer designed<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Germania</i>, the future capital of the new world. Speer tried to mirror Hitler’s power in his architecture. Hitler wanted the ruins of his empire - should it one day collapse – to rival those of the ancient Greek and Roman empires, and remind future societies of its past grandeur. To meet with these demands, Speer developed the theory of the ruin value: by using the right materials and construction methods, you can ensure that today’s grand buildings will become tomorrow’s sublime ruins, after the downfall and decay.</span><span lang="NL"><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div style="margin-top: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; ">The idea of the ruin value is a complex and dark, but also powerful metaphor. If the seed vault raises questions about art, philosophy, and science as strategies to survive the inevitable catastrophe, then Speer’s ruin value celebrates the aesthetics of destruction, where beauty, knowledge, and culture can ultimately be found in decay. It conveys a dark vitalism: it is a perverse antidote for the catharsis of forgetting and our mortality, a Pandora’s box. The vision of the ruins of the apocalyptic landscape after the catastrophe paves the way for an ode to decay, for a rebellious aesthetic of the downfall, a therapeutic revolt by mutilation, an orgy of destruction.</span><span lang="NL"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; ">Keywords are (but are not limited to): the aesthetics of destruction, the destruction of aesthetics, cyberpunk, dystopia and utopia, cultural pessimism, trauma.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: blue; "><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Georgia" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px;"><br></span></font></div><div><div style="margin-top: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; ">Call:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; ">The conference committee welcomes proposals for papers, presentations, roundtable debates and sessions exploring these themes or any other topic relevant to the theme of the conference. Contributions from a variety of disciplines are welcome: fine art; media art; philosophy (of art); performance art and theatre; film studies; art history; cultural studies; science factions,... Interdisciplinary papers are especially welcome.<b><span style="color: blue; "><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div></div><div style="margin-top: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; ">Papers or presentations can be in English or Dutch, but sessions will be monolingual. A detailed programme and a list of invited speakers will be announced in January 2009.</span><span lang="NL"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; ">A selection of participants will be invited to submit an essay, either for the online review<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Esthetica. Tijdschrift voor Kunst en Filosofie,</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>or for a book that will be published at the occasion of the conference.</span><span lang="NL"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; ">Please send a summary of your project (400-word limit) and a short biography to<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="mailto:catastrophe@ugent.be" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline; ">catastrophe@ugent.be</a>.</span><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; ">Deadline: 1 December 2008</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; ">. You will be notified of the acceptance of your proposal before the end of 2008.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: blue; "><o:p></o:p></span></div><div><div style="margin-top: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><b><span lang="NL" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; ">Conference Committee:</span></b><span lang="NL" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; "><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Dominiek Hoens (Jan van Eyck academie, KASK), Frederik Le Roy (Ghent University), Mia Vaerman (NGE), Robrecht Vanderbeeken (KASK, Ghent University), Nele Wynants (University of Antwerp), Tom Bonte and Eva De Groote (Vooruit).</span><span lang="NL" style="color: blue; "><o:p></o:p></span></div></div></div><div><div style="margin-top: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: blue; ">_____________________________________________________________</span><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Georgia" size="6"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 19px;"><b><br></b></span></font></div></div></div></span></body></html>