The Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA) invites proposals for papers and artistic contributions around the topic “Extremely Close and Incredibly Slow” for its annual international workshop and conference.

The 2012 ASCA International Workshop and Conference concentrates on crossing conventional perceptions of “closeness” and “slowness” in order to explore the cultural, political, and aesthetic values associated with fast versus slow, and close versus far. In a globalized society, distance goes hand in hand with privileging speed, whereas closeness and slowness may be either nostalgically attributed to a lost past not yet contaminated by modernity, or tokenistically projected on non-Western cultures. Why value closeness in some cases, and prefer speed in others? How intimate can we get, as researchers or artists, to the object we are analysing? How does “the bigger picture” transform our notions of the close and the distant? And to what extent do technologies and media affect relationships to space and identity? By bridging the gap between distance, closeness, speed and slowness this conference proposes to challenge this nominally implicit system of opposites. We welcome paper proposals that address any of the three themes outlined below, or their possible intersections.

1. (Non) Identities and Cybercultures

Contrary to the fixating and relatively stable notion of “identity”, “non-identity” is fluid, elusive, and mobile. It involves duration, proximity, pace, and ambulation. This theme sets the notion of identity in motion to generate creative discussions around “novel technologies of the self”. It explores forms of subjectivities, paces and spaces that come with new media such as the World Wide Web, search engines, video-mediated communication systems, blogs, social networks, smart phones, iPads, iPods, and Wiis. While analysing the cultures and politics of new media in terms of proximity, pace and movement, we hope to address the increasing corporeality and multi-sensoriality of new electronic technologies. Since there can be no knowledge of the world without our bodies, we ask how knowledge today is mediated through embodiment and new technologies. How are senses mediated through technologies? Is there a hierarchy of senses? In what ways do bodies interact with technologies? How do these technologies re-define notions of proximity and pace? What kind of spaces do new media generate?

1. Open(ing)  Narratives

This theme focuses on ways in which “narratives” in the broadest sense are (de)constructed and (re)produced in relation to politics, aesthetics and economics. We invite research that unveils the politics and ideologies embedded in strategies of reading and writing. We ask how narration and rhythm work as tools of persuasion and dissemination. How does a text lure readers into a preferred interpretation? How do we define, today, good readings and bad readings? To what extent are authorship and readership transposable and how are they disseminated? Can a too-close reading obscure a more profound understanding of the text? Does fast reading and writing necessarily preclude engagement or interest? Topics here could include editing, scripting, form and content dynamics, interpretative strategies, and performative readings.

1. …-Scapes and Paces

With …–scapes and paces we invite research concerned with closeness and slowness in relation to mediation, representation and globalization. The suffix “-scape” has its roots in the verb “to shape” as in landscapes, cityscapes, mindscapes or e-scapes. It implies framed vision and mediated space. We seek to explore how representation mediates between the distant and the close, between speed and slowness. Images travel fast and come from far, bringing the exotic and esoteric within arm’s reach. But where do they take us? We want to discuss globalization dynamics by subverting the conventional understandings of speed and proximity. By exploring the notions of mobility and space, we seek to address research on the politics of spatial organization and the extent to which their subversion might (re-)establish an intimacy with our direct environment. Does presence necessarily involve closeness, or are we distant from what is physically close to us? And contrarily, does a re-presentation automatically imply distance? Possible topics include migratory aesthetics, the foreign and the exotic, fetishes and gazes, framing, spatial representations, and utopian/dystopian visions.

You are asked to submit a proposal (max. 300 words) with a short biographical note (max. 150 words) to Dr. Eloe Kingma (Managing Director), asca-fgw@uva.nl. The deadline for submissions is 1 October 2011. If selected you will be asked to provide a 3000-word paper (excluding bibliography) by 15 December 2011 at the latest. The papers will be distributed among other participants in advance of the workshop. The format of the workshop is designed to maximize discussion time. Therefore, during the sessions participants are asked to provide a pitch of their argument and to respond to another panellist’s paper for a maximum of 15 minutes. Please note that, along with academic papers, we warmly welcome proposals for performances and exhibiting visual artworks.

The 2012 Annual ASCA Workshop is organized by Margaret Tali, Alexandra Brown, Birkan Tas, Asli Ozgen Tuncer, Pedram Dibazar, and Blandine Joret.