Ex-trauma
Call for Artworks (manifesting themselves as audiovisual works) and Writings: Ex-trauma: The Opposite of the Traumatic
Part of the *Experiments and Intensities* Series published by Winchester University Press
Co-curated/edited by:
- Annette Arlander (live art/performance/environmental artist), Theatre Academy of Helsinki
- Yvon Bonenfant (vocal/interdisciplinary artist, University of Winchester)
- Mary Agnes Covey-Krell (media artist, University of Sussex).
For information on this new series see www.winchester.ac.uk/intensities
Call summary
As part of a new book series/online curated gallery, Winchester University Press's new 'Experiments and Intensities' series seeks audiovisual submissions that explore what we're calling ex-trauma, or the opposite of traumatic, in performed art. For the full call, read the below or go to www.winchester.ac.uk
The full call
In the wake of Freud, we might read early to mid 20th century experiments in the avant-garde such as the surrealist film Le Chien andalou, Picasso's Guernica or Artaud's Pour en finir avec le jugement de dieu as revolutions in the 'making visible' of the traumatic qualities of life experience. In cultures that worked to hold back visible manifestations of the horror of carrying corporeal or psychological wounds, artistic movements that sought to undo the denial of the effects of what we now consider highly traumatizing life experiences played an important social role. Performance since this time that has been about/from/of/within/repeating/representing the traumatic has arguably played a huge role in the coming out of the closet of the nature of social abuses of power.
The penetration of Western cultures by popular psychological understandings of post-traumatic stress, of the traumatizing nature of child abuse and neglect, of war, of torture and of interpersonal violence has arguably done little to reduce their frequency; indeed, the media images we consume may be more redolent with representations of the traumatizing than ever, and indeed, may even induce trauma in the vulnerable. In one visceral fold of this work, tracing its heritage to the Viennese actionists' seminal performances of the 50s and 60s, and to the history of what came to be known as body art and its various conceptual manifestations, often derived from or supported by visual art practices (Chris Burden, Marina Abramovic, Ulay, etc.), some audiences and scholars of performance are particularly fascinated by self-cutting, bleeding, self-scarification and other forms of literal, physical representations of trauma that 'speak' of trauma and sometimes literally or metaphorically re-enact or represent it. Much artistic and scholarly capital is still mined in this area today. Curatorial authority and some audiences hunger for such work across disciplinary registers.
Above all, notions of trauma and the traumatic have come to permeate popular and intellectual cultures, but what these notions define varies. From notions of the repressed memory, emotions, and/or sensations inherent in the reaction to (unresolved) trauma, there are now widely varied ways of defining the traumatic across different schools of psychoanalytic and post-psychoanalytic thought, psychiatric diagnoses (of conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder), neuropsychological study of trauma, neurophysiological and neuromuscular conceptualisations of trauma, and varied political and psychopolitical approaches to what the traumatic is, why it should be represented, and how it can be overcome.
In the above context, this volume of the Experiments and Intensities series asks experimenting researcher-practitioners across disciplines of performed art to respond to a fundamental query in audiovisual format: can we define an ex-traumatic experience, and bring ex-traumas, indeed opposites of the traumatic, into being through performed art?
We are particularly interested in responses to this question that go beyond trite notions of 'happiness', the sometimes ill-defined concept of 'well-being' and commercial, New Age, stereotypical notions of positivity that have little depth. The traumatic is dramatic. Can the opposite be as dramatic? We are wondering: can an event or experience have an equivalent power to the traumatic but do the opposite? Would such work be engage with Dolan's 'utopian performative' or would it be something quite else? Could it transform the body-mind and leave a permanent, moulding mark in a 'positive' way in the same way that trauma does in a 'negative? way' What is the future of the opposite of the traumatic in performed art?
In response to these questions, we ask researching artists to submit audiovisual works. Ideally, these will be between 3 and 10 minutes in length, though we will consider shorter and longer works if you can convince us of the necessity. These video works might be:
- Documentation of performed events or artworks
- Existing made-for-video performed art works
- Videos including texts that respond to the theme
- Attempts to embody the reverse of trauma in a new audiovisual work
- Hybridizations of the above
They can be accompanied by:
- Artist writing (interpret that as you will!)
- Manifestos (ditto!)
- Theorization
- Hybridizations of the above
- No writing
Note that the final layout of the online publication will display the audiovisual work on a first page with a link to the written text on a separate page. Therefore, you should not submit proposals that require integration of text and video excerpt. The video work should speak for itself as much as possible.
Note that we will be consulting with our curatorial board about your work and we may come back to you with suggestions to modify the work in order for it to be included in the publication.
Formatting
That email should include the following:
1. Artist-researchers should submit a single page word document that details:
a. The title of the video work or submission
b. A maximum 40-word description of the submission that would be published just beside the video to contextualize it.
c. A link to the video work online (see 2 below).
d. The writing component should be in a separate document(see 3 below).
2. Video works: Send us a link to the video work. Please do not send files via email, or DVDs by post. All non-public domain video works should be posted to a password-protected location somewhere in cyberspace, and be optimized for internet streaming. Presentation of video in the final publication will be on a white background. Videos with sophisticated sound components should be clearly identified as such with instructions to use good headphones or speakers. Alternatively, process the sound for the poor quality speakers that most internet users use. If the video work is already in the public domain (online gallery, festival website, etc.) you need to be willing to obtain all permissions for it to be reproduced in 'Ex-Trauma: The Opposite of the Traumatic.' If your work is selected, we will ask you to post us a video file, burnt to DVD or other hard media, processed to quicktime or flv formats. Though we can convert your files to our preferred format we may ask you to do so to ensure that the quality of your video is optimized. We will be able to publish your work in either 16:9 or 4:3 formats, and will furnish you with ideal pixel dimensions after acceptation of your work.
3. Writings: We will only accept text submitted in MSWord format (.doc or .docx). Texts should be as short or as long as is necessary, but we prefer less than 3000 words. We prefer the Harvard referencing format if you use referencing. Note that we will be adapting your submissions to html format and therefore be patient regarding formatting. Keep references to a minimum and make the bulk of your argument through the art.
4. Copyright: If your works are selected, you will sign a contract with us that maintains your copyright control, but that grants us permission to post your video work in perpetuity in the context of the publication. We cannot be responsible for illegal theft of your work from our site via unauthorized downloading or hacking. You can also choose to use a creative commons license should you see fit. This volume of the publication is free-to-user via internet and we will therefore not pay royalties.
We aim to keep this publication active for ten years from today, depending on the speed of evolution internet technologies. The publication may go 'out of print' at some point and be archived to hard storage. It will also be stored in an appropriate research repository.
We are aiming for e-publication by end October 2011.