The Critical Studies Research Group is pleased to invite scholars\, artists \;and practitioners to participate in its second postgraduate conference\, \;Challenging Aesthetics\, to consider - and indeed to contest - the \;relationship between aesthetics and politics. \;
\nWe hope that this conference will be of interest to artists\, photographers\, \;filmmakers and activists as well as scholars working in a variety of fields \;including philosophy\, political theory\, cultural studies and art history. \;And although this conference is organised by and primarily aimed at \;postgraduate students this in no way excludes others who are interested in \;participating &ndash\; from experienced academics\, artists or practitioners\, to \;undergraduate students or those outside academia.
If aesthetics is concerned not only with art but also with the very nature \;of representation and subjectivity and the possible ways in which these \;might be transformed\, then it is central to some of the most important \;political challenges of our time. In this way Challenging Aesthetics seeks \;to explore the forms\, scope and limits of critical aesthetic theories and \;practices within the context of contemporary capitalism. Whilst the problems \;posed by reflections on aesthetics and politics are by no means radically \;new\, they nevertheless need to be addressed again in light of the \;ever-tightening grip that neoliberalism exerts over current forms of \;existence\, and in view of the specific modalities of resistance it has \;provoked. Faith in symbolic forms of contestation and in the emergence of \;novel articulations of subjectivity have generated a renewed interest in the \;affirmative power of aesthetics\, arguably taking us beyond the paradigmatic \;distinctions of modernity and post-modernity. It is not least in view of the \;cynicism with which such faith is met that we want to encourage a revisiting \;of old debates\, as well as exploring new trajectories\, to trace and \;challenge the boundaries of aesthetics. It is once again time to turn our \;attention to the questions raised by the relationship between aesthetics and \;politics.
This conference aims to bring together scholars and practitioners from a \;variety of disciplinary approaches working on different aspects of the \;questions raised by the relationship between aesthetics and politics. Themes \;may include\, but are in no way limited to:
Contact: Alice Gibson (al1ceg1bs0n@hotmail.co.uk).
The conference fee for students\, unemployed people and independent scholars \;is £\;30 and it is £\;60 for full time University employees. The fee includes \;tea and coffee during the conference and dinner on the Thursday evening. \;Delegates will need to provide their own lunches.