Drawing from the fields of art, Visual Culture, Border Studies and arts institutional practices, this is a summative conference based on an AHRC funded international research project - Culture, Capital and Communication: Visualising Chinese Borders in the 21st Century. Led by Dr Beccy Kennedy (Principal Investigator, Manchester School of Art) and Dr Ming Turner (Co-investigator, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan), in conjunction with Castlefield Gallery, the CFCCA, Community Museum Project and Hong Kong Polytechnic University, the research initiates and aims to consolidate a transnational, interdisciplinary and cross-institutional dialogue on the topic of the economics, politics and cultures of Chinese border crossings in art. It interrogates this timely global topic in relation to art and design practices across the Chinese straits, with a particular focus on the politics of regional identities, through the examination of artworks, exhibitions and protest spaces.

The conference welcomes papers from academics, curators, artists and activists who are dealing with themes which are related but not limited to the following research questions:

-What is the significance of Chinese borders across the straits in terms of the way it impacts upon communities?
What are the constraints or problematics for artists/curators
working under a (partial) Communist economic system in mainland China
in terms of ideological, political and practical concerns?
- In what ways may the above impact artists/curators working in
Taiwan, Macao, Hong Kong and other Chinese-speaking world?
- How has the shifting global economic system affected artistic
practice under OCTS or across the straits?
- In what ways do artists/curators explore possible notions of
'Chinese-ness', 'Taiwanese-ness' and 'Hong Kong-ness' in their artwork
and exhibitions in the twenty-first century or are such polemics
outdated?
- To what extent is there a Chinese diasporic or transnational
community of artists/curators who explore issues of border crossings?

Please email a 300 words abstract with a short biography to the
conference conveners by 15th February 2016. The decision for the selected abstracts will be announced in early March 2016.

For more information about this AHRC funded project, please check
https://visualisingchineseborders.wordpress.com/

Conference Conveners:
Dr Beccy Kennedy, Senior Lecturer, Manchester School of Art, Manchester Metropolitan University
Email: B.M.Kennedymmu.ac.uk

Dr Ming Turner, Assistant Professor, Institute of Creative Industries Design, National Cheng Kung University.
Email: mingturnermail.ncku.edu.tw