Call for Conference Papers

"Events and Event Structures"

The Center for Design Research calls for papers on events and event
structures for a conference to place on May 24-27, 2007. The conference will
take place in Copenhagen at the Center for Design Research at Denmark's
Design School and The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts School of
Architecture. Following the conference, participant papers will be published
as a book.

The conference co-chairs are Prof. Ken Friedman of the Norwegian School of
Management and Denmark's Design School, and Prof. Owen Smith of the
University of Maine.

Scholars in many fields are now working with events and intermedia. These
fields include art, design, architecture, informatics, and new media, as
well as art history, musicology, philosophy, theology, theater, performance
studies, management, and economics. We welcome contributions from different
views and perspectives.

Background

In 2002, Smith and Friedman joined Ric Allsopp as guest editors of a special
issue of the journal Performance Research (Vol. 7. No. 3, 2002) focusing on
events and performance in Fluxus. They also prepared a digital edition of
the Fluxus Performance Workbook. A free-to-download copy of the Fluxus
Performance Workbook is available at this URL:

http://www.performance-research.net/pages/epublications.html

This past year, Friedman and Smith completed two special issues of the
journal Visible Language (Vol. 39, No. 3, 2005; Vol. 40, No. 1, 2006) with
several articles on events and intermedia.

To sharpen the focus on events and event structures, Smith and Friedman are
now organizing this conference in Copenhagen. In addition to invited
scholars and artists, they issue an open call for paper proposals.

The conference will be limited to fifty participants. We seek a working
forum for productive dialogue, rather than the more traditional presentation
forum of most conferences.

Conference topics

The conference will explore some of the many issues that arise at the
intersection of events, interactive art, and new developments in design and
the information society. This includes exploring the event as designed art
activity; process and co-creation in art; the design aspect of event
production; staging and prop management for events; the design of
publications, digital editions, and web sites.

We welcome papers on different approaches to events and event structures.
Examples of topics include:

Events in the work of a specific artist;
Thematic approaches to events (water, time, maps, etc.);
Event as performance;
Co-creation in art;
Process in art;
The ontology of the event;
The epistemological qualities of event-based work;
The hermeneutics of the event;
Translating event structures from art into daily life;
The philosophy of events;
Events, time, and memory;
Process in art, philosophy, and society;
The idea of the event: control, power, and history;
Events and gender;
Musicality and emergent order in events;
Algorithms and events, event as algorithm;
Event and homiletics;
Publishers of event scores and event-based books;
Designing events: boxes, books, and kits;
Event scores and objects;
Event scores and installations;
Theater of the object;
Digital editions for interactive art;
Documenting events and performances;
Photographic events;
The influence of events;
Events in relation to other forms of instructional or scored works;
Event-based projects and exhibitions;
Interactive events on the web.

Publications

Before the conference, participants will receive advance drafts of all
papers as a proceedings document to encourage exchange and conversation.
Authors will discuss ideas in conference sessions that emphasize dialogue
rather than presenting written papers.

The proceedings will be the first of two conference publications. Following
the conference, selected papers will be revised as chapters in a book on
events and event structures to be published by the Design Research Center.

Selected research libraries will also receive copies of the proceedings, and
the proceedings will be available to a wider public on a conference web
site.

Conditions

There is no conference fee. The Design Research Center will fund the
conference. Participants must pay their own travel and hotel accommodations.
While we do not have travel funds, we will help participants to apply for
funding from universities or other sources. We hope to make early decisions
on proposals to give participants time to seek funds. To preserve an
atmosphere of open exchange and reflective dialogue, the conference will be
limited to 50 participants.

The conference will take place from Thursday May 24 through Saturday May 27.

Proposals and questions

If you wish to participate in the Copenhagen conference on Events and Event
Structures, send a paper proposal to both organizers. They also welcome full
papers or drafts of full papers. Please write if you have questions.

Deadlines

Proposals due: July 15, 2006

Response to Authors: August 15, 2006

Finished papers due: January 5, 2007

Please sent proposals to both co-chairs:

ken.friedmanbi.no, Owen_Smithumit.maine.edu

Please place the word EVENTS in the subject header of your email.

Ken Friedman
Professor of Leadership and Strategic Design
Institute for Communication, Culture, and Language
Norwegian School of Management
Oslo

Center for Design Research
Denmark's Design School
Copenhagen

+47 46.41.06.76 Tlf NSM
+47 33.40.10.95 Tlf Privat

email: ken.friedmanbi.no