The Metareferential Turn in Contemporary Arts and Media
Date: October 1-3, 2009
Venue: University of Graz, Austria

The aim of this symposium is to elucidate the current 'metareferential
turn' in the arts and media (high 'meta-art' as well as 'meta-pop') from
both a functional and a cultural-historical perspective.

Issues to be considered are:
- collecting and interpreting relevant cases of metareference in
contemporary arts and media, especially where this has not been done so
far to a sufficient degree;
- exploring major functions and effects of metaization in contemporary
arts and media;
- embedding the current metareferential turn in the general
cultural-historical development of 'metaization', and finding possible
reasons for its appearance.

Papers (30 minutes, in English) dealing with any of these topics are
welcome, especially when they go beyond a discussion of 'metafiction';
yet all papers ought to address the functions of metaization in our
world and/or the question of how to explain the current metareferential
turn. For detailed information on 'metareference' and a preceding
conference on this subject please visit our website at
http://metareference.uni-graz.at.

Abstracts of 300 to 500 words and a short CV including an indication of
academic affiliation should be sent to <metareferenceuni-graz.at> by
February 16, 2009.