Date 23 April 09
Subject: CFP: Futurisms: Precursors, Protagonists, Legacies (Utrecht,
1-3 Dec 09)

Utrecht University now accepts proposals for papers at an
international conference on "Futurisms: precursors, protagonists,
legacies", to be held in Utrecht from 1 till 3 December 2009.

Confirmed keynote speakers are Günter Berghaus (Bristol University),
Giovanni Lista (CNRS, Paris), Marjorie Perloff (Stanford University)
and Jeffrey Schnapp (Stanford University); confirmed invited speakers
are Walter Adamson (Amory University, Atlanta), Timothy Campbell
(Cornell University), Silvia Contarini (Paris-X Nanterre) and Luca
Somigli (Toronto University).

Programme

A century after the launching of the first Futurist manifesto in 1909,
and 65 years since Marinetti's death on December 2, 1944, Futurism
seems to be the one avant-garde movement that was most successful in
enduringly inspiring artists and writers around the world and in thus
bridging the gap between theory and praxis. This conference aims at a
better/deeper understanding of Futurism's significance by focusing on
the (relative) innovative qualities of the movement (Precursors),
lesser-known actual Futurist projects and careers (Protagonists) and
its lasting cultural and political relevance (Legacies).

Like most avant-garde movements Futurism suggested to present a clear
break with the art and ideas of the past. Yet many of its defining
characteristics can be traced to earlier movements, artists and
currents. Futurism's defining forwards looking rhetoric tended to
obscure these relationships as well as its own regressive character.
The Precursors-segment of the conference will try to address these
issues.

The canon of Futurist works and artists is fairly limited. The
scope of the movement has been demonstrated in major exhibitions
(catalogues), but many major works, concepts and careers remain
relatively unknown. In the Protagonist-section the conference
acknowledges the diversity of the Futurist project by showing,
analyzing and discussing contributions that even most specialists,
scholars and curators tend to leave out of the picture.

The Legacies-part deals with the heritage of Marinetti's programme,
which is overwhelmingly present, in the arts as well as in society
at large. New internet applications have abolished boundaries of
time and space. WiFi offers the opportunities already advocated in
Marinetti's concept of 'wireless imagination'. Emerging young poets
all over the globe engage in destroying syntax and introducing
mathematical sign language, thus accomplishing on a worldwide scale
Marinetti's Futurist poetics of telegraphic language. After the
success of concrete poetry and musique concrète in the 1950s,
multimedia, mixed media and inter-mediality presently reign in the
arts world. And also ideologically the Futurist legacy has not lost
its topicality, nor its highly controversial impact, considering
the re-emergence of Futurist ideas on the hygiene of war in the
rhetoric on the war on terror.

Futurism's presence in today's world calls for reflection, both on
the topicality of the futurist legacy during the past century and
on its transformations. In mapping Futurism's development and
presence in technological, artistic and political terms, the
conference hopes to gain better understanding of the movement's
legacy as well as of the cultural dynamics of transgression vs
regression which in the long run determines Futurism's lasting
success.

The conference will host a (neo)futurist event on the evening of
December 2, to mark Marinetti's death exactly 65 years earlier. It
will also include a reflection on the many initiatives, from the
major exhibitions in Paris, London and Rome through the series of
conferences, organized in the year 2009 to mark the centenary of
Marinetti's Futurist Manifesto.

Call for Papers

Proposals are invited for 20 minute-papers. Proposals should include
a brief description of the paper (maximum 250 words), name, mail and
postal address, academic affiliation. Please submit only by mail at:
futurismsuu.nl.

Deadline for submission: June 15, 2009. Notification on acceptance
will be given by July 1, 2009. A selection of the conference papers
is eligible for inclusion in an edited volume on the conference
topic, to be published with a major international academic publisher.
Deadline for submission of the selected and reworked papers is
June 1, 2010.

Paper topics may include, but should not be limited to, the following
fields:

Precursors:

- Symbolism/Futurism (antagonism, continuity)
- D'Annunzio-Marinetti: the concept of war; Fiume
- The dynamics of transgression vs regression and of elitism vs
populism
- Futurism considered within the dynamics between avant-garde and
arrière-garde movements
- Time-related concepts (past, future, modern, classical, memory,
heritage) and their expression in specific and distinct styles

Protagonists:

- Careers and enjeu of Paolo Buzzi (poetry and collage),
Francesco & Pasqualino Cangiullo (parole in libertà), Fortunato
Depero (toys, design), Enrico Prampolini, Valentine de Saint-Point
- Lesser known projects of Marinetti, Carrà, Balla, Severini and
Russolo
- The transgression of national boundaries: the positioning of
futurism as an Italian or international movement (including
international performances, itinerant exhibitions, and the diaspora
of futurists)
- War & Futurism 1909-1915-1945

Legacies:

- Past and present telecommunication technologies as Futurist
writing systems (telegraphy, radiophony, cinematography, videography,
SMS, HTML)
- The intermediality in the arts, cross-over forms of expression
(verbal-visual-aural-performative) undermining current concepts of
mediality
- The Art of Noise - sampling, soundscapes, ambient
- War aesthetics, war spectacles
- The topicality of the Futurist "art-action" programme, the
positioning of art versus/within society and politics (including the
relationship between Futurism and Fascism)

Organisors

- Geert Buelens (chair of modern Dutch literature,
University of Utrecht)
- Harald Hendrix (chair of Italian Studies, University of
Utrecht)
- Monica Jansen (assistant professor in Italian Studies,
Universities of Utrecht and Antwerp)
- Wanda Strauven (associate professor in Film Studies,
University of Amsterdam)

Information

Conference website: www.hum.uu.nl/futurisms

Mail: futurismsuu.nl