CFP Performance and Science working group at TaPRA (Theatre and Performance Research Association) 4 – 6 September
Deadline: Monday 8 April 2019
We issue two calls for this year’s TAPRA conference: an open call inviting proposals that might help us map the vast terrain encompassed by ‘performance and science’; and a themed call for a joint session with the Bodies and Performance working group. Both calls are intended as an initial scoping exercise for the Routledge Companion to Performance and Science, which is currently in development. We will consider proposals for the following formats
· Papers, including those with performative elements (10-20 minutes).
· Low tech workshops, installations, demonstrations or performance (up to 60 minutes).
· Curated panels (usually 3 x 20 min papers)
Open Call Since its inception, our working group has defined its remit inclusively. This means embracing a wide range of performance practices that interface with scientific knowledge and the social, political, ethical and personal repercussions of these: science plays, bio-art, public engagement projects, performance art and more. We have also considered scientific approaches to understanding what performance is or does, and, reciprocally, analysed scientific practices through the lens of performance. Given this broad remit, how can we define the borders of our field and delineate its contents? How might we understand the overlaps, splices, tensions, alliances, antimonies, resonances that constitute the interface between performance and science, as practices, disciplinary domains, cultures and truth claims? Your proposal might posit conceptual tools for surveying or rethinking the field(s), trace strands within it and/or offer case studies and specimens. Alternatively, your proposal might interrogate – or rebel against – such projects of taxonomization and territorialisation. In all cases, preference is given to proposals that foreground the material practices of ‘doing’ performance and science – whatever form this takes. Themes may include but are not limited to:
· historiographies, genealogies, cartographies and case studies of performance and science
· defining, distinguishing and defying disciplines: multi-, cross-, inter-, intra-, trans- and post-disciplinarity
· the politics of science-performance collaboration
Negative Affects We are also holding a joint session aligning with the Bodies and Performance WG theme of Negative Affects, Performance and Bodies and that of our own interim event on human repair, regeneration and bodily alteration. We invite proposals that engage with the body and bad feelings, and how scientific discourses and technologies of repair, replacement and augmentation might alleviate or exacerbate those negative feelings. Submitting a proposal Please send a 300-word (max.) proposal and a short biography in a Word document via email. Please also include precise details of your resourcing needs, for example, any audio-visual technology, or a particular type of space (e.g. drama studio) that you will need to make your presentation. Email abstracts and information to the Working Group conveners, Alex Mermikides and Paul Johnson, at perfandscience@tapra.org The deadline for the submission of proposals is Monday 8th April 2019. Early Career Researchers Bursary Scheme: If you are an Early Career Researcher, then you are eligible to be considered for a TaPRA ECR Bursary. Please follow this link for more information, and please indicate on your proposal whether you fit the criteria and wish to be considered for the bursary scheme: http://tapra.org/bursaries/ Postgraduate Bursary Scheme: There will be a separate call for PG Bursaries later in the year, but please do indicate in your proposal whether you are planning on applying to the scheme.
Please note: only one proposal may be submitted for a TaPRA event. It is not permitted to submit multiple proposals or submit the same proposal to several Calls for Participation. All presenters must be TaPRA members, i.e. registered for the event; this includes presentations given by Skype or other media broadcast even where the presenter may not physically attend the event venue.
Science and Performance Working Group Interim Event call for participants
TAPRA Performance & Science Interim Event
Science Gallery/King’s College, London
8 May 2019 2- 8.30pm
The Performance & Science Working Group invites applications to attend our Interim Event at King’s College London, which takes up the theme of bodily regeneration, repair and replacement. The emerging sciences of regenerative medicine promise the possibility of combating terrifying disease and physical trauma. They also sharpen our fears about cyborg and synthetic beings. This ambivalence offers rich ground for performance-makers and those who study the interface between theatre, performance and the human sciences.
The event involves meetings with scientists at the cutting edge of regenerative medicine, a tour of the laboratories at the Centre for Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine and of the Spare Parts exhibition, a working dinner and attending a related science-performance.
The event is FREE to all TAPRA members but places are limited. To apply for a place, please email perfandscience@tapra.org by 12 April 2019 with a brief (100 word) outline of how the event will support your current or future research. Priority will be given to those whose research aligns most closely with the event. Postgraduate students can also apply for support with travel costs – please include estimated costs in your email. The criteria for funding will be lack of institutional support, alignment of research interest to the event, cost of travel.
All participants must be TaPRA members. If you are not currently a member, you will be asked to join the organization at the interim rate of £15 before the date of the event.
Schedule
2-4pm: visit to Centre for Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine
4- 5.30 pm: tour of the Spare Parts exhibition at the Science Gallery. This exhibition explores the art, science, ethics and technology that enables human repair and alteration. It considers the emotional and psychological aspects of living with a replacement organ or limb; organic or engineered.
5.45-6.45pm: working dinner: reflecting on performances of bodily repair, replacement and recuperation.
7 – 8.30: performance: New Organs of Creation
New Organs of Creation presents a hypothetical development of the human larynx (voice box), using tissue engineering, to extend the ability of the voice as a transformational instrument. The project is made in collaboration with Prof Lucy Di-Silvio who used tissue engineering to grow human cells on the prototype anatomical larynx.
