OPEN CALL: Territories Reimagined, International Perspectives

Territories Reimagined: International Perspectives (TRIP)
Manchester, 19-22 June 2008. Call for Papers and Projects.
Psychogeography, neogeography, deep topography, urban interventions, locative media, collaborative mapping.

Between June 19 and 22, 2008, TRIP brings together artists, academics, movers, shakers, do-ers and dissenters in a unique event combining an interdisciplinary conference with a city-wide series of actions, exhibitions, and screenings. TRIP enables the previously separate worlds of theory and practice to interact, initiating new approaches and energies, and furthering techniques to take on and alter the physical environment.

Beginning as a reaction to the industrial revolution, the re-imagining of the city by romantics, bohemians, and avant-gardists evolved into a diverse range of strategies, practices and arguments, from the psychogeographic drift or derive to the artistic intervention. By the 1990s these were being utilised by artists, writers, activists, and historians, attempting to negotiate urban and rural space in the post-modern world.

But practices developed in the twentieth century encounter a different world in the twenty first - a more observed and policed world on the one hand, a more corporate, globally-connected world on the other. Increasingly the body, social, individual and political, is the site of contradictory demands - the demands to consume versus the demands of control.

TRIP will be based at Manchester Metropolitan University, on the city's main southerly corridor, Oxford Road. But we want events to take place throughout Manchester, in as wide a variety of spaces and venues as possible. Like many northern cities, Manchester is changing fast. Perhaps you want to critique the implications of "regeneration", or perhaps you want to stimulate new ways of engaging with an increasingly consumerised environment. Maybe you're passionate about the possibilities of inventive walking and drifting, or maybe you're a performance artist aiming to change the energy of a public space. Wherever you're coming from, TRIP wants to hear from you with your ideas. To submit a paper, you should send an abstract outlining your subject and the key points of your presentation.
To submit an idea for an intervention, performance or a walk involving members of the public, please outline in one paragraph the aims and ideal locations for your project. To submit an idea for a gallery-based project, please outline in one paragraph the thinking behind your installation or work. Please try to keep your paragraphs to a maximum of 200 words. And don't forget your contact details. Deadline for submissions: October 1st 2007. Deadline extended until December 22, 2007. Submissions should be emailed to: TRIP@mmu.ac.uk for further information on festival announcements, walks, talks and events, then please access our blog-space, which will be updated regularly at: http://trip2008.wordpress.com