AUSSCHREIBUNG - Call for Papers, COMPROVISATIONS, Improvisation Systems in Performing Arts and Technologies

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INTERSYMP 2010
22nd International Conference on
Systems Research, Informatics and Cybernetics
August 2-6, 2010
Markgraf-Ludwig Gymnasium, Hardstrasse 2
Baden-Baden, Germany
===
Announcing a Special Focus Symposion (August 5, 2010)
on
COMPROVISATIONS -  Improvisation Systems in Performing Arts and  
Technologies
chaired by
Sandeep Bhagwati, Composer and Theatre Director
Canada Research Chair for Inter-X Art,
Acting Director, Hexagram Institute of Research-Creation in Media Arts  
and Technologies,
Concordia University Montréal, Canada
and co-chaired by
Chris Ziegler, Performing Arts Media Artist, Research Fellow
ZKM Center for Art and Media Technology Karlsruhe, Germany
John Schranz, Theatre Director and Professor
Coordinator, European Master’s Degree Programme in the Science of  
Performative Creativity, University of Malta, Valletta, Malta
Tsutomu Fujinami, Associate Professor
School of Knowledge Science, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and  
Technology, Ishikawa, Japan

CONTEXT
Over the past decades, the performing arts have been moving away from  
the interpretation of fixed notations and repetitive, rehearsed  
performances. This shift has been intensified by increasingly reactive  
stage and music technologies.

This artistic reality, however, is still marginal to the mainstream  
public perception of performing arts - for several reasons: the desire  
of audiences to re-encounter reliable performances, the difficulty of  
analyzing and theorizing about ephemeral artmaking practices that do  
not rely on linear "scripts" or "scores" and the cultural prejudice,  
especially in Europe, that repeatable performance ("interpretation")  
somehow stands on the side of "high art", while improvisation  
immediately evokes a somehow "lower" realm of popular entertainment,  
folk, and non-western art forms.

The fact remains that it is much easier to convince sponsors of  
funding a "well-rehearsed, complex interpretation of a written  
masterpiece" than giving money for "something made up on the spur of  
the moment." Protestant work-ethics may come into play here, as does  
the dualistic form-content bias of western culture, with its idea of  
the existence of platonic forms, the spiritual mind-body dualism, the  
supreme importance of the "Imitation of Christ", and Kantian  
metaphysics.

All these discourses, however, mask that there is no such thing as a  
"pure" improvisation. All improvised performance relies heavily on  
rule-systems, whether learned explicitly or embodied by rigorous  
training. Different performing art traditions worldwide have developed  
elaborate improvisation systems that allow initiated audiences to  
judge whether a particular improvisation is an acceptable instance of  
"their" art form or not. Recent modernist (especially North-American)  
approaches to improvisation, by contrast, have emphasized a  
purportedly "free play" largely unfettered by explicit rules, while at  
the same time stressing the importance of social and consensual  
aesthetics and establishing close-knit communities of performers and  
audiences – often marketing their "free improv techniques" by  
expensive workshops and the certification of practitioners.

FOCUS

While embodiment vs. explicit rules, oral vs. written models etc. were  
real dichotomies in the pre-computer age, the advent of reactive  
technology has changed the playing field considerably.

Elaborate and complex rule systems in the form of computer software  
have become part of our everyday world, techniques of knowledge  
accumulation have moved beyond the dipole of embodied or studied  
knowledge into contingent, situative knowledge - knowing when and how  
to apply which kind of knowledge has become more important than  
learning and using a repertoire of acquired wisdom.

This cultural shift has found its expression in new forms of art  
called interactive, and in reactive stage and music practices - all  
based on extensive computer systems. Has it also influenced the  
aesthetics of non-technology dependent practices in performing arts ?

How can we understand this shift, what are its technological  
foundations, how do artistic rule systems influence technology and  
vice versa? Has this shift towards technology also influenced audience  
perceptions of the relative value of composed vs. improvised  
performance?

CALL FOR PAPERS

We invite scholarly papers and critical texts, (re)presentations of  
and reflections on artistic or technological work, reports on field  
work, presentations of survey data and posters on any of the artistic  
questions and research areas mentioned above from
·      performing artists
·      performance theorists
·      engineers
·      systems analysts
·      computer scientists
·      philosophers
·      cultural historians
·      social scientists
·      (ethno)musicologists
·      historians of the performing arts
·      any performing arts practitioners, performing arts enablers and  
thinkers.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Abstracts (500 words max) in English, German or French and  
presentations should be written in a clear, interdisciplinary  
language, with ample explanations of technical terms and usages  
specific to the author's field.

Abstracts (Microsoft Word or PDF) together with a short bio of each of  
the authors (100 words max), their institutional or artistic  
affiliation (if applicable) and their official address may be  
submitted electronically latest by March 30, 2010 to:

Sandeep Bhagwati, Concordia University Montréal
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[Please also use this e-mail address for questions and information  
requests]

In the cover e-mail please indicate the nature of your presentation:
·      Poster
·      Paper
·      Performance Report using audiovisual media [media files up to  
20 MB – as well as links to online video/audio archives - may be  
submitted as in addition to abstracts]
·      Live Performance [please note that all production elements and  
costs necessary for a live performance must be assumed by the  
presenter.]

Please take note of the registration conditions, deadlines and  
registration fees at
http://www.iias.edu/frameset_start_inters_ann.html
before submitting the abstract.

Review Process and Conference Proceedings
All submitted papers and abstracts will be peer-reviewed as soon as  
they arrive. Final papers should not exceed 5 single-spaced typed  
pages. Conference Proceedings will be published and selected papers  
may be published in book format.

Important Dates
· March 30, 2010  Abstract due
· April 9, 2010      Notice of Acceptance
· May 9, 2010       Final Paper due

General Chair
Professor George E. Lasker
IIAS
P.O.Box 3010
Tecumseh, Ontario, Canada  N8N 2M3