Call for Submissions: National Conference

Performing Presence

Organiser: Department of Fine and Performing Arts, GITAM School of Humanities and Social Sciences, GITAM University, Hyderabad Campus.

Conference Title: Performing Presence

Venue: GITAM University, Rudraram, Hyderabad, Telangana.

Dates: 27 &28 January 2023.

Concept Note

The Implications of “Performance”

A catalogue of the implications of ‘performance’ today includes a wide range of staged acts including social drama, concerts and theatrical performances, events of varied kinds, productions involving the various media, displays on streets, malls or public spaces, participatory events that challenge the audience and performer roles, or occurrences that blur the lines between reality and fiction. As a nation India simultaneously exists in the past and in the present. The subjects shift their world-views between the traditional and the contemporary and there is a constant engagement with the past to define and redefine present identities and histories. The venues of traditional performances shifted from the traditional temple or salon to the massive proscenium stages, and to mundane or unconventional spaces.The scale of performances too varied from being solo performer events to mega-events that broke world records. The very concept of ‘performance’ as an ephemeral ‘act’ also provides a metaphor for many occurrences and events that are staged for a public.

Performing Arts and the Present

The performing arts in India have been undergoing several changes since their renaissance in the early twenty first century when they were recast as tokens of the cultural identity of the new nation. Several traditional performing arts of India continue to sustain themselves through negotiating changed contexts, patronage patterns and audience expectations, while others recede into oblivion. The media industry has forged its own genre of popular music and dance circulated through the film industries that draw on traditional and imported forms. Reality television shows dole out their versions of talent, art, and heritage. The institutionalisation of the traditional arts had opened the closed worlds to a larger public, and in recent times, the accelerated transition to virtual/online space potentially democratised the practices to an even greater extent. The new media posed new challenges to artists in terms of audience engagement, teaching and sponsorship. With the explosion of performances on social media, the opportunities to all for instant stardom and the creation of influencers more potent than conventional ‘stars’ of popular culture, the changes and challenges in the present are manifold.

We invite contributions in the following areas:

Postcolonialism and performing arts
Alterity and Performance
The Politics of Performance
Anthropology of Performing Arts
Arts Education
Aesthetics and technique
Biographical research on artists, critics, promoters.
Arts Administration, Patronage and Production
Social Drama and Staged Events
Screen Acts: the Media and Performances

Contributions are invited on any of the above or allied areas in any of the two categories:

Paper presentations (Duration: 20 minutes)
Paper presentations will be based on well-researched writings that are ready for publication.

Lecture Demonstrations (Duration: 40 minutes)
Focussed and original lec-dems that are not of the run-of-the mill variety merely introducing a form, and are based on one of the conference themes are encouraged.

Open Session/ Poster Presentation: (Duration: 10 minutes)
Any creative or research-based explorations/ works in progress in the form of talk/ demo/ poster by scholars or artists at any stage of their career can be presented and discussed.

Submission of Abstracts/ Proposals:

Abstracts of 300-350 words of original unpublished research are invited for paper presentations.
Proposals of approximately 300 words detailing the theme of the presentation and the requirements in terms of space, equipment for the demo, are invited for the lec-dems and open session
The abstract/ proposal document should also have a one page bio of the scholar/ artist with contact details.

Select papers will be published in an edited volume.

There will be also be best paper/ demo/ open session presentation awards.

Last date for abstract/ proposal submission: 15 November 2022.

Email id: lyarasur@gitam.edu, ssundara@gitam.edu