Theorizing the Black Box - ASAP/16, Oct. 2025

deadline for submissions: 
March 14, 2025
full name / name of organization: 
ASAP - The Association for the Study of the Arts of the Present
contact email: 

CFP for ASAP/16, convening in Houston, TX, 22-25 October 2025

https://www.artsofthepresent.org/conference/asap-16-worldmaking-worldbre...

 

A black box is an abstraction. In systems theory, it names a model for complex exchanges in which mysterious, secret, or unknowable processes alter input stimuli and produce output reactions. The black box’s inner workings cannot be observed directly, only inferred through hypotheses about causes and effects.

Although the intimate, unadorned spaces called “black box theaters” do not derive their name from the black boxes of systems theory, their function as sites for experimental and avant-garde performance resonate with such theoretical applications. Anything can happen in black box theaters, which often serve as testing grounds for new theatrical works because they feature movable stages, adjustable seating areas, and flexible lighting. In this spirit, the black box is a scene of possibility marked by continual revision and re-staging, a performance space that emphasizes the process(es) of production over the world(s) such production might produce.

What does it mean to approach the black box as a literal or figurative scene of worldmaking in performance, music, film, literature, the visual arts, and other forms and genres?

This panel invites proposals that engage with, build on, or depart from the following:

  • What happens—or what can happen—in a black box?
  • How do the black box’s processes and inner workings withhold themselves from being known?
  • What are the functions of the illegible, obfuscated, or unknowable in worldbuilding?
  • Does black box theorizing value process over product—and, if so, to what ends?

Proposals by practitioners (artists, curators, dramaturgs, etc.) are welcome.

Proposals theorizing the black box in the context of black aesthetic theory, feminist thought, and their investments in LGBTQ+ life are encouraged.

For consideration, please email 250-word proposal and short bio statement to Brooks.1310@osu.edu or upload materials directly to ASAP's Ex Ordo portal (you will be asked to make an account): 

https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=https%3a%2f%2fasap16.exordo.com%2f...

Deadline for submission: 14 March 2025.