cfp.english.upenn.edu

CALL FOR PAPERS (Including performances, designs, exhibitions,
installations)

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Sacred, Liminal and Secular Space(s).

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Faculty of Creativity and Culture

School of Arts and Media, Annual One Day Interdisciplinary Conference.

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Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College, April 21st 2007.

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How have scholars and practitioners interpreted and appropriated space
within their work and research?=20

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This conference aims to explore how meanings have proliferated in the
experience and in the production of space, and invites contributions from
scholars and practitioners of literature, culture, media and film,
performing arts, fine arts and design, as well as history and criticism, and
digital technologies.=20

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Sacred Space(s)=20

Space has traditionally been the focal point for the fiercely contested
category of the sacred. The sacred itself however is, as L=E9vi-Strauss
pointed out, =91a value of indeterminate signification, in itself empty of
meaning and therefore susceptible to the reception of any meaning
whatsoever=92.=20=20

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How are we to interpret the traditional notion of sacred (and by implication
profane) space in the context of a predominantly secular culture? What is
significant about contemporary claims for space as sacred?=20

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Secular Space

Unlike the profane, which may be regarded as anti-sacred, the secular can be
aligned with the notion of non-sacredness. Rather than being incorporated in
a binary relation to the sacred, how do notions of the secular exist in
their own right and how have these been explored by academics and
practitioners? How have secular spaces been produced?=20

How might designers, practitioners and academics use, represent and
interpret areas which may be classified as secular spaces such as empty and
full space(s), open and closed, public and private, intimate and expansive,
negative and positive, narrative space and production space?=20

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Liminal Space(s)

Victor Turner notes: =91Prophets and artists tend to be liminal and marginal
people, =93edgemen,=94 who strive with a passionate sincerity to rid themse=
lves
of the clich=E9s associated with status incumbency and role-playing and to
enter into vital relations with
other[s] in fact or imagination.=92=20

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How can this notion be applied to liminal spaces as =91potentially [places]=
 of
scrutinization of the central values or axioms of the culture in which
[they] occur, and unused evolutionary potential in mankind which has not yet
been externalized or fixed in structure?=92 (Turner) What are the processes=
 of
identification, transformation and re-appropriation which take place or
exist in liminal spaces?

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We invite contributions which address questions such as (but not
exclusively) the following:

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* Sacred Space and the relationship between the sacred and the
profane

* Secular Spaces

* Liminality

* Designing the sacred

* Objects in space

* Literary, Cinematic, Photographic and Performative imaginings and
interpretations of sacred spaces

* Media technologies and the reinterpretation of space

* Space and identity

* Space in relation to ritual

* The reinterpretation and re-establishment of sacred spaces in
contemporary environmentalism

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Contributions may take the form of academic papers, performances,
exhibitions, installations etc.

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Proposals and abstracts of approx. 250 words should be sent to Lorna
Ashton-Scott (conference manager) on <mailto:lorna.ashtonscott_at_bcuc.ac.uk>
lorna.ashtonscott_at_bcuc.ac.uk by Friday 2nd February 2007.=20

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Other enquiries to academic staff / conference organisers:

Donna Savery donna.savary_at_bcuc.ac.uk and Pedro DeSenna
pedro.desenna_at_bcuc.ac.uk on 01494 522141 ext 3261

Nicholas Foxton nick.foxton_at_bcuc.ac.uk 01494 605079

Greer Crawley greer.crawley_at_bcuc.ac.uk 01494 522141 ext 5088

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Received on Fri Dec 15 2006 - 20:16:21 EST