CALL FOR PAPERS

Static Online Journal

Submissions are solicited on the theme of Choice and Suffering for the third
issue of Static, the online journal of the London Consortium (publication
date: end June 2006).

The concept of choice is highly valued, especially in the West, as a
fundamental right of free individuals. Our sense of being free is often
based on our freedom to exercise choice in the marketplace, in matrimony, in
the voting booth, or in the hypertext link. But choice has its darker side:
it can prove to be illusory; sometimes the process of choosing can be
agonising; making a choice can close off future choices; we are frequently
forced to make choices.

This issue of Static takes its inspiration from the German adage die Qual
der Wahl ('the suffering of choice'). The issue will examine whether/when
the freedom to choose is in fact a condemnation to suffer. The theme
provides a useful way of thinking about democracy, marketing and
consumerism, free will, justice, body politics, social policy, education,
aesthetics, and digital culture. As the London Consortium is dedicated to
interdisciplinarity, we are encouraging submissions from contributors of all
kinds and from all fields. Possible lines of enquiry include but are not
limited to:

1. Free will, subjectivity, compulsion and compulsive behaviour
2. Legal decisions, guilt and innocence, responsibility, moral codes,
conscience
3. Taste, aesthetics, fashion, individualism and conformism, choice as a
means of creating the self
4. Consumerism, marketing, expertise and advice gurus, choosing choice
5. Body politics, body image, body modification, abortion rights
6. High street architecture, homogenisation, shop design and packaging
7. Education, health, public services and the citizen-consumer
8. Political parties, democratic choice, one- and two-party states, the
technology of casting votes
9. Culinary culture, supermarkets as providers and destroyers of choice, the
politics of food
10. Surfeit of choice, sensory overload, the Internet, search engines
11. Greed, choosing everything, mp3 culture, using the 'shuffle' function to
choose music, eating disorders, mania, addiction
12. Choosing 'sustainability', environmental degradation, nuclear power
13. Digital cinema, digital television, the remote control and television
schedules
14. Religions, sects, choosing God, being chosen by God
15. Political action, violence, resistance, strategy and choosing tactics

We welcome contributions in English or in another European language, in the
form of analytical essays and articles, interviews, art projects,
photographic images, online interactive projects, creative writing, etc.

The London Consortium is a unique collaboration between the Architectural
Association, Birkbeck College (University of London), the Institute of
Contemporary Arts and TATE. It offers challenging, rigorous postgraduate
programmes in the Humanities and Cultural Studies combining criticism and
creativity and leading to a Master of Research (MRes) or PhD degree in
Humanities and Cultural Studies from the University of London.

The deadline for submissions is Monday, 15 May 2006. Please send all
submissions to the editorial team at static3_at_gmail.com

Publication date: end June 2006

Editorial team
Cormac Deane
Lee Scrivner
Eu Jin Chua

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Received on Tue Mar 28 2006 - 09:31:05 EST