CFP: Avant-Garde and Experimental Horror (Original Deadline Extended)

In Cutting Edge: Art Horror and the Horrific Avant-Garde, Joan Hawkins observes that avant-garde and experimental cinema oftentimes trade “the same images, tropes, and themes that characterize low culture” (3); low culture, in this instance, pertaining to genres like horror. Indeed, many experiments in film in video, like the horror genre, have banked on “uncomfortably visceral reaction(s)” (5), exploiting the physical limits of the body on screen. Moreover, in shorts like Possibly in Michigan (Condit, 1983), The Scary Movie (Ahwesh, 1993), and The Fourth Watch (Geiser, 2000), experimental filmmakers often utilize visual, aural, and narrative horrific elements (sometimes even referencing earlier horror films altogether) to further interrogate representational strategies in mainstream media and explore themes including bodily agency and autonomy, trauma, and memory. Conversely, the horror genre, in the hands of visionary, transgressive filmmakers, becomes experimental by design, pushing narrative, representational, and spectatorial boundaries in the process. Veronica Dolginko takes things one step further by stating that horror more broadly “can be seen as experimental by nature. Trying to find and craft excellent, full-force scares is a form of experimentation, and the trial and error that follows is really the only way to produce results” (n.p.). Such recent breaks from convention include The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears (Cattet and Forzani, 2013), The Wolf House (León and Cociña, 2018), Friend of the World (Butler, 2020), and Skinamarink (Ball, 2022), to name just a few. The experimental mode and horror genre, while widely studied as two separate entities, instead have a significant, symbiotic relationship.

The proposed panel, Avant-Garde and Experimental Horror, welcomes essays that consider any of the following topics:
1) Experimental films, videos, and/or interactive/multimedia installations that incorporate visual, aural, and/or narrative elements that relate to the horror genre;
2) Experimental films, videos, and/or interactive/multimedia installations that elicit adverse affective responses or uncomfortable visceral reactions, in the same manner as films belonging to the horror genre;
3) Feature-length (either released theatrically or via streaming video on demand) horror films that challenge linear narrative, points of identification, and/or generic tropes

Participants are encouraged to consider the function and value of merging avant-garde and experimental forms with the horror genre. How can we best operationalize experimental or avant-garde horror? For what purpose do filmmakers utilize horrific elements in their experimental works? How and with what impact do they manipulate horror-specific generic conventions? Why construct non-conventional horror films? What future lies ahead for experimental horror filmmaking?

Likewise, participants may submit essays focusing on topics spanning temporal and geographic boundaries, with specific preference given to those writing about understudied and overlooked media texts. Essays on those films and other media crafted by BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and international artists (outside the US/Hollywood) are also strongly preferred.

If you would like to be considered for this panel, please send an abstract not exceeding 2,500 characters to Erica Tortolani at etort.phd@gmail.com. Submissions should include a title, at least five academic sources, and a brief (200-character max) bio blurb. Please submit abstracts no later than Sunday, 18 August 2024 at 5:00 PM (EST). The panel chair will review submissions and send notices within one (1) week of that date.

Please note that the chair is interested in creating an edited volume based on the panel topic, Avant-Garde and Experimental Horror. For more information, please direct any inquiries to etort.phd@gmail.com.