[Nettime-bold] Critical Theory and Experimental Music (Australia)

[fran ilich <ilich_030@hotmail.com>]

CALL FOR PANEL ON THEORY AND EXPERIMENTAL MUSIC AT THE UNIVERSITY OF
TASMANIA CONFERENCE, 'WHAT'S LEFT OF THEORY?' (details of conference
below this call).

I am seeking abstracts for papers to be included on a panel on 'Critical
Theory and Experimental Music'.

Recent experimental music, especially in the electronic domain, has of
late shown itself to be theoretically informed. Artists such as DJ
Spooky can regularly be heard citing various texts from the Critical
Theory canon, and the number of labels or various artists compilations
themed around the works of Theorists and Philosophers is ever increasing
(cf "In memoriam Gilles Deleuze", the label Mille plateaux and its
offshoot Ritornell to name but a few).

Papers are sought which investigate this intersection between
experimental music and critical theory.
Questions to be addressed might include but are not restricted to:

--How does theory inform music and what kind of music does this produce?
Does such music differ substantially in its intentionality?
--How are the ideas of various philosophers and theorists translated
into a musical vocabulary?
--Do works that attempt to express in music the musical ideas contained
in the written texts of various philosophers convey the sense of the
latter sense more faithfully than the original?
--To what extent does theoretically-informed music inform or transform
theory?
--How do we read music theoretically?

Submissions should also take into account the general theme of the
conference (details below).

Abstracts should be sent to:

greg.hainge@adelaide.edu.au

before May 30th 2001.

Queries on THIS CALL ONLY should be addressed to this same address.

A final decision on papers for this panel will be made soon after to
leave any rejected papers the opportunity of resubmitting as an
individual papers before the major conference call deadline.

QUERIES ABOUT THE CONFERENCE itself (details below) should be addressed
to Ian Buchnan (University of Tasmania) whose contact details follow the
conference info.



CALL FOR PAPERS.
"What's Left of Theory?"

University of Tasmania, Hobart December 8-10 2001

Keynote Speaker: Fredric Jameson

Fredric Jameson once said, we can't really know what a thing is until it
has become something else. It might therefore be said that theory's truth
will only be available to us when it has ceased to be. Which prompts the
question: is theory still alive and well, or has it indeed mutated into
something else? If it has vanished did it leave a trace? Is it its
successor stained with its legacy? But just as importantly, we can perhaps
now, for the first time, determine what theory really is/was.

Fredric Jameson also said that in his opinion, theory itself is a product
of a leftist impulse in critical thinking. Thus despite all the criticism
that has been heaped on theory's progenitor structuralism for its
apolitical approach to analysis, it was in Jameson's view at least, born
of Marxist modes of thinking. This gives our question above quite a
different spin: is theory a leftist enterprise? Or perhaps we should ask,
was it a leftist enterprise? And if it was, is its successor still
leftist? Or has there been a swerve to the right in critical thinking to
go along with the movement beyond theory?

Papers are called for that address these questions in an interdisciplinary
fashion. The Deadline for abstracts is July 20 2001.

Please contact Ian Buchanan, School of English and European Languages
and Literatures, The University
of Tasmania. I.Buchanan@utas.edu.au


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