EASTAP II Conference in LISBON

https://eastapconferencelisbon2019.wordpress.com/

https://www.tndm.pt/pt/calendario/ii-congresso-da-eastap/

 

PROGRAM

  

SHARED MEMORY(IES): CREATION, RESEARCH AND POLITICS IN THE EUROPEAN CONTEMPORARY STAGE.

 

The II EASTAP Conference (European Association for the Study of Theatre and Performance) will take place at the School of Arts and Humanities of the University of Lisbon and the National Theatre D. Maria II on the 23rd, 24th and 25th of September 2019. The theme proposed for debate is Shared Memory(ies): creation, research and politics in the European contemporary stage.

The working of memory has been an object of inquiry by history, cognitive science, psychoanalysis, linguistics, literature, cultural and performance studies, sociology. In other words, by the sciences that aim at understanding how we process our experience in the world. Memory, associated with conservation and access to knowledge, is materialized through mnemonic devices that Frances Yates (1966) showed always connect space and the sum of knowledge. This was done, for example, in the 16th century, by the memory theatres of Giulio Camillo and Giordano Bruno. Today, the mass of information (big data) and the connection of objects online (internet of things) have us facing the same need to understand how and what we register from that mass of information within our reach, but especially the role played by memory in the configuration of individual and collective identities.

Throughout the last century, we talked about collective memory (Halbwachs, 1925), memory theatres (Banu, 1987), memory-habit (Connerton, 1989), memory locations (Nora, 1984-1994). More recently, following the debates about the Holocaust, we talked about incorporated memory (Taylor, 2003), post-memory (Hirsch, 2008) and memory as a continuous performative act (Schneider, 2011). These terms were used to describe processes which move us between past and present, community and individual, in a word, between specific types of performativity; between the apparent fixity of ritual and of celebration and the wandering so characteristic of memory, sometimes leaving traces and producing stratifications, other times selectively erasing. In this connection, memory industry and memory tourism have also been discussed (Traverso, 2005; Schneider, 2011). The obsession with the production and the use of archives, seen as repositories of experiences and knowledge to be reactivated, has also invaded the artistic field and governs the artistic practice as research.

The quest to understand how memory works and what it represents for the individual and the collective of which the individual is a part, what it means to remember and to forget, has had consequences in the appreciation of certain human practices and representations: the production of life stories, photographic records of public and private acts, documentary cinema, the creation of archives and databases, the use of narrative in medicine, the construction of memorials and the celebration of certain monuments, in sum, the deletion, the uses and misuses of memories that excluded, revised or reinforced narratives accepted as dominant.

On the one hand, we recognize the different amnesias of our times, the fear of robotization, of artificial intelligence, of expanded reality and the hologram. On the other hand, we are faced with the compulsive recording of our actions “for future memory”. Where can theatre and performance be situated in this problematic? As the art of memory? As a mnemonic device which makes a community temporarily remember together and, especially, produce memories and project memory in a space-time of sharing? The theatre memorabilia created for the pleasure of collectors is not the only expression (albeit the most evident one) of the modalities of the mnemonic recording and recovering of personal, cognitive and collective experiences of the theatre and the show.

The topic of memory relates to theatre and the performing arts precisely through their performative dimension. We see how it acts on the power of testimony, on the material dimensions of the real, on the non-segregation of the private sphere from the public sphere, on the prevalence of the process that connects artists and spectators in the meeting/confrontation of memories. We can speak of a theatre perceived as a palimpsest that lets you see how and what is written, erased and re-written in the body-memory of the actors, but also on the body of those present, who rework and reforge their memories in permanence.

In this II EASTAP Conference, we aim to promote discussion regarding the role of memory in contemporary theatre creation through three fundamental axes that are intertwined:

 

I. Memory in Theatre – The process of creation in its relation with the work of memory

  1. Shared memory of experiences and knowledge
  2. Theatre practice as testimony of (the) memory: text, body and annotation memory
  3. Memory and anthropology: observation, recording, storage and archive in the creative process
  4. Memory and political identity(ies)

 

II. Memory of Theatre – Research and the limits of memory

  1. Artistic practice as research: performativity of the memory and cognition
  2. Theatre between history and memory
  3. Makers, audience(s) and memory(ies) of the theatre: the discourses of the observer community, the spectators, the actors, the directors, the critics
  4. On memory as a territory under construction (texts, images, narratives)

 

III. The Theatre of Memory – The politics of memory in current societies and new theatre forms

  1. Identity, narrative(s) and memory sharing
  2. Memory and forgetfulness: the power(s) of theatre in the politics of memory
  3. Artificial and digital memory: artistic experimentation
  4. From “stock memory” to “flux memory”
  5. Memory and the irruption of the Real: from documentary theatre to the theatre of the Real

 

The conference theme aims, therefore, to bring together diverse (inter)disciplinary perspectives (arts and performance studies, visual studies, cognitive sciences, social sciences, literary studies, cultural history), as well as to invite artists, that will be announced very soon, whose creative practice does not separate the three axes mentioned above. Thus, artists and researchers will be on an equal footing while discussing the theme and can present their points of view through communications, performance-speeches, interviews or commented audiovisual records of their work.

Maria João Brilhante

Centro de Estudos de Teatro, Universidade de Lisboa (mbrilhante@campus.ul.pt)

 

Tiago Rodrigues

Teatro Nacional D. Maria II (trodrigues@tndm.pt)

 

HOW TO SUBMIT A PAPER

If you wish to submit a paper, please see the Guidelines for Papers and send your proposal by 15th May 2019 (new date) to the II EASTAP Conference organizers at the email address eastapconference.lisbon2019@gmail.com

Papers will be allocated 25 minutes on the programme (15 minutes for the paper and 10 minutes for discussion).

The selection of panels/papers will be made by the Conference organizers in consultation with the Scientific Committee. The decisions will be made public by the 7rd June 2019.

Languages of the Conference: English, French, Portuguese.

Conference registration can be made until the 10st of July according to the guidelines explained at https://www.eastap.com/registration/ .

 

REGISTRATION INSTRUCTIONS

How to proceed to register to a Conference.

  1. a) Make sur you are registered to the Association.

If not, this is step 1.

Go to EASTAP registration page

Choose your status (regular member, student, institutional)

And pay

You should receive by mail a notice of confirmation

  1. b) once you  have registered a new page opens up with the rates for the conference you want to register to:

II EASTAP Lisbon (22-25 Septembre 2019)

III EASTAP Bologna (27-29 February 2020)

  1. c) click the Conference you want to attend and pay

You will receive a notice of confirmation

Thank you  for having REGISTERED to the conference.

 

Regular members: 60€

Students: 30€

Please, note that EASTAP registration is mandatory.

All enquiries concerning registration should be addressed to the email address registration@eastap.com

 

GUIDELINES FOR PAPERS

Please, send:

  • Name, institution
  • Abstract with 300 words in English and in the language of the presentation (FR or PT), in a Word document, Times New Roman, 12 pt
  • The chosen axis
  • CV with 100 words
  • Technical needs

 

You may find more information at  https://eastap.com