Recently uploaded videos include the plenary presentation of Andrew Selby from TRACEY: The Online Journal of Contemporary Drawing Research at the 2008 Arts Conference, Birmingham, UK.

To view other recent downloads and to join the Common Ground Arts Conference YouTube Group please click here.

Congratulations to Prof. Leoni Schmidt, the winner of the International Award for Excellence in the area of the arts with the paper  Relational Drawing as Pedagogical Action: Locational Strategies.

 Paper abstract: Drawing in relational mode emphasises process and tends to be propadeutic, incomplete and provisional. It opens boundaries for interdisciplinary visual arts practices and entails the mapping of points in space deployed through locational mapping strategies involving bodies-in-action. The translation from ideas to open-ended materialisation is crucial to relational drawing. ??Three case studies are presented and analysed. The projects involved play out in particular contexts in Aotearoa New Zealand where they have geopolitical and pedagogical implications. On the periphery of centres of visual arts production, the projects make their own respective impacts and undermine claims to universality within the larger arena of contemporary visual arts production in the world. Through the provisional register of their relational drawing registers the projects enable ongoing negotation through collaborative action and communal learning.

12 March 2009, University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, UK

www.bolton.ac.uk

http://www2.hud.ac.uk/mhm/drama/index.php

www.thenervecentre.org.uk

On Wednesday 11th and Thursday 12th March, the Universities of Bolton and Huddersfield are collaborating to host the first Northern Student Scriptwriters’ Conference across two locations.

This two day conference is an opportunity for undergraduates, postgraduates and new and emerging writers to learn about the mechanics of the scriptwriting industry and to participate in workshops and garner advice from successfully established writers.  The first day of the conference at the University of Bolton deals specifically with Film and Television writing, whilst the second day at the University of Huddersfield concentrates on Theatre and Radio writing.

Enquiries can be made via jks1@bolton.ac.uk / 01204 903331.

There are a number of sessions throughout the conference including masterclasses and workshops.  In Bolton, speakers and workshop leaders include Willy Russell, Debbie Horsfield (Cutting it, True Dare Kiss), Emily Feller (Red Productions), Marc Boothe (B3 Media), Katherine Beacon (BBC Writers Room), Amy Buscombe (freelance script consultant) , Angela Clarke (Eyes Down, Window shopping) Sarah Hooper (Shameless).   In Huddersfield you’ll hear from and work with Willy Russell, Sue Roberts and Gary Brown (BBC Radio Drama), Sue Teddern (Radio writer and TV writer of My Family, Birds of a Feather), Colin Teevan (Playwright, How Many Miles to Basra?, Don Quixote) and Alex Chisholm (Associate Director, Literary, West Yorkshire Playhouse), as well as others from the scriptwriting world.

Places are limited and must be booked in advance.  Reservations will be taken upon receipt of payment - please send a cheque made payable to ‘The University of Bolton’ to Jane Stuart, Creative Industries Liaison, School of Arts, Media and Education, University of Bolton, Deane Rd, BL3 5AB. Enquiries can be made via jks1@bolton.ac.uk / 01204 903331.

Undergraduates, postgraduates and new writers: £15 both days / £10 one day

Staff from Universities other than Bolton & Huddersfield, and other interested Parties: £50 both days/£30 one day

Jane Stuart
Creative Industries Liaison Co-ordinator

University of Bolton
School of Arts, Media & Education
Deane Road
Bolton
BL3 5AB

Brussels, Belgium

Call for Papers - submissions required by 24 April 2009. Send all submissions and inquires to sflock@ulb.ac.be.

1989 was a great turn in the history of East Central Europe. Twenty years after the fall of Berlin’s wall, the Centre for Czech Studies of Brussels Free University has chosen to investigate on the post-1989 period and to focus its reflection on performing arts. The conference will be held on the symbolic date of 27th and 28th November to commemorate the success of the Velvet Revolution. During those two days, we will propose to question historically and artistically the post-1989 period and the perspectives of the new stage in East Central Europe. Speakers will not only be historians and theatrologs, but also artists. The aims of this gathering are to examine 1989 insisting on differences and similarities in East Central European theatre, encompassing all generations, as well as to define its very new characteristics.

Theatre was a big protester in the soviet socialist society and played a key role in the new geopolitical reality of most East Central European countries. Nevertheless, after 1989, theatre ceased to be a bastion of political and intellectual resistance. The nations gradually transformed into democratic regimes and entered logic of market economy. Economic liberalism did not fail to extend itself to the cultural sphere. Theatres then cruelly suffered from a lack of financial support or just indulged in entertainment to the detriment of artistic reflection. The former protagonists of the renewal were disorientated at the changes society had undergone. The conference will attempt to debrief the artists’ reactions in the transition’s years and to analyze the reception of their works by the audience.

The last main line of the conference will focus on the new generation, directors, playwrights and dramaturges who were only children or teenagers in 1989. What does this date mean in their artistic development? Is their questioning similar in Central Europe and the Balkans? Is there any direct filiation between the old and the new generations?

The contributors are invited to present in French or in English a 250-word draft and a 100‑word biographical note and send it to sflock@ulb.ac.be before the 24th April 2009.

Organisation

Sarah FLOCK, FNRS research follower, Free University of Brussels

Jan RUBEŠ, Centre of Czech Studies’ Director, Free University of Brussels

Should you have any further questions, please contact Sarah Flock
sflock@ulb.ac.be

Sarah Flock

Aspirante du FRS-FNRS
Centre d’études tchèques
ULB CP 180
Avenue F.D. Roosevelt, 50
1050 Bruxelles
T: +32(0)2 650 47 49
www.ulb.ac.be/philo/cet
www.ulb.ac.be/philo/slavistique