30 Mar 2015

Call for Presentations: DARE 2015

The Dark Precursor: International Conference on Deleuze and Artistic Research (DARE 2015) explores possibilities, uses and appropriations of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari's philosophy in the field of Artistic Research. Hosted by the Orpheus Research Centre in Music and MusicExperiment21, DARE 2015 will take place from 9th to the 11th November 2015 at the Orpheus Institute in Ghent (Belgium).

As references to Deleuze's philosophy, alone or in collaboration with Guattari, have become frequent across the varied expressions of artistic research, the conference aims to identify, trace and map concepts and practices that connect artistic research projects to their philosophy, both from the scholar and the practitioner's perspectives. T

The Orpheus Institute is the European leading center for artistic research in music, home to the docARTES doctoral program, the Orpheus Research Centre in Music (ORCiM) and the MusicExperiment21 project funded by the European Research Council.

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The philosophy of Gilles Deleuze and/or Félix Guattari has become increasingly relevant to the field of artistic research. It acts as a key reference for many artist-researchers, who engage with knowledge across academic and non-academic fields of practice. At the same time, the term artistic research remains suspended in its definition in order to highlight immanent modes of knowledge creation. The extent and depth of Deleuze's influence on this emerging field is largely unchartered, nor has his philosophy been evaluated from the perspective of artists who work at the borders of philosophy. DARE 2015 is the first international conference entirely dedicated to the relation between artistic research and Deleuze's philosophy, and welcomes both artistic presentations and scholarly papers that investigate this relation.

Choosing as its title the concept of 'dark precursor,' the conference reflects the duality and openness inherent to artistic research. Deleuze appropriated this expression from meteorology, where it designates a stage in a cloud-to-ground lightning sequence. The stepped leader, as the dark precursor is technically referred to, develops when the charge separation within a stormy cloud is so strong that the surrounding air is ionized and becomes conductive (plasma). Thus, a charge transfer ensues from the top of the cloud to its base, and from there, a flow of negative charges begins making its way towards the ground. Along the path that now connects the cloud and the ground, a much stronger flow of positive charges travels freely from the ground upwards, generating heat and producing the brilliant flash we see of the lightning.

The notion of the dark precursor concerns the question of how a communication between heterogeneous systems, 'of couplings and resonance,' occurs without being predetermined. In relation to artistic research we ask how to compose these resonances, how to create new couplings that are not accidental but rigorous and at the same time indeterminate. How to create in the midst of a primordial difference?

In line with the theme of the 'dark precursor', we are particularly interested in receiving proposals for scholarly and artistic presentations that exceed simple interpretations and representations of either Deleuze and/or Guattari's philosophy or an artistic practice at hand.

DARE 2015 welcomes presentations ranging from academic to artistic in modalities, including performative, collaborative, interactive, visual, new media, installations etc. Proposals, written either in English or French, should be submitted through the conference online submission system.

To submit your outline of presentation, please visit: dare2015.exordo.com and follow the simple on-screen instructions provided (you will be required to setup an account first).

The closing date for submissions is Monday, 1 June 2015.

All accepted abstracts will be published open-access on the conference website and presentations at DARE 2015 will be video recorded for documenting and archiving purposes. A publication of the conference proceedings is in planning.