CALL FOR ABSTRACTS
Emerging Spatial Exchanges
FLAS PhD Symposium 2021
Monday 17 May 2021 (online)
The Faculty of Liberal Arts & Sciences (FLAS) PhD Symposium 2021, hosted by University of Greenwich with support of the Advanced Urban (AU) research group, seeks to explore conceptions of spatial exchange, as interrelated and shaped by digital, ecological, material and social practices. By challenging static conceptualisations of space and the fragmentation of disciplines, this symposium will explore interdisciplinary intersections and fluidity of spatial investigations. In 2021, our awareness and practices of spatial exchange continue to adapt to the social and environmental phenomena emerging within the Covid-19 pandemic. Through investigating environments, communities, curatorial practises, digital technologies, the movement of material matter and ecological thinking, we intend to establish a provocative conversation on new spatial conditions.
Emerging Spatial Exchanges is centred around three interconnected themes: Digital Exchange, Environmental Exchange and Material Exchange. The fluidity of spatial exchange can be explored through, physical – physical, digital – physical, and digital – digital environments. We welcome contributions from PhD students in architecture, landscape, urbanism, media, art practices and related disciplines to share the methodologies, experiences, practices and potentials of spatial exchange. Presenting PhD students will have the opportunity to contribute 600-1000 word texts to a printed publication derived from the themes of the symposium. The symposium is delivered through collaboration with Kingston University.
Please send abstracts of no more than 300 words to emma.colthurst@greenwich.ac.uk.
The deadline is 6 April 2021.
Please identify 2 of the themes below (digital, material, environmental) in order of preference that you feel your work speaks to.
Digital Exchange examines ways of adapting to digital space though curatorial and architectural practises. The current pandemic brings complications into traditional curatorial practices, industrial design and architecture planning, however the development in technology and the rapid spread of interconnected networks, both embedded and digital, suggest ways that new digital exchanges can occur. Through online exhibitions, digital platforms and multimedia technologies, new relations materialise within the architecture of virtual representation.
We welcome investigations that explore:
- Virtual space
- Digital representation
- Online curatorial practices
- Interconnected networks
Material Exchange is explored through the physical and social exchange of matter, scaling between corresponding geographies or planets, to the human driven exchange of living and non-living matter (as food, clothes, technology, etc). The fluidity and movement of material matter is co-produced and changed through the people, landscapes, digital technologies and cultural practices it intersects. Ongoing human practices of rapid consumption, production and extraction have irrevocably changed local and global material exchange dynamics, that are increasingly visible in the midst of the climate emergency.
We welcome contributors that investigate:
- Material and social exchange
- Fluidity of material matter
- Immaterial objects
- Geographical relations
Environmental Exchange examines interaction within and between physical, social, economic and political environments. Multispecies coexistence and adaptability within enivronments can explore relations, inequities and the multiplicities of flows (material, social, economic). Through conceptualising the vast and fluid relations of life, as explored in new ecological thinking, spatial and temporal frameworks reconsider interaction, from ecosystems to the implementation of digital environments. In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, the importance of coexistence, care, and reciprocal relations has become apparent.
We welcome investigations that explore:
- Environmental relations
- Coexistence and care
- Networks/meshes/(eco)systems
