Call for Papers: Special Issue of Contemporary Theatre Review “Site-Specificity and Mobility”
This special edition of Contemporary Theatre Review edited by Anna Birch and Joanne Tompkins seeks to interrogate current trends, practices, and implications of performance in which mobility / site / location / landscape is central. It addresses analyses of ‘site’ and ‘mobility’ at its most local, specific, and actual. While these two terms may appear to be oppositional, we cannot assume that the nature of ‘site’ in contemporary performance is one of ‘rest’ or stasis of any sort. In fact, ‘site’ is often much more mobile than the discourse generally permits. As such, this special issue seeks to situate site-specificity beyond the ‘purely’ spatial in order to examine what new / different discourses appear to emerge. It aims to interrogate site-specificity and mobility in, among others, the realm of the global and globalisation, and the realm of the internet.
Submissions are welcome for papers on the following topics:
- The relationships between mobility and site-specific performance
- The interplay between the spatiality of site-specificity and embodiment
- The relationships between mobility and site-specific performance in the context of the internet and virtual space
- Gendering sites
- Site-specificity and race
- Site-specificity and cultural / political transformation
- Performativity and site-specificity
- Sites of ‘legitimacy,’ ‘illegitimacy,’ and liminality
- Site-specificity and social space
- Site-specificity and cultural / intercultural performance
This special issue seeks to develop the theme of performativity and mobility in relation to site-specific performance. It aims to question how the decision to perform outside the theatre building or gallery has an impact on the work produced. How does a recontextualisation of performance from the ‘legitimate’ space of the theatre or the gallery to the ‘illegitimate’ space of the park, shopping centre, railway station, church, etc., affect the meanings produced by performers, the space itself and the audience? How does the audience as an embodied ‘performer’ moving through a piece of site-based work to create meaning for the audience, performer and site? Please note that while explications of particular site-specific productions are useful, we are not seeking ‘simply’ records of productions that have taken place; rather, we are interested in the critical / creative tension between site-specificity and mobility.
The deadline for full papers is 31 December 2010, with an anticipated publication date of 2012. Please note that Contemporary Theatre Review uses MHRA guidelines (download at http://www.mhra.org.uk/Publications/Books/StyleGuide/download.shtml
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/jump~jumptype=banner~frompagename=title~frommainurifile=title~fromdb=all~fromtitle=~fromvnxs=~cons=755239602?dropin=httpwwwmhraorgukpubl&to_url=http%3a%2f%2fwww%2emhra%2eorg%2euk%2fPublications%2fBooks%2fStyleGuide%2fdownload%2eshtml
Papers should be submitted using this referencing format. All papers will be subject to blind refereeing. We encourage anyone interested in submitting a paper to get in touch with at least one of the editors with a short expression of Interest (250 words): Anna Birch (annabirch1@mac.com) or Joanne Tompkins (j.tompkins@uq.edu.au).
