Call for Contributions | Symposium "In Time?"

In Time? 
Encounters in temporality 
  
Symposium, Zurich/Hong Kong 
29-30 November 2024, live and remote

To be in time – for meetings, events, or transportation – appears to be just one of the demands of everyday-life. And there is no doubt: If we meet, we do so at the same time. But do we actually share a temporal understanding of this moment?

Joining online platforms to meet or taking a train to arrive somewhere on time suggests seamless synchronization. Nevertheless, there is no universal time zone. Above all, we exist in the co-presence of different temporal backgrounds – not just due to individual daily routines, but also because of greatly varying conditions where we live and work. Coming from temporalities in plural, do we finally meet in one present?

Taking East Asia and Western Europe as an example, the very regions where the symposium takes place; they are frequently discussed in clichés of an advanced (and technologically driven) Asia futurism and a (historically situated, but still paradigmatic) European modernity. Although we acknowledge that there may be local histories and futures, we are used to communicating based on one connected global present. When speaking of particular situations, on which temporal understandings are infrastructures, institutions, or schedules truly based on?

By inviting contributions from theory and practice, Zurich University of the Arts intends to address intertwined understandings of time. The organizers aim to explore transcultural encounters of (a)synchronous economies and temporal infrastructures and reflect on concepts of time. While some temporalities appear to be given by certain conditions, others might have been established by narratives, rituals or cosmologies. By drawing attention to, commenting on, and possibly also intervening in temporal settings, the arts connect to such situations on the one hand, while art practices establish temporal spaces where they are performed, screened or exhibited on the other.

The program will include performances and presentations from contemporary music, art and design as well as theoretical perspectives from anthropology, media theory, and sociology. Keynote presenters will include Isadora Neves Marques and Royce Ng, among others.

Contributions for 20-minute panel presentations from all related fields (graduate level, practice or theory-based, live or remote) are welcome; and the Call is open to students (as of Master level), lecturers, researchers, and artists of all disciplines.

Please send an abstract or project draft (500-700 words, including technical requirements) plus CV information (200 words) that could connect, but is not limited to the following questions:

• How do practices in art, design, and music address time? 
• Where do we meet temporalities in presentations, education/research or production across the arts? 
• Are there art or design practices that intervene in time? 
• Might transcultural practices across the arts employ different temporalities at the same moment?
• How could temporal implications in transcultural encounters across the arts be situated and mapped?

Initiated by International Affairs, Zurich University of the Arts in cooperation with Shared Campus

Concept and coordination: Dr. Burkhard Meltzer

Please submit proposals by E-Mail until September 13th, 2024, to: burkhard.meltzer@zhdk.ch

Notifications will be sent by September 27th, 2024.