[ANPPOM-L] CFP: music and/as right action

[carlos palombini]

‘MUSIC AND/AS RIGHT ACTION’
29-30 June 2007
School of Music
University of East Anglia, Norwich UK

 
CALL FOR PAPERS

 
In a contemporary musical discourse largely polarised between style, context and relativism on the one hand and scientism on the other, this conference seeks to explore the potential of understanding music as activity, and therefore potentially as ethical behaviour. The concept of ethics might be understood as it is construed in various sociological, historical, critical, and musical configurations in (and through) which it makes sense to undertake such an exploration. Behaviour can usefully be understood as musical activity in respect of oneself, others, society and culture, but also potentially in respect of approaches that would define music as a profession, an ideal or an environment. (Please see below for a summary of proposed sessions that offer possible avenues along these lines.)

 
Key speakers include:

Professor Michael Beckerman (New York University)
Professor Andrew Bowie (Royal Holloway, University of London)

 
Submissions are invited for individual papers (30 minutes including discussion), themed sessions (three/four speakers 90/120 minutes), and round tables (90/120 minutes). Proposals (200 words for individual papers or 600 words submitted by the proposed convenor for sessions and roundtables) should be emailed to Jonathan Impett (J.Impett at uea.ac.uk) or Nanette Nielsen (N.Nielsen at uea.ac.uk). Please submit the following along with your proposal: details of your institutional affiliation, contact information, and any Audio Visual requirements.

 
DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION: 1 MARCH 2007
 
The programme committee will make a final decision on abstracts by 15 March and contributors will be notified as soon as possible thereafter.

 
Further information, including registration and accommodation details, will be posted on the conference website shortly:
http://www.uea.ac.uk/mus/research/conferences/mara

 
Any queries can be directed to either of the conference organisers Jonathan Impett (J.Impett em uea.ac.uk) and Nanette Nielsen (N.Nielsen em uea.ac.uk).

 
PROJECTED SESSIONS INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING, BUT PROPOSALS FOR OTHERS ARE WELCOME:

 
ETHICS, POLITICS, AESTHETICS
Music has always been an active aesthetic agent in various ethical and political circumstances. This session aims to explore the intersection of musical ethics and aesthetics in particular historical, social, or cultural contexts. (There can be instances where ethics and politics are separate entities, and these can be equally beneficial for discussion). Given a fruitful context, we will for example interrogate the following questions: How does music impinge on our moral evaluations, and vice versa? Does musical creativity help us construct moral understanding? Can we actively aim to draw on the practice of music to further our ethical awareness?

 
HISTORY AND THE ETHICS OF THE IMAGINATION
This session interrogates the extent to which reconstructions of particular events of music history can act to re-shape our ethical conception and evaluation of this history, thereby enhancing our understanding of music as right action. By discussing whether it is ethically defensible and/or necessary to re-imagine history, we will challenge our familiarity with historical stability.

DIGITAL ETHICS
Do the possibilities of action-at-a-distance in space and time combined with the self-structuring nature of much interactive music make such work more a question of behaviour than surface? Does music become a different kind of activity, or might re-imagining the terms of present and future music also help us find more relevant understandings of the past?

COMPOSITION AND CREATIVITY
A constant subtext in discussion of the activity of composition suggests the role of some form of individual-social-cultural integrity. Can the relationship between composer, material and discipline be considered in terms of a ‘virtual’ ethics of compositional behaviour?

 
DIALOGUE AND INTERACTION
The implicit non-rules of free improvised music would suggest action determined only in present company and the present environment. How is musical action determined, understood and evaluated when there are agreed to be no cultural constraints? Might ethics be one mode in which behaviour can be understood independently of style or rule? Is an ethics of musical behaviour-in-the-moment distinct from its rhetoric? Can other improvisation-based practices be understood this way?

 
VOICE
‘MUSIC AND/AS RIGHT ACTION’
29-30 June 2007
School of Music
University of East Anglia, Norwich UK

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cp
<cpalombini em gmail.com>