Membrana
Deadline (extended): January 6, 2020
Since the invention of photography, our relationship with the medium, the image taking apparatus and photographs as objects has always been invested with a set of beliefs in the excessive, pervasive, almost magical power of photography.
From early belief in the photography’s ‘soul-stealing’ capabilities to the contemporary belief in photography’s ‘data-stealing’ ones, our understanding of the origin of medium’s special power changed and evolved – for example from being anchored in the magical emanation of the objects onto paper to datafied signification within the omnipresent apparatus of social surveillance. But the belief in some sort of special power of photography persists, our continuous investment with mystical qualities making it one of the most enchanted technologies of present day. (more in pdf)
We invite textual and visual contributions that explore both the magical nature of photography and its power of revealing the magic of the world from (but not limited to) the following perspectives:
- Photography and the inexplicable
- Revelatory power of photography – seeing the unseen
- Revelatory power of photography – excess, abundance, and world disclosure
- Ritualistic aspects of photography/Everyday rituals as contemporary magic
- Photography and religious practices, voodoo, shamanism
- Photography and fetishism/Photographs as fetishized commodities
- Photography, trickery and/as magic
- Spirit and medium photography
- Culturally specific magical usages of photography
- Magic in contemporary art photography
- Photography and authority figures (saints, martyrs, and political leaders)
- Apotropaic uses of photography
- Phantasmagoria and photography
- Photography and the re-enchantment of modernity
- Photography, magic, and virtual reality
- - Photography, magic, and feminism
- - Photography, magic, and ecology
- - Photography, vibrant matter, and other new materialisms
- - Photography, spiritualism, and cosmology
- - Photography – magic, art or science?
More information here: http://www.membrana.si/en/cfp-membrana-magic-2020/
Share our FB CFP: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10157146633074285&id=251553729284
On our web page: http://www.membrana.si/en/cfp-membrana-magic-2020/
The deadline for contribution proposals (150-word abstracts and/or visuals) is January 6, 2020. The deadline for finished contributions from accepted proposals is March 16, 2020. Please send proposals or contact the editors at editors(at)membrana.org.