[Filmfestivalresearch] Wild Research

[David Archibald]

Please find below a call for proposals which may be of interest.

All best

David

Journal of Media Practice and Education and The Revelator Wall of Death Symposium on Wild Research
A free one-day symposium which seeks to open a conversation on how academics and artists might reject the straitjackets increasingly imposed on their way of working through a discussion of what we have termed ‘Wild Research’.
Where: The Revelator Wall of Death, Glasgow
When:  Friday 13 September 2024.
Call for Proposals
In recent years, academics have faced increased demands for their work to be measurably useful, for society, and for the university itself. The image of the solitary scholar burrowing away on their own idiosyncratic concerns has been replaced by that of the pragmatic scholar, working tirelessly to produce outputs which can be measured by their income-generating capacity through scoring well in research assessment exercises, or through identifiable social engagement. This process has been accompanied by a move to further regulate academic research, in form and in content, by an encouragement to work with favoured institutions, or on state-supported research priorities, which increasingly focus on industry and have short-term goals hard-wired into them.
At the same time, art schools, institutions which were developed to train artists, have been increasingly professionalised, forced to operate within the metricised logics of the neoliberal university, and artists increasingly work in conditions marked by significant budgetary cuts and limited curatorial horizons.
This symposium seeks to explore how academics and artists might negotiate these dominant but limited methods of working, methods which close down, rather than open up, possibilities for the production of new knowledge in its broadest sense, by demanding a right to be wild.
The ‘wild’ in this ‘wild research’ can accommodate multiple, perhaps contradictory, perspectives and practices but could include

  *   Research which is unfunded
  *   Research which deliberately operates outwith of the regulatory frameworks of higher education and/or cultural/industrial sectors
  *   Research which knows not what it is doing
  *   Research which seeks to decolonise the academy in form
  *   Research which is indisciplinary
  *   Research which demands the right to opacity
  *   Research which rejects the Scramble for Impact
  *   Research which refuses to worship at the high altar of the written word
  *   Research which moves to its own beat
  *   Research which is confident of its own interior logic
  *   Research which theorises how we might understand ‘wild’ or ‘wildness’



We are keen to disturb the binary between academic and artistic research; as such we invite academics and artists to submit proposals for short papers, presentations, practices, performances, exhibitions, workshops, panels, both conventional and unconventional, which respond to the symposium’s themes. While the journal has a focus on media practice, we welcome proposals across artistic research in all its wild and varied forms.
This is the start of the conversation and future events on Wild Research will follow.
 A special issue of Media Practice and Education will be devoted to Wild Research.
All events will take place at The Revelator Wall of Death
What is The Revelator?
Wild things are impossible to predict, and cannot be hijacked by professionalisation, monetisation or careerism. Created by artist Stephen Skrynka, The Revelator is wild in every sense. A wooden, handcrafted circular structure, it is a community-built, and fully-functioning, Wall of Death. (Motorcycles are ridden vertically on the 5metre high circular wall with an awestruck audience perched at the top) Currently located in a former shipyard on The Clyde, it is also a unique nomadic Theatre-in-the-Round and art space. Combining heritage, identity and story it offers a reconnection and sense of communal pride through making.  It is completely made from traditional wooden joints, no nails, and took over 14,000 hours to build. It is wild because it lives and grows unfettered from institutions in its own natural environment and responds to it in a fertile and unhindered manner. It was built by volunteers without permission and completely unfunded by corporate bodies, the wood was paid for from small local donations. It is also nomadic so it can be dismantled and re-erected elsewhere, thus broadcasting the seeds of wildness wherever it may take root.
Where is The Revelator?
739 South St, Glasgow G14 0BX
Follow The Revelator on Instagram @the-revelator-clydebuilt [@stephenskrynka]
Please submit your proposal to the organisers at arts-wild at glasgow.ac.uk<mailto:arts-wild at glasgow.ac.uk>
Your proposal should utilise one of the following forms and include a 50-word biography. Please include planned duration: conventional papers are limited to ten minutes.
300-word outline
2-minute audio-or AV submission
Up to 10 images


Key dates
Deadline for proposals: midnight (Glasgow Time) on 17 May
Notification: 30 June
Symposium: Friday 13 September (exact times to follow but circa 10am-6pm)

Symposium Committee
Kirsten Adkins (University of Glasgow)
Bob Anderson (University of Glasgow)
Núria Araüna Baró (Universitat Rovira i Virgili)
David Archibald (JMPE/University of Glasgow)
Ronan Breslin (Glasgow School of Art)
Jill Daniels (JMPE/University of East London)
Johnny Rodger (Glasgow School of Art)
Leah Sinforiani (Glasgow School of Art)
Stephen Skrynka (The Revelator)
Supported by University of Glasgow School of Culture and Creative Arts and Glasgow School of Art