CALL FOR PAPERS for a web/print publication edited by artist Deanna Bowen, with the support of the Media Arts Network of Ontario (MANO)

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Artist and edu­ca­tor Dean­na Bowen and the Media Arts Net­work of Ontario are seek­ing papers for a, yet unti­tled, pub­li­ca­tion that doc­u­ments the his­tor­i­cal and con­tem­po­rary con­tri­bu­tions that First Nations, Métis, and Inu­it (FNMI), racial­ized, dif­fer­ently abled, or LGBTQ cul­tural pro­duc­ers have made to the media arts in Cana­da. Instead of anti-canon­ic, we see this project as one that can map an alter­nate set of dis­courses, prac­tices and views across the field since the 1970s. Though not exhaus­tive, our goal is to pro­duce a book of nation­al scope that address­es the ways in which indi­vid­ual and col­lec­tive media arts prac­ti­tion­ers out­side of the estab­lished white exper­i­men­tal film/video canon have endeav­ored to cre­ate time based works in (often) less than ide­al cre­ative cli­mates. We also strive to exam­ine the devel­op­ment and evo­lu­tion of pub­lic fund­ing poli­cies that have helped and/or hin­dered the cre­ation of media arts cen­tres, cura­to­r­ial col­lec­tives, and archival initiatives.

For all artists, the avail­abil­ity of insti­tu­tion­ally val­i­dated texts engag­ing their work is key for mar­ket access. This is height­ened for “mar­gin­al­ized” media artists who are pri­mar­ily doc­u­mented in minor accounts in broad his­to­ries focused on white main­stream artists. Our call for papers reflects our goals to address these omis­sions and increase the vis­i­bil­ity of FNMI, racial­ized, dif­fer­ently abled, or LGBTQ Cana­dian writ­ers dis­cussing arts and cul­ture whilst simul­ta­ne­ously and proac­tively cham­pi­oning chal­leng­ing view­points out­side of main­stream Cana­dian art crit­i­cism. Giv­en the scarci­ty of exist­ing texts of this nature, this book must be viewed as a begin­ning. And while print­ed books are an impor­tant con­tri­bu­tion for libraries, stu­dents and schol­ars, we believe that pub­lish­ing essays about media art with sta­tic images and text is par­tic­u­larly lim­it­ing and coun­ter­in­tu­itive. Our pub­li­ca­tion will be a larg­er and more open-end­ed web project that can­not be con­tained to the print­ed page.

Select­ed chap­ters, papers and projects will be pub­lished in book for­mat in an edi­tion of 1000 print copies and on a web­site con­tain­ing all texts along with select media clips from the works they ref­er­ence. We believe this approach to be a more dynam­ic, immer­sive pub­lish­ing strat­egy that allows writ­ers to be cre­ative with their texts by includ­ing video clips, still images, audio files and web links. The intent with the site is to rec­og­nize and cir­cum­vent the incom­plete­ness of any book to doc­u­ment the activ­ity of FNMI, racial­ized, dif­fer­ently abled, or LGBTQ media artists with­in the Cana­dian frame by pro­duc­ing a dis­cur­sive space that high­lights evolv­ing media arts his­to­ries over time.

Pos­si­ble top­ics can include, but are not lim­ited to:

  • His­tor­i­cal and con­tem­po­rary rep­re­sen­ta­tions and omis­sions of FNMI, racial­ized, dif­fer­ently abled, or LGBTQ peo­ples in media art
  • Ana­log or dig­i­tal archives of region­al media arts prac­tices, orga­ni­za­tional his­to­ries and local media arts chronologies
  • Pre­vi­ously pub­lished arti­cles, defunct pub­li­ca­tions and artist zines about media arts practices
  • Case stud­ies of archival ini­tia­tives by indi­vid­u­als, orga­ni­za­tions or festivals
  • Pro­files and inter­views of current/past under doc­u­mented artists, col­lec­tives, orga­ni­za­tions or festivals
  • Action plans for decol­o­niz­ing the media arts sec­tor in Canada.
  • Resource scarci­ty and the demise and/or cre­ation of FNMI, racial­ized, dif­fer­ently abled, or LGBTQ media arts col­lec­tives, orga­ni­za­tions and festivals
  • Past/current restric­tive fund­ing poli­cies and sys­temic exclusions
  • Analy­sis of equi­ty fund­ing models
  • Dis­rup­tions of the white, colo­nial, gen­dered, het­ero­nor­ma­tive, “able-bod­ied” gaze
  • Exam­i­na­tions of polit­i­cal dif­fer­ence in dias­pora media artist communities
  • Token inclu­sions in the white exper­i­men­tal film/video canon
  • Media arts prac­tices that rem­edy geo­graph­i­cal, polit­i­cal, or cul­tural isolation
  • Exper­i­men­tal documentary/mapping strategies
  • Media enhanced performance
  • Expec­ta­tions of per­formed trau­ma and alterity
  • Mem­ory, truth and the dig­i­tal mov­ing image
  • Media arts prac­tices as tool for polit­i­cal protest
  • Cen­sor­ship case studies
  • The evo­lu­tion of media arts tech­nol­ogy and its impact on knowl­edge sharing
  • The­o­ret­i­cal works on the his­tory, evo­lu­tion, and aes­thet­ics of exper­i­men­tal media arts works

Select­ed writ­ers will be remu­ner­ated. The dead­line for sub­mit­ting paper pro­pos­als is July 14, 2017.
Dead­line for final papers is March 1, 2018.

Please send a 300–500 word abstract and title, as well as your CV, address, tele­phone num­ber, email address to: publications@mano-ramo.ca

About the Editor:
Dean­na Bowen is a Toron­to based artist and edu­ca­tor whose artistic/educational prac­tice exam­ines his­tory, his­tor­i­cal writ­ing and the ways in which artis­tic and tech­no­log­i­cal advance­ments impact indi­vid­ual and col­lec­tive author­ship. She is a 2016 Simon Guggen­heim Foun­da­tion Fel­low and recip­i­ent of the 2014 William H. John­son Prize. She has worked for the Images Fes­ti­val of Film, Video & New Media, Inter­Ac­cess Elec­tronic Media Arts Cen­tre, the Cana­dian Women Stud­ies Jour­nal, the Liai­son of Inde­pen­dent Film­mak­ers of Toron­to, and Point of View Mag­a­zine. She fre­quently presents her research, writ­ings and art­works about the con­nec­tions between race, his­tory, and con­tem­po­rary arts pro­duc­tion in inter­na­tional pub­li­ca­tions, grad­u­ate sem­i­nars and aca­d­e­mic con­fer­ences in Human­i­ties dis­ci­plines in and out­side of the arts.  Recent writ­ings and art works have been pub­lished in Cana­dian Art (forth­com­ing), Towards an African-Cana­di­an Art His­tory: Art, Mem­ory, and Resis­tance (forth­com­ing), TOPIA: Cana­dian Jour­nal of Cul­tural Stud­ies, PUBLIC Jour­nal, North: New African Cana­dian Writ­ing — West Coast Line, and FRONT Magazine.

MANO’s staff includes direc­tor Ben Donoghue who pre­vi­ously served as exec­u­tive direc­tor at the Liai­son of Inde­pen­dent Film­mak­ers of Toron­to where in addi­tion to com­plet­ing major cap­i­tal and orga­ni­za­tional projects car­ried out four sig­nif­i­cant com­mis­sion­ing projects the largest involv­ing thir­ty artists. He has also worked on numer­ous books and peri­od­i­cals over his career includ­ing Explo­sion in The Movie Machine and MICE Mag­a­zine. MANO’s sec­ond staff mem­ber is Adri­ana Rossel­li who has worked as an admin­is­tra­tor for orga­ni­za­tions in mul­ti­ple dis­ci­plines includ­ing alu­Cine Film Fes­ti­val and Alu­na Theatre.

MANO itself has con­ducted three provin­cial and one nation­al media arts con­fer­ence includ­ing IMAA.ON.Fire in 2010, which host­ed 300 artists and cul­tural work­ers over five days of pro­gram­ming. MANO has exten­sive expe­ri­ence admin­is­ter­ing projects along­side its ongo­ing pro­grams and draws on a ded­i­cated board of 11 cul­tural work­ers from across Ontario, includ­ing some of the most expe­ri­enced in the field.
This is one of the 200 excep­tional projects fund­ed through the Cana­da Coun­cil for the Arts’ New Chap­ter pro­gram. With this $35M invest­ment, the Coun­cil sup­ports the cre­ation and shar­ing of the arts in com­mu­ni­ties across Canada.

Ce pro­jet est l’un des 200 pro­jets excep­tion­nels soutenus par le pro­gramme Nou­veau chapitre du Con­seil des arts du Cana­da. Avec cet investisse­ment 35 M$, le Con­seil des arts appuie la créa­tion et le partage des arts au cœur de nos vies et dans l’ensemble du Canada.