Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, present their 21st Annual Graduate Student Symposium on Friday, April 5, 2002:

RISK: Playing the Game

Risk denotes a decisive moment; an action exposing potential danger and uncertainty with resulting consequences. To be more specific, risk in the visual arts can be considered temporally, in the moment of conception, or alternatively, marked historically through its representation.

While we may see risk-taking in art production and art historical writing, its ramifications are generally registered well after the moment, as both artist and viewer assess the impact of the aesthetic gesture. Therefore, risk figures into practices of daily life, politics and public life, as decisions are made, endured and discourses emerge.

How then, is risk made visible?
Who takes risks and how have successes or failures been represented in the context of the visual arts?
What are the gains of risk and how are they calculated?
How do we talk about or perform risk today?

While there are different kinds of risks with varying consequences, we are particularly interested in papers that deal with artistic and aesthetic risk-taking. This includes conceptual, bodily and theoretical risks, as well as material objects in art and design. We encourage papers from all areas of visual culture regardless of time period.

A selection of papers may be considered for eventual publication in the department's peer-reviewed graduate journal, WRECK.

Please send your 250-500 word proposal in an e-mail attachment to ubc2002artconf@hotmail.com, by February 15, 2002. Please include a 50 word bibliographical note including your research interests. Also, be sure to include the name of your institution in addition to your contact information. We will notify successful applicants by February 28, 2002. Partial funding for travel may be available.