Water : Image
4th – 6th July 2012
Conference to celebrate the 10th year of summer symposia organised by Land/Water and the Visual Arts
Plymouth University, UK
Heidi Morstang, Jem Southam, Liz Wells

Keynote speaker: Prof Deborah Bright

www.landwater-research.co.uk

Core Themes
Place
Poetics
Politics
Materiality

What is water?

From salt water to holy water, there is a long history of art referencing water in its many dimensions, locations and states. Imagery may explore water as substance, make metaphoric allusion, or engage debates relating to the geographies and socio-politics of water. Artists may have deep personal relationships with particular waters, or more documentary concerns with water needs and uses.

Water means life. In an era of climate change, debates about water, its availability and significance range across a number of academic fields. This conference will focus on water in its many states and circumstances, wherever it flows, floods, freezes, stagnates or evaporates. It will bring together artists/academics in lens-based and related fields of enquiry internationally, offering inter-disciplinary opportunities to share research, whether practice-led, art historical, geographic, theoretical or curatorial.

Themes and questions might include, but are not restricted to: - • Practitioners responding to and representing material aspects of water as a substance capable of many states, from the frozen to steam and vapour?
• Water as related to ecology, process, boundaries, the liminal and the transitional, physical geography and environmental change?
• Cultural geographies and the politics of water and place?
• Psychological and phenomenological perceptions and expressivity.
• Narratives, histories, memories and journeys.

Proposals for papers or presentations The conference organisers welcome proposals for individual lectures (historical, theoretical or critical appraisals of contemporary practices), presentation and critical reflection on your own practice, or panels on a chosen theme led by a moderator.

Proposals for talks or papers should take the form of:
• Abstract (maximum 300 words in English)
• Title in the original language and in English
• 5 key-words
• Your name, address, phone, email, institutional affiliation and title/status
• Brief biographical summary (maximum 100 words)

Proposals for panels:
• Abstract
• List of participants (normally no more than four including the moderator)
• Title in the original language and in English
• 5 key-words
• Moderator’s name, address, phone, email
• Brief biographical summaries and institutional affiliation/status (maximum 50 words per participant) Proposals for practice presentations including screenings should include:
• Portfolio (10/12 images, or 2/3 minutes of moving image/film/video extracts)
• Artist/image-maker statement
• Title in the original language and in English
• Artist name, address, institutional affiliation, title and email address
• Brief biographical summary (maximum 100 words)

Abstracts due: February 15th 2012, midday to
artsresearch@plymouth.ac.uk
Notification to authors: mid-March, 2012

All proposals will be peer reviewed by the conference advisory panel. The decision of the conference organisers is final.

Publication of papers Selected papers will be e-published at Land/Water and the Visual Arts website. The conference organisers ask presenters to ensure that their paper is original and has not been presented/published elsewhere. (Authors are responsible for obtaining permission for use of images and other copyright materials.)

Conference arrangements
For full details of conference fees, accommodation, and related events, and also the research group for Land/Water and the Visual Arts,
www.landwater-research.co.uk - events
For information about Plymouth University, www.plymouth.ac.uk
For information about the City of Plymouth and the South West of England,
www.plymouth.gov.uk/tourismandvisitors