Academic Sessions: Glasgow 2010
AAH Annual Conference 2010
15 - 17 April, University of Glasgow
Atrocity Exhibitions: Re/Reading RE/Search
Session Convenors:
Patricia Allmer, MIRIAD, Manchester Metropolitan, University. P.Allmer@mmu.ac.uk
John Sears, MMU Cheshire. J.Sears@mmu.ac.uk
The avant-garde journal RE/Search, edited by V. Vale and published in San Francisco since 1980, has consistently explored the limits of cultural practices in relation to theories and traditions of artistic expression. Developing out of dada and surrealism and based on the surrealist call to explore the ‘irrational shadow of official culture’, RE/Search addresses contested and subversive aesthetic practices and cultural interventions. Its range of thematic and theoretical concerns (from Angry Women to Industrial Culture) defines the parameters of contemporary conceptions of the acceptable, the permissible and the desirable; its constant willingness to challenge conventions has made it a major feature of the theoretical landscape of contemporary art practice. RE/Search has furthermore been instrumental in promoting and analysing work by major contemporary artists and writers, including William Burroughs, Genesis P. Orridge, Gee Vaucher, Annie Sprinkle, Russ Meyer, Valie Export, and J. G. Ballard.
This session will mark the 30th anniversary of RE/Search and invited papers will address and re-read pertinent concerns and aspects of / related to the journal.
Speakers:
Michael Lucas (Associate Director, Arts Education Initiative, University of California)
RE/Search in Contexts
Professor Allen Fisher (Manchester Metropolitan University)
William S. Burroughs and Engaged Damage
Joanne Murray (Birkbeck College, University of London)
RE/Search and JG Ballard
Lauren Wetmore (Ontario College of Art & Design)
Mimetized Disasters: Exhibiting The Atrocity Exhibition
Matt Lodder (University of Reading)
The Myth of the Modern Primitive