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Tate Modern/Royal College of Art, London, March 14, 2013
Deadline: Nov 30, 2012

Global Pop Research Symposium

This research symposium at Tate Modern is part of a two-day event
exploring the many manifestations of ‘Global Pop’. Organised in
collaboration with the Royal College of Art, London, it will offer a
unique opportunity for scholars working in different fields and
geographies to develop new interpretations of ‘Pop’ in advance of The
World Goes Pop, a major exhibition opening at Tate Modern in summer
2015.

By exploring contemporaneous engagements with Pop throughout the globe
in the 1960s and 1970s, the exhibition will examine not only the
phenomenon in Western Europe and the US but also survey Pop
developments in Eastern Europe, Latin America, Asia, Africa and the
Middle East.

Of particular importance is the often critical nature of these global
engagements with Pop. Reacting to the increasing dominance of the
American post-war economy and media around the world, Pop art
sometimes took the form of a destabilizing reversal of the normative
messages associated with American culture and consumerism. This
dialectic was effectively and memorably put to use by feminists,
political groups and independence movements in order to simultaneously
critique the hegemony of the West while drawing on its aesthetic mass
appeal and graphic clarity.

To date, the history of Pop art has tended to affirm the hegemonic
position of New York and London. In an attempt to challenge the simple
linear trajectory of influence that has dominated most accounts, this
symposium will explore Pop beyond the mainstream and open the
definition of Pop to critical re-thinking.

We invite 20-minute presentations from academics, research students,
curators, artists and other professionals in relevant fields –
including art, design, architecture and social sciences– that focus on
global engagements with Pop. We particularly welcome papers that
propose ways to re-examine both the origins and socio-political
underpinnings of Pop or question its existence and significance as a
global ‘movement.’ This includes interrogations of how Pop might be
understood afresh and what the relation between Pop and ‘the popular’
could be, and what the relationship is between the commodity culture
of advanced capitalism and other forms of mass media.

Proposed themes include:

– What constitutes Pop art and what is its relationship to the
popular, propaganda and mass media?

– How did national traditions and differing social and political
contexts across the globe inform local manifestations of Pop art? How
did these manifestations cohere and/or differ from one another?

– How does Pop art reinforce or undermine conceptions of gender in
these different contexts?

– How does the concept of Pop art stand up to scrutiny once we
consider it in a global context?

– How could Pop art aestheticise commodity culture and yet be a tool
for political opposition? How can these two conditions co-exist in
different settings and to what extent do they influence or negate each
other?

– How did Pop art influence the language of architecture, design,
advertising and marketing and what are its most significant
manifestations?

– How can we define the reciprocal influence between Pop art and
manufacturing and technology, news media, and mass communication?

Please submit abstracts of up to 300 words together with a 100 word
biography by Friday 30 November 2012 to Anna Murray
contact : Anna[point]Murray[at]tate[point]org[point]uk

with CfP Global Pop Research Symposium in
the subject line.

source  : HArtHist