Urban popcultures

Call for Presentations

4th Global Conference

Saturday 10th May – Monday 12th May 2014

Lisbon, Portugal

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This inter- and multi-disciplinary conference aims to examine, explore and critically engage with issues related to urban life. The project will promote the ongoing analysis of the varied creative trends and alternative cultural movements that comprise urban popcultures and subcultures. In particular the conference will encourage equally theoretical and practical debates which surround the cultural and political contexts within which alternative urban subcultures are flourishing.

Presentations, papers, performances, reports, work-in-progress, workshops and pre-formed panels are invited on issues related to any of the following themes:

1. Urban Space and the Landscape of the City

Urban Aesthetics and Architecture, Creative Re-imagining and Revitalization of the City. The Metropolis and Inner City Life: Urban Boredom vs. Creativity.

2. The City as Creative Subject/Object

Urban Life and Urban Subculture Considered in Music, Art, Film and Videogames. Urban Fashion and Style. Urban Visual Styles, Street Art, Graffiti and Tagging. City Festivals.

3. Urban Codes

Alternative Popular Culture and Ideology, Politics of Alternative Popcultures, Alternative Ethics of the City. Urban Religion and Religious Expressions. The Language and Urban Slang. The Avantgarde and Urban Codes.

4. Alternative Music Cultures

Histories, Representations, Discourses and Independent Scenes. Popular Music Theory. Cultural and Social Aspects of Clubbing and Scenes. Being Alternative as a “religion”: Sub-cultures of Indie Rock and Post-Punk, Hip Hop, Rap, Electronica, Dark Wave Scenes – Post-Gothic.

5. Queer Theory and Urban Alternative Cultures

Gendered Music and Fashion. The Role of the City in Gendered Freedom and Libertine Lifestyles.

Pride Parades and Festivals.

6. City making the Fashion Styles

Identity Creation. Style and Branding. Politics of Cool. Pretties, Freaks and Uglies.

7. Visions of Alternative Sound Cultures in Massmedia

The Role of Internet Radio. The Visual Aspects of Alternative Entertainment. The Evolution of Music Television. Urban Alternative Styles and Extreme Sports.

8. Urban Alternative Cultures and Online World

Urban Identity and Global/Glocal Membership. Globalisation/Localisation and Access to the Alternative Music and Clubbing Experience. Current Models of Music Distribution. Music Piracy – Copyright/Copyleft/Creative Commons. The Role of Internet and Prosumer in the Transformation of Music Industry.

In order to support and encourage interdisciplinarity engagement, it is our intention to create the possibility of starting dialogues between the parallel events running during this conference. Delegates are welcome to attend up to two sessions in each of the concurrent conferences. We also propose to produce cross-over sessions between two and possibly all three groups – and we welcome proposals which deal with the relationship between Teenagers, visual culture, and/or urban popcultures, subcultures and/or storytelling.

What to send:

300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 6th December 2013 If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 14th March 2014. 300 word abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word or RTF formats with the following information and in this order:

a) author(s), b) affiliation as you would like it to appear in programme, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract, f) up to 10 keywords.

E-mails should be entitled: Urban Popcultures 4 Abstract Submission.

Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.

Organising Chairs

Daniel Riha: rihad@inter-disciplinary.net

Rob Fisher: up4@inter-disciplinary.net

The conference is part of the ‘Critical Issues’ programme of research projects. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and exciting. All papers accepted for and presented at this conference are eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be invited to go forward for development into a themed ISBN hard copy volume.

Details on the conferences running alongside this project in 2014 can be found here: Storytelling and Teenagers and Contemporary Visual Culture

Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a not-for-profit network and we are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel or subsistence.