Artist Keynote Address and Performance by Quartet Collective

March 29 – 30, 2013

Stony Brook Manhattan

The sixth annual Philosophy and The Arts Conference at SUNY, Stony Brook Manhattan will focus on the relationships between soundscapes and territories, and their socio-political, ontological, ethical, and institutional implications. The traffic and noise of Manhattan determines a rhythm in the daily life of a New Yorker. Identities and communities are constantly being delimited by a person’s dialect or accent. One of the publicized aspects of Occupy Wall Street was the “human microphone.” Bird songs delineate mating territories or the encroachment of predators. Erik Satie once defined his sonic arrangements as ‘furniture music.’ These are all instances of soundscapes and their relationships to institutions of power and multiple networks of the material conditions of life. Understanding sound as an integral aspect of the formation of space, place, and territory, we invite papers and artworks (including digital media, performance, and installation) that consider of a range of questions, including (but not limited to) the following:

• Technology and Sound: Human technologies of sound disorient, disrupt, and displace certain territories and migratory patterns. What are the ethics of human beings’ acoustic relationships with nature and other animals? How do emerging sound technologies affect the environment?

• Urban Planning and Architecture: In what ways are subjects affected by the soundscape of their given location (e.g., city or rural suburbs)? How do Design/Architecture/Urban Planning wield sound to establish a pace or rhythm of life?

• Language and Politics: What are the relationships between language and sound? How do language and accent play a role in the production of borders and the marginalization (economic, racial, etc.) of communities? How does sound manifest as a form of power?

• Ethics and Embodiment: What happens when we challenge occularcentric notions of embodiment? How are rhythm, dance, movement, and choreography linked to sound and the temporal dimensions of embodiment?

• Mood, Music and Film: How does sound establish mood? How has the scoring of music contributed to developments in film and other forms of art?

• Memory: Consider phenomenological, psychological, or biological analyses of the relationship between sound and memory – how does sound facilitate or frustrate memory?

SUBMISSIONS: 

We welcome the submission of both original academic papers and of artwork for exhibition or performance from graduate students across disciplines. All submissions should be formatted for blind review and suitable for a 20-minute presentation (approximately 3000 words or 8-11 pages). Please visit the Philosophy and the Arts Conference website at http://www.philosophyartconference.org for complete submission instructions, as well as information on past conferences and updates on this year’s events. All submissions must be received by January 13th, 2013. Submitters will be notified of the committee’s decision regarding their work via email no later than February 7th, 2013. The conference and exhibition will take place at Stony Brook Manhattan, 101 East 27th Street, 3rd Floor, New York, NY, 10016. Contact conference coordinators Timothy Cuffman and Jose Rosales at philosophyartconference@gmail.com.