Published Issue 22 (2021-2022) "multi-"

Call for Papers. Junctures: The Journal for Thematic Dialogue, # 22: "multi-"

As the world around us becomes increasingly complex and as the tensions between technological advancement and environmental degradation increase, it is clear that solutions for a sustainable future are only going to be found through collaborative approaches that are open to paradigms and knowledge systems that are other than those that have sustained the status quo. This issue of Junctures invites contributions that reflect on how the notion of ‘multi-’ can prompt the ability to perceive the world in new ways, to reveal new truths that are hidden in plain sight, to make connections between seemingly unrelated phenomena, and to generate solutions. It also offers an opportunity for contributions that reflect on the notion of the ‘multiple’ in creative and other contexts, and its implicit democratising and enabling impulses.

Possible topics for discussion include – but are by no means limited to – the following:

• Multidisciplinary: the potential of multidisciplinary teams to create solutions for complex problems and to generate new insights is well understood as a management principle across a variety of sectors. Similarly, the value of a multidisciplinary approach in education to develop valuable transferable skills and form habits of lifelong learning has long been at the basis of an arts education. We welcome contributions that reflect on the successes, failings and learnings from multidisciplinary approaches and projects in educational and other settings.
• Multicultural: In an increasingly diverse and hyper-connected world the notion of multiculturalism has come to be understood as the necessary condition of any functional democracy. We encourage contributions that engage the notion of multiculturalism from both contemporary and historic viewpoint: whether as a normative argument for the recognition of diversity; an examination of the demographic realities and socio-cultural problematics of diversity in given contexts; the tensions between mono-/ or biculturalism and multiculturalism; the politics of nationalism and identity; the protection, promotion and preservation of minority cultures, etc.
• Multimedia: Multimedia – in the sense defined by Tay Vaughan in 1993 as “any combination of text, graphic art, sound, animation, and video that is delivered by computer”[1] – has become integral to the ways in which we engage with the world, from its use as a creative tool, to educational technologies, to entertainment and social media, to scientific research and beyond. We invite contributions that reflect on the potentialities and problematics of our hyperconnected world, and/or the variety of ways in which multimedia continues to expand, enrich and complicate our society, as well as future-focused engagement with virtual reality, augmented reality, artificial intelligence and the notion of a postliterate society. At the same time, we also encourage contributions that reflect on pre-electronic notions of multimedia, whether in the Wagnerian sense of the Gesammtkunstwerk or other manifestations of performance or performing art.
• Multiverse: Hugh Everett’s notion of the Multiverse, the idea that our universe is but one in an unimaginably vast collection of universes, has migrated from physics to become a standard trope of speculative fiction. In suggesting the possibility of parallel universes, it profoundly destabilises our understanding of ‘reality’, implying that identical universes and multiple selves can co-exist on parallel and sometimes even intersecting historical trajectories. We invite contributions that engage the possibilities of the multiverse, from artistic experiments that explore the limits of perception and cognition to the expanded possibilities of artificial intelligence and the problematics of fixed subjectivity.
• Multiple: In the visual arts, a multiple is an artwork of which many copies are produced. Since each copy is identical, none is considered original (or, paradoxically, they are all original). This tension between the original and the copy, the authentic and the inauthentic has long been a concern of artistic practice and theory, and raises profound questions about what constitutes value and for whom. We invite contributions that engage the question of the multiple from these and other viewpoints.

Junctures invites submissions from authors on these or other themes that engage the complexities, contradictions and coherences that underlie the notion of ‘multi-’. In the interests of highlighting the resonances and disturbances of dialogue and given the multivalence of the theme, we encourage discussion across boundaries, whether disciplinary, geographic, cultural, social, or economic.

With New Zealand and the Asia-Pacific region as a backdrop – but not its only stage –Junctures seeks to address the matters which concern us all as we negotiate the contemporary environment. In addition to discursive academic articles, Junctures accepts narratives, commentaries and interventions that sit outside conventional academic contexts.

• Call for expressions of interest/submission of abstracts close on 14 April 2022. Please submit a title and abstract (maximum 500 words) accompanied by a short biography including your current institutional affiliation.
• Confirmations: we will let you know by 27 April 2022 if your abstract has been accepted
• Deadline for accepted submissions: 10 June 2022. There is a 4,000-word limit for feature articles. Please enquire about submission guidelines for other formats.

For more information or submissions please contact the editors:
Federico Freschi (Federico.freschi@op.ac.nz) and Ron Bull (ron.bull@op.ac.nz)
or junctures@op.ac.nz

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[1] Vaughan, Tay, 1993, Multimedia: Making It Work, Osborne/McGraw-Hill, Berkeley, p. 3

 

Published 10 November 2023