The conference VISUAL WORLDS: THE AESTHETICS AND POLITICS OF AFFECT will bring together international scholars from diverse fields of the humanities such as literary studies, cultural studies, film studies, material culture studies, and social science to discuss interdisciplinary and cross-cultural approaches to visually immersive social and cultural environments (media, urban settings, virtual reality, performance, and digital culture).
Discussions will address the challenges related to new forms of visuality in everyday life, social, academic and urban environments, from a critical positioning informed by affect theory. Latest trends raise serious questions: How has the nature of visual experience changed, turning spectatorship into a new sensory experience that exceeds the optical? How far can the simulative drive go? Why is contemporary society investing so much money and effort to produce hyper-images which are impossible to distinguish from actual reality? How do people watch websites, TV series, telenovelas, commercials, video games?
The conference aims at setting up an international network of scholars working on various aspects of visual culture to stimulate state-of-the art research, to facilitate meaningful knowledge exchange among partners and transnational cooperation in the field of higher education, and work on future joint project VIEW (Visual Innovative Educational Worlds).
3rd June, Saturday beginning at 9.00 AULA, then rm. 243 Rectorate Bldg
4th June, Sunday, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. rm. 29, Faculty of Journalism Bldg
Further info (program. abstracts) at the conference site: