Call for Papers: "Creator"
M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture
http://www.api-network.com/mc/
Submission Deadline: 16 July 2001
Creators do not just 'create' or 'act' -- they are privileged agents,
points of origin, sources of innovation and transformation. Within
religious systems, creators can exist in an extra-discursive real beyond
nature and culture, functioning as the origin of the word and being. They
can be supernatural, existing outside nature to influence earthly events
via strange powers. They can also be 'supra' natural -- above nature --
capable of acts that both break and establish laws to which the created are
subject. Yet, these types of creators only seem to exist through the
cultural economies which allow their representation. Their roles and
personas can differ with the production, combination and utilisation of
selected characterisations: in other words, creators are created.
Cultural history shows their continual design. The Romantics invented the
author in the form of the creative artist-come-genius who is the originator
of unique artistic impulses conceived in accordance with his/her own laws.
Such creators seem peculiarly modern -- they are revered sources of the
innovation which continually pushes us beyond tradition, creating new
value. And when such value is debated, we can at least, according to some
existentialists and liberals, count on the ability of the authentic
individual to have the power to create him or her self.
But creators cannot be confined to the spheres of religion and art. In the
world of science, improving upon nature is often the preserve of the (mad?)
inventor. Scientific creators are capable of epic acts that command the
codes of nature in novel ways, even to the extent of mastery and the
creation of new life where we have moved from Frankenstein as a scientist
to Frankenstein as an ism.
The editors of "Creator" invite cultural interventions interpreting the
creator theme from a wide variety of angles. We welcome theoretical,
historical and contemporary perspectives. In particular, we encourage
contributions which identify the politics of creators and their creations.
Suggested topics include (but are by no means limited to): religion in
contemporary culture, New Age Gods within, Creationism vs. evolutionism,
etc; the authority and property rights of creators, including intellectual
property in an information age, the artist as star and cultural leader or
prophet; the economics of creation: the aura of the creator and the
construction of brand value (from fashion designers to star authors), the
patenting of inventions and information (including biosciences), the new
media authors and the creative (gift and commercial) economies of the
Internet, freeware, the mp3 saga, code poaching, etc; distinctions between
the creative artist, performance artist and artisan, creator and producer,
originals and copies, authentic and artificial; reconstructions of creators
(especially Gods, biographies or The Biography of God, making of
documentaries); individual creators and communal creation (e.g. directors
as creators of films, community art, anonymous art, festivals, carnivals,
galleries); myths of self-creation and social construction (from
entrepreneurs to criminals, baptism to reborn-agains); and minority
creators, countercultural creators, gendered creators.
Please email enquiries, abstracts and 1-2,000 word articles in MLA
style by 16 July 2001 to:
Guy Redden <g.redden@mailbox.uq.edu.au>
Jason Ensor <j.ensor@mailbox.uq.edu.au>
http://www.api-network.com/mc/
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