SPORTIVE PERFORMANCE: THE BODY AND TECHNOLOGY Area
2008 Film & History Conference
"Film & Science: Fictions, Documentaries, and Beyond"
October 30-November 2, 2008
Chicago, Illinois
www.filmandhistory.org
First-Round Deadline: November 1, 2007
AREA: Sportive Performance: The Body and Technology
Cinema has, at times, provided a window into moral questions about the extent to
which bodies are over-trained and pushed too hard in sport - and related areas
of physical activity - to the point where humanness risks being lost in the
obsession with measurable performance, victory, and perfect scores. This area
welcomes papers on films or filmic themes broadly related to sportive
performance, especially to how sporting bodies and technologies, or their
development, compete in the struggle between humanity and science. While
technology is often treated in film as a sign of necessary progress and its
inventors and applicators are lauded, humanity - perceived either individually
or collectively - often seems neglected in the quest for technological
enhancement and faster, better performance.
A range of themes is pertinent to this area, including drugs in sport, body
sculpting, sports training, cyborgs, ultra-violence, sports equipment and
design, the tension between science and nature in sportive performance, sport
and dystopia, gender shaping. The area is also open to papers discussing films
from a range of genres, including drama, action, biopics, science fiction,
horror, documentary, and comedy. Presenters might consider films like Personal
Best, The Program, Blood Sport, Pumping Iron, Hell on Wheels, The Natural, Like
Mike, Rollerball, Varsity Blues, and Gattaca.
Papers focusing on television series (from Bionic Man/Woman to Baywatch to Dark
Angel) or specific programs within a series are also welcome.
Please send your 200-word proposal by November 1, 2007 to
John Hughson, Chair of Sportive Performance Area
2008 Film & History Conference
School of Physical Education
University of Otago
PO Box 56
Dunedin, New Zealand
Phone: ++64(0)3479-8378
Email:
Panel proposals for up to four presenters are also welcome, but each presenter
must submit his or her own paper proposal. Deadline for first-round proposals:
November 1, 2007
This area, comprising multiple panels, is a part of the 2008 biennial Film &
History Conference, sponsored by The Center for the Study of Film and History.
Speakers will include founder John O'Connor and editor Peter C. Rollins (in a
ceremony to celebrate the transfer to the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh);
Wheeler Winston Dixon, author of Visions of the Apocalypse, Disaster and Memory,
and Lost in the Fifties: Recovering Phantom Hollywood; Emmy award-winning writer
and producer John Rubin; and special-effects legend Stan Winston, our Keynote
Speaker. For updates and registration information about the upcoming meeting,
see the Film & History website (http://www.filmandhistory.org
No comments:
Post a Comment