The Department of Audio and Visual Arts of the Ionian University organizes a two-day interdisciplinary conference with theoretical and artwork presentations under the theme of “Taboo - Transgression - Transcendence”, focusing on questions about the nature of the forbidden and the liminal as expressed in science and art.
Since the beginning of time, taboo has traced the edges of experience. As with Icarus, whose excitement made him forget the restrictions of his man-made wings leading to his fall towards death, humans have always been regulated by a set of rules defining the borders of knowledge and experimentation. What constitutes the limits of the accepted, however, has to be read within the ethical horizons of a specific time frame. It is not uncommon that what seems outrageously transgressive in one moment, can eventually transcend to a commonplace practice.
Limits are continuously put to test as contemporary scientific experimentation pushes forward our idea of the world, in quest for answers but also for solutions allowing us to overcome the problems present in our lives. Progress in fields such as the human genome editing, the creation of cyborgs and any human-like artificial intelligence, are only few examples presently generating double-edged questions on the nature of humanity. One could easily recall Dr. Frankenstein, whose ambition to solve the mystery of life and death ends up revealing the threshold of control between creator and creation. As we experience a gradual, but substantial, de-centering from the humanistic values, scientific experimentation bears potential turmoil; its advances are essentially stretching the borders of our experience of the world and ourselves, mostly revealing the fragility of social values.
Abstract submission
Proposals are submitted for consideration by the members of the scientific & artistic committee. Each proposal should include an abstract (which should be no more than 500 words), presentation title, author(s) name(s), affiliation(s), e-mail address(es) and up to 5 keywords. Submissions must be sent electronically through easychair: avfest2016. The working languages of the conference are Greek and English.
Information for presenters
Once accepted, a draft presentation, a short biography and the electronic presentation file will be requested for submission by author(s) before the conference start date. Contributions must not exceed a 20 minutes presentation time, allowing another 10 minutes for further discussion. Facilities include typical audiovisual equipment for electronic presentations (PC, video projector and stereo speakers). The conference proceedings will be published in digital format (e-Book) with ISBN number. Paper formatting instructions will be provided to the presenting authors together with the conference folder.
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