Book Live! international symposium
A two days International symposium and related live events at London South Bank University 8th – 9th June 2012 – a collaboration between the Centre for Media and Cultural Research (CMCR) at LSBU and bookRoom Research Cluster at UCA Farnham, co-Chaired by Richard Sawdon Smith and Emmanuelle Waeckerlé.
The event brings together theorists, researchers and practitioners to stimulate a dialogue across disciplines on the ability of the book to keep up with digital culture and the emergence of new modes of writing, of photographing, of reading, or archiving and of disseminating ‘on the page’ work. The purpose of this conference is to examine the current ‘transforming’ and ‘expanding’ of the book rather than its virtual disintegration.
The conference will include international guest speakers from the broader world of publishing, photography and experimental writing as well as short presentations of book works and a series of live experimental and durational ‘readings’.
The two keynote speakers are Joan Fontcuberta (photographer, artist and all-round critic of contemporary culture from Barcelona) and Sharon Helgason Gallagher (founder and director of D.A.P and ARTBOOK in New York). There is a performance of the full twelve hours of John Cage’s Empty Words (first published in1979 by Wesleyan University Press) by Sylvia Alexandra Schimag (Germany), coinciding with the release of the complete recording by Editions Wandelweiser.
With contributions from in (alphabetic order)
Andrej Blatnik (SVN), Sarah Bodman (UK), Marco Bohr (UK), Daniela Cascella (UK), Amanda Couch (UK), Arnaud Desjardin (UK), Joan Fontcuberta (SP) , Matt Hulse & Barnaby Dicker (UK), Annabel Frearson (UK), Sharon Helgason Gallagher (US), Peter Jaeger (UK), Paul Jeff & Laura Jenkins (UK), Susan Johanknecht & Katharine Meynell (UK), Marcus Kaiser (GER),, Sharon Kivland & Nick Thurston (UK), Didier Mathieu (FRA), Romi Mikulinsky (AUS), Christoph Nicolas (GER), Paula Roush (UK) & Maria Lusitano (SWE), Mark Sanderson (UK), Sylvia Alexandra Schimag (GER), Andreas Schmidt (UK), David W. Speck (UK), Seekers of Lice (UK), Paul Soulellis (US), Stefan Szczelkun (UK), Rahel Zoller (UK)
Beyond the conference we are bringing together papers and other contributions as a publication in its own right; an interesting survey of current thinking and innovative practice informed by both the themes and the findings of the conference. The Book is Alive !,edited and designed by bookRoom press, and published by RGAP.