Creative Counter-Memorializations:
A Symposium/Gathering in Kjipuktuk (Halifax)

November 24th - 27th 2022

Collaborative Counter-Memorialization in Creative, Curatorial, and Pedagogical Practices

The Counter-Memory Activism research cluster (CMA) invites artists, activists, scholars, and museologists to participate in Creative Counter-Memorializations: A Symposium/Gathering. The event will take place in Kjipuktuk (Halifax, Nova Scotia), blending virtual and in-person presentations. We are seeking both artistic, and regular or alternative scholarly responses to difficult and contested histories. The symposium is open to all forms of stories and modes of expression that challenge dominant national narratives and traditional institutional conventions, especially those that engage with legacies of settler-colonialism.

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Submissions may explore, but are not limited to, the following:

Memory activism and difficult heritage

Critical commemoration and counter-monumentality 

Critical curation, horizontal museology, and pedagogies of witnessing

Alternative cartographies

Research-creation and counter-memory

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How can collaboration and community-engagement activate unmarked sites of difficult history? How do co-creators become memory activists, creating work that unsettles our relationship to difficult heritage?  How might this activism engage with the presentation of archival materials and data visualization? Might the binaries of presence and absence be reinterpreted through collaborative processes that encourage and illustrate the active processes of memory, memorialization, and erasure? If local ecosystems are the source of knowledge, evidence, and data about past violence, how can we make them visible through experimental cartography and other forms of studio research? Might new technologies accessed through mobile media devices offer opportunities for the public to participate in the creation and engagement of virtual counter-memorials? What methodologies can be developed for collaborative processes between artists, scholars, curators, and the public?

Presentation Options

Artist Talks: A presentation of your work as a visual artist, practitioner, performer, etc.

Short Film and Video: Screening of a short film, video, or other audio-visual material. The screening may be followed by a Q&A with moderators and audience members.

Performance or Performance-Lecture: Live or pre-recorded performances or presentations. These may be followed by a period of exchange with moderators and audience members.

Papers: Presentation of academic and/or scholarly work. We welcome submissions from     independent researchers and those unaffiliated with formal education institutions, and encourage all presenters to deliver talks that are accessible to a broad audience (for instance, using appropriate, comprehensible language).  

Panels: Panels consist of a Panel Chair and 3+ Panelists brought together to present their work individually under a common theme, followed by a discussion. It is understood that the form will be filled out by the Panel Chair, so include confirmed and/or tentative Panelists in your submission. Panels will be allotted approximately an hour of time: please indicate if you expect to require more time.

Workshops: Interactive sessions that involve teaching, learning, and exchange between the Workshop Facilitator(s) and participants. In your submission, please indicate how the workshop will be facilitated. Workshops will be allotted approximately an hour of time: please indicate if you expect to require more or less time.

Other Works: Presentation of other work such as poetry, storytelling, song, narrative-based works, and formats that cannot be captured in the above categories. You can propose the presentation of completed work, in-progress work, or new work.

Deadlines

There is no cost to apply. All artists presenting work will be compensated according to the 2022 CARFAC rates. Students, independent researchers, and those who are precariously employed are also invited to indicate if they would like to be considered for a maximum travel bursary of $500.00 CAD (subject to change). Successful applicants will be notified no later than March 1st, 2022.  

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Review Committee

Aggrey Agwata, NSCAD University, Graduate Student

Angela Henderson, NSCAD University, Assistant Professor

Dr. Carla Taunton, NSCAD University, Associate Professor

Dr. Dorota Glowacka, University of King's College, Professor

Dr. Karin Cope, NSCAD University, Associate Professor

Kayla Rudderham, NSCAD University, Graduate Student
Sydney Wreaks, NSCAD University, Graduate Student

Lucy Boyd, University of King’s College, Undergraduate Student

Dr. Sarah Clift, University of King's College, Associate Professor

Solomon Nagler, NSCAD University, Professor