"Breaking up Time: Settling the Borders Between the Present, the Past and the Future," Albert Ludwigs Universität Freiburg, April 7–9, 2011.

Sponsored by Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies and School of History. Since the birth of modernity history has presupposed the existence of ‘the past’ as its object, yet the concept of ‘the past’ and the distinction between the categories of ‘the past’, ‘the present’ and ‘the future’ have seldom been reflected upon within the boundaries of the discipline. Indeed the question of time has largely been omitted from the agenda of history. We feel that it is about time for historians and philosophers of history to start to analyze how cultures in general and historians in particular actually distinguish ‘the past’ from ‘the present’ and ‘the future’, and how their interrelationships are constructed: is distinguishing between past, present and future simply a matter of passively ‘recognizing’ or ‘observing’, what is ‘natural’ and ‘undeniable’, or does it involve a more active stance in which social actors create and recreate these divisions? Can we claim to know precisely how ‘present’ social and cultural phenomena turn into (or come to be perceived/recognized as) past phenomena? It seems worthwhile to make a connection between the historical and the philosophical debates about the temporal distinctions between ‘past’, ‘present’ and ‘future’. What have so far been lacking are comparative analyses of the variety of ways in which historians and historical actors have been breaking up time in practice. Both historians and philosophers have emphasized the role played by catastrophic political ruptures, for example revolutions and major wars, in ‘breaking up time’. However, the effects of these ‘transformative events’ on notions of temporality have hardly been studied in a comparative perspective and as ‘performative’ events. ‘Year 1’ in the French Revolution and ‘Stunde Null’ in post-1945 Germany probably are two of the most well known examples of this type of event in ‘the past’, but the end of the Cold War in 1990 may be considered as the most ‘epoch making’ event in ‘the present’. The workshop solicits papers which focus on (preferably two) ‘transformative events’ and compare the ways in which they have recalibrated thinking about the relationship between the ‘past’, ‘present’ and ‘future’. The temporal framework of the workshop covers classical and high modernity, that is: from 1789 until today. As to the spatial framework the workshop is subdivided in three clusters: 1. Europe; 2. Europe and its colonies; 3.Europe and non-colonial ‘outer-Europe’. Please send proposals of maximum 500 words before 15 September 2010 to Chris Lorenz (chris.lorenz@frias.uni-freiburg.de) and Berber Bevernage (berber.bevernage@ugent.be). You will be notified about the acceptance of your contribution and the preliminary program in early November 2010.FRIAS will reimburse accommodation and travel costs of the participants. Papers submitted to the workshop will be considered for publication. Confirmed participants include: Lynn Hunt (University of California, Los Angeles) François Hartog (École des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris) Constantin Fasolt (University of Chicago) Sebastian Conrad (European University Institute, Florence) Peter Osborne (Middlesex University, London) Aziz Al-Azmeh (Central European University, Budapest) Lucian Hölscher (Ruhr-Universität Bochum) Peter Fritzsche (University of Illinois) For more information see website: http://www.frias.uni-freiburg.de/history/veranstaltungen/PresentPastFuture

"Time in Culture: Mediation and Representation," Centre of Excellence in Cultural Theory, University of Tartu, October 28-30, 2010.

This year the international autumn conference of the Centre of Excellence in Cultural Theory (CECT) focuses on the topic of time as a category which, in every respect, touches upon human gency and entity. Issues of past, present, future and the culture of history (time) are symptomatic to our era. This topic also enables us to intertwine the viewpoints of the different disciplines of cultural research. The autumn conference aims at critical and reflexive discussions on the tendencies of how time functions within culture. An additional starting point would be the ways different media construct time within the framework of private, institutional, group specific, etc., interests. The points of departure for discussion would be the following interconnected aspects of the construction and representation of time/temporality: • The mediality and intertextuality of time; specific genres of mediating time, their sociocultural, technical, etc., development; • Agency, private and public aspects in the production and reception of temporality; empowerment and domination in the construction of temporality; • Institutional (museum, archive, school, church, etc.) and group specific usage of time and its means of mediation; • The domain of the category of time in social and culture studies; the concept and discussion of time in different disciplines and approaches; how we use concepts based on time to define our objects of study, how the times on object- and meta-levels are related. The keynote speakers are Eviatar Zerubavel (Rutgers University, USA), Gunther Kress (University of London, UK) and Carmen Leccardi (University of Milan-Bicocca, Italy). The aim of the conference is to dislocate the established academic borderlines and – focusing on the consciousness of time in culture – encourage research that leads to presentations employing the possibilities of several disciplines. Joint presentations by researchers from different research fields are preferred. Please send the abstract of your presentation (200–500 words) by June 15, 2010, to cect@ut.ee. Selected papers based on conference presentations will be published in the CECT compendium. For additional information, email: Monika Tasa, cect@ut.ee. Visit the CECT home page: http://www.ut.ee/CECT.

Cfp: "time • transcendence • performance," School of English, Communications and Performance Studies, Monash University, October 1-3, 2009.

Call for Papers, Presentations and Performances The number of motion in respect of before and after? Irrecuperable diachrony of pure passingness? Reversible? Relative? Real? Living present? Original transcendence? Structure of consciousness? The various Western philosophical traditions have, since their inception, continuously attempted to grapple with the question of time, but still, the problems remain unsolved, the paradoxes tangled, the contradictions unsettled. Performers and artists understand time as an essential dimension of their media. Many contemporary artists foreground the temporal as a theme in their practice and making. Movements, rhythms, bodies, sounds, objects, experiences, memories, dreams, imaginings and dwellings are recorded, performed and activated in their duration, moment, event and passing. time transcendence performance brings together the expertise and experiences of scholars and artists in a format that permits the thinking and doing of time with an aim towards mutual elucidation. Drawing together papers, panels, diverse performance practices, exhibitions, installations, screenings and workshops, this transdisciplinary conference and inter-media event initiates a global discussion, investigation and critique of temporality in its performative, phenomenological and transcendental dimensions. The tangible consequences of this cross-fertilisation offers promise for researchers, scholars and artists alike. To begin this gathering and discussion, this conference invites presenters across discourses, disciplines and media, questioning and emphasising the taken for granted yet complex and mysterious phenomenon of time. Confirmed Keynote Speakers include: Professor Andrew Benjamin (Monash University, Australia) Professor Alphonso Lingis (Emeritus, Penn State University, US) Dr Erin Manning (Research Chair, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada) Professor Brian Massumi (Université de Montreal, Canada) Associate Professor Ian Maxwell (The University of Sydney, Australia) Assistant Professor Lanei Rodemeyer (Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, US) Professor Anthony J Steinbock (Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, US) Draft Program of Events 1-2 October – Key Note Speakers (4), papers, panels, presentations, ongoing screenings, exhibition at Caulfield Campus, Monash University 1-2 October – Workshops, practice-based research at DanceHouse, Carlton 3 October – Key Note Speakers (3), showings and performances Evening 1 October – Messianic Dinner Installation (outside); screenings Evening 2 October - Guided temporal walk through City; screenings Evening 3 October – Closing Reception Bohemian Ball - live music and performances, City location Proposals are invited in, but not limited to, the following categories: 1. Paper Presentation (20 mins) 2. Panel Presentation (1 Hour) 3. Discussion Group (I Hour max) 4. Workshop for conference participants 5. Practice based research with showing 6. Performance or performative event 7. Exhibition of solo or group work 8. Screenings 9. Installations 10. New media work (subject to own technical provision) 11. On-line presentation Proposals are invited on - not limited to - the following suggested areas from any discipline. Papers, presentations, performances will be considered on any related theme. • temporalities of performance • the temporalization of time • time-based performance • time as performance • performing the past • presenting, awaiting, remembering • memory • body as a site for/of transcendence • the performance of the everyday • time as transcendence • performative transcendences • the infinite • the problem of immediacy • being in the moment • audience temporalities • diachrony • digital time • time and realism • flow • rhythm • time and movement • change • kinaesthetic temporality • death and finitude • time and place • revelation, creation and redemption • the transcendental ground of time • the actual and the possible • messianic time • kairos and chronos • the fullness of time • the right time • ripeness • the now • being here • passing • birth, growth, senescence, decay • present and presencing • duration • the present expanse • endurance • time and violence • in god’s time • time and technology • mediated time • lost time • boredom • durational performance • ectstasis • irreal time • world time Submission Guidelines for Papers and Presentation Proposals Email abstracts and presentation proposals to: ttp2009@arts.monash.edu.au; For further information, visit: http://arts.monash.edu.au/drama-theatre/conferences/ttp/2009.

Cfp: "Looking Back on the End of Time: 1890-1910," University of East Anglia, September 4, 2009.

Around the turn of the twentieth century many artists, writers, philosophers and scientists, conducted conversations and debates about the nature of time. Developments in science, technology, and society seemed to necessitate a radical review of the nature, perhaps even the existence, of time. In 1908 the physicist Herman Minkowski announced that ‘space by itself, and time by itself, are doomed to fade away, and only a kind of union of the two will preserve an independent reality’. The philosopher J. M. E. McTaggart did not even wait for time to fade away but declared in the same year that it was ‘unreal’. Nevertheless, more than a hundred years have (apparently) gone by. Did time change forever a century ago? How did the ways in which people think about time change? How did the ways that writers and artists represent time change? Did these developments alter our understanding of space? How can the changes be related to their historical context? How have they been understood and represented since? Is there a distinctively ‘modernist’ version of time, and what is its status today? Can science, philosophy, and the arts talk to each other about time, or do they each have their own times? We invite proposals for twenty-minute papers from the fields of English studies, American studies, philosophy, history of science, history of art, and others, on topics relating to the conceptualisation and representation of time a century ago. Whilst the period 1890-1910 focuses our attention on specific developments in the history of science and philosophy, we welcome papers that discuss any subsequent responses to these ideas. Examples might include: - Einsteinian physics, and its appropriation by novelists, poets, occultists, and mystics; - Henri Bergson’s concept of durée, the hyperspace theories of Charles Howard Hinton and Claude Bragdon , the writing of de Noircarme; - The literary responses of authors such as James Joyce, May Sinclair, Gertrude Stein, H. G. Wells, and Wyndham Lewis to revisions in our understanding of time; - The emergence of scientific romance and science fiction as genres, time travel in fiction and film; - The influence of developments in science and geometry on art movements such as Cubism and Futurism; - Has time recovered from McTaggart’s assault? For further information, visit: http://endoftimeatuea.wordpress.com/.