GoingToMeet

Closing dates of applications as well as for abstracts: 2008-06-11.

We have entered a time of highly technological warfare, where over half of the world’s research and development is now military and an ongoing revolution in military affairs (RMA) is changing the rules and weapons that will be used to define our common futures in a global society. Yet most of the public are getting their information on the implications of these developments, not from learned scientific or technological treatise but from the media, film, literature, computer games and simulations. The way that war is imaged varies considerably between artists, scientists, urban geographers, media theorists and indeed between generations.

Given the controversies which form our daily news about the “War on Terror” and the projected need to give up our traditional human rights and civil liberties, it is essential that we understand the role of the war imagers and their critics. There are many lenses to tell the story, including political, PR and weapons procurement; media journalism (which leaves out as much as it includes), games, stories, and literature. This conference will explore what these various cultures are saying to each other and how organised knowledge systems, scenarios and stories are used to legitimate or deconstruct new paradigms on war and its consequences.

The conference seeks to explore dissonance and common ground between the image builders and the image consumers; the weapons manufacturers and the story tellers; the politicians and the children. Given its timeliness and originality, we anticipate a wide audience for such an event and are seeking to include as many of the relevant dimensions of the topic as possible. We also wish to encourage different generations to participate.