The editors of Open Set are seeking submissions for an upcoming issue dedicated to the political, ethical, historical, and aesthetic implications of abstraction’s divergence from representation. We are particularly interested in papers that explore the potentials of seeing abstraction at work across a wide-range of cultural activities and geographies and that re-think histories of artistic abstraction as a way to better track key changes to ordinary life in the late-twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Potential sites of ordinary abstraction include embodiment, finance and money, labor, networked technologies, collectivity and individuality.

While we seek histories and theories of abstraction seen in relation to political issues such as race, gender, sexuality, disability, and technology, we are also interested in papers that focus on abstraction’s resistance to any sort of instrumentalization. We will consider both completed essays (including scholarly studies, artist statements, interviews and reviews, between 2500 and 5000 words) and proposals for essays (500 words).

The deadline for submission of proposals is June 30 and for complete essays is July 15.

Please send either essays or proposals, along with a one-page CV to [email protected]