The Université de Montréal Arts and Medias colloquium

The Université de Montréal Arts and Medias colloquium was initiated in 2013 by Art History students and progressively opened itself to new disciplines. It offers the opportunity to familiarize oneself with scientific communication, for participants and the audience, in a democratic environment. The committee invites graduate and undergraduate students to explore the 2020 theme: space.

Space is a subject often explored in many disciplines through many lenses. The feminist geographer Doreen Massey (2005) questions the idea of space as flat, internal and given surface upon which we move ourselves. She develops the idea of power geometry to underline the importance of thinkins space as the product of interrelations, as a dynamic sphere continuously constructed and composed of multiple trajectories. From a phenomenological point of view, Sara Ahmed (2006) views space as not external to bodies, but as a sort of second skin “ that unfolds in the folds of the body “ (Ahmed 2006). In game studies, Johan Huizinga (1951) develops the idea of a “magic circle”, a game space theoretically circumscribed but whose boundaries are constantly reinstated in discussions (Arsenault & Perron 2009 ; Deterding 2009 ; Stenros 2012).

Building on this scientific richness of space as a conceptual matrix, the 2020 Arts et Médias colloquium proposes three non-exhaustive thematic axes to explore the question:

Imagined spaces: 

  • Representation and construction of space (artistic techniques, identifications, subjet/object relations)
  • Fictional space (diegetic/non-diegetic, heterotopias, utopias)
  • Sensorial space (installations, immersive spaces, virtual reality) • Space and the universe (The unfathomable, the beyond, overcoming boundaries, the sacred)

Inhabited spaces: 

  • The idea of home (home, workshop, immigration, private and public)
  • The use of space (social use, agency, articulation of space, lieu and non-lieu, museum space, performance)
  • Dematerialisation of space (The digital age, transpositions, the virtual)
  • Displacement (Geolocalisation, mobility of bodies, artistic residencies)

Contested spaces: 

  • The occupation of space (colonization, decolonization, struggles and representations)
  • Disciplinarization of space (surveillance, apparatuses)
  • Appropriations of space (feminist, queer, safe space, merchandization of space, transhistorical revisions)
  • Circulation of images (algorithms, big data, consent, copyright)