<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Walter Benjamin and the Virtual - cfp Transformations</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'><I>Transformations</I> is seeking abstracts for the following issue:<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
</SPAN></FONT><FONT SIZE="5"><FONT FACE="Garamond"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:18.0px'><B>Walter Benjamin and the Virtual: Politics, Art, and Mediation in the Age of Global Culture<BR>
</B></SPAN></FONT></FONT><FONT FACE="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:11.0px'><BR>
What does Walter Benjamin offer for critical thinking and creative practice in an age increasingly mediated by virtual technologies? <BR>
<BR>
Much Benjaminian scholarship proposes a Benjamin at best ambivalent to, and at worst, in recoil from modernity. Yet, recent critical thinkers such as Giorgio Agamben and Jean-Luc Nancy provide new possibilities in approaching the analysis of contemporary culture inspired by Benjamin's insights and arguments. These suggest innovative ways of reading and incorporating Benjamin, ways that re-engage an active configuration between politics, art, and representation in response to the shift from mass to global culture. <BR>
<BR>
Increasingly it seems possible to reconsider the role art can, and may be already playing, in such a configuration. This issue of Transformations seeks submissions that address these ideas. In the light of Benjamin's thought, and those who take that thought further, we want to look at what the concept of virtuality- the tendency in mediated contexts towards disembodied interactions and ways of being human-- does to Benjamin's ideas of politics, art, and media? <BR>
<B><BR>
Call for abstract</B>s: abstracts of 500 words due end of November 2006 <BR>
<B><BR>
Papers du</B>e: March 2007 <BR>
<B><BR>
Publicatio</B>n: mid 2007 <BR>
<B><BR>
Submission</B>s: Submissions should be sent to the<BR>
<B>Issue edito</B>r: John Grech, at <BR>
<FONT COLOR="#1800FF">John.M.Grech@alumni.uts.edu.a</FONT>u<BR>
Or alternatively, to the<BR>
<B>General edito</B>r: Warwick Mules at <BR>
<FONT COLOR="#1800FF">w.mules@cqu.edu.a</FONT>u<BR>
<BR>
Details can be found at the <I>Transformations </I>web site at<BR>
</SPAN><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'><a href="http://transformations.cqu.edu.au">http://transformations.cqu.edu.au</a><BR>
</SPAN><SPAN STYLE='font-size:11.0px'><BR>
<BR>
Regards<BR>
<BR>
Warwick<BR>
</SPAN><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'><BR>
----------------------------------------------------------------------------<BR>
Dr. Warwick Mules<BR>
General Editor, Transformations <a href="http://transformations.cqu.edu.au">http://transformations.cqu.edu.au</a><BR>
Senior Lecturer in Media and Cultural Studies<BR>
Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Education<BR>
Central Queensland University<BR>
Bundaberg Campus<BR>
Bundaberg Queensland 4670<BR>
Australia<BR>
<BR>
Adjunct Senior Lecturer<BR>
School of English, Media and Art History<BR>
University of Queensland<BR>
Australia<BR>
<BR>
Phone: 07 41507142<BR>
Fax: 07 41507090<BR>
Mobile: 0412292541<BR>
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------<BR>
</SPAN></FONT>
</BODY>
</HTML>