MeCCSA Annual Conference

The 2018 Annual MeCCSA Conference will be hosted from 10—12 January 2018 by the School of Arts & Creative Industries, London South Bank University.

The theme of the MeCCSA 2018 conference is Creativity and Agency. ‘Creativity’ is a concept that is, at least implicitly, central to many courses in our subject area, which often entail analysis of ‘creative industries’ and include elements of ‘creative practice’ as part of the curriculum. Yet it remains a highly contested concept, from the official promotion of the ‘creative economy’ through to more recent debates about the commodification of everyday ‘creative labour’ via social media. How has the concept developed in the twenty-first century? How should we interpret today’s creative landscape?

We have received scholarly papers, panels and practice contributions across the full range of interests represented by MeCCSA and its networks through our call for papes.

Keynote speakers will include:

• Prof. David Gauntlett (University of Westminster)
• Prof. Angela McRobbie (Goldsmiths, University of London)
• Prof. Andy Miah (University of Salford)
• Prof. Dinah Birch, the new chair of Main Panel D (Arts & Humanities) for REF2021, will be giving a talk at the MeCCSA AGM.

Special panel: Immaterial and ‘Wasteful’ Artistic Labour

CRDS will host a special panel that  will examine the proximity between artistic work and other modes of (re)productive labour today, in order to explore contradictions of  artistic precarity. The panel will also explore potentials for agency in a constant loop of devaluing ‘(artistic) labour’ and owervaluing ‘(creative) work’. The panel will particularly reflect on feminist theories of (re)production and how they inform feminist activist and media artists.

Chair: Dr Elena Marchevska (LSBU)

Panellists: Prof Bojana Kunst, (Justus Liebig University), Prof Katja Praznik (SUNY Buffalo) , Dr Ana Vilenica (Marie Curie Fellow, LSBU) and Vanessa Janekovic-Vasic (Independent Scholar)