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January 2008, Week 4

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Subject:
From:
Cynthia Miller <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 22 Jan 2008 19:07:58 -0500
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Call for Papers

"WHERE IS MY ILLUDIUM PU-36 EXPLOSIVE SPACE MODULATOR?": ANIMATION, ATOMICS, AND ANTICIPATION Area

2008 Film & History Conference

"Film & Science: Fictions, Documentaries, and Beyond"

October 30-November 2, 2008

Chicago, Illinois

www.uwosh.edu/filmandhistory <http://www.uwosh.edu/filmandhistory>

Second-Round Deadline: 1 May 2008

 

AREA: Animation, Atomics, and Anticipation

 

In the past forty years, influences of the Atomic Age have become indelibly intertwined with animation: Homer Simpson works in a nuclear power plant, George Jetson drives a briefcase car, Ghost in the Shell imagines a dystopian, cyberpunk future, Marvin the Martian still engages Duck Dodgers, and, more recently, Toy Story's "Buzz Lightyear" vies with Woody as the face of modern Western culture. Animation anticipated and reflected on our technology as early as the 1930s. Whether treating World Fairs, science fiction, or the rapid evolution of society during World War II, animation has kept pace with the culture of technology, drawing it powerfully into shape for millions of film and television viewers.

 

What gives animation its special power to characterize the future? What kinds of futures does animation tend to dramatize or to dismiss, and why? Which technologies flourish within the animated world? What kinds of people inhabit it? How did animation anticipate technological advances and how did it adapt to a changing landscape?

 

Paper topics might include animation directly related to nuclear/atomic warfare ("When the Wind Blows" [UK, 1986], "Grave of the Fireflies" [Japan, 1990s]), science fiction in film and on television ("Futurama", "The Jetsons"), views of space (Tom and Jerry [1930s], Disney, Warner Bros.), World Fair influences, Disney and Tomorrowland, the integration of technology into everyday life, as well as interrelated historical, theoretical, and socio-cultural concerns.

 

Paper proposals should be no more than 250 words. Please submit all proposals by May 1, 2008, to the area chair:

 

Tiffany Knoell (Chair: Animation, Atomics, and Anticipation)

38 N. 400 E.

Lindon, UT 84042

 

[log in to unmask]

 

All submissions by e-mail are encouraged.

 

Panel proposals for up to four presenters are also welcome, but each presenter must submit his or her own paper proposal. Deadline for proposals: May 1, 2008.

 

This area, comprising multiple panels, is a part of the 2008 biennial Film & History Conference, sponsored by The Center for the Study of Film and History. Speakers will include founder John O'Connor and editor Peter C. Rollins (in a ceremony to celebrate the transfer to the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh); Wheeler Winston Dixon, author of Visions of the Apocalypse, Disaster and Memory, and Lost in the Fifties: Recovering Phantom Hollywood; Sidney Perkowitz, Charles Howard Candler Professor of Physics at Emory University and author of Hollywood Science: Movies, Science, & the End of the World; and special-effects legend Stan Winston, our Keynote Speaker. For updates and registration information about the upcoming meeting, see the Film & History website (www.uwosh.edu/filmandhistory <http://www.uwosh.edu/filmandhistory> ).

 

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Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite
http://www.ScreenSite.org

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