Welcome to attend the conference
Convergence of Artistic Media
at The University of Helsinki, November 1–2, 2016
Register by 31 October.
Convergence between arts has been taking place for centuries, and it is one of the most productive features of culture today. Some of the most exciting works of our cultural history are the results of the intermingling and cross-fertilization of different art forms and genres. At times the original works might even recede to the background: Kafka’s or Proust’s literary themes are today often more familiar through comics or films than their original novels and stories.
At this conference we will explore convergence between different artistic media – both old and new. As regards new media, Henry Jenkins has proposed that convergence relates to the way diverse media interact via new digital platforms enabling audiences to act both as creators and as distributors of content. We want to pay attention both to concrete aesthetic and technical processes of convergence as well as the more philosophical and cultural differences that convergence contributes to. How does the narration of the original work of art change in the process of convergence? And what happens when a work of art from an ancient era is adapted to a contemporary artistic form?
Through these questions we will focus on convergence as a way of celebrating the arts in the 21st century. In this year, marking the 250th anniversary of Lessing’s Laocoon, we also want to go back to the prime examples of works which continue to inspire the artistic imagination in the form of verbal, acoustic and visual media.
Programme:
Tuesday, November 1st, 2016
University Main Building, Small Festive Hall (Pieni juhlasali), Fabianinkatu 33
10.15 Leena Eilittä: Welcome
10.30-11.45 Luis Emilio Bruni (University of Aalborg): Artistic Convergence and the Migration of Narratives in Time
11.45 Coffee
12.00-13.30 Parallel sessions:
1. Session (Chair: Luis Emilio Bruni), Hall 7, University Main Building
Bo Pettersson (University of Helsinki): Humans Miming Insects Miming Humans: The Insect Play by the Čapeks and Its Adaptations in Light of Lessing’s Aesthetic Theory
Beatrice Seligardi (University of Parma): Working Girls and Cinematic Tableaux: The Intermedial Convergence of Filmic Techniques into Literature and Photography
Catherine Makhumula (Stellenbosch and Linnaeus University): Post-Modern Orature? The Convergence of the Arts and Media Forms in African Theater and Performance
2. Session (Chair: Lieven Ameel), Hall 14, University Main Building
Kirsi Manninen (Aalto University): Digital Drawing on Virtual Paper – Pixels Controlled by Costume Designer’s Hand
Lena Séraphin (Aalto University): Another Alphabet – From Parallel Words to Reciprocated Writing
Katriina Heljakka (University of Turku) and Pirita Ihamäki (Satakunta University of Applied Sciences): “N 61° 29.330 E 021° 47.580” Sigrid-Secrets: Gamifying Art Experiences through Geocaching
13.30-14.30 Lunch
14.30-16.00
3. Session (Chair: Lily Diaz), Hall XV, University Main Building
Alejandro Pedregal (Aalto University): The Drama of the Great Financial Crisis – Film Adaptations and Representations of Greed and Economic Collapse
Jouko Aaltonen (Aalto University): Convergence between Documentary and Fiction
Anna Boswell (University of Auckland): The Convergent Eco-Logics of Green Porno
16.15-17.45 Plenary lecture, Small Festive Hall (Pieni juhlasali)
Irina O. Rajewsky (Free University of Berlin): Intermediality and Transmediality: Unbraiding Converged Theories
18.00-20.00 Rector’s Reception, University Main Building, Reading Room (“Lehtienlukusali”)
Wednesday, November 2, 2016
University Main Building, Small Festive Hall (Pieni juhlasali)
10.15-11.30 Plenary lecture
John Richardson: Multimodality in Arts Research and Techniques of Ecological Close Reading
11.30-12.00 Coffee
12.00-13.30 Parallel sessions:
4. Session (Chair: John Richardson), Hall 7, University Main Building
Kai Lassfolk and Mikko Ojanen (University of Helsinki): The Collective Musical and Multimedia Instruments by Erkki Kurenniemi
Sanna Qvick (University of Turku): Echoes of Detachment and Displacement in the Finnish Children Fairytale Film Pelicanman
Sanna Iitti (Independent Scholar): Robert Schumann’s Opera Genoveva as a DVD Production
5. Session (Chair: Leena Eilittä), Hall 12, University Main Building
Kate Costello (University of Oxford): Gao Xingjian’s Aesthetic of Suggestion: From Stream of Consciousness to Liubai
Jonas Mirbeth (Free University of Berlin): “Just a whisk of pity a cloud in peace and silence.” On the Notion of Political Aesthetics in John Cage’s Literary Work with James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake
Juha-Pekka Kilpiö (University of Jyväskylä): Transmediating the Third Meaning? Kinekphrasis in Contemporary Finnish Poetry
13.30-15.00 Lunch
15.00-17.00 Parallel sessions:
6. Session (Chair: Henry Bacon), Hall 7, University Main Building
Gianluigi Rossini (University of L’Aquila): “How are you listening, my old friend?” Mr. Robot, Transmedia Dispersion and Stylistic Coherence in Contemporary TV Series
Anna-Leena Harinen (University of Eastern Finland): Problematizing Relationships between Adaptations and Their “Source Text”: The Case of Game of Thrones
Hanne Juntunen (University of Tampere): Adapting the Unadaptable: The Visual Narrative of Watchmen on the Page and on the Big Screen
Bianca Thiem (University of Bayreuth): Adaptations as Carriers of Cultural Narratives: Visualizing The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald 1925-Luhrmann 2013)
7. Session (Chair:Laura Wahlfors), Hall 12, University Main Building
Eija Niskanen (University of Helsinki): TBA
David Havas (Academy of Performing Arts & National Film Archive in Prague): Poetic Escapism: Prague in Czechoslovak Comics and Urban Legends
Brenda J. Robles (ELO Film School, Helsinki): Shakespearian Mode in an Original Screenplay: A Research Plan for an Artistically Oriented Study
17.00 Closing words, Hall 7, University Main Building
19.00 Conference Dinner (Lappi Restaurant)
NOTE: Students and faculty from the organizing universities (University of Helsinki, University of Tampere, Aalto University and University of the Arts Helsinki) are welcome to attend the conference program and the Rector’s reception free of charge. Student participation does not include materials and coffees. Please see registration (link above) for attendance!
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