To be held at the Centre for Fine Art Research, School of Art, Margaret Street, Birmingham, 26 June 2014
Conference: Twice Upon a Time: Magic, Alchemy and the Transubstantiation of the Senses, 26th June
Under the illusive cloak of magic, the curiosity of alchemists introduced a means for experimentation into the innate properties of materials. The transformation of raw matter into precious metals, the combination of hot sulphur and wet cold mercury to birth the philosophers stone; to bring the inanimate to life, to miraculously vanish and conjure the body as well as providing a basis for the laws of substance based on sensory interaction and its potentiality.Thursday 26th June 2014
10.00–10.10 Welcome Address.
Professor John Butler: Head of Birmingham School of Art, Birmingham Institute of Art and Design (BIAD)
10.10-11.00 Keynote: Spirited Away
Martin Reinhart: Artist/Inventor, Vienna
11.00 -11.15 Break
11.15-12.55 PANEL 1: The Onto-conscious Machine
1. Spooky Causality
Ole Hagen: CFAR-BIAD
2. Breakcount(s)
Lauren Goode: CFAR-BIAD
3. “Perchè realizzare un’opera quando è così bello sognarla soltanto”
Maya Verlaak: Conservatoire, BCU
4. Clone
Dr. Gregory Leadbetter: Director, Institute of Creative and Critical Writing, BCU
5. Generating the Life Impulse: The Artist’s/Alchemist’s/Artificer’s Task via Jaynes, Magnus, La Mettrie and the Abstract Machine
Dane Worrallo: CFAR-BIAD
12.55-14.00 Lunch
[Who Put Bella in the Witch Elm – Dr. Gregory Leadbetter]
[For the Swarm of Bees – Paul Zaba]
14.00-14.50 Keynote: Vanishing in Plain Sight
Grace Williams & David Cheeseman: CFAR-BIAD
14.50-16.10 PANEL 2: Transubstantiation of the Flesh
1. Spurious Luxus
Rachael Colley: Birmingham School of Jewellery, BIAD
2. Zaumy Constellations and Malevich’s Pulverising Machine
Dr. Kit Poulson: University of the West of England
3. Statuary I
Dr. Gregory Leadbetter: Director, Institute of Creative and Critical Writing, BCU
4. 3am: Terrors, Revels and Exhilarations
Anneka French: CFAR-BIAD
16.10-16.30 Break
16.30-18.05 PANEL 3: The Hidden & Desired Object
1. Alchemy of Desire: Poetic language, Jouissance and Material Practice
Dr. Jacqueline Taylor: CFAR-BIAD
2. The Pact
Dr. Gregory Leadbetter: Director, Institute of Creative and Critical Writing, BCU
3. Kant and Zen as Precursors of Object Oriented Ontology?
Dr. Jonathan Day: CFAR-BIAD
4. The Ghost in the Image: The Concealed Origin of Photography
Dario Srbic: Central Saint Martins
18.05-19.00 Keynote: Messianic Remains
Ron Athey, Artist
19.00-19.15 Closing remarks: Professor Johnny Golding
