TaPRA 2021, 6-10 Sept, online & co-hosted by Liverpool Hope University, TaPRA PaR Gallery CfP: Off Balance

Deadline: Friday 9 April 2021

As part of the Theatre & Performance Research Association (TaPRA) Conference 2021, which will happen online and is co-hosted by Liverpool Hope University, 6th-10th September 2021, we welcome proposals to exhibit artworks and/or documentation arising from Practice as Research (PAR) projects in and across theatre and performance disciplines. Selected digital material (audiovisual or other suitable formats) will be exhibited on the TaPRAGallery website.

The curation team invites responses to the theme of off balance, especially as it might relate to a diversity of bodies – institutional, political, social, economic, biological, organic, elemental – in PaR.

Something happens when a body (systemic, organic, biological, elemental) is set off balance: an unsettling, a slipping (in/out), a loss of trajectory even as the action continues on. This state can manifest the activation of a different equilibrium, or the precarity of “keeping going”. In this condition, bodies might start shaking, shivering, vibrating, falling, but also holding, hanging, resisting and refusing in order to find new potentialities. Such states of in-action can be powerfully destabilising in a way that becomes a transformative force; nonetheless there is risk involved in these shifted circumstances, positions, conditions, which requires the development of new relations.

Responses may address (but are not limited to) that which is:

• vulnerably in the motion
• methods of falling in / out
• processes of protest and resistance
• stumbling out of place
• illness and trauma
• teetering on edges
• liminalities, thresholds and borders
• injustice and inequality
• chemical imbalance
• contagion, contamination
• in flight or on the run
• interrupting the flow

Please send the following via email with the subject line ‘TaPRA PaR Gallery 2021’ (in a PDF/Doc or similar):

1. 300 words (max) describing the work being submitted, to be used for selection and for any documentation associated with the exhibition.
2. 150 word (max) bio and a link to an online profile and website where possible.
3. At least 3 images/stills of work being submitted, including one for use in supporting the exhibition. Please title images with your name and title of work (e.g ‘Paige_RemoteViewing.jpg’)
4. When submitting video/audio: an online link to the work (Vimeo or similar), including a download link where possible. Submitted videos must be no longer than 10mins.
5. A sentence noting whether you would like to ‘activate’, present, introduce or informally discuss this work as part of a TaPRA Gallery panel during the conference.

The gallery website page will be open and accessible throughout the duration of the conference, and there will be opportunities for artist-researchers to talk about their work, as part of the programme.

Works must be sent in advance with very clear instructions by Sunday 29th August 2021. In collaboration with one of the curation team, the artist-researchers will be able to discuss the details for the presentation of the material.

If you have any questions about this call, please email alifuoa@hope.ac.uk and battiss@hope.ac.uk.

Process for submitting a proposal

Proposals must be submitted to alifuoa@hope.ac.uk and battiss@hope.ac.uk by 23.59 on 9th April 2021.

Please email all abstracts (no more than 300 words in length), an additional few sentences of biographical information and precise details of the audio-visual technology you will need to make your presentation.

Please include an optional 2nd choice of Working Group (this can also include the TaPRA Gallery, where appropriate). If we are unable to accept your proposal, we will then pass it on to your 2nd choice for consideration. Your proposal will not be less likely to be accepted by our Working Group if you indicate a 2nd choice.

Please note: You may only submit a proposal to one working group (or else the PaR Gallery) for this conference, proposals submitted after the deadline will not be considered.  

Timescale

We will inform you whether or not your proposal has been accepted as quickly as possible, and will offer brief summary feedback to all proposals that could not be accommodated. If we have passed your proposal on to your 2nd choice of Working Group, we will let you know this as well. Please note that putting together a full draft schedule for the conference is a complex process, and therefore your patience while this process is ongoing, and prompt responses to acceptances are much appreciated. Convenors will have completed their draft schedules by 17th May 2021.

TaPRA Conference 2021 Registration Prices

Full Price Early Bird: £65 + £35 (TaPRA membership) = £100

Concession Early Bird: £33 + £17 (TaPRA membership) = £50

Full Price Standard: £85 + £35 (TaPRA membership) = £120

Concession Standard: £43 + £17 (TaPRA membership) = £60

The registration costs above will pay for digital infrastructure and administrative support for the conference, alongside fees for the keynote speaker and artists contributing to the programme.

Please note: All presenters must be TaPRA members, i.e. registered for the event.

Concession definition:

Concession rates apply to all postgraduate researchers, unwaged, unaffiliated, and retired researchers, and staff on contracts of either less than .6FTE or else fixed for less than 12 months. These categories apply to the attendee’s circumstances on the first day of the conference.

Bursaries

There will be up to 10 bursaries available for postgraduate researchers and unaffiliated presenters/contingent faculty. These are highly competitive and so we would encourage everyone who is able to secure institutional support where possible. Each bursary includes a conference fee waiver and one year of TaPRA membership. There is also a separate discretionary fund towards access costs such as digital access, key materials, childcare and so forth. You must submit your application for a bursary at the same time as your proposal to the Working Group (within the same document as your abstract/bio) If applying for a bursary, please include the following:

• Whether you are applying as a postgraduate researcher OR unaffiliated presenter/contingent faculty
• A statement of up to 100 words explaining why you are applying for the bursary
• An indication of any access needs for which you would like to apply to the discretionary fund: what they are and an indication of costs

Please note: only one proposal may be submitted for a TaPRA event. It is not permitted to submit multiple proposals or submit the same proposal to several Calls for Participation. All presenters must be TaPRA members, i.e. registered for the event; this includes presentations given by Skype or other media broadcast even where the presenter may not physically attend the event venue.