2016 Special Focus: The Practice of Art in the Age of the Anthropocene

Average global temperatures are rising. With increasing frequency we are faced with extreme weather events. Our water reservoirs are drying up. Natural resources are being exploited at an alarming rate. Once-pristine landscapes are filled with the debris of economic and social activity. These are some of the symptoms of the age of the Anthropocene---an age defined by all-consuming modes of production and imaginaries of innovation, the material consequences everywhere to be seen and felt in the natural environment. How do practices of art and our ways of interpreting art reflect, reverberate, contest, the eco-social realities that we now face? What is this duty of art, what are its practices and forms, in the age of the Anthropocene?

In addition, we also welcome proposals for presentations related to the following themes:
Arts Education
Arts Theory and History
New Media, Technology and the Arts
Social, Political and Community Agendas in the Arts