Fwd: CFP: Animation, Atomics, and Anticipation (5/1/08; 10/30-11/02/08)

[Aaron Gerow]

Begin forwarded message:
>
>
> From:    "Cynthia Miller" <cymiller at tiac.net>
>
> 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
> 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
>
> tlknoell at gmail.com
>
> 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).