Call for Papers: A Blast of Lyricism: Contemporary Taiwanese Art and Its Global Connections (University of Edinburgh, 4-5 November 2025)
Deadline for submission to Professor Chia-Ling Yang (cyang@ed.ac.uk): 28 February 2025
The international conference A Blast of Lyricism: Contemporary Taiwanese Art and Its Global Connections invites scholars, artists and museum curators to submit papers that explore the global significance and impact of contemporary art across regions and mediums. The conference will engage with diverse interdisciplinary approaches across art, design, fashion, and new media, aiming to challenge dominant narratives and amplify underrepresented voices from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and other politically and culturally marginalised regions.
As part of our broader vision, we plan to propose an edited volume of selected conference papers to a leading international publisher in January 2026.
We invite submissions on, but are not limited to, the following tentative themed panels:
- Lyricism in the Contemporary Era: The evolution of lyrical expression and poetic space in contemporary art and design, exploring its cultural implications and global resonance.
- Cultural Belonging and Transformation: Art’s role in shaping and reflecting individual identities and cultural shifts, particularly in regions marked by political and cultural fluidity.
- Labyrinth of Memory and the Handmade: Tactile, handmade objects as embodiments of personal and collective histories, uncovering deeper layers of their material legacies.
- Visual Soundscapes: Exploring how musical elements—rhythms, textures, and lyrical motifs—shape contemporary art, sparking interdisciplinary creative dialogues.
- The Body as Lyric: Examining how performance, gesture, and movement in contemporary art transform the body into a lyrical vessel, conveying emotion and meaning beyond language.
- Silence and Absence: Investigating silence as a powerful narrative tool, exploring how the absence of sound and motion in contemporary art creates space for introspection and deeper engagement.
- Community and Art Activism in the Now: Examining how contemporary art and activism engage with the immediacy of the present, transforming shared experiences and collective action into tools for reimagining social and cultural realities.
- Ex-Situ Regeneration and Self-Exoticism: Reflecting on displacement, migration, and the reinvention of cultural narratives for the global art market.
- AI, New Media, and the Future of Exhibition Design: Exploring how artificial intelligence and emerging technologies are reshaping exhibition creation and curation, offering new ways to narrate the future, engage audiences, and push the boundaries of artistic expression.
By advocating for a decentred approach to art history, the conference seeks to promote a more inclusive and nuanced understanding of global art practices, with a particular focus on regions often underrepresented in mainstream art discourse. We look forward to your submissions.
Submission and Key Dates
The abstract should consist of a single file headed by the name of the person responding to the call; they should include a short biography (maximum one page) and the abstract (max. 500 words) in English.
Deadline for submission to Professor Chia-Ling Yang (cyang@ed.ac.uk): 28 February 2025
Notification of Acceptance: 20 March 2025
Conference: 4-5 November 2025
Chia-Ling Yang
Professor, School of History of Art
Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh