More-than-human story-making
Oxford and online
Organization: Oxford Centre for Life-Writing
Story-making is a form of creative practice as research evolved and theorised by Joanna Wheeler and Katherine Collins. It involves elements of story structure and takes place through iteration between versions of stories and modes of expression to help makers refine stories over an extended period. Wheeler and Collins’s approach centres a theorisation of making where the process, the stories, and their collective, collaborative interpretation all make equally significant contributions to knowledge.
Story-making has the potential to highlight the vibrancy and agency of the nonhuman, both through material interactions in the studio and by connecting various materialist traditions such as thing theory, feminist new materialisms, object-oriented ontology, and posthumanism, to how we might theorise and make stories with and about the more-than-human.
Our hope with this symposium is to begin to set out more-than-human story-making as an interdisciplinary field of artistic research, establishing some theoretical, methodological, and ethical sources of inspiration; interrogating issues of practice, aesthetic, and interpretation. As such, we intend to publish the proceedings in an appropriate form, which will be shaped by the contributions and discussions at the symposium.
We are interested in the following questions, but also welcome proposals that raise new issues:
- What narrative forms might the more-than-human create, or lend itself to?
- What are the risks of attempting to make more-than-human stories? For example, of ventriloquising, anthropomorphising, romanticising the non-human.
- What do/can the physical and life-sciences contribute to the making and interpretation of more-than-human stories?
- What are the methodological, ethical, research process issues, including intellectual property, copyright of inputs and outputs, engagement with artworlds?
- What motivates the making of these stories? For example, activism, materiality in artistic practice, aesthetic and/or theoretical reasons?
- What theoretical positions and practical techniques lend themselves to the analysis and interpretation of more-than-human stories?
Presentation formats
Paper: We welcome proposals for 15-minute papers from any disciplinary perspective engaging with the notion of more-than-human stories and story-making.
Story and reflection: We would also like to receive proposals from artists and makers from any field who would like to show, exhibit, or perform, and reflect upon, a more-than-human story. The reflection could take the form of an artist statement or an academic or personal contextualisation.
There will be options for virtual (via Zoom) and in-person presentation.
Questions?
We welcome questions from potential presenters, whether these are about the conceptual fit of your idea, the logistics of the format, or other queries. Please write to us both at katherine.collins@ell.ox.ac.uk and joanna@transformativestory.net.
Please note that while Joanna and Katherine are currently collaborating on research into Antarctica's more-than-human stories, we are happy to consider proposals on any context and topic relevant to the more-than-human story-making theme.
Deadline: 28 February 2025
How to submit: click here to submit your proposal
https://antarcticstories.web.ox.ac.uk/event/more-human-story-making
katherine.collins@ell.ox.ac.uk
Dr Katherine Collins