Call for participation

TURN*ON
Artivistic 2009 (Fall)
Montreal, Canada

The world to come is so sexy. We are unstoppable for we are fueled with an incredible urge to embrace the pleasure provided by difference, exchange and freedom. Our actions today are charged with an energy that is animated by the rise of change and a movement that is simply irresistible.

New movements are arising at the intersections of sex, politics and technology. These movements are inspired by, as well as critical of, the long traditions of struggle they stem from, remixing gender bending, sex work (and play), and media activism. From body hacking to the implosion of the service economy, where are we today and what new possibilities can we envision and nurture?

For its upcoming fourth edition, Artivistic is going sexy. Discussing, questioning, and imagining the past, present, future, and infinite possibilities of sex. While keeping issues of power and control in question, we want to turn to the potency of pleasure, curiosity, humor, and desire in order to TURN*ON that which has yet to be thought and experienced differently.

Building on previous generations of gatherings, Artivistic 2009 asks the following questions:

• What kind of world is worth fantasizing about? How can imagination act as a productive tool to think sex with and beyond the body? Fantasy always plays a role in political projects when we imagine the "world we want", but how does that fantasy become reality? Where does the line blur? What feedback loops are created between what we desire and the lives we live everyday?

• What actually makes resistance irresistible? The different notions of sex, gender and sexuality draw our attention to the task of naming. That task can be appropriated in liberating ways. How do we move away from tired and troublesome terminology in order to create different relationships that unleash new ways of thinking (and relating) and new strategies for political action? How can reimagining sex contribute to a process of decolonization in every sense of the word?

• What are the alternative infrastructures of sex? Sex is everywhere. Everyone talks about sex and this can tend to be polarizing and unproductive. How we address sex might get us somewhere more, say... stimulating, by welcoming the critical analysis of the production and consumption of sex, and an exploration of self-organized, even intimate, initiatives. What new libidinal economies of service and information are emerging with respect to sex work and how can we struggle for the rights of communities forging these new paths?

In line with the self-organized aspect of the upcoming gathering, the Artivistic collective seeks proposals that intervene in the very (infra)structure of the event, welcoming proposals that involve food, space, venue, communications, hardware, software, skill sharing, documentation, dissemination and so on. The gathering further encourages submissions that take on the challenge of collective participation and collaboration, opening onto unconventional praxes and theses of knowledge production.