Are we now in the tunnel at the end of the light?
Climate Change has become a reality with little room to maneuver. Some talk about changes that would be detrimental to many of the things we have built our societies on. The more-than-human world is being slaughtered all around us in the name of progress and greed. Meanwhile psychologists talk about depression, sadness, acceptance and climate grief.
But, at the same time, youth are rising up, regardless of any abstract notion of hope. And as we anguish, people, plants, animals around the world are struggling without respite, and have been for a long time.
What would it mean to be in the tunnel at the end of the light? A tunnel can also be a place of refuge, or an escape route. When our eyes become accustomed to the darkness, what is it we will see? What kind of existential questions do we need to ask? How do we stop running from disaster to disaster? Incident to incident?
CEMUS and the Sigtuna Foundation welcome you to the fifth ClimateExistence 2020! Together we will ask the difficult questions, searching in the darkness for glimpses of light to guide or steps forward. Venturing into the blackest black, standing closer to the edge, stepping into the void.
When: May 14-16 2020
Where: The Sigtuna Foundation, Sigtuna Sweden
How: For more information and updates, see www.climateexistence.se
Call for contributions
We encourage everyone interested to send in a contribution to the conference. This contribution can be in a variety of formats. Suggestions for art-installations, performances, poetry, workshops or more traditional academic papers are all welcome. If you have ideas you would like to share with us before the contribution deadline, we are very grateful for an e-mail with your thoughts.
At the conference we will focus on several different themes within the concept of ClimateExistence and the review committee will suggest where the accepted contributions might fit in. We aim at combining different kinds of contributions and merging categories. We are especially interested in the spaces, cracks and bridges between different disciplines and expressions.
Send your contribution to malin.ostman@cemus.uu.se no later than February 12, 2020. Your contribution (abstract 100-150 words) should include name, contact information and a short description of who you are.
In addition to written material, feel free to include music files, videos, pictures or pictures of material if relevant. If you think the contribution file size is too large for e-mail, please let us know how we can access the material in other ways (link to webpage also works). A review committee will look at all the contributions and we will get back to you after the deadline. Please do not hesitate to contact us should you have any questions.
Concept inspired by:
”The tunnel at the end of the light” is inspired by Tomas Andersson Wij’s song “Mörkrets hastighet” (the speed of darkness) from the record “Avsändare okänd” (sender unknown) http://tomasanderssonwij.se/album/avsandare-okand/
MIT engineers develop “blackest black” material to date http://news.mit.edu/2019/blackest-black-material-cnt-0913