Cells

Confinement – Configuration - Coding

25th November 2010 University of Hertfordshire

Extended deadline for submissions: 5th November 2010

A cross-artistic and interdisciplinary colloquium

This colloquium will explore the way in which the notion of a cell may be

imagined spatially, and how confinement, configuration and coding can

determine the performative characteristics and possibilities of cellular

space.

Our starting point is the consideration of the cellular in abstract terms.

What is the relationship between the geometrical shaping of cells, and how

does this impinge on the behaviour of what it contains? How does the cell

(with its specific shape, lines, angles and volume) determine the bodies

and motion that is contained within it? Can the geometry of artistic

representation perhaps be elevated from a spatial analogy, like

Meyerhold’s ‘Theatre-Triangle’, to an ontological analogy, as is the case

of Claude Bragdon’s ‘Man the Square’ or Edwin A. Abbot’s character of the

Square? How can the sensory and emotional experience of self-contained

bodies become a spatial measuring device, as linked to Peter Zumthor’s

Thinking Architecture?

We would also like to probe the question of cells in terms of a reduction,

miniaturisation, microscopy, or deliberate reduction of space. The

question is therefore how confined spatiality can elicit certain

performative traits. This may lead us to further explore cells; how

biological models such as biomimicry and genetics can lead us to spatial

forms and the possibility of their relation to space making in

architecture.

How does a cell define the in-celled, how does a cage define the

repetitive lines of motion of the in-caged; how does the box determine the

performance of the in-boxed? What kind of information coding and

performative communication is necessary within cellular spatiality?

This event is hosted by the School of Creative Arts, University of

Hertfordshire, Interior & Spatial Design in conjunction with the

Configur-8 Project. The event will feature a cross-art installation and a

performance based on Samuel Beckett’s geometrical mime ‘Quad’, film

screenings linking to spatial experimental work on space/place as well as

workshops and presentation of papers relevant to the event’s theme.

Possible areas of interest derived from the cell motif, as they may

pertain spatial theory, performance studies, cultural studies, science or

visual cultures, are:

-Cells as domains of geometrical configuration and shaping

-Cells as domains of information coding (e.g. living cells and genetic

coding)

-Cells as domains of spatial confinement (prison cells)

-Cells as domains of underground networking (hacker cells, terrorist

cells, etc)

-Cellular performance praxis (use of cellular space, cellular

telecommunication, cellular imagery)