Biblioteka Uniwersytecka w Poznaniu

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Spaces of culture comics
Przestrzenie kultury komiksowej

COMICS CULTURE SPACES: Comics as a Space for Cultural Expression (4 - 5 February 2010)

According to one definition, space is indefinable and limitless. Yet another one maintains that it is confined. Is the space of the comics culture a limitless research area for researchers in different academic fields? Or is it confined to the low culture space along other mass products targeted at the youngest and inexperienced reader?

AMU Library, AMU Collegium Europeanum Gnesnense and The Centrala Project – Central Europe Comics Art are delighted to announce that they will host the international conference on COMICS CULTURE SPACES: Comics as a Space for Cultural Expression in the AMU Library on 4 - 5 February, 2010.

Our intention to urge researchers in different fields to give attention to this, still under-investigated and not fully recognized, space of culture and reading habits. The aim of the conference is to present the broad spectrum of comic art as the object of further research and study. We intend to provide a platform for researchers representing different fields of the humanities, arts and social science.

Academic interest in the comic art as a manifestation and phenomenon of popular culture and as a particular form of message transmission is growing. A need for a discussion has become apparent with the enormous popularity enjoyed by publications devoted to the subject such as rare and much sought-after dissertations and lexicons on comics which sold out immediately. This situation, in the opinion of the organizers of the conference, calls for a closer scrutiny and for taking a wider view on comics from different discourse perspectives.

Within the framework of the conference we would like to deal with a number of issues related to popular culture: cultural aspects of the growing popularity of comics, the blurred borders of the so-called high culture and low culture, the functioning and usage of comics as a language of the discourse of e.g. feminism or post-colonialism.

It is interesting to see how different methodologies have been adapted to interpret pictorial narratives. What tools are to be used by researchers? Are they capable of using them to analyze phenomena of popular culture? What are the psychological and sociological problems related to forming behavioral and ideal patterns of conduct facilitated by popular culture? What is the impact of the icons of pop culture, including protagonists of comic stories?

To read comic books is to follow the message transmitted in the graphic novel. Our intention is to identify the way, or the ways, of functioning of visual (pictorial) culture, which, consequently, prompts us to have a look at comics from the aesthetic perspective. Having in mind that the techniques of the comics art are also employed in other genres of visual arts, we suggest taking a good look at the multifaceted relationships between comics and film, comics and literature, and between comics and the poster.

We suggest the following research problems and topics to be addressed at the conference:
    - comics icons of pop culture in the feminist and post-colonial discourse,
    - history and remembrance in present-day pictorial narratives,
    - aesthetics of comics,
    - integration and intertwining of arts: comics and film; comics and literature – film adaptations of comics, comics adaptations of fiction,
    - comics as a tool in education,
    - comics at libraries/ bibliographies and comicsography.
The Conference will be accompanied with a variety of events focused on the topics addressed at the Conference.

On the 4th of February the exhibition Action shooting/ storyboarded imagination. Comic books from the collection of Poznań University Library will be opened in the main lobby of the Library. The exhibition will feature various comic books by European and American authors from the Library comics collection of over five thousand. The exhibition will illustrate multifaceted issues dealt with by the authors, diversity of forms employed and unique comics journals and small circulation self-published fanzines, often missing in Polish libraries.

On 6 -7 February, the Transmisja Foundation will organize the Comics Culture Festival - Ligatura, within the framework of the The Centrala Project – Central Europe Comics Art. The Ligature project highlights such issues as: comics as the icon and linguistic phenomenon, as a work of art, as a medium of ideology and as an educational tool.

The Festival will include:
    - thematic exhibitions presenting achievements of the comics art within the social and artistic space,
    - meetings with cartoonists and comics artists, mainly from Eastern Europe,
    - “Checkpoints” - a review of animated films and documentaries
    - the exhibition: Answers without questions
Important information
  • The registration for the conference is now open and will close on September 30th, 2009. You can contacts the organizers at: konferencja.komiks@gmail.com Please indicate the title of your contribution and provide a one-page abstract of the paper in Polish or in English.
  • The organizational committee reserves the right to make a selection of the received material.
  • Speeches should not exceed 25 minutes.
  • The languages of the Conference are Polish and English
  • All accepted papers will be published in the Conference proceedings
  • The conference fee is 280 zloty, payable by 15 January 2010 to the following bank account: BZ WBK. S.A. VI O/Poznań nr 1810 9013 6200 000000 3601 8383 (please mention the reference code “Fundacja UAM – Komiks”).
Detailed information on the Conference can be obtained at the following address: More information on the Exhibition is available at the following address: If you have questions on the LIGATURA Festival, please contact:
 
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Plakat konferencji


Biblioteka Uniwersytecka w Poznaniu

Uniwersytet Adama Mickewicza w Poznaniu

Collegium Europaeum Gnesnense

Centrala - Sztuka Komiksu Europy Środkowo -Wschodniej

Ligatura