Announcements Spring/Summer 2014

Live Performances

Gifts is a duo show with Bishop & Fuller playing characters vaguely resembling themselves, plus puppets, objects, an electric sander, a steering wheel, and a pepper grinder. They revisit stories that are metaphors drawn from a life together, an interplay of love, loss, aging, change, and gift. A young couple are trapped on an endless freeway leading them back, at last, to another try at Life. A mid-life dream of a prestigious award dissolves into begging for scraps and sanding a rusty fence, but culminates in a banquet of riches. Elders moving into a third-floor walk-up discover gods in a cardboard box and accept their very strange gift.  It is available free to hosts for house concerts and intimate venues: in California through August 2013 and after October.

More info: http://www.independenteye.org/plays/gifts

 

 

Audition Calls

 

Washington State:

The 5th Avenue Musical Theatre Company will hold 2005-2006 season auditions for principal singers, actors and ensemble singers June 16-19. An open audition for experienced dancers who sing will be held Jun 27. A “How to Audition for Musical Theater” workshop will be held at 7 p.m. on May 16. For more information, call 206-625-1418.

 

The Sacred Music Chorale is seeking 1-2 tenors to audition for spring concert performances.

For more information, visit www.sacredmusicchorale.org or call 425-379-2553.

 

The Port Townsend Arts Commission and Jefferson Arts Alliance are seeking entries for “Expressions Northwest,” the seventh annual Art Port Townsend juried Art Competition to take place in October. Deadline for entries is Aug. 11. For more information, call 360-437-5152.

 

The Paradox, an all-ages music venue (Seattle), is seeking volunteers to help put on shows. Positions are open for event staff, promotions staff and booking staff. For more information, email [email protected].

 

Oregon Coast:

 

Do you have a great act for the 2014 Yachats Celtic Music Festival?

Contact us by email [email protected]

Since November of 2001 Yachats Oregon has been both home to and producer of the spirited Yachats Celtic Music Festival. For many years the Festival has thrilled audiences with a lively blend of foot-tapping Celtic music, humor, scrumptious food, and graceful dancers. For this Festival, acclaimed performers from other countries will mix harmoniously with home grown American masters to fill the Village of Yachats with traditional (and not so traditional) Celtic Music.

Welcome Vendors! More info: http://www.yachatscelticmusicfestival.com/vendors_2014.html

The Yachats Area Chamber of Commerce thanks you in advance for joining us at the Yachats Celtic Music Festival! We are looking forward to a wonderful and exciting show! Yachats Commons, Hwy. 101 and W 4th St, Yachats, Oregon: #15 on our Interactive Map at Yachats.org

This is a family friendly festival and will include children’s activities and educational opportunities for all ages.

 

Become a member of Theatre West!

If you would like to become a member of Theatre West and become a part of the magic that is theatre, please click the link below, then fill in and mail the information along with your payment to Theatre West of Lincoln City, Ltd., PO Box 601, Lincoln City, Oregon 97367.  Then if you would like to receive our monthly newsletter online  please e-mail us at [email protected] and include your name and email address.  Members will receive our newsletter five times a year and be eligible to vote at the annual membership meeting. We look forward to welcoming you to the Theatre West family!

More info: http://www.theatrewest.com/members.html

 

Conferences and Festivals

 

Conference calls

 

2014 Conference on Neuroesthetics Seeing Knowing: Vision, Knowledge, Cognition, and Aesthetics   UC at Berkeley; Berkeley, California (FREE- with registration)

The conference will bring together scholars, artists, and cognitive scientists working at the intersection of perception, cognition, representation, and design. At the core of the conference is a conviction that the field of “visual epistemology” is poised for a long-overdue systematic articulation.

The philosopher and mathematician, René Thom, once said that knowledge could only be represented in two systems—language and mathematical notation. And yet we know that a great deal of knowledge production and communication occurs in graphical, visual forms and media. The proliferation of screen-based, networked devices into every aspect of professional, personal, cultural domains makes the need for engagement with visual “languages” even more urgent. Making connections between a systematic understanding of graphical structures of meaning production and the cognitive and perceptual processing of visual stimuli is central to a concept of visual epistemology.

 

2014 marks the50th anniversary of the  American Society for Cybernetics

:which was incorporated in Washington DC on the 6th of August 1964.

Our conference this year will be a major celebration. The theme is “Living in Cybernetics”. The main event (4 to 8 August inclusive) will celebrate ASC cybernetics in the present through paper presentations themed using Stuart Umpleby’s “Several Traditions of cybernetics” (4 and 5 August), ASC cybernetics in the past through addresses from many past presidents and other long term members (August 6) developing our timeline, and ASC cybernetics in the future through workshops developing views of how cybernetics and education may come together to help make a better world (August 7 and 8).

 

 

International Conference of the International Association of Jungian Studies Rebirth and Renewal 

Aims of the Conference and Registration details: http://conference.jungianstudies.org/index.php/phoenix/phoenix/schedConf/registration

Jung was indebted to the indigenous peoples he met on his travels to America, North Africa, Uganda and India for the rebirthing process that such contact with these different cultures played in the evolution of his psychological theories connected to rebirth and renewal. Through contact with indigenous peoples, Jung discovered a new and enlivened emotional immediacy to nature that he felt had become disassociated under the pressure of being European. This conference’s theme places Jung’s work on individuation in a vis-à-vis with the traditions of indigenous peoples, as one aspect of the broader perspective of rebirth and renewal found in Jung’s work on symbols as transformers of energy.

This conference uses Phoenix as a symbol of rebirth and renewal and as a guide to modern city life. Its location in Arizona’s “valley of the sun” connects the city in several ways to the symbolism of the individuation process,that is, new growth out of old ruins.The city was named Phoenix because like its namesake the mythical bird, it rose up from the cultures of its past. By way of disused irrigation canals of the previous indigenous culture of the Hohokam, the city evolved through being nurtured by hidden waterways. The Phoenix as one symbol and aspect of the individuation process which concentrates on death/rebirth/renewal is specifically connected in this case to an image of the worm that crawls out of the debris/ashes to grow again into the beautiful red/purple Phoenix, its tears healing previous injury. The appearance of the Trickster fertility god, Kokopelli, associated with the Hohokam peoples, emphasizes that rebirth develops out of ambivalent creative processes. The Trickster recognizes the ‘death’ process as a destructive necessity and part of this process.

The Phoenix image was variously interpreted by Jung as a theriomorphic symbol of the Self; as a transformation and rebirth symbol; as Christ crucified and resurrected;  and as Ruach Elohih.

The Phoenix thus connects older indigenous cultures and their connection to nature with the modern mind-set in a manner which can heal the mind-body split between animal and human, sacred and profane. Recent scholarship revalues this animating function as both innovative and essential to the modern mind in its irrigating, compensatory function. Jung stresses the primordial man as the ‘round, original wholeness.’ Primordial experiences Jung suggests arise from the depths of prehistory and ‘rend from top to bottom the curtain upon which is painted the ordered world, and allow a glimpse into the unfathomable abyss of the unborn and of things yet to be.’ The Phoenix, as a city and a the riomorphic symbol of the Self, links the modern psyche to the creative wellspring of its primordial past that embraces both in an energetic synthesis.

 

Festivals and Other Events of Interest

SunFest Summer Solstice Festival

June 19-22 2014

The Sun In All It’s Colors. A Community Created Event

This years theme will focus around the colors associated with the wheel of the year.

The Nine Houses of Gaia Presents: The Thirtieth Annual North West Fall Equinox Festival: Chakra’s

September 18th-21st 2014 

Come and join us in a beautiful and magical rustic wooded campsite in the mountains, approximately 1½ hours from Portland.

The theme this year is Chakra’s. Check out the Facebook page.

 

ANNOUNCING FAERIEWORLDS 2014: A GATHERING OF TRIBES 

After our most successful and highest attended year ever, the magic of Faerieworlds returns to Emerald Meadows at Mount Pisgah in Eugene. Oregon on July 25- 27, 2014. The largest gathering of mythic music, arts and crafts on the West Coast and featuring internationally acclaimed bands, Faerieworlds has attracted guests from all over the world who celebrate creativity and imagination and who answer our invitation to “Live Your Legend.” Each year we strive to bring you new experiences within the Realm and this year, Faerieworlds will be bigger and better in many ways.

 

Elderflower Womenspirit Festival™

Celebrating 26 Years of Women’s Community  August 13 – 17, 2014 Mendocino Woodlands, Mendocino, California Elderflower Womenspirit is a women’s spirituality festival that takes place every August, in the Mendocino Woodlands of Northern California.  Since 1988, women have gathered together to create this festival, to create a time and space for healing and growth, as well as a growing community of empowered women.

Elderflower Womenspirit gives you four days of rest and relaxation, camping in cabins or tents by a creek in a beautiful redwood forest.  Enjoy gourmet catered meals, with vegetarian options.  Camp amenities include hot showers!

 

13th ANNUAL YACHATS CELTIC MUSIC FESTIVAL

November 14-16, 2014 (please note date change from Nov 7-9) Yachats Commons, Hwy 101 & W 5th St. Experience a lively blend of foot-tapping Celtic music, humor, scrumptious food, and performances by graceful dancers. For this 13th Anniversary of the Festival acclaimed performers from the old countries will mix harmoniously with home grown American masters to fill the Village of Yachats with traditional (and not so traditional) Celtic Music. Stay posted for Schedule & Tickets.

 

December 6-7 and December 13-14, 2014 Saturdays and Sundays 4 – 7 pm 18th Annual

 

HECETA LIGHTSTATION VICTORIAN CHRISTMAS OPEN HOUSE 

The Queen Ann style Keeper’s House will be decorated with Victorian flourishes inside and out. Enjoy warm drinks and treats and performances by local musicians.  Santa Claus will be there, and there will be a holiday raffle with great prizes from local businesses. Shuttle service will be offered from Heceta Head Lightstation. State Scenic Area parking lot to the front door. Or bring warm, rainproof clothing and a flashlight and enjoy a beautiful walk up from the parking lot/beach. The parking fee  is $3 or present your Oregon Coast Passport. FMI: (541) 547-3696. The lightstation is located just 14 miles south of Yachats.

General Paper Calls

Society for Utopian Studies

(23-26 Oct 14; Montreal)

*Click here to download the 2014 SUS CFP

THE SOCIETY FOR UTOPIAN STUDIES

39th Annual Meeting Global Work and Play  23-26 October 2014

Delta Montréal 475, Avenue Président Kennedy Montréal, Canada

Utopias have nowhere left to hide in an era of global capital and information flows.  Imagining the perfect society means envisioning global as much as, or more than, national or local change.  Labor is  transformed as heavy industry relentlessly relocates. Post-industrial refugees chase immaterial wealth flowing across borders that are porous for information and capital, but not for bodies.  Even leisure becomes work when corporations mine Twitter and Facebook for content to monetize, while gamifying daily life.  Under such conditions, visualizing a utopian balance of work and play grows both more difficult and more urgent.

Papers are welcome on all aspects of the utopian tradition, from the earliest utopian visions to the utopian speculations and yearnings of the 21st century, including art, architecture, urban and rural planning, literary utopias, dystopian writings and films, utopian political activism, theories of utopian spaces and ontologies, music, new media, and intentional communities. We especially welcome papers and panels on games, gamers and gamification; utopian and dystopian aspects of globalization; and non-Western utopian traditions.

Additionally, we are introducing a new poster and demonstration track. We invite abstracts for presentations featuring interactive games, apps, digital artifacts, tools, projects, websites, or works in progress with a utopian or dystopian dimension. Those invited to participate will be given a backdrop and table for a poster and/or computer in our exhibition hall. Indie developers and digital humanists are especially welcome. Contact: [email protected]

Call for Papers: Edited Collection on the Cultural Influences of Role-Playing Games

Since its initial publication in 1974, the iconic role-playing game (RPG) Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) has spawned hundreds of other analog and digital RPGs, as well as an entirely new industry and subculture. In the last decade, scholars from across the disciplinary spectrum have explored the origins, characteristics, cultures, and player experiences of RPGs. Yet, little scholarly attention has been devoted to the meaningful ways RPGs have shaped and transformed society at large over the past forty years. We are seeking chapters for an upcoming collection of essays that addresses the broader cultural impact, influence, and significance of RPGs (analog or digital). Topics may include, but are not limited to:

• The social and cultural influences of and responses to RPGs from the 1970s through the present
• The influence of RPGs on other types of games and entertainment, including video games, massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), live-action role-playing games (LARPs), collectible card games, and the like
• Representations or adaptations of RPGs in literature, film, or other media
• Educational or pedagogical uses of RPGs or RPG elements
• Role-playing approaches to counseling and therapy
• RPGs in military and corporate worlds

We also welcome other topics that show a clear connection with these themes.

Please send proposed abstracts of 250-500 words, along with a brief (250 word) biography and C.V., in either *.rtf (rich text format) or *.doc (MS Word document format), to editors Andrew Byers and Francesco Crocco at [email protected] by June 1, 2014. If accepted for the collection, completed essays of 8,000 to 10,000 words will be due by January 1, 2015.

 

Classes & Seminars

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Worthy Crowdsourcing Campaigns

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