In collaboration with Falmouth University and Creating Space Canada
THE ASSOCIATION FOR MEDICAL HUMANITIES (AMH) ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2015
Dartington Hall Tues 23rd/ Wed 24th/ Thurs 25th June 2015
Dangerous Currents: risk & regulation at the interface of medicine & the arts
Call for presentation proposals | Opening Keynote | Draft Programme
Keynote conversations: Alphonso Lingis & Adrian Heathfield + Allan Peterkin & Aaron Williamson + Kira O’Reilly & Vincent Lam
Workshops and performances: Christine Borland + Brody Condon + Roger Kneebone + David Cotterrell + Clod Ensemble + Laura Dannequin + Art exhibition curated by David Cotterrell & Sue Bleakley + Delegates’ presentations
BOOK NOW: from £375 – £550 (students’ rate £220) to include a range of accommodation, full board, entrance to all conference events, one year’s subscription to AMH and the BMJ journal Medical Humanities (paper & electronic), welcome reception, conference dinner, art show opening reception, discount at the bookstall
Book Online, for further information contact Alan Bleakley
Call for presentation proposals: extended to Fri March 20th
Patient safety has become an important issue in medicine and healthcare leading to a regulatory culture of directives and protocols – but has regulation gone too far? Does excessive regulation stifle creativity or does it paradoxically generate new forms of innovation through resistance? Despite our concerns with ‘healthy lifestyles’, life is inherently risky and we purposefully seek risk against the grain of physical and mental ‘health’. The arts typically celebrate such risk as a sign of innovation. Can radical arts practice interventions lead to a reframing of medical/ healthcare education and a rethinking of medical/ healthcare practice that allow for greater innovation? And does greater innovation mean accepting more risk and refusing regulation? Commissioned keynote presentations and workshops will address these questions, based on ‘live’, critical conversations primarily between doctors and performance artists moving beyond the safety zone of ‘talking heads’ into riskier areas of improvised collaborations. Again, the key theme words are ‘risk’, ‘regulation’ and ‘resistance’ – the ‘three rs’ of contemporary critical inquiry. The heart of our AMH conferences is, however, delegates’ presentations. We invite individual and collaborative contributions addressing the conference theme of ‘dangerous currents: risk and regulation at the interface of medicine and the arts’ (to include healthcare and humanities) encouraging movement away from traditional ‘papers’ to other forms of presentation and ways of facilitating insight and debate, although traditional academic presentations are also welcome.
Presentations should be around 15 minutes with 5 minutes for questions, unless they are interactive, in which case the presenter can take the full 20 minutes. Interactivity is encouraged, as are media formats such as film and other visual arts. There is no word limit on your summary application and you may send video and/or audio files or website links. If you wish to discuss your proposal before submitting, you are welcome to do this – please email Alan Bleakley.
We will let you know our decision at the latest 6th March 2015, but sooner if possible. We hope that presenters will attend for the full conference rather than just their presentation slot.
Proposal forms can be downloaded here, please send proposals to Professor Alan Bleakley.
Opening Keynote
Opening keynote 6 pm 23 June: Alphonso Lingis and Adrian Heathfield – a commissioned performance following a screening of Adrian Heathfield’s film Transfigured Night
Transfigured Night is the record of an exchange between the celebrated American philosopher Alphonso Lingis and the British art theorist and curator Adrian Heathfield. Drawn to conversation by reading Lingis’ numerous books, Heathfield pays a visit to the philosopher’s house near Baltimore where he discovers revealing dimensions of his ways of being and thinking. The film assembles a rich patchwork of fragments taken from their dialogue over a period of two days. Lingis makes dynamic forays into thoughts that have preoccupied him in over forty years as a writer and traveller, drawing on his influences in phenomenology and ethics, and his extensive encounters with many places and cultures. The discussion moves from questions of the face and the gaze of others, the sensual experiences of weight and being touched, through considerations of performance, sculpture and dance, to meditations on mortality and suffering.
For further information contact Alan Bleakley.
AMH Annual Conference 23 – 25 June 2015 DARTINGTON HALL
DRAFT CONFERENCE PROGRAMME
Tues 23 June 2015
15.00-16.30: Registration and welcome drink – Great Hall
16.30-16.45: Welcome – Great Hall (Alan Bleakley)
17.00-19.00: PLENARY 1 – Al Lingis and Adrian Heathfield including a screening of Transfigured Night: Barn Cinema (PUBLIC EVENT)
20.00- Dinner: Great Hall
Wed 24 June 2015
7.30-8.30: Breakfast for conference residents – White Hart/ Solar
9.00-9.15: Introduction to the day – Great Hall (Alan Bleakley)
9.15-10.15: PLENARY 2 -Great Hall Kira O’Reilly and Vincent Lam
10.15-10.45: Coffee Great Hall
11.00-12.30: Parallel sessions I
- Papers 1 (x4 x20 mins papers + 10 mins discussion) GRIFFITHS
- Papers 2 (x4 x20 mins papers + 10 mins discussion) SHIP STUDIO
- Papers 3 (x4 x20 mins papers + 10 mins discussion) SOLAR
- Papers 4 (x4 x20 mins papers + 10 mins discussion) UPPER SOLAR
- Papers 5 (x4 x20 mins papers + 10 mins discussion) GREAT HALL
12.30-14.00: Ploughman’s Lunch – GREAT HALL
14.30-16.00: Parallel sessions II
- Film screening: Daniel Mercy (Who Cares?) Dr A.N. Williams 70 mins + discussion GRIFFITHS
- Papers 6 (x4 x20 mins papers + 10 mins discussion) SHIP STUDIO
- Papers 7 (x4 x20 mins papers + 10 mins discussion) SOLAR
- Papers 8 (x4 x20 mins papers + 10 mins discussion) UPPER SOLAR
- Papers 9 (x4 x20 mins papers + 10 mins discussion) GREAT HALL
16.00-16.30: Tea
16.30-17.30: PLENARY 3 (Great Hall) Roger Kneebone and David Cotterrell
16.30-17.30: Laura Dannequin – performance of ‘Hardy Animal’ STUDIO tbc
18.00-18.30: EXHIBITION OPENING RECEPTION: Dartington Gallery (David Cotterrell and Susan Bleakley)
19.00-: Conference dinner GREAT HALL
Thurs 25 June 2015
7.30-8.30: Breakfast for conference residents
9.00-9.15: Introduction to the day: Great Hall (Alan Bleakley)
9.15-10.15: PLENARY IV (Great Hall): Allan Peterkin and Suzy Willson/ Clod Ensemble
10.15-10.45: Coffee
11.00-12.30: Parallel sessions
- Papers 10 (x4 x20 mins papers + 10 mins discussion) GRIFFITHS
- Papers 11 (x4 x20 mins papers + 10 mins discussion) SHIP STUDIO
- Papers 12 (x4 x20 mins papers + 10 mins discussion) SOLAR
- WORKSHOPS: The Wellcome Trust Medical Humanities Programme / How to write for the BMJ Medical Humanities journal (Deborah Bowman) UPPER SOLAR
- WORKSHOP/ PERFORMANCE: Joanne ‘Bob’ Whalley
12.30-14.00: Lunch GREAT HALL
14.30-15.30: PLENARY V: (Great Hall) Aaron Williamson
15.40-16.00: 2016 AMH 2016 University of Greenwich/Round-up/ FEEDBACK
16.00: Conference ends (takeaway food will be provided)