Conference Announcement and Call for Papers
2007 Polar Archive Symposium
19-20 November 2007
London, UK

Abstract Submission Deadline: Wednesday, 1 August 2007
Publication "Archive" Proposal Deadline: Monday, 10 September 2007

For further information, please go to:
http://www.open.ac.uk/socialsciences/about-the-faculty/events.php

or contact:
Kathryn Yusoff
Open University
E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

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The symposium "POLAR: Fieldwork and Archive Fever" will be held on 19-20
November 2007 at the British Library in London.

This interdisciplinary symposium will focus on the curation and
production of climate change knowledge in the polar regions within the
context of the International Polar Year and will bring together
scientists, writers, artists, historians, and social scientists with
interests in knowledge about the polar landscape and its broader
implications for global climate and society. Drawing together recent
discussions in the arts, sciences, and humanities on themes such as
climate change, the polar landscape, data, time and technologies of
inscription, the symposium will facilitate a broad conversation on the
"archives" and "fields" of climate change.

Presentations and papers are invited around the following six themes:

The Core
Ice cores from Greenland and Antarctica are among the most startling and
challenging archives discovered in recent times. Ice cores contain the
climate history of the planet. The ice core is a timeline, including
pre-history (Earth history) and human history. What does the core tell
us about climate change and how do we get this knowledge from the core?
How is the core extracted, curated, and interpreted into the discourse
of climate change? What is the nature of "core" histories?

Edge Spaces: Outer Space and Polar Space
The poles have moved from the periphery to the center of histories of
the Earth. First conceived as the habitats of extremity and legend, they
have been filled in with maps of human and geophysical experience. The
purpose of this section of the workshop is to chart the poles
chronologically and thematically with reference to different kinds of
charts: those of explorers, imaginative geographies of outer and inner
space, geopolitical, resource, and climate.

Exploration Narratives and Images
Between the field and the archive lie exploration narratives and images
that attempt to capture the fleeting and precarious existence of
exploration at the poles. How do these narratives gather and assemble
assorted facts in the course of explorers' travels? How do explorers'
narratives and artists' images interact with histories of science and to
what extent do such narratives compensate for the nature of the polar
experience?

Instruments and Spaces of Curation
Explorers since the nineteenth century have sought to measure, sample,
and "bring back" the poles to field stations, observatories, museums,
and laboratories for comparison and analysis. How do instruments enable
the curation of the polar landscape through methods of extraction,
recording, and classification? How do the things that pass through the
instruments of curation come to stand for the poles?

Worlds of Data
The climate model is only the latest iteration of centuries of numerical
calculation of climate parameters and variables. How does this numerical
processing produce syntheses and trends from the disassembled
experiences and extractions of polar exploration and science? What
techniques of organization and theoretical assumptions underpin the
processing of data? How have these changed over time, and how has this
changed our perception of the poles and informed our knowledge of
climate change?

Polar Imaginations
Public interest in and knowledge of the poles has always been mediated
by cultural productions, from plays and artworks to natural history
documentaries. How do these productions inform our images of the poles
and how have these changed over time? Furthermore, how do such cultural
outputs themselves support the willingness of the public to fund and
engage in polar exploration and science? How do they help us to
understand the complex science and cultural effects of climate change?

Authors should submit the title of their paper, 500-word abstract, and
150-word bio, and also indicate for which session their
paper/presentation is intended. This information should be sent by
Wednesday, 1 August 2007 to:
Kathryn Yusoff
Open University
E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

A cross-sector book aimed at an arts and public audience, with relevance
for an academic readership, will be published from the symposium.
Selected participants will be invited to contribute a one-page "archive"
to the publication, which will be categorized as Art / Science / Visual
Anthropology / Geography / Cultural Studies. Proposals for the
publication should be submitted to the above e-mail address by Monday,
10 September 2007.

The Polar Archive Symposium is part of "The Polar Archives: Curating
Climate Change," a multidisciplinary project of the Open University in
association with the British Library and Arts Catalyst and international
partners that explores cultural and scientific issues surrounding
climate change in the context of IPY. The project is supported by a
grant from the Arts Council, England, the Open University, and in-kind
support from the British Library. The project also includes a Public
Lecture Series in Fall 2007.

For further information, please contact:
Kathryn Yusoff
Open University
E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it