The University of Queensland is talking Modernities in a one-day symposium on November 27 aimed at discussing the evolving interdisciplinary field of modernist studies.
Co-coordinator Dr Prue Ahrens said The New Modernist Studies in Australia symposium would interrogate a range of cultural expressions produced in contexts of modernity: from literature to performance to visual advertising.
The symposium will also focus on current modernist research activity in Australia, and emerging researchers and projects in the field.
The program will feature a range of presentations and papers, with speakers from universities nation-wide.
Organisers, Dr Ahrens and Dr James Smith, coordinators of the Global Modernities Reading Group—from the School of English, Media Studies, and Art History (EMSAH)—will speak on the day.
In her session, Dr Ahrens will explore the impact of networks of modernity as they formed across the Pacific via the islands.
"The rapid growth of modernity in Euro-American centers saw a transformation of economic, political and cultural aspects of society through the late 19th Century to the end of World War II," she said.
"Increased communications, trade and travel saw this modernity move through networks across the globe.
"The allure of the exotic Pacific, as it was imagined by Euro-Americans, was compromised through the reality of development, industry and increased accessibility.
"Modernity reconfigured perceptions of these islands and turned them from exotic escapes to potential markets for trade, foreign investment and immigration."
Dr Ahrens said she would explore modernity in the South Pacific in the visual representations produced by the new and portable technologies of photography and motion picture camera, and the wealth of printed advertising associated with trade and travel.
"If you examine the visual material produced in the context of colonial modernity there is a new aesthetic of place surrounding the Pacific, one which is based on accessibility, assimilation and urbanisation," she said.
"It is a far cry from the imaginings of idyllic places untouched by human development depicted during Cook's voyage."
Dr Ahrens said once modernity reached these destinations, the question could be posed: where could people now go for escape?
Other speakers include: Prudence Black (UTS), Mark Byron (USYD), Chris Danta (UNSW), Natalya Lusty (USYD), Lorraine Sim (Ballarat), and Ann Vickery (Deakin).
The symposium is open to the public and will be held on level 4 of the Forgan Smith Tower (Building 1) from 9-5pm; please visit www.uq.edu.au/maps/ to view a map of the university.
Media: Rebecca Brown at UQ Communications (0420 694 414, )
