[artinfo] CFP "terra incognita" (ATOPIA 8)

[ealloa]

ATOPIA :: polylogic e-zine
http://www.atopia.tk


Call for Papers - TERRA INCOGNITA

For a long time, regions unknown to the civilized world were densely
populated by monsters, troglodytes or mythical beings. When the
exploration era began, these regions were rapidly depopulated. In 1375,
Abraham Cresques published his famous Catalan Atlas showing a wide blank
stripe. Its caption was as simple as it was frightening: "terra
incognita" - both a menace and a challenge to any mariner. For
centuries, "terra cognita" and "terra incognita" coexisted within the
same spatial coordinates, until it turned out that the mass to the south
of the known world - "terra australis incognita" as it was known to the
Ancients - wasn't the counterweight of the northern world populated by
another species of man. With polar expeditions, the void on the map
ultimately came to coincide with the white surface of the Antarctic. Now
that the terrae incognitae have been entirely engulfed by the meridians
of the known, there seems to be little space left for exploration.

What was the story of these unknown spaces? Which new landfalls are
possible, what new practices of partitioning are available? Some
web-pioneers have decreed the Net to be the last terra incognita. ATOPIA
8 will look for unoccupied zones, unfamiliar territories, unfurling a
path between concrete and imaginary, political and poetical mappings,
while obeying the rule of any explorer: follow the river, going upstream
from the coast. As no terra incognita is homogeneous, it has its
arteries too. We thus welcome submissions for papers approaching the
subject "Terra incognita" from a historical, philosophical, literary,
artistic or political point of view. Please send in a brief proposal
(max 500 characters) to atopia(at)atopia(dot)tk by June 30th 2005.
Contributions can be made in English, German, French, Italian or
Spanish.

ATOPIA aims at presenting emerging artists. A second contest is been
held for the artwork of the next edition. Visual art of any format but
strictly on the subject of "Terra incognita" may be submitted to
atopia(at)atopia(dot)tk.


Emanuel Alloa
Editor
ATOPIA e-zine
http://www.atopia.tk