Issue Nine: Relations

Relations exist in both affinity and disparity. They soften and solidify; destruct and reconcile. They emerge from succession, or perhaps even isolation. They are catalysts of becoming – a process that defines the territory of our being, yet transcends it over time.

Relational philosophies span a diverse range of disciplines. It is often come across in Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s “rhizomatic” interlinking; Edouard Glissant’s multifaceted “totality”; Baruch Spinoza's turning to “affect”; the ontological “entanglement” of Karen Barad; Alfred North Whitehead’s “process philosophy”; subjectivity in Guattari’s “chaosmosis”; Mulla Sadra’s “substantial motion”; and aesthetic interlacing in Victor Fan’s “soft film theory.” The contemplation of these ideas may reveal the tenuous nature of our social, cultural, and political construction, but it also deepens our understanding of what holds it together.

The world is always in transformation, and art responds to the drastic transformations through creatively examining unfolding relations. From the Fluxus, performance art to interactive media, phenomenology, post-colonialism to environmental care, we are more than ever, aware of relations. During this critical moment of global pandemic, a time when our freedom of physicality is restrained to less-than-ever, we speculate the existing relations with others, the environment, non-beings, beings, and even with our own mind and body.

This issue invites thoughts driven by relational thinking. The submissions may relate, but are not limited to the following issues:
‣ Relations that emerge/dissipate from a changing environment, for example isolation
‣ Relations formed by human and non-human constituents, for example performance within the city
‣ Relations mediated between the artist and the artwork, the audience and the artwork, and, the artwork and the institution, so on
‣ Relations triggered by the socio-cultural and socio-political context
‣ Relations that define the reception of a particular work, for example small-screen cinema or online exhibition
‣ Relations established through curatorial consideration and exhibition-setting
‣ Relations that propel the embodiment of subjectivity
‣ Relations overshadowed by status quo or essentialism
‣ Relations that prompt a rhizomatic becoming
‣ Relations that de/re-differentiates disciplines, genres, and aesthetics


We Invite contributions including:
‣ Scholarly Papers
‣ Case Studies
‣ Exhibition Reviews
‣ Performance Reviews
‣ Interviews
‣ Sound investigations with written documentation
‣ Field notes and creative investigations
‣ Documentation of completed artist projects or works in progress


Submission Requirements
‣ Text submissions should be 500-5000 words
‣ Please submit your manuscript only in MS-Word (*.doc or *.docx) format
‣ Please submit your contribution with an abstract (~200 words) and bio (~150 words)
‣ Please use Chicago-style in-text citations (author YEAR, page) with endnotes (not footnotes) for any additional exposition
‣ Please submit your image files (if any) in .jpg format, 300dpi. Please note that image rights are the responsibility of the author/artist to secure.
‣ Please email your submission to cma_journal@sfu.ca with the subject heading ‘Attn: Issue 9’
‣ Submission Deadline: August 31, 2020