Call for Papers: The 2051 Munich Climate Conference

“Science fact and speculative fabulation need each other.” (Donna J. Haraway)

Imagine it’s 2051. You are at the “2051 Munich Climate Conference”, an academic symposium organized by “The Department”, a future institution. The conference aims to understand the scientific knowledge and discourses on climate change in the 2020s, when the Paris Agreement came into effect. You present your ground-breaking research that looks back to the time that we experience today. Which themes would you tackle? Which developments and events would you study, and how? Which questions would you pose, and which answers would you give?
This is a thought experiment. If it sets your thinking in motion, you can now apply for participation in the real conference. We, a group of Munich-based researchers and independent artists, invite you to submit your proposal for presentation at our conference. With this project of artistic research, we want to inspire and elaborate new perspectives on the challenges of the present. Specifically, we want to stimulate creative imagination of how climate change and our reactions to it will transform politics, society, culture, nature, and life.
The 2051 Munich Climate Conference takes place on 18-19 September 2021 as a combined online and live event. As a gathering of scientists, researchers, and scholars concerned about the challenge of anthropogenic climate change, the conference is open for a range of disciplinary perspectives – including natural and social sciences as well as the humanities. The sessions will be disciplinary and interdisciplinary, the formats innovative, and the conference will be open to the general public.
We have launched the preparations by interviewing scholars and collecting ideas to create an academic conference of the future. Our conference will work with two different scenarios: On the first day, we assume that the global average temperature has increased by more than 2°C above pre-industrial levels. On the second day, we assume the increase has remained below 1.5°C. While the contributions by participants should look back to the 2020s, we ask every participant to frame their contributions with a description of the 2051 world as they imagine it to be. While our artistic team will use these framings to create, by means of theatre, an immersive environment that speaks to our expectations for the future, the work you create and submit will be at the heart of the conference.
The immersive future experience will be created through the use of theatrical pre-enactment, a popular concept in contemporary postdramatic theatre. “Imagined futures” are a common topic in the humanities. With the “2051 Munich Climate Conference” we seek to bring these popular disciplines together in order to spur a new way of thinking creatively and scientifically about climate change.
The conference will take place at the Bellevue di Monaco (bellevuedimonaco.de/english), a socio-cultural centre for refugees located in the heart of Munich. Virtual participation is equally valued. Participants travelling by plane will not be accepted. The conference will strictly follow any COVID-19 prevention guidelines required at the time.
To participate in the “2051 Munich Climate Conference”, please submit an abstract of maximum 300 words until 17 March 2021 to mail@munich2051.org. A committee of scientists and artists will select proposals for presentation at the conference. Notifications of acceptance will be sent by 31 March 2021. Full papers need to be submitted until 25 August 2021. We are open to formats other than papers. Please specify the precise nature of your intended contribution in your abstract.
The conference is funded by the cultural department of the municipality of Munich, Germany.
For information on the organizing BÜRO GRANDEZZA theatre collective, please visit buerograndezza.org. A constantly updated conference FAQ with further information on the concept, collaborating artists and scientists, as well logistical information is available at www.munich2051.org. To keep in touch follow us on Twitter: @munich2051