Friday 13 February, 2015 University of York

Visual art, film, and literature since 1960 has been marked by leftovers, repetitions, and time lags, despite emerging in a climate of accelerated technological development and the erasure of leisure time. From artworks that incorporate the trash and detritus of consumerist excess to novels and films that indulge in narrative ‘time-wasting,’ the cultural production of the last fifty years has revelled in the wasteful and excessive. This event asks: what are the aesthetics of excess? What are its material, temporal and figurative manifestations? Is artistic time-wasting a radical form of resistance to the capitalist imperative to be productive? Or do art’s glorious expenditures reinforce aesthetic hierarchies that privilege ‘difficulty’?

The event will follow a workshop format, with a paper by Dr. Amanda Boetzkes (University of Alberta) and a screening and discussion led by Dr. Karl Schoonover (University of Warwick). Please send abstracts of no more than 300 words and a brief biography to the organisers, Stephanie Lambert (sjl519@york.ac.uk) and Amy Tobin (at548@york.ac.uk), by 15/12/14. General enquiries are also welcome. This event is free to attend, but places are limited; please e-mail to reserve a place.