ASAP (The Association for the Study of the Arts of the Present) is an international, nonprofit association dedicated to discovering and articulating the aesthetic, cultural, ethical, and political identities of the contemporary arts. ASAP/12 will take place virtually, in the interest of the continued health and safety of our membership, as well as in recognition of depressed institutional and fiscal resources. This virtual conference aims to bring about the fullest possible expression of our collective creative intellectual energy and collegial spirit as scholars and practitioners of the Arts of the Present, which is a tall order given the levels of Zoom fatigue and webinar saturation that many of our members have experienced over the past year of COVID-related protocols.
The conference theme—Reciprocity—both responds to and, more importantly, resists the alienating social effects of the pandemic, as well as other contemporary structural, institutional, geopolitical, economic, and planetary forms of estrangement. Working together in and against a global climate of pervasive dividedness and isolation, the conference theme reflects instead the priorities of collective struggle, abolitionist self-care, mutual aid, love, and the creation—or reconstruction—of resistant forms of infrastructure that animate the contemporary arts worldwide.
This year ASAP broadens its approach to Arts of the Present to include all reflections on the study, collection, exhibition, teaching, and writing of the arts—broadly conceived—that speak to the challenges of the present moment. We seek proposals from scholars, artists, writers, curators, cultural workers, and other practitioners whose work addresses artistic contemporaneity. Participants are invited to relate the conference theme to their own cultural, aesthetic, and disciplinary areas and contexts as well as to engage historically with it. Panels and papers that consider a range of disciplines and methods and speak across (non)traditional institutional or intellectual divides are especially encouraged. We also embrace experimental presentations from collaborative arts groups and scholars alike.