Calls for Papers

Photo by Johnny Briggs on Unsplash

#pascarts
#phillyavantgarde

PASC hosts an annual symposium during the fall semester (generally November or December),
posting a Call for Papers, performances, lightning presentations and miscellany during the summer.
Please check back with our site, and follow us on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook to stay up to date.

Join our mailing list by sending an email to pascinitiative@gmail.com, with the subject: mailing list.
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Thank you for your interest.  

“Ad Absurdum: The Politics and Poetics of Absurdity in Avant-Garde Art and Thought” took place online ​
Friday, December 4, 2020, 1 to 4 p.m. (U.S. Eastern Time)

A good snort: Zero Mostel, probably photographed by Leo Friedman, in Eugène Ionesco's "Rhinocéros."

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Participants from past symposia
​and more about their projects:

'Invisible City,' an exploration of all that's avant garde in the City of Philadelphia, curated by Sid Sachs, Director of Exhibitions, University of the Arts, was on view January 21, 2020, until the Covid-caused shutdown.  

Invisible City is also a fantastic database, with a searchable chronology, interviews and more. This comprehensive project is a boon to artists, curators, scholars, researchers--and Philadelphia.

Click to visit the Invisible City website, which offers a glimpse of why the 2020 exhibition is going to be so impressive.

Click for the database: 'Invisible City' is searchable by genres, dates, names ... Philadelphia's unexpectedly wide-ranging and important cultural avant-garde contributions are fascinating.

Sid Sachs, Director of Exhibitions, University of the Arts, gives an electrifying talk about "Technology and Art at the Tyler School of Art in the 1960s" at PASC's 2018 symposium on Dec. 7. Watch for news of his exhibition, "Invisible City," an exploration of all that's avant garde in the City of Philadelphia. "Invisible City" promises to be an exciting and important show. Sited in multiple venues and featuring reenactments of Happenings and all sorts of events, we eagerly anticipate this celebration of Philadelphia's rich cultural history, Jan. 21 through April 4, 2020.

Thomas Patteson, Professor of Music History, Curtis Institute of Music, spoke about 'Abstract Machines in Experimental Music' at PASC's Dec. 7, 2018, symposium. ​Among highlights of his talk was an audience hoot-along with a recording of John White's 'Drinking and Hooting Machine' (1968).

Hoot along with the Ensemble for Experimental Music and Theater's performance in Japan's Kichijoji Theater, Jan. 26, 2014. As you sip, swig or gulp, the sound of your hooting will change. (Links to Youtube)

After the day's events, Thomas Patteson gave a modular synthesizer performance.

John White's "Drinking and Hooting Machine" score (1968)

For more about Thomas Patteson's work, visit his website.

Katie Hubbell dazzled us with 'Dreamsicle, Dreamcycle' at the 2018 symposium.
To hear it and learn more about her work, visit her website.