Arts Centre Vooruit, Ghent, Belgium

At the two-day conference Tickle Your Catastrophe the ruling image of the catastrophe in art, philosophy and science gets a kick up the rear! Whereas the twentieth century was dominated by political extremism and (coping with) trauma, it is the fear of the inevitable and complete catastrophe that reigns at the beginning of a new century.

Although worst-case scenarios have always been part of our cultural identity, the catastrophe has taken on a different form at the beginning of a new millennium. The impending depletion of the world’s oil resources and the implosion of the global economy, international terrorism, the breakdown of the financial market, overpopulation, unsustainable exploitation of natural resources, pollution, major climate change, disastrous floods and new epidemics… Not only have we become increasingly aware that the threat of a catastrophe is real and inevitable, we also realize that we are not exactly innocent when we consider the causes of these catastrophes, and therefore cannot blame divine providence, fate or forces of nature. Yet we know that we alone cannot change the world.

Tickle Your Catastrophe! doesn’t want to wallow in doom and pessimism, but wants to question our idea of a catastrophe and the role it plays in philosophy, art and science today. NGE (Nederlands Gennootschap voor Esthetica – Dutch Society for Aesthetics), Ghent University , KASK and Vooruit launched a call for papers on this theme. Artists and mostly scientist in Belgium reacted enthusiastically. Nearly 30 artists and scientists have been selected for the conference.

The conference is divided into thematic conferences with the titles:

• Ruin Value
• Media disasters
• Shelter
• State of emergency/ code red
• Worst case scenarios
• Panicky play
• Seeds
• Panic room evacuation
• Emergency exit

List of confirmed speakers and performers: BAVO (BE), Peter Cusack (UK), Marko Daniel (UK), Lieven De Cauter (BE), Dirk De Meyer (BE), Nicolas de Oliveira (UK), Pedro Gadanho (PT), Martin Harris (US), Oliver Harris (UK), Courtney Helgoe (US), Vlad Ionesco (BE), Natalie Jeremijenko (US), Inge Jonckheere (BE), Thijs Lijster (NL), Tom McCarthy (UK), J.D. Mininger (LT), Dany Nobus (UK), Eli Noé (BE), Johan Pas (BE), Jason Michael Peck (US), Katarzyna Ruchel-Stockmans (BE), Nicola Oxley (UK), Patrick Primavesi (GER), Christian Salewski (CH), Björn Scherlippens (BE), Susan Schuppli (UK), Nicola Setari (BE), Yves T’Sjoen (BE), Katja van Driel (NL), Beatrice Gross (US) & Maya Van Leemput (BE).

• Take look at the list of speakers with abstracts and biographies, and the preliminary timetable.