Call for Submissions: This Is Not A Gateway Festival

3RD ANNUAL FESTIVAL, 22-24 OCTOBER 2010, LONDON

1st OPEN CALL: 11 JANUARY 2010

1st DEADLINE: 15 MARCH 2010

This Is Not A Gateway is seeking submissions for its 3rd annual festival (22-24 October 2010, London). Proposals are welcome from anybody whose point of reference is ‘the city’.

The festival is entirely participant lead. Previous festivals have included discussions, soapboxes, workshops, book & project launches, guided walks & tours, exhibitions and film screenings. Participants have come from the fields of urban regeneration, economics, government, visual art, psychiatry, archaeology, activism, medicine, journalism, literature, religion, technology, architecture, planning, environmental protection, law, property, theory, housing, film, psychology, finance, philosophy, engineering, human rights & social justice. Furthermore participants have included resident groups, newly arrived immigrants, youth-workers and local politicians.

Alongside the general open call, submissions are sought from across the globe that specifically interrogate and contribute to a better understanding (and re-use/ re-understanding) of ‘Central Business Districts/The Corporation/Downtowns’. There is no fee to propose a project for the festival.

“This year, we hope, by focusing in on the spatiality of ‘The Corporation’ or areas more commonly recognised as ‘Central Business Districts’ and dissecting them via a wide range of disciplines – participants will provide a critical and timely insight into some of the most pertinent, contradictory, intriguing and under-studied spaces in cities across the globe. It is an exciting opportunity to contribute not only to an emerging inter-disciplinary body of knowledge but also add to the urgent research underway seeking to understand the current crisis of capitalism”. 

In 2009 over 1200 festival-goers took part in 60+ activities, organised by 160 individuals from across Europe. 68 % of these events were organised and lead by women. In 2008 43% of the projects were organised and lead by ethnic minorities. The knowledge generated at the festival is built upon and widely circulated in the annual book Critical Cities: Ideas, Knowledge and Agitation from Emerging Urbanists (Myrdle Court Press, London).

This Is Not A Gateway’s role is that of a facilitator. It provides the infrastructure to enable participants to hold their own activities. Support includes securing venues, equipment, publicity, audiences and installation assistance.

General information on This Is Not A Gateway:
www.thisisnotagateway.net

Further information on the 2010 Open Call:
www.thisisnotagateway.squarespace.com/2010-call-application

Information on Critical Cities; Ideas, Knowledge & Agitation from Emerging Urbanists
www.thisisnotagateway.squarespace.com/publications-info/
www.myrdlecourtpress.com