The third annual conference of the DFG Research Training Group “Documentary Practices. Excess and Privation” which will take place from May 8-10, 2025 at the Kunstmuseum Bochum represents both the conclusion and the imminent disbanding of a research context that has grown for nine years. We thus suggest that we think about the documentary with regard to its ends and that we direct our focus to liminal medial and aesthetic figures of documentary modes of existence in scholarly disciplines and the arts. If it is the observational frame that determines when a process comes to its end, then we wish to probe the terms, practices, and politics that form the image that we can make with and out of ends.

For a joint, interdisciplinary discussion of these approaches, we look forward to international contributions from media, theater, literary, and cultural studies, art history, musicology, and the social and political sciences, as well as practice-based explorations, forms of artistic research, and artistic formats. Alongside scholarly talks, the conference will be open for different forms of presentation. The conference will take place in English. The costs of travel and accommodation can be covered, and there will be no participation fee.

In cooperation with the Stabsstelle Familiengerechte Hochschule of the Ruhr University Bochum, we endeavor to cover the costs of individual childcare for invited speakers for the duration of the conference, with prior arrangement. Please contact the organizing team for further information.

Conference contributions should be 15-20 minutes long. Please send your abstract with the planned title of your presentation (max 1.000 characters incl. spaces) and a short bio (max. 500 characters incl. spaces) by e-mail to 404notfound-tagung@ruhr-uni-bochum.de. The deadline for submissions is November 15, 2024.

The call for papers is available here.

Contact: 404notfound-tagung@rub.de

Organizing team: Franziska Barth, Lena Demary, Anna Grelik, Anne Hemkendreis, Katharina Król, Anne Küper, Ying Sze Pek, Catherin Persing, Lana Uzarashvili
Conference team: Schaja Aenehsazy, Rose Beermann, Barbara Fromme, Philipp Hohmann, Katharina Menschick, Paulena Müller, Felix Rissel, Lisa Römer, Robin Schrade, Chisa Tanimoto, Amelie Wedel, Maximiliane Wildenhues