Tim Flohr Sørensen and Þóra Pétursdóttir are organizing a conference, “On the Trace: Passing, Presence and the Persistence of the Past,” at the Saxo Institute, the University of Copenhagen, September 22-23, 2016. Here is their rationale and call for submissions:

In recent decades, the concept of ‘cultural heritage’ as process has largely replaced notions of ‘static’ relics and monuments, signifying a turn towards a view on artefacts as traces that enable engagement with and negotiation of ‘gone’ pasts. How people live with objects of bygone times has been brought into focus and attention drawn to notions of the past as incomplete and open-ended, and as paradoxical due to the concrete presence of the past in the form of material traces or the negative manifestation. On the Trace is concerned with this temporality of traces, and with exploring how scholars from a variety of disciplines deal with fragments and clues from the past as present-day artefacts, as objects that somehow persevere. Exploring notions of the ‘trace’ (whether a colloquial term, as ruins, as an archaeological or forensic concept, or as theorised through e.g. Walter Benjamin, Jacques Derrida or Paul Riceour), the conference addresses the dialectics – or paradox – of the present trace and the distant past, and how these emerge through non-linear processes of metamorphosis and transience.

This three-day conference is open to scholars and students from all disciplines, exploring the methodological and analytical dimensions of the ‘trace’ for example in philosophical work, in ethnographic or geographical fieldwork, in forensic analysis, in museological practice, in studying historical documents or in the study of archaeological remains. We welcome papers that address the ‘trace’, directly or indirectly, considering how the past concurrently passes and endures, and how a critical engagement with ‘traces’ can challenge the chronological distinction of things as either vestiges of the past or objects in the present.

Important questions and areas of exploration involve, for example; what kind of concept is the ‘ trace’, and what does it help us understand? How does the obstinacy of the trace affect notions of the past as open-ended and negotiable in passing? How do people encounter, identify and relate
to present traces of pasts with which they are unfamiliar? How are abruptly emerging traces located in the chronological schemes of history and heritage? And where are objects characterized by ephemerality and transience positioned in disciplines and discourses that are carried by notions of conservation and preservation? Is it, within such discourses, possible to contain modernity’s notion of artworks as mobile objects and characterized by impermanence? And can ‘heritage’ encompass the temporality and persistent metamorphosis of the ‘trace’?

Some of the themes that may be pursued could relate to topics such as:

• The trace as present absence; as negative imprint; as nearness or as distance; as propinquity
• The trace as evidence and witness; as scar or palimpsest
• The trace as constant or as emergence; as dissolution and fragmentation
• The trace as noun and as verb

Keynote speakers have been allocated an hour each for presentation and discussion. Other presenters have 30 minutes with 15 minutes or discussion. Should you be interested in presenting a paper at the conference, please forward a title and an abstract of no more than 200 words for your proposed paper to both of the organizers no later than June 30th 2016: Tim Flohr Sørensen (klq302@hum.ku.dk) and Þóra Pétursdóttir (thora.petursdottir@uit.no)

On the Trace is hosted by The Saxo Institute and sponsored by generous grants from The Carlsberg Foundation and The Danish Council for Independent Research | Culture and Communication.