CfParticipation: DJ Cultures (Deadline May 1)

"DJ Cultures": special issue for Dancecult: Journal of Electronic Dance Music Culture

We are guest editing a special issue on DJ culture for Dancecult
(http://dj.dancecult.net) scheduled for possible
publication in 2011. This is a call for submissions for an interdisciplinary
collection of original articles, ³from the floor² essays, artwork, and
electronic multimedia on DJ culture.  The issue addresses itself
specifically to the relations of pleasure and power that intersect in the
space between the DJ, the dance floor and the rest of the club world.

Multimedia submissions are encouraged, including copyright permitted
photographs, links on Youtube, Soundcloud, etc.

Our special issue collects reflections from DJ perspectives on the visionary
and social dimensions of DJ culture in Electronic Dance Music (EDM).
Electronic dance music, and its DJs, producers and promoters have become
increasingly central to popular culture in its various spatial
configurations; translocally, glocally, as well as transnationally. The DJ
has been a key figure in popular music since the 1970s, as the superstars
and gatekeepers of today's music and club industry. As artists and
specialized guides to musical worlds, DJs are uniquely positioned in today's
music scenes, but they usually tell their stories through soundscapes,
weaving together auditory elements and influencing the bodies, moods and
emotions of dance crowds. This issue offers creative and intellectual
accounts from DJ perspectives, featuring contributions from established
DJs/writers situated in various kinds of spatial and cultural
configurations. Submissions may address the legal, technological, commercial
and social developments and conditions that constrain and liberate DJs, the
power dynamics of the music scene, and its position in wider
socio-historical processes. Contributors may investigate situated ³behind
the scenes² experiences of DJs, producers and club promoters in EDM. In
addition, they explore conditions for belonging and recognition across
various genres. Based on lived experiences, the issue discusses the ways the
media and music industries package and categorize DJs and their scenes, as
well as their strategies to negotiate and exit such limitations. For
instance, contributors raise issues around gendering, sexualization and
ethnification. Please do consult author´s guidelines:
http://dj.dancecult.net/index.php/journal/about/submissions#authorGuidelines
and previous issues: http://dj.dancecult.net
Please consider making your contribution as either a featured article
(5000-8000 words) or a ³From the Floor² essay (1500-3000 words) and send a
150 word abstract to the guest editors below by May 1st 2010. The deadline
for first drafts is December 1st 2010. The contributions will initially be
reviewed by the guest editors and subsequently be peer reviewed by the
journal.

Please send submissions to both guest editors via electronic mail:

Bernardo Attias:         bernardo.attias AT csun.edu
Anna Gavanas:            anna.gavanas AT framtidsstudier.se

About the Guest Editors

Bernardo Alexander Attias (DJ Professor Ben)
Dr. Attias is Professor and Chair of the Department of Communication
Studies, part of the Mike Curb College of Arts, Media, and Communication at
California State University, Northridge.  His research is in the areas of
cultural studies, performance studies, and freedom of speech; his current
research focuses on the legal, aesthetic, and cultural implications of the
turntable.  He has also been active as a DJ and performance artist for over
twenty years; he is known for his eclectic blending of various elements of
global urban dance music, including house, hip-hop, techno, and drum and
bass, with sloppy funk, old jazz, lounge, and swing.

Anna Gavanas (DJ Gavana aka DJplaneten)
Dr. Gavanas is Associate Professor at the Institute for Futures Studies in
Stockholm/ Sweden. As a social anthropologist she has published on a number
of international policy topics. She has also explored popular culture issues
around European DJ culture, technology and gender. Her latest publications
include the book ³Feedback Loop; gender and popular music² (published in
Swedish 2009 at Makadam publishers). Gavanas has been active as a DJ in
Sweden, as well as in the U.S., the U.K. and Germany, for over 10 years
(spanning over genres like UK steppas dub, dubstep, techno and electronica)
and is also producing various forms of electronic music as Gavana as well as
DJplaneten (see www.soundcloud.com/gavana
and www.soundcloud.com/djplaneten ).