1. First Asia Pacific IMTAP Board
The First board for IMTAP was nominated and voted for at the first annual general meeting of International Museum Theatre Alliance Asia Pacific (IMTAP) They are (as in photograph) Bethany Leong, Jo Clyne (absent), Jo Henwood, Jo Lees, Lyn Beasley, Margaret Griffith (absent), Michael Mills, Nadya Tkachenko, Patrick Watt, Scott Andrew(absent), Micheal Van Tiel, Barry Kay. Jo Lees is from New Zealand, the rest are Australian.
2. Congratulations to Michael & Scott on a great forum in Sydney in April 2010. The forum focussed on the idea of museum theatre being “more than an add on” and provoked a lot of healthy debate. We will be publishing more details soon. Look forward to the transcript of the keynote address by Alana Valentine.
3. CALL FOR PAPERS
2nd International Research Forum on Guided Tours
at the University of Plymouth, 7-9 April 2011
See details below.
4. Call for articles for Europe, America and Asia Pacific journals. Please send to Patrick Watt patrickw@nsm.org.au for consideration.
5. Melbourne 2011
6. The Melbourne 2011 Committee will be publishing details of themes, call for papers, dates and other details very soon: see link on this site.
CALL FOR PAPERS
2nd International Research Forum on Guided Tours
at the University of Plymouth, 7-9 April 2011
For many, a guided tour is a ‘natural’ and often keenly sought after feature
of their touristic experiences. In the last half century, training for and
licensing of tour-guiding has greatly increased. Yet, there is no single
model for the guided tour; and any tour can be made up from numerous,
sometimes incongruous elements: signposting, interpretation, entertainment,
cultural-brokerage, aesthetics, even subversion. Tours take place in a wide
range of contexts. They emerge from divergent traditions. The motivations
and qualifications of guides and guiding organisations are diverse, and as a
metaphor, the guided tour has been used to explore ideas across a wide range
of disciplinary and theoretical perspectives.
The 1st International Research Forum on Guided Tours in Halmstad in 2009
gathered researchers and practitioners in vivid discussions on the guided
tour: its history, its present practice and its future. Numerous
perspectives were represented and a dialogue between practice and criticism
begun. We would like to invite contributors and delegates to the 2nd
International Research Forum on Guided Tours, where we hope to develop the
discussions, encouraging new dialogues and together driving the arguments
further. Contributions are welcome from both practitioners and researchers.
Papers concerning guiding, being guided, co-guiding, touring, giving tours,
producing and consuming tours, and papers addressing the relation between
guided tours and theories of place and space, literature and art, and
business and management, are all welcome. We particularly invite papers that
take an interdisciplinary approach to tour guiding.
Possible themes are (but not limited to):
• Guiding as organising place and space
• The labour and commerce of guiding and being guided
• Emotion and business in guided tours
• Customer, tourist and the guided audience
• Sustainable tours
• History and responsibility in tour guiding
• Alternative tours
• Image and substance in guided tours
• The politics of guided tours
• The economics of guided tours
• The guided tour as a collective act
• Conquering place through guided tours
• Rewriting space through guided tours
• Fact and fiction in guided tours
• The guided tour and the senses
• Mediating place through the guided tour’s uses of new technology
Deadline:
Submission of abstracts by 31st October 2010. Please send your abstract of
500 words (maximum), plus a brief biographical statement (250 words) to
irfgt2011@gri.gu.se
For more information please see:
http://www.gri.gu.se/guidedtours2011/
Organizing committee:
Petra Adolfsson, GRI University of Gothenburg
Anette Hallin, The Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm
Mikael Jonasson, Halmstad University
Roberta Mock, University of Plymouth
Phil Smith, University of Plymouth
Rolf Solli, GRI University of Gothenburg
