Introduction to Special Issue: African Artistic Practices and New Media: Intersections, Volatilities, Futures

Abstract

African artistic practices, new media, new platforms, and their study and use by scholars present opportunities to explore emergent intersections, volatili- ties, and futures. Questions arising from the intersections between past and present, old and new media, the volatilities of form, and imagined futures in contemporary African cultural production brought scholars from Indiana, Humboldt, and Bayreuth universities together for an interdisciplinary sym- posium at the Indiana University European Gateway in Berlin, Germany, in June 2017. The symposium was made possible by support of the Indiana University Office of the Vice President for International Affairs; the College of Arts and Humanities Institute; College Associate Deans for Arts and Humanities, Social and Historical Sciences, and International Affairs; The Media School and Department of Cinema and Media Studies; the Institut für Asien- und Afrikawissenschaften, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin; and the Institut für Afrikastudien, Universität Bayreuth.