20-21 October 2023
Chinese Culture University
Harmony and Chaos: The Dialectics of Order and Disorder
The ideas of order and disorder are universal conceptual categories found across diverse disciplines and cultures. They often emerge as a pair of opposites that help humans characterize observed phenomena, experiences, and imagination. Changes in regimes, the development of societies, and the evolution of cultural trends, for instance, are sometimes comprehended through the filter of order and disorder. Representations in arts and literature may also be examined under pairs of similar attributes, such as symmetry and asymmetry, harmony and disharmony, unity and disunity, and so forth.
This conference calls for research from scholars working in art history, literature, philosophy, history, geography, religious studies, cultural studies, classical studies, anthropology, social sciences, and beyond. We also welcome studies on the cultural dialogue between East and West. Topics for consideration might include (but are not limited to) the following:
Explorations of cosmology, creation, or world views in relation to systems and/or chaos, entropy and/or negentropy, etc.
Analyses on art and visualization that involves symmetry, asymmetry, or elements concerning order and/or disorder
Explorations of musical compositions in terms of harmony and/or cacophony
Examinations on issues of religious doctrines, spirituality, heresy, or moral values with regard to unity and/or anarchy, moderation and/or excess, or other aspects in close relation to order and/or disorder.
Critical interpretations of specific works addressing issues of concord and/or discord, discordia concors, or other related aspects