Monday 13 February 2012

Nature Crisis Conference March 17, The Eden Project, Cornwall

The SITE Annual Conference ‘Nature Crisis’
March 17th 2012, The Eden Project
 
Weblink: http://www.the-site.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=216&Itemid=54
 
We live in a time where our human nature – who or what we are – is understood to threaten the place we inhabit – nature itself. Whether we are destroying the rainforests or building sustainable communities, we can’t stop making ourselves central to the current environmental ‘crisis’. This conference will be an exploration of this‘crisis’ in our relationship with the environment.
Drawing from a range of philosophical and psychoanalytical approaches, this conference will suggest that there might be better and potentially more liberatory ways to understand the current catastrophic relationship we have with the natural world.
 
We are excited to be holding our conference at the beautiful Eden project – a rich global garden which aims to create projects which are socially and environmentally transformational. We will be using the Gallery space, overlooking the Eden landscape. There will be an opportunity for participants to meet up informally at the end of the day for a drinks reception in the colourful and evocative surroundings of the Mediterranean biome. The Eden project is near to St Austell in the heart of the county:
 
Eden Project
Bodelva
St Austell
Cornwall PL24 2SG
 
Sitegeist, The Site journal is devoting its Spring 2012 edition to environment and psychoanalysis. This will be available at the conference and will include some of the papers presented on the day, as well as other thought-provoking contributions.
 
The Site runs a UKCP registered training in clinical psychoanalysis in both Cornwall and London.
 
CONFERENCE PROGRAMME
9.30: Registration
10.00: Welcome – Stephen Gee, Chair of the Site
10.10: Introduction to the Conference - Philip Derbyshire, Conference Chair
10.30 - 11.30: Uncivilisation - Paul Kingsnorth
11.30 – 12.00: COFFEE
12.00 - 1.00: Parallel Sessions
‘Directly’: Consumerism, Psychoanalysis and Cultures of the Countryside : Sally Sales
Landscape as Psychic Loss: Framing Nature in the 21st century: Ilric Shetland
The Myth of the Clinic: Psychoanalysis Beyond the Human: Margot Young
1.00: LUNCH
2.00 - 3.00: Derek Jarman's Gay Georgic - Greg Garrard
3.00 - 3.15: TEA
3.15 - 4.15: Parallel Sessions
How to be: Wishful drives without limit in a limited world - Paul Zeal
The Environmental Crisis and the Death Drive: Must we make the planet face its death before we can accept ours? - Joe Suart
Queering Nature - Phillip Derbyshire, Stephen Gee & Greg Garrard
4.15: Short Plenary
4.45: Close and concluding chair's remarks
5.00 – 7.00 Drinks reception in the Mediterranean Biome, at Eden 
 
To Book: 
Please send your cheque, payable to The Site , together with this completed form to: 
The Administrator,
The Site,
35 Manor Road,
Potters Bar, EN6 1DQ. 
For booking enquires the Site office can be contacted on: the-site@the-site.org.uk or 01707 649788 

Conference full fee £75/ Students/unwaged £50 (please indicate)
 
Full name:
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For information on accommodation in the area, see the link, www.eden-project.co.uk/places-to-stay.htm 
For further general enquires Sally Sales can be contacted on 01726 870169 or  sitesouthwest@the-site.org.uk