INVITATION

ASS Extended: Health, Body, and Consumption,

29th – 30th of March 2013,

[A]Infoshop, Metelkova Mesto, Ljubljana

You are kindly invited to a student conference on the topic of health, body, and consumption, organized by Anthropology Students’ Sessions (ASS) Collective. Join us as a listener or participate in our fruitful discussions. Let us explore the present of our world and think about its future together in a friendly and egalitarian environment, uniting education and fun!

In our globalized societies there are coexisting different medical systems and other knowledge about health that on one hand compete for their believers and on the other influence each other and due to on-going syncretism and hybridization we are faced with more and more methods and techniques of taking care for our health and body. This is not only changing the conceptions of health and disease and the perceptions of our bodies but it also influences our daily lifestyles. On every step we hear about “healthy life style” and “healthy body” – and about the ways to achieve them: which physical activities to pursue, what kind of food to eat, and which philosophy to follow. What is often forgotten in this context is that all theories and practices concerning care for our health and body are deeply embedded in economic and political spheres. A believer is at the same time a consumer and the experts’ advices are at the same timemarketing.

The goal of ASS Extended is to share and confront different critical views on this complex system, to explore it from different angles, to teach and learn about different segments and aspects of it through paper presentations, workshops, round tables, films, and discussions.

The 1st day will be dedicated to buying, eating, wearing, doing consumerism, and global change. We will be hearing about various new trends regarding healthy way of life and healthy or acceptable appearance and think about their position in consumerist society. We will discuss about the changing world and where do these trends lead us. The day will be closed by two episodes of a TV show, dealing with eating and food.

The 2nd panel will focus on medicine. We will learn about how certain (marginal) social groups experience growing pharmaceutical market and we will expose some paradoxes of the meaning of “health” and “healthy” .
In the 3rd panel we will focus on representations of bodies and look beyond contemporary photography and visual material of humanitarian organizations. In the round table, we will critically discuss about marketization of the welfare state and privatization of welfare services. For afternoon relaxation, we will play a rhizomatic network game which will be followed by two documentaries about the perception of our genitals and a closing discussion.

Scroll down  to the programme!


We look forward to seeing you on ASS Extended in [A]Infoshop!

Yours faithfully,
ASS Collective

ASS Extended: Health, Body, and Consumption
Ljubljana, 29/3 – 30/3/2013

Programme

Day 1

9:30

Welcome speech

Panel 1: Buying, Eating, Wearing, Doing Consumerism

10:00	Philippe C. Focsaneanu	Promoting a False Prophet
	Alexandra Dantzer	Consumerism Society where Miracles are Possible, Buy Your Perfect and Universally Acceptable Look
	Maruša Golob	Interaction of One's Body Perception and Clothing
11:50	Break
12:00	Katarzyna Ewa Król	Protecting Power of Women Hands: Case Study of Homemade Cakes
	Lucas de Souza Martins	The Emergence of Yoga in Football and Its Contribution to Global Change
	Cristian Florentin-Cristian	The e-cigarette – a “Healthier” Technology of Smoking?
13:50	Lunch
15:00	Ana Chushkova and Toni Dimitrov	Round Table:  The World is Changing
17:00	Break
17:15	Maia Loh	Workshop :  Cargo Cycles and the Specific Case of the Cargo Cycle Collective in Vienna
19:15	Break
19:30	Film screening	Penn & Teller: Bullshit! – Eat This! (discussion led by  Focsaneanu C. Philippe) Penn & Teller: Bullshit! – Organic Food (discussion led by Florin Slabu)

Day 2

Panel 2:  Medicine Here, Medicine There, Medicine Everywhere!

10:00	Tanja Kovačič	Pink Pill – a Solution for All His Problems: Medicalization of Female Sexuality
	Katerina Vidner Ferkov	Pharmacolonization of the Underprivileged
	Davide Ticchi	Discovering Healthy Diseases?
11:50	Break

Panel 3:  Representing (Suffering) Bodies

12:00	Ana Svetel	The Usage of Visual Material in Humanitarian Organisations
	Cristina Godoroja	Representations of the Suffering Body in Contemporary Photography: The Aesthetics of Pain
13:10	Lunch
14:10	Carys Banks	Round Table:  Does the Marketization of the Welfare State and Privatisation of Welfare Services Impact upon Everyday Health and Social Care Service Provision for Adults with Intellectual Disabilities (ID)?
16:10	Break
16:20	Synthesium Collective	Fringe event:  B.Y.O.B. – A Rhizomatic Network Game
18:20	Break
18:30	Film screening	The Perfect Vagina My Penis and I