Future events

Traditional Arts of the Altered Body

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CONFERENCE Shrewsbury, Shropshire, UK
MAY 15 - 16 - 17, 2008

TAAB 08 Exhibition and Festival: Monday 12th May 2008 to Saturday 24th May 2008 - An exhibition of images and artifacts from around the world at The Bear Steps Gallery, Shrewsbury, UK.

15th 16th and 17th May -'The Altered Body' Festival of lectures, demonstrations and practical workshops.

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The initial communication frontier between people is the body. People judge, and are judged by their appearance before they ever speak. People alter their bodies to manage that communication.

There is little formal study of body alteration in the western academia, though people in every culture alter their bodies to conform to, to resist, or to subvert a cultural ideal. In the few existing academic works on body alteration, the changes are more commonly viewed as exotic aberrations rather than a range of options.

As global immigration and communication increases, people whose bodies have been altered to differing norms are brought in contact with each other, with resulting reactions ranging from admiration to revulsion and xenophobia. One country may criminalize the body alterations of another country, while a third may package and commercialize them.

TAAB, through critical study, publication and exhibition can serve both to put body alteration into global perspective, encourage appreciation for diverse cultures and divergent beauties.