Inversion: from Latin invertere, literally ‘turn outside in’, from in- ‘into’ +vertere ‘to turn’. The concept of inversion describes the process of turning something outside in and/or upside down. The act of inverting implies a transposition, causing a change of order leading to the reversal of the initial state. It suggests the conversion of a concept or form into its corresponding opposite. The turnings and reorientations underlying the principle of inversion effectuate the transfer of an originary state into its inverted form. Inverting simultaneously turns the inside out and the outside in – the outer passes into the inner and the inner into the outer. The inverted takes a stand against normative order, overturning and perverting it. Its configuration is commonly associated with the realm of the negative, or the anormal and the wrong-sided.
For instance, in Freud’s writing inversion is a key concept for his theory on homosexuality; and Marx employs it as a metaphor to illustrate how ideology operates. Inversion has also often been identified with the workings of the camera obscura as it provides an image that is both turned round as well as upside down. The photographic negative exemplifies further the inverted form of the positive print, depicting the photographed reality in ‘false’ colours.
However, the concept of inversion as such does not entail any right- or wrongness of the inverted. If it merely transforms one state into its reverse, then how does one recognize the inverted? Indeed, one could argue that the to be inverted is already an inversion and thus, there is only an act but not a state of inversion. Like an hourglass that one has to invert continually in order to grasp the incessant flow of time, inversion converts the inside into the outside and back again, thus making the delimiting of an outer and inner realm intangible. parallax wishes to invite contributions that explore the theme of inversion in the fields of visual and cultural studies, philosophy, literary theory, psychoanalysis, postcolonial studies, performance and queer theory, as well as in the theories and practices of architecture, music, film, photography and the visual arts. By cutting across all these subjects, the concept of inversion permeates and traverses disciplinary boundaries, differentiating or better, inverting them, thereby twisting and turning the very tropes of the disciplines themselves through its own performance of mutations.
Submission deadline: September 2007
Potential contributors are encouraged to contact: parallax Centre for Cultural Studies School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies Old Mining Building University of Leeds Leeds LS2 9JT Email: parallax@leeds.ac.uk