The three-day conference examines polystylism in music and the arts—the use of multiple styles or techniques in music, literature, visual art, architecture, and film, among other arts. In music, Alfred Schnittke coined the term in 1971 to describe the deliberate mixing of multiple contrasting musical styles, genres, or historical periods within a single piece of music, with composers using techniques such as direct quotes, subtle hints, collages, or imitations of past and present music. While for composers of the twentieth century polystylism is mainly associated with jarring, ironic collisions of quotation and dissonance, today’s approach can be construed to include topics such as genre fluidity, hyper-hybridization, and the use of AI in composition. This conference aims to capture this moment of reimagining as it reshapes the study and making of music and art by creating a forum for humanistic and artistic inquiry.
We welcome a wide range of topics and discourses in the fields of music, arts, architecture, and closely related humanities. We especially welcome themes about:
• juxtaposition of styles, collage, musical quotation, allusion, homage, irony
• postmodernism in music and the arts
• hyper-hybridization and hyper-connectivity in music production
• mood as a genre and curatorial fluidity in music and visual arts
• AI and automated composition
• narrative and cross-media identity
• polystylism in Yugoslav art, popular, rock, and folk music
• listening, recognition, and reception: audiences, musical competence, and the interpretation of stylistic plurality
• polystylism, intertextuality, and musical meaning
• sampling, remix, authorship, copyright, and the ethics of musical borrowing
• polystylism in film, theatre, opera, dance, and audiovisual media
• polystylism in the context of the global reach of Serbian art music in the 21st century
Formats: individual papers (20 minutes); themed sessions (3–4 papers, 20 minutes each); lecture-recitals (30–60 minutes). The official conference language is English.
Please send abstracts (250–300 words) to Laura Emmery (laura.emmery@gmail.com) by January 15, 2027. In your submission, please include your name, any institutional affiliation, and any audiovisual requirements. For themed sessions, please submit all abstracts together with an additional proposal describing your session theme (100 words). The conference committee will review all submissions and inform the participants by February 15, 2027.
Conference fee: €80 for affiliated scholars, €40 for independent researchers, no fee for students. The conference fee includes free entry to all concerts organized during the conference.
The conference is a multi-partner event organized and supported by the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SASA Department of Arts, and SASA, Branch in Novi Sad), the Academy of Arts of the University of Novi Sad (Serbia), Kulturna stanica Svilara, and Emory University (Atlanta, USA).
I hope you will join us in Novi Sad/Belgrade in May 2027, which will coincide with the Art World Expo, hosted by Serbia, May 15–August 15, 2027.