Some Like it Hot

Rising sea temperatures, heat waves, forced displacement, and accelerated habitat loss are exacerbating vulnerabilities and reshaping lives. Accompanying this ecological unravelling, constant media updates and doomsday headlines signal the latest hottest recorded day, unprecedented fires, and mass species eradication. What—beyond witnessing—can artistic practices offer the gross inequality of heat? How might such practices help re-establish a commons and aid commoning processes—not only for access to natural resources but also in terms of the ways in which digital and cultural spaces are generated and maintained? How can the material costs of the digital be exposed and reimagined?

The 2025 PARSE conference builds on the previous themes of Violence (2021) and Powers of Love (2023) to now ask: What role can artistic research play in the urgent process of meaning-making at the intersection of aesthetics, ecology, and social justice? How can it contribute to new forms of political and cultural consciousness and provide pathways to tangible action? By engaging with the concept of HEAT from diverse angles, we aim to uncover how artistic praxis may not only reflect but also intervene in the challenges of our time.

We invite contributions that help us to actively imagine in what ways heat may not only act as a manifestation of violence but also consider lust as a counterpart to love. From mycelium to politicians—who actually likes it hot? What are the potential transformations triggered by friction, fever, sweat? How do conductors of heat (extremities, lightning rods, spices) and by-products of heat (nightmares, chaos, unruliness) function? How does sonic and somatic energy express urgency? What are the smokescreens and speakeasies of our current times?

Some Like it Hot calls for proposals particularly from emerging researchers, independents, collaborators, the recalcitrant and the curious. We prioritize artistic, curatorial, performative, and work-in-progress propositions that address heat from a range of positions, perspectives, and disciplines. The 2025 PARSE conference takes place in Gothenburg alongside a parallel online program.

Call closes: Monday March 31, 2025

Here is the link to our online submission form

Peer review process

Each proposal will be peer-reviewed by the PARSE conference committee with reference to:

1. relevance to the overarching thematics of “Heat”
2. potential in developing a dialogue across the disciplines
3. originality of contribution