OPTION 1:

In this modality, the proposals of the Communications will follow the main thematic line of the new edition of the Congress and the Festival: Science and Fantastic Creatures.

The “creature”, as a concept open to the enormous bestiary of beings imagined by the Fantastic Genre, represents one of its main pillars and one of the first creative underpinnings of its various sub-genres (from science-fiction or high fantasy, to the territories of horror or mystery). Although the word “creature” initially alluded to living beings in a biblical and religious context (in terms of species that formed part of creation), it was in the XV century when its terminology acquired a new meaning and expanded towards the fantastic, referring to those beings whose imprint was circumscribed to legends, fables, mythologies, folklore and, in short, to any entity born of belief, superstition and human inventiveness.

In the figure of the fantastic creature lies the drive to confront the unknown or a superior adversity, the attraction to bend the forces of nature. But also the interest in connecting with otherness; as an extension of our concerns, or as a possibility of dialogue with our reflection, our nemesis, or our own history and society.

Over the years, pseudoscience has also taken up the subject of fantastical creatures, bringing its “enquiries” under umbrellas as diverse as parapsychology, dianetics and, among them, cryptozoology, whose efforts aim to prove the existence of animals that have disappeared, are hidden or come from the collective imagination. These “cryptid” beings include extinct creatures (such as dinosaurs), as well as others that may have lived in the past or may still be alive today, but whose existence has not been proven, such as the Loch Ness Monster, Chupacabra, Cuélebre or Big Foot.

In this particular relationship between fantastic creatures and science, the models of artistic and cultural representation that have woven a wide range of possibilities are well known, where both elements find their points of intersection: monstrosities born from the test tubes of human beings (sometimes at the hands of mad doctors), giant animals and other biological alterities, crosses between organisms and machinery, mutants, zombies, etc. Authors such as Mary Shelley, H. G. Wells and R. L. Stevenson cultivated the origins of this relationship in literature. Others such as David Cronenberg, Mark Schultz, Frank R. Paul, H. R. Giger or Karla Zimonja, continued this proposal from film, comics, plastic arts, sculpture or video games, respectively. All of them, among many other creators, give a good account of the existing relevance between science and fantastic creatures, and how their themes, points of union and approaches cross, with significant success, the different pages and screens of our cultural kaleidoscope.

Within its broad spectrum, the abstracts submitted for this main thematic line may follow variations such as the following:

1) The research and theoretical reflection around science and fantastic creatures, from their interconnection with the genre in its various modes of expression: studies, currents, movements, works and prominent authors and authors.

2) The concept of “fantastic creature” as an entity derived from experimentation and creation in the scientific field, and its link with the various models of audiovisual culture and new technologies: its interweaving in cinema, television series, comics, video games, virtual reality, theatre, plastic arts, etc.

3) The research and theoretical reflection on the development and evolution of the duo “science and fantastic creatures” in the various cultural and technological models, and from the perspective of the study of currents (works, outstanding authors, etc.) and variants on which to establish this relationship.

4) The connection between science and fantastic creatures as a tool for communication, reflection or social and political analysis from audiovisual fiction and the fantastic.