This is rather delayed notice, but I only just found out that the MeCCSA newsletter is online. So, here is a link (select issue 5/6) to a brief piece by Phil Drake and I from last year amidst the Live8 concerts and the Celebrity Culture conference frenzy. Also, is a link to some images of the Edinburgh concert we attended for 'research' purposes.
Representing British Nationalities in Performance Media
(Cinema, Radio, Theatre & Television)
A conference to examine ways in which notions about the symbolic essentiality of Britishness have been used as aresource in fiction and propaganda.
25th-26th November 2006
Manchester Metropolitan University, England
International Institute for the Study of Englishness
details: http://www.iise.co.uk and http://web.mac.com/theorists/iWeb
email: contact@iise.co.uk
Postgraduates are welcome at a (subsidized fee). A selection ofpapers presented will be published in a special edition of thejournal Identity, Self & Symbolism and others in a book. The portrayal of the nationalities, and regional identities, which make up the ‘British’ has been a major feature of many films, plays and televisiondramas and propaganda media. With the political will looking to re-affirm the character of Britishness it is time to look at, re-assess and visit the past. What better way to do this assessment than to look at the wealth of British identities to be found in Performance Media.
perthDAC 2007 – The Future of Digital Media Culture 7th International Digital Arts and Culture Conference15 -18th September 2007, Perth, Australia.
http://www.beap.org/dac
KEYWORDS – computer games, hypertext theory and literature, new media narrative, streaming media, interactive and networked performance, digitalaesthetics, interactive cinema, theory, art, bio-art, nano-art, augmentedreality, cyberculture, electronic fiction, electronic music, electronic art,games culture, games system design, games theory, interactive architecture,cinema and video, MOOs, MUDs, RPG, virtual reality, virtual worlds.
ABOUT perthDAC
perthDAC is the seventh iteration of Digital Arts and Culture. DAC was the first conference to attract and present the work of researchers,practitioners and artists working across the field of digital arts,cultures, aesthetics and design.
In September 2007, DAC will be hosted as the key international conference in the public program of the Biennale of Electronic Arts Perth (BEAP) in Perth,Australia. BEAP celebrates and critiques new and novel technologies(digital, bio, nano, other) by showcasing artworks made with, or that are about, new technologies. perthDAC's conference program will be closelyinter-woven with BEAP's exhibitions. perthDAC's academic programme is being developed with the close co-operationand support of the fibreculture forum, who will also be active on theperthDAC conference steering committee.
CALL FOR PAPERS
Papers are sought for PerthDAC 2007 that will illuminate both the near and long term Future of Digital Media Culture. Papers which present researchoutcomes, track trends or developments, describe case studies or works inprogress, are speculative projection, challenge existing paradigms or recorda history, are all welcome. Submissions are encouraged from any
professional, craft or scholarly field that relates to communications art/design, cultural expression, practice and aesthetics, and the technicalmeans by which they are enabled.
perthDAC 2007 accepts submissions from fields such as the humanities, social sciences, human-computer interaction and computer science studies, as wellas those working both practically and theoretically in specific areas suchas: digital/interactive art, digital/electronic literature, game studies, online communities, new media studies, affective computing, experiencedesign, virtual environment design, etc. Topics of interests may include, but are not limited to, computer games,hypertext theory and literature, new media narrative, streaming media,interactive and networked performance, digital aesthetics, interactive cinema, theory, art, bio-art, nano-art, augmented reality, cyberculture,electronic fiction, electronic music, electronic art, games culture, gamessystem design, games theory, interactive architecture, cinema and video, MOOs, MUDs, RPG, virtual reality, virtual worlds.Artists, early career scholars and PhD students are particularly encouraged to submit. All abstracts and then full papers will be double blind peer reviewed by aninternational panel, and will be published in the proceedings. Some papers will be published as a special themed journal edition.
Dates for the submission of 500 word abstracts and then full papers are:Abstracts: 14th August 2006
Full papers: 4th December 2006
See the perthDAC website “method” page for more details on the abstracts, papers and presentations process.
perthDAC website http://www.beap.org/dac
New political commentary published in The Guardian by Ewan Crawford:
"Thanks to Gordon Brown the next major election in the UK is set to be dominated by something he used to hate – nationalism. More than anyone else, the chancellor, in his increasingly ludicrous attempts to pretend he's not really all that Scottish, honest, is putting political nationalism centre stage in the run-up to the next Scottish parliament election, now less than 12 months away" [continue reading]
Last week, Dr Andy Miah spoke at Stanford University Law School on the subject of posthumanism, human enhancement and human rights. The conference received considerable media attention and Dr Miah was interviewed by MSNBC for an article about his work on this subject. The meeting was co-organised by the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies where Dr Miah is currently a fellow for Visions of Utopia and Dystopia.
Links
"Who are these people?"* Enquiring after the audience/s
2nd Edinburgh Film Audiences Conference
22nd/23rd `March 2007
CALL FOR PAPERS
Following the success of the 1st Edinburgh Film Audiences conference in March 2005, we are pleased to announce the 2nd conference in March 2007.Rather than outlining the current state of theory and research in the area of film audiences, this call for papers is straightforward. The aim of the conference is to provide a space for sharing empirical research into film audiences. Abstracts that focus on contemporary or historical audiences, the relationship between audiences and policy makers, film-makers, producers, distributors or exhibitors are all welcome. Work inprogress is as welcome as completed research.
Submissions can be made byanyone involved in audience research be they academically or industry based.There will also be a bursary for the best student submission (subject toproof of student status), which can include undergraduates as well as
post-graduates.
Abstracts of no more than 300 words should be submitted as virus-free MSWord or rtf attachments, to Dr Ailsa Hollinshead(ailsahollinshead@blueyonder.co.uk) no later than 4th August 2006. Abstractswill be reviewed by external referees and all contributors will be notified by 4th September 2006.
Successful candidates will be expected to book a place at the conferencewithin one month of being accepted. Copies of the final paper must be withthe conference organisers by 8th January 2007.The conference will take place at Filmhouse, Lothian Road, Edinburgh.
Thereis a conference website, accessible through www.edinburghfilmguild.com
Dr Ailsa Hollinshead
Ms Nicola Hay
Mr Andreas Rust
* with thanks to Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid!
