Thursday 18th July–Saturday 20th July 2013
Mansfield College, Oxford, United Kingdom
Call for Presentations:
This inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary project aims to explore what it is to be human and the nature of human community in cyberculture, cyberspace and science fiction. In particular, the project will explore the possibilities offered by these contexts for creative thinking about persons and the challenges posed to the nature
and future of national, international, and global communities.
Presentations, papers, performances, and workshops are invited on issues related to any of the following themes:
- the relationship between cyberculture, cyberspace, science fiction
- cyberculture, cyberpunk and the near future: utopias vs. dystopias
- technologies of the future today: equality and access
- science fiction and cyberpunk as a medium for exploring the nature of persons
- humans and cyborgs; the synergy of humans and technology; changing views of the body
- human and post-human concepts in digital arts and cinema
- digital artistic practices and aesthetics
- mobile media, place and the telematic body
- bodies in cyberculture; body modifications; from apes to androids
– electronic evolution; biotechnical advances and the impact of life, death, and social existence
- artificial intelligence, robotics and biomedia: self-organization as a cultural logic
- gender and cyberspace: new gender, new feminisms, new masculinities
- cyberculture of virtual worlds and videogames
- interactive storytelling, emergent narratives, transmedia storytelling, alternate reality games
- nature, enhancing nature, and artificial intelligence; artificial life, life and information systems
- networked living in future city, new urban lifestyles
- human and post-human politics; cyborg citizenship and rights; influence of political technologies
- boundaries, frontiers and taboos in cyberculture
The Steering Group particularly welcomes the submission of pre-formed panel proposals. Papers will also be considered on any related theme.
What to Send:
300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 8th February 2013. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 10th May 2013. Abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats with the following information and in this order:
a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract, f) up to 10 key words
E-mails should be entitled: VISIONS8 Abstract Submission.
Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.
Joint Organising Chairs:
Daniel Riha
Rob Fisher
The conference is part of the ‘Critical Issues’ series of research projects run by Inter-Disciplinary.Net. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and challenging. All papers accepted for and presented at the conference are eligible for
publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be invited to go forward for development into 20-25 page chapters for publication in a themed dialogic ISBN hard copy volume.
For further details of the conference, please click here.
Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a not-for-profit network and we are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel or subsistence.
Wednesday, 31 October 2012
CFP: 5th Global Conference: Videogame Culture and the Future of Interactive Entertainment
Sunday 14th July–Tuesday 16th July 2013
Mansfield College, Oxford
Call for Presentations:
This inter- and multi-disciplinary conference aims to examine, explore and critically engage with the issues and implications created by the mass use of computers and videogames for human entertainment and focus on the impact of innovative videogame titles and interfaces for human communication and ludic culture. In particular the conference will encourage equally theoretical and practical debates which surround the cultural contexts within which videogames flourish.
Presentations, papers, performances, workshops and reports are invited on any of the following themes:
1. Videogames and Gaming
Theories and Concepts of Gaming. Identifying Key Features and Issues.
Videogames as Text. Videogames as Interactive Image. Multidisciplinary Approaches to Videogame Analysis. Film, Literary, Art Studies and Cultural Studies Approaches to the Analysis of Videogames.
2. Videogame Cultures
Emerging Practices in Online and Offline Gaming. Games as Cultural Artifacts.
Pervasive Gaming, Convergence and the Integration of Videogames. Videogames as Art, Fan Cultures.
3. Games and Society
Ethical Issues in Videogames, Videogame Controversy – Rating, Violence, Sex, Morality and their relation to Maturity. Videogames and Politics. Propaganda Games. Censorship.
4. Immersion and Embodiment
New Forms of Interaction, Immersion and Collaboration in Videogames. Sound, Music, Touch, and Game Space. Evolution of Gaming. The Role of Innovative Interfaces.
5. Games with Meaning?
The Relationship between Game and Gamer. Social Impact Simulations. Educational Use of Videogames. Serious Games. News and Documentary Videogames.
6. Reception, Temporality and Videogames
Player Generations. Old Originals vs. Retro games. Indie Games and Low-Tech Aesthetics. Innovations in Independent Game Movements.
7. Works in Progress
Games in Development. Approaches to Game Design. Discussion Workshops on Games under Production. Best Practice and Know-How Exchange.
A presentation with a quick demo of the game and workshop proposals are strongly encouraged. We might offer 2 hour slot for 1-3 intensive workshops on design methodologies and media comparative sessions. Delegates presenting in the frame of workshops are eligible for publishing in special track of Videogames 5 ebook on methodologies.
The Steering Group particularly welcomes the submission of pre-formed panel proposals. Papers will also be considered on any related theme.
What to Send:
300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 8th February 2013. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 10th May 2013. Abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats with the following information and in this order:
a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract, f) up to 10 keywords
E-mails should be entitled: VG5 Abstract Submission.
Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.
Joint Organising Chairs:
Daniel Riha
Rob Fisher
The conference is part of the ‘Critical Issues’ series of research projects run by Inter-Disciplinary.Net. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and challenging. All papers accepted for and presented at the conference are eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be invited to go forward for development into 20-25 page chapters for publication in a themed dialogic ISBN hard copy volume.
For further details of the conference, please click here.
Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a not-for-profit network and we are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel or subsistence.
Mansfield College, Oxford
Call for Presentations:
This inter- and multi-disciplinary conference aims to examine, explore and critically engage with the issues and implications created by the mass use of computers and videogames for human entertainment and focus on the impact of innovative videogame titles and interfaces for human communication and ludic culture. In particular the conference will encourage equally theoretical and practical debates which surround the cultural contexts within which videogames flourish.
Presentations, papers, performances, workshops and reports are invited on any of the following themes:
1. Videogames and Gaming
Theories and Concepts of Gaming. Identifying Key Features and Issues.
Videogames as Text. Videogames as Interactive Image. Multidisciplinary Approaches to Videogame Analysis. Film, Literary, Art Studies and Cultural Studies Approaches to the Analysis of Videogames.
2. Videogame Cultures
Emerging Practices in Online and Offline Gaming. Games as Cultural Artifacts.
Pervasive Gaming, Convergence and the Integration of Videogames. Videogames as Art, Fan Cultures.
3. Games and Society
Ethical Issues in Videogames, Videogame Controversy – Rating, Violence, Sex, Morality and their relation to Maturity. Videogames and Politics. Propaganda Games. Censorship.
4. Immersion and Embodiment
New Forms of Interaction, Immersion and Collaboration in Videogames. Sound, Music, Touch, and Game Space. Evolution of Gaming. The Role of Innovative Interfaces.
5. Games with Meaning?
The Relationship between Game and Gamer. Social Impact Simulations. Educational Use of Videogames. Serious Games. News and Documentary Videogames.
6. Reception, Temporality and Videogames
Player Generations. Old Originals vs. Retro games. Indie Games and Low-Tech Aesthetics. Innovations in Independent Game Movements.
7. Works in Progress
Games in Development. Approaches to Game Design. Discussion Workshops on Games under Production. Best Practice and Know-How Exchange.
A presentation with a quick demo of the game and workshop proposals are strongly encouraged. We might offer 2 hour slot for 1-3 intensive workshops on design methodologies and media comparative sessions. Delegates presenting in the frame of workshops are eligible for publishing in special track of Videogames 5 ebook on methodologies.
The Steering Group particularly welcomes the submission of pre-formed panel proposals. Papers will also be considered on any related theme.
What to Send:
300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 8th February 2013. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 10th May 2013. Abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats with the following information and in this order:
a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract, f) up to 10 keywords
E-mails should be entitled: VG5 Abstract Submission.
Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.
Joint Organising Chairs:
Daniel Riha
Rob Fisher
The conference is part of the ‘Critical Issues’ series of research projects run by Inter-Disciplinary.Net. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and challenging. All papers accepted for and presented at the conference are eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be invited to go forward for development into 20-25 page chapters for publication in a themed dialogic ISBN hard copy volume.
For further details of the conference, please click here.
Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a not-for-profit network and we are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel or subsistence.
Wednesday, 17 October 2012
CFP: Exegesis Journal
“It is the confession, not the priest, that gives us absolution.”
Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
Exegesis, the academic e-journal of the English Department at Royal Holloway, University of London, is now accepting submissions for the Spring 2013 edition on Testimonies and Confessions. In this issue we seek to generate discussion about the forms that testimonies and confessions have taken historically, theologically, and literarily from an interdisciplinary, cross-period perspective. Authors may choose to investigate this topic literally, metaphorically, or theoretically, and in terms of specific texts, authors, times, or places. Articles and creative pieces might address, but are not limited to, any of the following subjects:
• Confessional/Testimonial literature as autobiographical, fictional, or sensationalized for humour
• First person narratives, such as diaries or letters
• Monologues (in Shakespeare, for example)
• Literary and theological confessions (e.g. Confessions of St. Augustine, Rousseau’s Confessions)
• False confessions
• In a court of law, admitting guilt of a crime, or testifying as witness
• Testifying on war, violence, social oppression, etc.
• The meaning of ‘truth’, how we find it, and what can be considered ‘proof’
• The role of confession to religion (sinning, absolution)
• Confession as an interpretation of identity
• Philosophical testimony (Kant, Hume, Ricoeur, and others)
Submission deadline is 10th January 2013. Please submit using the following email links: to submit a critical work; to submit a creative work; to submit a book review. After peer review, refereed submissions will be selected and published in our April 2013 issue. Please take note of the Guidelines below.
All submissions will be considered for the [Exegesis Writing Awards] of £100 for one critical article and £100 for one creative piece, which will be granted on the basis of writing excellence.
SUBMISSIONS GUIDELINES:
Exegesis invites submissions from postgraduate students and early career academics from the field of English Studies and beyond, multi- and cross- disciplinary researchers, and any scholar with interesting and relevant work. We welcome previously unpublished essays, short articles, reviews, and creative pieces on each issue’s theme, and encourage you to fully explore the meaning of exegesis.
Essays and short articles should be between 4000-6000 words and reviews around 1000 words (including all references), and must adhere to the MHRA referencing and style guide. Creative pieces are welcomed of no more than 5000 words. A copy of the MHRA style guide can be found here.
Your submission email should include your name, academic affiliation, the title of your submission, 5-7 keywords, and a 3-5 sentence abstract of the article or review piece. All attached submissions should be unnamed, to ensure impartiality during the selection process, and should be sent as Word documents (.doc format). Submissions which do not follow these guidelines will not be considered.
CFP: 1st Global Conference: The Boundaries of Reproduction
Sunday 12th May – Tuesday 14th May 2013
Prague, Czech Republic
Call for Presentations:
This conference seeks to explore the boundaries of reproduction, not merely as physical birth but more broadly as an agent of change, of bodily, sexual, cultural (and even viral) transitions.
From iconic images of the incarnation to depictions of monstrous births, the cultural rituals and mythologies of reproduction continue to fascinate us. Bodies that copulate, bodies that reproduce, bodies that replicate, change, decay—or divide—produce anxiety about the boundaries of self and identity. Reproduction, like evolution, reminds us that we are ever in flux, that change is inevitable. Birth, like death, forces us to acknowledge the limits of our bodies and our ‘selves.’ Additionally, this age of epidemics and viral warfare incites dystopic visions of a future where the effective reproducers are micro-organisms, where humans have been replaced by a replicating other. We seek to explore not only the biological imperative of preserving a species, but also our search for origins, our search for ourselves, our desires, our sexual identities, our gods.
We invite perspectives that explore identity, bodies, boundaries, sexuality and futurity. We likewise invite reflections on whether the nature of our origins tells us anything about who and what we are; whether it lays the ground for understanding what we will become and how our future will unfold. What is the nature of our transition from birth through life to death? Is the end present in the beginning, and does this complicate our notions of evolutions and transitions as forward progress? What does it mean to be pregnant? To impregnate? What concerns are raised about a woman’s body historically, culturally, politically, her ability to feed, grow and harbour new life, as well as her control over her own reproductive destiny? What about bodies that replicate without sex? Cloning? Hermaphroditic reproduction? What about non-human reproduction, about invasive species, about viral epidemics?
We encourage scholarly contributions from inter, multi and transdisciplinary perspectives, from practitioners working in all contexts, professionals, ngo’s and those from the voluntary sector. We will entertain submissions drawn from literature, medicine, politics, social history, film, television, graphic novels and manga, from science to science fiction.
Topics may include but are not limited to:
-Historical medical discourses about reproduction
-The monstrosity of birth: monstrous births
-Birth in the dystopic narrative
-Freak(s) – of nature; of technology; accidents of birth
-Religious discourse of reproduction
-Gender and biomedicine
-Queering reproduction
-Motherhood/fatherhood/parenthood
-Technologies of and for the body
-Reproduction and ethical practice
-Managing reproductive bodies: law, health care and medical practice
-The “changing” body: rebirth and metamorphosis
-Invading and possessing bodies
-Eugenics, social biology and inter-racial generation
-Genetic engineering and “nightmare” reproductions
-Science fiction: inter-species reproduction: non-human reproduction
-Viral reproduction and pandemic
What to submit:
The Steering Group particularly welcomes the submission of pre-formed panel proposals. Presentations will also be considered on any related theme. 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 4th January 2013. 300 word abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats with the following information and in this order:
a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract, f) up to 10 keywords.
E-mails should be entitled: BR1 Abstract Submission
Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.
Organising Chairs:
Brandy Scillace
Rob Fisher
The conference is part of the Probing the Boundaries programme of research projects. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and exciting. All papers accepted for and presented at the conference will be eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be developed for publication in a themed hard copy volume(s).
For further details of the conference, please click here.
Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a not-for-profit network and we are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel or subsistence.
Prague, Czech Republic
Call for Presentations:
This conference seeks to explore the boundaries of reproduction, not merely as physical birth but more broadly as an agent of change, of bodily, sexual, cultural (and even viral) transitions.
From iconic images of the incarnation to depictions of monstrous births, the cultural rituals and mythologies of reproduction continue to fascinate us. Bodies that copulate, bodies that reproduce, bodies that replicate, change, decay—or divide—produce anxiety about the boundaries of self and identity. Reproduction, like evolution, reminds us that we are ever in flux, that change is inevitable. Birth, like death, forces us to acknowledge the limits of our bodies and our ‘selves.’ Additionally, this age of epidemics and viral warfare incites dystopic visions of a future where the effective reproducers are micro-organisms, where humans have been replaced by a replicating other. We seek to explore not only the biological imperative of preserving a species, but also our search for origins, our search for ourselves, our desires, our sexual identities, our gods.
We invite perspectives that explore identity, bodies, boundaries, sexuality and futurity. We likewise invite reflections on whether the nature of our origins tells us anything about who and what we are; whether it lays the ground for understanding what we will become and how our future will unfold. What is the nature of our transition from birth through life to death? Is the end present in the beginning, and does this complicate our notions of evolutions and transitions as forward progress? What does it mean to be pregnant? To impregnate? What concerns are raised about a woman’s body historically, culturally, politically, her ability to feed, grow and harbour new life, as well as her control over her own reproductive destiny? What about bodies that replicate without sex? Cloning? Hermaphroditic reproduction? What about non-human reproduction, about invasive species, about viral epidemics?
We encourage scholarly contributions from inter, multi and transdisciplinary perspectives, from practitioners working in all contexts, professionals, ngo’s and those from the voluntary sector. We will entertain submissions drawn from literature, medicine, politics, social history, film, television, graphic novels and manga, from science to science fiction.
Topics may include but are not limited to:
-Historical medical discourses about reproduction
-The monstrosity of birth: monstrous births
-Birth in the dystopic narrative
-Freak(s) – of nature; of technology; accidents of birth
-Religious discourse of reproduction
-Gender and biomedicine
-Queering reproduction
-Motherhood/fatherhood/parenthood
-Technologies of and for the body
-Reproduction and ethical practice
-Managing reproductive bodies: law, health care and medical practice
-The “changing” body: rebirth and metamorphosis
-Invading and possessing bodies
-Eugenics, social biology and inter-racial generation
-Genetic engineering and “nightmare” reproductions
-Science fiction: inter-species reproduction: non-human reproduction
-Viral reproduction and pandemic
What to submit:
The Steering Group particularly welcomes the submission of pre-formed panel proposals. Presentations will also be considered on any related theme. 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 4th January 2013. 300 word abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats with the following information and in this order:
a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract, f) up to 10 keywords.
E-mails should be entitled: BR1 Abstract Submission
Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.
Organising Chairs:
Brandy Scillace
Rob Fisher
The conference is part of the Probing the Boundaries programme of research projects. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and exciting. All papers accepted for and presented at the conference will be eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be developed for publication in a themed hard copy volume(s).
For further details of the conference, please click here.
Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a not-for-profit network and we are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel or subsistence.
Wednesday, 3 October 2012
CFP: 2nd Global Conference: Making Sense Of: Play
Monday 22nd July – Wednesday 24th July 2013
Mansfield College, Oxford
Call for Presentations:
The interdisciplinary project Making Sense Of: Play seeks to examine the various meanings of “play”, elucidate their inter-relationships and trace the origins of the patterns of play and their place in the human condition. Variations in cultural conditions naturally impact on play, its meanings and its forms, as do, often in a different way, economic inequalities both within and between different cultures. Our deliberations will necessarily takes this into account. In many languages, as in English, throughout its etymological history “play” has been closely connected to the world of children and make believe. Academic study of play, too, deals predominantly with various aspects of children’s play and its importance in development. There is, in fact, a lack of balance between the study of play in relation to children and childhood on one hand, and “play” more generally, as outlined above, on the other. For this reason our project explicitly emphasizes the comparatively under-explored aspects of play in linguistic, literary, philosophical, historical, psychological and evolutionary frames of reference.
“You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.” (Plato)
Possible Themes and Topics:
Its evolutionary significance: Viewed from biological and paleoanthropoligical standpoint, how has play factored into the evolution of Homo Sapiens?
In politics: is politics a game? What are the “rules” and how can they be transgressed?
In literature and the arts: How do the arts function as play in our culture? Are artists game-masters? Are some forms of art especially “playful?” How is “the play the thing”- to quote Shakespeare? What should we make of artistic works in which “dark play” is featured?
Historical and cultural models of play: Does “play” mean and function differently in different cultures and societies? What can we learn by exploring other cultures’ models of play? Has the concept and practice of play evolved differently for adults and children?
In philosophy: How does play function in the divide between truth and appearance? Do philosophers “play” with ideas? How can we understand play beyond the limits of specific disciplinary boundaries? Why does play continue to be a “slippery concept”?
As a psychological issue: Do we need to play as a function of mental health and well being? Are there healthy and non-healthy forms of play?
Play/Work/Contemplation: does Aristotle’s analysis of the good life serve contemporary conditions?
In language: what does it mean to” play with language?” Are metaphors linguistic play? How is ‘deconstruction’ a form of playing with language?
As humour: How do jokes and other forms of humor operate as play? When might jokes and humor be “anti-play?”
Play of perception: How do our senses afford us opportunities to play? Is the artistic look a form of play? Can sounds, tastes, colors invite us to playfully engage in the world?
Play and the life-course: How does play figure into existential crisis (illness, death), love, hatred, and power? Does play serve as special form of communication? Can play be a form of addiction or can it be used to address addictive behavior? What forms does play take in adult lives and in the lives of the elderly?
Animal play: What does play mean in the animal world? Do animals play? Need to play? Can we play with animals in the sense that we are engaging in their own forms of play? Animal play has been an important tool in understanding how humans play. Given this, how are human and animal play different and similar?
Play and children: What role do toys serve in a child’s life? How does play function in the classroom? How do children play? What role does contact with the natural world play in child’s play?
Play and technology: How has technology changed and expanded/or limited how we play in our respective cultures?
Dark and dangerous play: Where does play veer from “playful” to dangerous and destructive? How does the example of “war as play” provide a paradigm of exploring the complicated nature of play? How can we understand “dark play” within the classic paradigm in which play is seen as predominantly “fun”?
The Steering Group particularly welcomes the submission of pre-formed panel proposals. Papers will also be considered on any related theme. 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 8th February 2013. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 10th May 2013.
What to Send: Abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats with the following information and in this order:
a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract, f) up to 10 key words
E-mails should be entitled: PLAY2 Abstract Submission.
Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.
Joint Organising Chairs:
Wendy Turgeon (Project Leader)
Rob Fisher (Network Founder and Leader)
The conference is part of the Probing the Boundaries programme of research projects. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and exciting.
For further details of the conference, please click here.
Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a not-for-profit network and we are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel or subsistence.
Mansfield College, Oxford
Call for Presentations:
The interdisciplinary project Making Sense Of: Play seeks to examine the various meanings of “play”, elucidate their inter-relationships and trace the origins of the patterns of play and their place in the human condition. Variations in cultural conditions naturally impact on play, its meanings and its forms, as do, often in a different way, economic inequalities both within and between different cultures. Our deliberations will necessarily takes this into account. In many languages, as in English, throughout its etymological history “play” has been closely connected to the world of children and make believe. Academic study of play, too, deals predominantly with various aspects of children’s play and its importance in development. There is, in fact, a lack of balance between the study of play in relation to children and childhood on one hand, and “play” more generally, as outlined above, on the other. For this reason our project explicitly emphasizes the comparatively under-explored aspects of play in linguistic, literary, philosophical, historical, psychological and evolutionary frames of reference.
“You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.” (Plato)
Possible Themes and Topics:
Its evolutionary significance: Viewed from biological and paleoanthropoligical standpoint, how has play factored into the evolution of Homo Sapiens?
In politics: is politics a game? What are the “rules” and how can they be transgressed?
In literature and the arts: How do the arts function as play in our culture? Are artists game-masters? Are some forms of art especially “playful?” How is “the play the thing”- to quote Shakespeare? What should we make of artistic works in which “dark play” is featured?
Historical and cultural models of play: Does “play” mean and function differently in different cultures and societies? What can we learn by exploring other cultures’ models of play? Has the concept and practice of play evolved differently for adults and children?
In philosophy: How does play function in the divide between truth and appearance? Do philosophers “play” with ideas? How can we understand play beyond the limits of specific disciplinary boundaries? Why does play continue to be a “slippery concept”?
As a psychological issue: Do we need to play as a function of mental health and well being? Are there healthy and non-healthy forms of play?
Play/Work/Contemplation: does Aristotle’s analysis of the good life serve contemporary conditions?
In language: what does it mean to” play with language?” Are metaphors linguistic play? How is ‘deconstruction’ a form of playing with language?
As humour: How do jokes and other forms of humor operate as play? When might jokes and humor be “anti-play?”
Play of perception: How do our senses afford us opportunities to play? Is the artistic look a form of play? Can sounds, tastes, colors invite us to playfully engage in the world?
Play and the life-course: How does play figure into existential crisis (illness, death), love, hatred, and power? Does play serve as special form of communication? Can play be a form of addiction or can it be used to address addictive behavior? What forms does play take in adult lives and in the lives of the elderly?
Animal play: What does play mean in the animal world? Do animals play? Need to play? Can we play with animals in the sense that we are engaging in their own forms of play? Animal play has been an important tool in understanding how humans play. Given this, how are human and animal play different and similar?
Play and children: What role do toys serve in a child’s life? How does play function in the classroom? How do children play? What role does contact with the natural world play in child’s play?
Play and technology: How has technology changed and expanded/or limited how we play in our respective cultures?
Dark and dangerous play: Where does play veer from “playful” to dangerous and destructive? How does the example of “war as play” provide a paradigm of exploring the complicated nature of play? How can we understand “dark play” within the classic paradigm in which play is seen as predominantly “fun”?
The Steering Group particularly welcomes the submission of pre-formed panel proposals. Papers will also be considered on any related theme. 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 8th February 2013. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 10th May 2013.
What to Send: Abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats with the following information and in this order:
a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract, f) up to 10 key words
E-mails should be entitled: PLAY2 Abstract Submission.
Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.
Joint Organising Chairs:
Wendy Turgeon (Project Leader)
Rob Fisher (Network Founder and Leader)
The conference is part of the Probing the Boundaries programme of research projects. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and exciting.
For further details of the conference, please click here.
Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a not-for-profit network and we are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel or subsistence.
CFP: 1st Global Conference: Virtualosity: Gaming, Interfaces and Digital Arts
Monday 4th February – Wednesday 6th February 2013
Sydney, Australia
Call for Presentations:
Games and digital and virtual interactions proliferate throughout everyday life, from individual game players, to online communities; from the people that make and market games to their influence in and on popular media; leisure activities and to educational, professional and political activities. The impact of such a ubiquitous platform of individual and communal interaction has not just ethical dimensions but also in the ways we view ourselves, our society the future and the very notions of identity and being. In this light gaming and the designing and creating of interactive virtual environments offer us the chance to change both the world that we enter into but also the real world that we bring such technologies into. The resultant blurring of boundaries, if indeed this is the case, has dramatic consequences for ethical and political stances, not least for personal and communal responsibility, as well as gender construction and ‘real’ and ‘performed’ sexualities and hybridities. Also importantly within this framework are notions of inclusion and exclusion, not just within the particular environments and communities created but through access to the technologies themselves, be they geographical or financial, political or individual difference (i.e. non-normative bodies).
This project approaches videogames and interactive virtual spaces from a multi-, inter- and cross-disciplinary perspective that seeks to blend theoretical discussions with concerns of the industry in order to benefit both groups. We therefore welcome papers that explore how games work in society, how they are made, how they are analysed and discussed and current industrial trends. More importantly, because these concepts are often discussed separately, this is an opportunity to examine interrelationships and improve understanding of games across the board. It is of great importance for the industry to contribute to the development of games education just as it is important for the growing education sector to be more informed about production and industry practices.
Presentations, papers, performances, workshops and artworks are called for, but not limited to, the following themes:
Games and Worlds:
-Analysis and criticism of videogames as texts, games and cultural objects. Videogame and Virtual worlds theory, analysis, criticism
-Art, fiction, story, literature writing, transmedia
-Music audio and performance (voice, physical mo-cap etc)
-Their place with other platforms such as film, literature, graphic novels and other forms of gaming (i.e. Hasbro etc)
Contexts:
-Historical approaches and previous envisionings and practices.
-New Interfaces, cultural and individual strategies and mappings.
-Recording, archiving and gaming memory.
-Virtual versus real interactions, online and offline gaming.
-Virtual worlds in actual spaces, role playing, digital arts, interactive graphic novels and narratives.
-Pervasiveness and convergence.
-Gamings use and influence in other platforms and media.
-New interactions, immersions and collaborations and integrations with sound, music, textures and spaces.
-Games Marketing and Gamers as a market
Production:
-Exploration of new opportunities such as education, science, health and engineering.
-Videogames beyond the entertainment market such as commercial practicalities and academic concerns.
-Actual experiences from practitioners, artists, professionals, developers and educators.
-Works in progress, post-mortems
-Linkage diaries: academia, industry and independent projects, models, experiments etc.
-Approaches, methods and practices
-Technology, programming, design, innovations
-Performance notes (as above, music, voice, physical etc)
Creativity and Interactions:
-Fan cultures, communities and social networking.
-The impact of the above on other platforms such as film, graphic novels and science fiction. Interactive storytelling, emergent narratives, transmedia storytelling.
-The relationship between the game, producer, the game and the gamer.
-How can great game designs become great games that players can buy?
-The use of virtual worlds worlds and games in education, online learning, research networking and global and local learning.
-The uniqueness of particular geographical locations i.e. what specific opportunities exist in Australia and where does it stand in the global context?
Corporealities and Ethics:
-Bodily integrity, hybridity and cyborgism.
-Avatars, modifications and mutations; the impact on life, death, and social existence
-Gender and virtuality: new gender, new feminisms, new masculinities
-Human, animal, machine; Boundaries, frontiers and taboos in games and virtual worlds.
-Ethics in virtual world; and games; Rating, violence, sex, morality and game rape.
-Gaming ethics and their relation to maturity.
-Politics, propaganda, activism and censorship.
-In world surveillance and privacy, cybercrime and ethical hacking.
What to Send:
300 word abstracts or presentation proposals should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs by Friday 26th October 2012; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats with the following information and in this order:
a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract.
E-mails should be entitled: DI1 Abstract Submission.
Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.
Organising Chairs
Adam Ruch
Rob Fisher
The conference is part of the Ethos programme of research projects. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and exciting.
For further details of the conference, please click here.
Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a not-for-profit network and we are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel or subsistence.
Sydney, Australia
Call for Presentations:
Games and digital and virtual interactions proliferate throughout everyday life, from individual game players, to online communities; from the people that make and market games to their influence in and on popular media; leisure activities and to educational, professional and political activities. The impact of such a ubiquitous platform of individual and communal interaction has not just ethical dimensions but also in the ways we view ourselves, our society the future and the very notions of identity and being. In this light gaming and the designing and creating of interactive virtual environments offer us the chance to change both the world that we enter into but also the real world that we bring such technologies into. The resultant blurring of boundaries, if indeed this is the case, has dramatic consequences for ethical and political stances, not least for personal and communal responsibility, as well as gender construction and ‘real’ and ‘performed’ sexualities and hybridities. Also importantly within this framework are notions of inclusion and exclusion, not just within the particular environments and communities created but through access to the technologies themselves, be they geographical or financial, political or individual difference (i.e. non-normative bodies).
This project approaches videogames and interactive virtual spaces from a multi-, inter- and cross-disciplinary perspective that seeks to blend theoretical discussions with concerns of the industry in order to benefit both groups. We therefore welcome papers that explore how games work in society, how they are made, how they are analysed and discussed and current industrial trends. More importantly, because these concepts are often discussed separately, this is an opportunity to examine interrelationships and improve understanding of games across the board. It is of great importance for the industry to contribute to the development of games education just as it is important for the growing education sector to be more informed about production and industry practices.
Presentations, papers, performances, workshops and artworks are called for, but not limited to, the following themes:
Games and Worlds:
-Analysis and criticism of videogames as texts, games and cultural objects. Videogame and Virtual worlds theory, analysis, criticism
-Art, fiction, story, literature writing, transmedia
-Music audio and performance (voice, physical mo-cap etc)
-Their place with other platforms such as film, literature, graphic novels and other forms of gaming (i.e. Hasbro etc)
Contexts:
-Historical approaches and previous envisionings and practices.
-New Interfaces, cultural and individual strategies and mappings.
-Recording, archiving and gaming memory.
-Virtual versus real interactions, online and offline gaming.
-Virtual worlds in actual spaces, role playing, digital arts, interactive graphic novels and narratives.
-Pervasiveness and convergence.
-Gamings use and influence in other platforms and media.
-New interactions, immersions and collaborations and integrations with sound, music, textures and spaces.
-Games Marketing and Gamers as a market
Production:
-Exploration of new opportunities such as education, science, health and engineering.
-Videogames beyond the entertainment market such as commercial practicalities and academic concerns.
-Actual experiences from practitioners, artists, professionals, developers and educators.
-Works in progress, post-mortems
-Linkage diaries: academia, industry and independent projects, models, experiments etc.
-Approaches, methods and practices
-Technology, programming, design, innovations
-Performance notes (as above, music, voice, physical etc)
Creativity and Interactions:
-Fan cultures, communities and social networking.
-The impact of the above on other platforms such as film, graphic novels and science fiction. Interactive storytelling, emergent narratives, transmedia storytelling.
-The relationship between the game, producer, the game and the gamer.
-How can great game designs become great games that players can buy?
-The use of virtual worlds worlds and games in education, online learning, research networking and global and local learning.
-The uniqueness of particular geographical locations i.e. what specific opportunities exist in Australia and where does it stand in the global context?
Corporealities and Ethics:
-Bodily integrity, hybridity and cyborgism.
-Avatars, modifications and mutations; the impact on life, death, and social existence
-Gender and virtuality: new gender, new feminisms, new masculinities
-Human, animal, machine; Boundaries, frontiers and taboos in games and virtual worlds.
-Ethics in virtual world; and games; Rating, violence, sex, morality and game rape.
-Gaming ethics and their relation to maturity.
-Politics, propaganda, activism and censorship.
-In world surveillance and privacy, cybercrime and ethical hacking.
What to Send:
300 word abstracts or presentation proposals should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs by Friday 26th October 2012; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats with the following information and in this order:
a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract.
E-mails should be entitled: DI1 Abstract Submission.
Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.
Organising Chairs
Adam Ruch
Rob Fisher
The conference is part of the Ethos programme of research projects. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and exciting.
For further details of the conference, please click here.
Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a not-for-profit network and we are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel or subsistence.
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