Call for Papers and Creative Works - ***ABSTRACTS DUE 31 MAY 2012***<br>
<br>
CODE - A Media, Games & Art Conference<br>
21-23 November 2012<br>
Swinburne University of Technology<br>
Melbourne, Australia<br>
<br>
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS<br>
Jussi Parikka - Reader, Winchester School of Art<br>
Christian McCrea - Program Director for Games, RMIT University<br>
Anna Munster - Associate Professor at the College of Fine Arts, UNSW<br>
<br>
DESCRIPTION<br>
Code can be defined in two distinct but related ways: as an underlying
technological process, a set of rules and instructions governing, for
instance, the permutations of all those 0s and 1s obscured behind user
interfaces, but also as a cultural framework navigated and understood
socially and performatively, as is the case with legal, social and
behavioural codes. As an operative principle, code's significance thus
extends far deeper than its current digital manifestation. For this
conference, we invite submissions of papers and creative works that
consider the role of code as a simultaneously material and semiotic
force that operates across the wider cultural, social and political
field, with particular emphasis on media, games and art.<br>
<br>
Code is the invisible force at the heart of contemporary media and
games, routinely obscured by the gadget fetish of breathless tech
marketing and scholarly focus on more visible social and technical
interfaces. With the recent material turn in media studies and the
refinement of new approaches including software studies and platform
politics, which emphasise interrogating the formal characteristics and
underlying technical architecture of contemporary media, the time has
come to bring code out into the open.<br>
<br>
The conference theme is also an opportunity to reflect on how, as
academics and creative practitioners, we often participate in but can
also challenge the disciplinary and institutional codes that can
arbitrarily separate these domains. CODE will be a transdisciplinary
event that brings media studies, media arts and games studies into
dialogue through individual papers, combined panels, master classes and
an included exhibition.<br>
<br>
THEMES<br>
We welcome submissions related to any aspect of code in all its
diversity. Possible considerations might include, but are not limited
to:<br>
<br>
- Code and the in/visible<br>
- Code and/as ideology<br>
- Coding the disciplines<br>
- The deeper history of code<br>
- Code and the public/private<br>
- Code and other laws of media<br>
- Security codes<br>
- Code and agency<br>
- Bodies in code<br>
- Failures of code<br>
<br>
:: For further discussion, please view the conference website: <a href="http://code2012.wikidot.com">http://code2012.wikidot.com</a><br>
<br>
CREATIVE WORKS<br>
Code operates, as if by stealth, beneath the materiality of networked
media performances, software art, games, mobile apps, locative and
social media. But code also presents artists, performers and creative
practitioners with opportunities to construct innovative hybrid media
forms that can extend our understanding of contemporary art practice.
>From video installations in the 1960s, through to sophisticated
interactive media and augmented reality applications, artists have
arguably been at the forefront of innovation, adopting the language of
the computer to forge new creative frontiers. We invite contributions
that examine the creative potential of code, including but not limited
to, the implications of code for contemporary art/ists, code as art
and/or performance, code as avant-garde, virus and anti-art.<br>
<br>
The CODE conference will include a thematic exhibition. We are seeking
submissions of screen-based works, pervasive games, and locative media
projects that respond to the conference themes. Projected and
performance works will also be considered.<br>
<br>
SUBMISSIONS<br>
- Individual 20 minute paper presentations: 300 word abstract.<br>
<br>
- Panel submissions: panel submission should include three/four
individual abstracts of 300 words, a panel title, and a 200 words
rationale for the panel as a whole.<br>
<br>
- Artists should submit a 250 word outline of the proposed creative work
including links to supporting documentation (10 stills or up to 3
minutes of video).<br>
<br>
All submissions are due 31 May 2012 and should be emailed to <a href="mailto:codeconference@groupwise.swin.edu.au">codeconference@groupwise.swin.edu.au</a><br>
<br>
Please include your name, affiliation, contact details, and a brief bio.<br>
<br>
A special journal issue or edited collection on the conference theme is planned.<br>
<br>
FURTHER INFORMATION<br>
- Conference website: <a href="http://code2012.wikidot.com">http://code2012.wikidot.com</a> (includes venue and
registration information, thematic discussion, reading list, etc.)<br>
- Contact: <a href="mailto:codeconference@groupwise.swin.edu.au">codeconference@groupwise.swin.edu.au</a><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Lawson Fletcher<br><span><font color="#888888">PhD Candidate, The Swinburne Institute for Social Research, Swinburne University<br>
<a href="http://soundofruins.net/" target="_blank">soundofruins.net</a> | @lawsonfletcher</font></span><br>