cfp.english.upenn.edu

EXTENDED Call for Papers and Creative Works ***ABSTRACTS DUE FRIDAY 22 JUNE 2012***

CODE - A Media, Games & Art Conference
21-23 November 2012
Swinburne University of Technology
Melbourne, Australia

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Jussi Parikka - Reader, Winchester School of Art
Christian McCrea - Program Director for Games, RMIT University
Anna Munster - Associate Professor at the College of Fine Arts, UNSW

Due to a number of requests we've decided to EXTEND THE DEADLINE for CODE. We're also delighted to announce two Masterclasses are now confirmed for the event:

'Media Archaeology Masterclass' with Jussi Parikka
'Game Design Masterclass' with Christian McCrea

More details on these events will be posted to the website: http://code2012.wikidot.com

In the meantime, get submitting if you haven't already!

DESCRIPTION
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.

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.

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.

THEMES
We welcome submissions related to any aspect of code in all its diversity. Possible considerations might include, but are not limited to:

- Code and the in/visible
- Code and/as ideology
- Coding the disciplines
- The deeper history of code
- Code and the public/private
- Code and other laws of media
- Security codes
- Code and agency
- Bodies in code
- Failures of code

:: For further discussion, please view the conference website: http://code2012.wikidot.com

CREATIVE WORKS
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.

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.

SUBMISSIONS
- Individual 20 minute paper presentations: 300 word abstract.

- 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.

- 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).

***All submissions are now due Friday 22 June and should be emailed to codeconference@groupwise.swin.edu.au ***

Please include your name, affiliation, contact details, and a brief bio.

A special journal issue or edited collection on the conference theme is planned.

FURTHER INFORMATION
- Conference website: http://code2012.wikidot.com (includes venue and registration information, thematic discussion, reading list, etc.)
- Contact: codeconference@groupwise.swin.edu.au