Call for Proposals – DRHA conference 2019 – Watermans
Arts Centre, London – 8-10 September 2019
RADICAL IMMERSIONS
Navigating between virtual/physical environments and information bubbles
http://www.2019.drha.uk/
Over the past years, immersive technologies have been hyped as consumer
gadgets, entertainment media and the future of exhibition practices. The free
distribution of VR headsets with smartphones and the increasing interest of
museums, festivals and other cultural organisers towards ‘immersive digital
content’ have quickly turned VR and AR devices and applications into widely
recognized cultural artefacts. The promotion of ‘full immersion’ in the
physical spaces of exhibitions and museums has led to some venues relying
solely on interactive projections and audience interaction. However, just like
many earlier ‘new media’ before them, the hyperbolic promises attached to these
technologies’ supposed capacity to deliver immediacy and trigger a paradigm
shift in media culture have thus far hardly become reality.
Meanwhile, social media platforms enable the formation of communities where
members immerse themselves in alternate networks of signification in which
conspiracy theories are embedded in seemingly consistent information clouds.
While these information bubbles are often – but not necessarily correctly –
associated with economically and socially disenchanted communities that reject
intellectualism, they can also be read as reflections of some of the keystones
of post-structuralist thought, especially in their fostering of a rhizomatic
approach to ‘fact finding’ and a consistent suspicion that the everyday is in
fact a ‘hyperreal’ constructed by entities of power.
The Digital Research in the Humanities and Arts (DRHA) conference 2019 will
examine these two perspectives on immersion in digital culture, and aims to
identify some of their broader ideological frameworks as well as develop
detailed insights into the workings of specific technologies in relation to
their promises.
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Prof Matthew Fuller (Goldsmiths University of London)
Dr Maria Chatzichristodoulou (aka Maria X; London Southbank University)
RADICAL IMMERSIONS is convened by Dr Dani Ploeger and Dr Elena Papadaki, and
hosted by The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in cooperation with
Watermans Arts Centre.
CALL FOR PAPERS AND POSTERS
We are inviting papers and poster presentations that address questions
including, but are not limited to, the following:
• How are the promises and expectations of VR, AR and other immersive consumer
technologies embedded in broader cultural ideologies of progress and innovation?
• What are the tensions created between immersive technologies and physical
environments?
• How is the space between an all-digital artwork and an all-physical
exhibition space negotiated?
• How do the material aspects of immersive technologies’ hardware affect the
generation and perception of immersive content?
• How might the design, marketing and use of digital platforms determine the
ways in which online information communities are formed?
• To what extent might online ‘filter bubbles’ and other immersive information
environments bear parallels to post-structuralist understandings of rhizomatic
and fluid meaning-making in text?
CALL FOR ARTWORKS
In parallel with the conference, a group exhibition will be presented at
Watermans Art Centre in September 2019. The exhibition will be curated by Klio
Krajewska (Head of New Media Arts Development, Watermans Arts Centre). We are
inviting proposals for artworks and performances that engage critically with
immersive technologies, news media, and digital culture.
Deadline for proposals: 30 April 2019
For more information please see the conference website: http://www.2019.drha.uk/
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<http://daniploeger.org/>daniploeger.org
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Prof Sue Broadhurst,
Division Lead,
Production and Performance,
Department of Arts and Humanities,
Brunel University,
London,
UB8 3PH, UK
Direct Line: +44(0)1895 266588
Extension: 66588
Fax: +44(0)1895 269768
Email: susan.broadhurst@xxxxxxxxxxxx
