Dear friends, artists and scholars I would like to circulate this call, which could be relevant to some of you.
Best, Ludo Call for Papers - Postcinema XVII Gorizia International Film Studies Spring School March 23rd-26th, 2019 Exploring the concept of “agency” between experimental cinema and interactive contemporary storytelling For the 2019 edition of Filmforum, the Postcinem section is aiming at setting the field in relation to the concept of agency, within the current development of the interactive storytelling dimension, including interactive fiction and factual projects, VR, AR and mixed reality projects, as well as new innovative forms of serial content which include a cross-media dimension. Digital media, immersed in a cross- and trans-media landscape, are now embracing a stronger focus on non-linearity and the redefinition of the relationship between story and audience. Through embodiment, haptic enablers and 360° immersive storytelling, digital storytellers are exploring new and innovative applications that may well become part of the conventions of the future. We are aiming at exploring the concept per se, but also at contextualising its evolution within the history of experimental cinema and installation art. In particular, we are aiming at building bridges with the history of experimental film and video (including moving image and artist films) and installation art projects, in order to explore how some of the current non linear features used by interactive storytelling forms, which are becoming the convention of our times, were explored by European and American avant-garde filmmakers and artists in the course of XXth century, as well as by some transnational and postcolonial movements with a political and revolutionary dimension (i.e. Third cinema, African cinema etc.). Current research has been focusing on the evolution in the role of the author, and consequently of the position of the audience, and on the concept of agency as an ability to make choices and, therefore, to make changes, as a transition from “viewer” to “inter-actor” (Gaudenzi, 2019). This position is changing especially in relation to 1) the position of the user-audience 2) the space of action 3) the freedom to act in relation to the rules of action. Many of the current interactive experiences are designed in relation to the ability of the user to perform a form of agency in relation to which actions they are able to do, how they are interacting with the space and structure of the experience and how this affects the flow of the experience. We would like to explore the sources of this epistemological turn by accepting proposals that bridge contemporary interactive and immersive audiovisual projects with audiovisual experiences from the experimental film and video and installation art tradition, in order to identify a shift in the positioning of the relationship between user and audience, and their ability to operate changes within the audiovisual environment, which finds its roots in philosophical movements which precede the digital turn. How is the current concept of agency related to change? Is there still a political and social dimension connected to the employment of non-linear features? In addition to these artistic expressions, we would like to analyse, from a more sociological or media studies perspective, what is happening on the web, studying how digital cultures work on the definition of agency on audiovisual dispositifs such as YouTube, Instagram Stories, Facebook Live, and other SNS, streaming sites and video archives. How is the relation between creator and audience established? What connections can we find with the redefinition of the concept of agency? What are the most interesting experiments, phenomena, practices? We are accepting proposals which explore the concept of agency, comparatively or analytically, within the fields of: 1) experimental film and video projects, moving image and artist films 2) postcolonial and transnational audiovisual projects 3) digital art projects 4) literature, theatre and performance art 5) VR, AR, mixed reality fiction and factual projects 6) social media and interactive platforms, as well an online interactive archives 7) wearable technologies as applied to art, music, entertainment and social issues 8) interactive serial online and TV content, cross-media projects including radio content 9) video games We invite you to send us proposals for papers or panels. The deadline for submission is December 3rd, 2018. Proposals should not exceed one page in length. Please make sure to attach a short CV (10 lines max). A registration fee (€ 150) will be applied. Address questions and proposals to: [email protected] As part of Filmforum 2019
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