[ecrea] NECS conference 2014

Call for Paper

NECS – European Network for Cinema and Media Studies



Creative energies | Creative industries

Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore – Università degli Studi di Udine

Milan, Italy, June 19-21, 2014



Submission Deadline: January 31, 2014





Reflecting on creativity has been central to a great deal of 
philosophical speculation, production practices and forms of reception 
of the artistic experience. Notions of creation and creativity concern 
crucial elements in media industries. Moreover, recent developments in 
institutional policies refer to the pivotal role of creativity in 
evaluating and promoting cultural production (see the EC’s most recent 
cultural program “Creative Europe”).

The 2014 NECS Conference aims to revise and challenge assumptions on 
media creation and creativity, by looking at them as discursive 
formations, sociability instruments, power networks, modes of production 
and reception undergoing historical, political, theoretical and 
technological transformations.

The topics include, but are not limited to:



Creative energy: media environments comprise energy in transformation 
and information flows, and are subject to entropy. Will we keep 
dissipating what we accumulate, in the form of wasted creative energy? 
What resources do the media provide for social, cultural, political and 
economic development? And what resources do they use? How sustainable 
are the media?



Aesthetics: media creativity has gradually transformed our aesthetic 
experience. How has “creation” been fostered and promoted throughout 
media history? And how does the aesthetic experience relate to 
creativity? In what way is creativity deployed and conceived in the 
media experience?



Textuality/formats: changes to media scenarios and convergence processes 
drive the search for new forms of textuality. What are the main 
directions of change? What are the more promising formats and the 
discursive structures?



Technological Innovation: creativity tends to connect social actors and 
generate new subjectivities. Does technological innovation enhance or 
constrain these processes? How does media technology redefine 
traditional notions of creativity? Does media culture enhance 
post-human, as opposed to individual, creativity? How far do media 
technologies shape creation?



Business and production models: the term “creative industries” was the 
buzz-term of the past decade. The notion aims to “reconcile” bottom-up 
impulses and top-down procedures and promote personal creativity. What 
are the features and practices of this new kind of creativity? What kind 
of distribution models and what kind of sustainability policies does it 
entail? What kind of divisions do creative industries imply and conceal? 
How was “creation” included in past production and business media models?



Actors/agencies: as the audience metamorphoses, its role in the 
evolution of creative practices becomes a relevant issue. What are 
creative audiences? How do they vary according to different cultural and 
local contexts? What are their practices? What kind of creative usage 
and production do “produsers” (prosumers, Pro-ams,..) enact? How much do 
recent shifts affect traditional conceptions of creative flows?



Landscapes of creativity: “Creative environments” examine the resources 
offered by the location and space where the creative process is taking 
place. What is the nature of such local networks? What is the 
relationship between creativity and national, transnational or global 
cultures?



Ideology: Creativity is influenced by the technological, cultural, 
political and economical conditions of production. What kind of 
discursive formations constitute ideologies of creation and creativity? 
How do these formations work on creativity practices and with which 
results on the media experience (its political, cultural, aesthetical,.. 
value).



Gendered creativity: creative practices intersect gender issues. The 
different access to creative techniques, resources and practices is a 
crucial point in the debate on new creativity. How do gender politics 
influence creative industries? How much do gender differences limit or 
foster access to creative professions within the media industry?



Scholars from all areas of film, media and cultural studies (including 
radio, television, new media, game studies etc.), whether previously 
attached to NECS or new to the network, are invited to submit proposals 
for contributions.

Please note that you may hand in a paper or panel proposal related to 
the thematic guidelines of the conference outlined above, or 
alternatively submit a paper or panel proposal for open call in any 
field of cinema and media studies.

We especially encourage pre-constituted panels in order to strengthen 
the thematic coherence of individual panels.



Panels may consist of 3-4 speakers with a maximum of 20 minutes speaking 
time each. All presenters are obliged to provide us with a title, an 
abstract of max 150 words, 3-5 key bibliographical references, name of 
the presenter and short bio (max. 100 words).



Panel organizers are asked to submit panel proposals including a panel 
title, a short description (up to 100 words) of the panel and 
information on all the papers, as listed above.



Please submit all proposals before January 31, 2014 through the 
submission forms that will be accessible from January 1st at: 
http://tinyurl.com/dxks6yv.



Notification will follow shortly thereafter (around February 28, 2014). 
The conference language is English.



Conference attendance is free, but valid NECS-membership and online 
registration is required to participate in the conference. Participants 
must register with NECS at www.necs.org and pay their fee before a 
proposal is submitted. Proposals from non-members (including all members 
of pre-constituted panels) will not be taken into consideration. For the 
terms of NECS membership, please refer to our website.



The NECS Conference Committee

The NECS Steering Committee

Ruggero Eugeni, Surbhi Goel, James Harvey-Davitt, Daniel Kulle, Rikke 
Schubart, Alena Strohmaier, Petr Szczepanik

Sophie Einwächter, Jaap Kooijman, Trond Lundemo, Patricia Pisters, Alena 
Strohmaier (Graduate Representative), Petr Szczepanik, Malin Wahlberg



The Local Organization

Alice Cati, Ruggero Eugeni, Mariagrazia Fanchi, Massimo Locatelli, 
Francesco Pitassio, Leonardo Quaresima, Massimo Scaglioni.







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