[ecrea] Call For Papers - GFF 2014 - Klagenfurt, 11-14 Sep

just a quick reminder that the call for papers deadline for the next 
conference of the Association for Research in the Fantastic 
(Gesellschaft für Fantastikforschung) is approaching fast: *_Deadline - 
Jan 31, 2014_*

There is an *open-track *in any fantastic research for those not 
interested in game worlds and we offer *two grants for students*, so 
please circulate this ...

Here is the call for papers again

*Fantastic Games: Ludic imaginary spaces and their socio-cultural impact

Fifth annual conference of the Gesellschaft für Fantastikforschung e.V.
[Association for Research in the Fantastic]
at the Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt
September 11 – 14, 2014*

In Homo Ludens (1938), his essential and seminal study that is 
frequently seen as the beginning of Game Studies as we understand them 
today, Johan Huizinga claimed an ontological connection between culture, 
as the quintessentially human endeavour, and play. Refuting the 
constantly raised accusations that play is a futile and escapist 
activity, Huizinga in contrast attributed it a significant function, 
both in its metaphorical (i.e. “it is important”), as well as its 
literal (i.e. “it signifies”) meaning (1971: 1). By its very nature, 
play opens up spaces and worlds beyond primary, everyday reality, new 
frameworks of meaning that are, however, not devoid of meaningful 
interactions with it. Culture, Huizinga argues, needs the free space of 
play to come into existence in the first place, to change and to adapt.

This intricate and complex web of interconnections between ludic 
otherworlds and the everyday life of individuals and groups is the core 
interest of the fifth annual conference of the Gesellschaft für 
Fantastikforschung e.V. [Association for Research in the Fantastic]. We 
have deliberately chosen the very open and inclusive phrasing “ludic 
imaginary spaces” for the objects of the papers, so that the range of 
media fitting the description is as wide as it can be: hypertext 
and other ludic forms of text, board- and card games, 
pen&paper role-playing games, live-action role-playing games (LARPs), 
video and computer games, alternate reality games, and gamified 
activities of all kinds are possible, but this list must in no way be 
seen as exhaustive. No matter the medium chosen, what is essential is 
that there is this “free space of movement within a more rigid 
structure” that exists “because of and also despite the more rigid 
structures of a system ” that Eric Zimmerman has identified as essential 
to any definition of play (2004: 159). The organisers of this conference 
also would like to send a strong message that the conflicts 
over interpretive authority between Ludologists and Narratologists in 
playable media that have hindered Game Studies since the late 1990s are 
a thing of the past, so papers suggesting ways to bridge this gap will 
be especially welcome.

As the second focus of the conference, according to its title, is on the 
social and cultural exchanges between the secondary, or even tertiary 
realities created and the primary reality in which they are in turn 
created, played, and observed, possible approaches to these media reach 
from the implicit and explicit social and cultural politics of games 
and playable media on both the content and the structural level, to the 
regimes of representation and configuration present, the psycho-social 
phenomena surrounding the experiences created, to the political and 
social regulation of playful behaviour, and beyond. Game Studies 
are necessarily “a multidisciplinary field of study and learning with 
games and related phenomena as its subject matter” according to Frans 
Mäyrä (2010: 6), so theoretical perspectives from the whole range of 
academic disciplines and contributions from those working practically in 
the design and creation of ludic spaces would ideally come together 
to provide this fifth annual conference of the GFF with a kaleidoscopic 
overview of the full range of possibilities, problems, and the future 
potential of games and playable media in negotiating between the realms 
of the fantastic and everyday life.

As usual for GFF conferences, there will be an additional Open Track for 
all papers not directly related to the conference topic to safeguard a 
pluralism of perspectives in our research in the Fantastic. We thus 
invite papers of all aspects of the fantastic for this open track.

In the same vein, the GFF is happy to announce the availability of two 
student grants of €250 each as support of travel arrangements to the 
conference for the two most interesting student projects handed in. 
Apply for the student grant with abstract and bionote at the address below.

If you would like to contribute your voice to such a discussion of ludic 
imaginary spaces, we cordially invite you to send us a 350-word abstract 
to (gff2014 /at/ aau.at) <mailto:(gff2014 /at/ aau.at)> detailing your projected 
20-min paper in either German or English. Please do not forget to 
include your contact details, as well as a short bionote. The 
deadline for abstracts is December 31st, 2013.

Contact:
René Schallegger
Department for English and American Studies
Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt
Universitätsstraße 65 - 67
9020 Klagenfurt am Wörthersee / Austria