[ecrea] Short Film Experience - ECREA PhilCom Conference

Short Film Experience -- ECREA PhilCom Conference
May 2nd 2014, Leiden (Abstracts due: 25/04/2014)

Since the advent and standardization of the theatrical feature length 
film, the audiovisual short has been more or less marginalized in the 
discussions on cinematic experience. Historically stretching from the 
"early cinema" of the vaudeville to the "little films" of youtube and 
beyond, the audiovisual short traverses a wide variety of media 
platforms, practices, and technologies, including animation, video and 
installation art, gallery films, short film (festival)s, video clips and 
TV commercials, as well as mash-ups, machinima, self-made movies, made 
to measure for handheld devices, and open air video mapping, a 
skyrocketing trend in audiovisual communication. The widespread usage of 
the format suggests that the audiovisual short is not an anomaly or 
rarity at the periphery of cinema, but rather should be put at the 
centre of our discussions when rethinking cinematic experience and the 
moving image today. Transgressing the boundaries between media forms and 
practices while nonetheless paying tribute to their specificity, the 
audiovisual short challenges the borders of the disciplines that study 
them, urging us to confront questions concerning the conditions of 
moving image reception, and the time/space/identity configurations that 
lay at the heart of cinematic experience (from a necessarily 
interdisciplinary and cross medial perspective).

This intensive one-day conference invites participants to reflect on how 
the audiovisual short -- as both a media archeological object, as well 
as a theoretic object -- can help us further our understanding of the 
moving image and cinematic today. How can the audiovisual short broaden 
our understanding of moving image experience today? What does a "short 
film experience" entail in terms of aesthetics, technology, 
communication and/or time/space/identity formation? What can we learn 
from both the aforementioned multifariousness of the conditions of 
production, distribution and reception, as well as from the singular 
examples that determine the audiovisual short's (nonspecific) identity? 
And why is this important? We welcome papers from participants working 
within the field of (but not limited to) philosophy of communication, 
film philosophy, media theory, television and digital media, game 
studies, art history, culture and technology, and human geography, 
providing that the paper is theoretically firmly grounded and addresses 
the topic of "short film experience."

This conference is hosted by the 6th edition of LISFE (Leiden 
International Short Film Experience), to take place in Leiden on May 1st 
to 3rd 2014. It is organized in collaboration with LUCAS (Leiden 
University Centre for the Arts in Society, Leiden University), and 
affiliated to the section Philosophy of Communication and the Young 
Scholars Network of ECREA (European Communication Research and Education 
Association). Participating papers will be eligible for publication in a 
special edition of 'Empedocles: Journal for the Philosophy of 
Communication' devoted to short film experience.

Candidates are invited to submit a proposal (max. 300 words) with a 
short biography (max. 150 words) to (c.m.roos.munoz /at/ umail.leidenuniv.nl) 
<mailto:(c.m.roos.munoz /at/ umail.leidenuniv.nl)>. The deadline for 
submissions is 21 March 2014. Those selected to participate will be 
asked to provide a 3000-word paper (excluding bibliography) by 15 April 
2014 at the latest, which will be distributed among other participants 
in advance of the conference. In order to allow for a sufficient amount 
of discussion time, papers will not be read. Instead, participants will 
be asked to provide a short pitch of their argument for a maximum of 10 
minutes. Respondents will be assigned to each paper. The conference 
language is English.

Organising Committee: Dr. Pepita Hesselberth (LUCAS, Leiden University); 
Carlos Miguel Roos, MA (Ghent University, Leiden University).