[ecrea] CFP: Conference 'Creating Second Lives'

>INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE: 'CREATING SECOND LIVES: READING AND WRITING
>VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES'
>
>First call for papers:
>
>Games and virtual environments are playing an increasingly powerful role
>in Western entertainment and narrative culture. Of particular importance
>are the constant re- and de-construction of the embodied playing self and
>the post-industrialist, customisable fluidity of personal and social
>identity.This interdisciplinary conference will shed light on how virtual
>communities are 'read' and 'written', i.e. constructed textually
>through linguistic and semiotic en- and decoding, by producers and
>receivers of video and massively multiplayer online games as well as
>virtual worlds such as Second Life.
>
>The conference?s major intention is to bring together researchers from a
>wide range of different areas, who share an interest in semiotics,
>stylistics, codification, new media design, 3D programming and
>media/cultural studies but do not always speak the same 'language'. The
>conference will facilitate cross-disciplinary dialogue and understanding
>by providing room and material for discussions between scholars,
>scientists and professionals from the gaming industry. By doing so, it
>will help experts identify and debate current and future developments
>particularly in relation to the textual construction of subjectivities,
>communities and ideologies. Date: 24-25 October 2008.
>Venue: Bangor University.
>
>Abstracts of 250-300 words are invited on any topic relating to the
>following themes and questions:
>
>- How do we 'read' and 'write' virtual communities, i.e. how are
>identities, communities and ideologies constructed textually and
>discursively in video games and other digital
>environments?
>- How are user identities 'coded into' virtual communities?
>- To what extent and to what effect can we apply contemporary stylistic
>and semiotic theory and analysis to virtual, interactive communities?
>- How do avatars impersonate networks, communities and societies?
>- What are the roles of body and mind in virtual communities? Do they
>separate or amalgamate?
>- To what extent do we need to revisit the notions of 'virtual', 'actual'
>and 'real' in relation to entextualised social and communal worlds and
>realities?
>- How does and will 3D graphic design contribute - now and in the
>foreseeable future - to the construction of social identity?
>- What programming tools and methodologies are/may be used to create
>virtual communities and inter-'personal' relationships?
>
>Keynote speakers will include Prof Espen Aarseth, Co-founder and Editor-in-
>Chief of Gamestudies.org and author of Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic
>Literature, and Fred Hasson, founding CEO of TIGA, the UK Games
>Development Trade Association.
>
>Deadline for abstracts: 5 April 2008 (to be sent to (a.ensslin /at/ bangor.ac.uk))
>
>Conference organisers: NIECI Research Centre for Video Games and Virtual
>Environments (Dr Astrid Ensslin, Dr Eben Muse)
>
>For further enquiries, please contact Astrid Ensslin at
>(a.ensslin /at/ bangor.ac.uk), or Simon Holloway at (cos605 /at/ bangor.ac.uk).
>
>
>Conference website: http://nieci.bangor.ac.uk/conf/?q=callforpapers/3
>
>
>Dr Astrid Ensslin
>Lecturer in New Media
>National Institute for Excellence in the Creative Industries
>Bangor University
>LL57 2DG
>UK
>WWW: www.bangor.ac.uk/creative_industries/astrid.php.en

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Nico Carpentier (Phd)
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Vrije Universiteit Brussel - Free University of Brussels
Centre for Studies on Media and Culture (CeMeSO)
Pleinlaan 2 - B-1050 Brussels - Belgium
T: ++ 32 (0)2-629.18.56
F: ++ 32 (0)2-629.36.84
Office: 5B.401a
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Katholieke Universiteit Brussel - Catholic University of Brussels
Vrijheidslaan 17 - B-1081 Brussel - Belgium
&
Facultés Universitaires Saint-Louis
Boulevard du Jardin Botanique 43  - B-1000 Brussel - Belgium
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Sponsored links ;)
----------------------------
NEW BOOKS OUT
Understanding Alternative Media
by Olga Bailey, Bart Cammaerts, Nico Carpentier
(December 2007)
http://mcgraw-hill.co.uk/html/0335222102.html
----------------------------
Participation and Media Production. Critical Reflections on Content Creation.
Edited by Nico Carpentier and Benjamin De Cleen
(January 2008)
<http://www.c-s-p.org/Flyers/Participation-and-Media-Production--Critical-Reflections-on-Content-Creation1-84718-453-7.htm>http://www.c-s-p.org/Flyers/Participation-and-Media-Production--Critical-Reflections-on-Content-Creation1-84718-453-7.htm 

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European Communication Research and Education Association
Web: http://www.ecrea.eu
----------------------------
ECREA's Second European Communication Conference
Barcelona, 25-28 November 2008
http://www.ecrea2008barcelona.org/
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E-mail: (Nico.Carpentier /at/ vub.ac.be)
Web: http://homepages.vub.ac.be/~ncarpent/
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