[ecrea] CfP: Media Mutations 7 - Space Invaders. The impact of digital games in contemporary media ecosystems

Media Mutations 7.
Space Invaders. The impact of digital games in contemporary media ecosystems
Bologna, Dipartimento delle Arti, Salone Marescotti, May 26th and 27th 2015

Confirmed keynote speakers: Tanya Krzywinska (Falmouth University) and 
Geoffrey Long (Annenberg Innovation Lab - University of Southern 
California).
Final remarks by Peppino Ortoleva (Università di Torino)

Organized by: Paolo Noto (Università di Bologna), Riccardo Fassone 
(Università di Torino), Claudio Pires Franco (University of Bedfordshire)

In the past years digital games have progressively become more visible 
in the media ecosystem, and now occupy a prominent position, 
economically and culturally, in the mediascape. As a consequence, 
scholars in TV and Film Studies have been incorporating the study of 
video games into their field of interests, working in particular on the 
aesthetic and narrative relationship between digital games and other 
media. Scholarly production has extensively focused, on the one hand, on 
issues such as intermediality, narrative aspects in digital games as 
well as on modes of representation and enunciation and, on the other 
hand, on playful aspects of the cinematic and televisual narration.
What seems to be nearly absent in this field of analysis is a more 
structured reflection on the impact of digital games in the contemporary 
media ecosystem. In particular, we would like to foster a further 
exploration of the spaces traditionally occupied by cinema and 
television that have been significantly modified, both by the 
pervasiveness of digital games and by the design of gameful products. 
Moreover, we encourage an exploration of current and potential 
technological developments that determine interactions and convergences 
in the different aspects of production between videogames and other media.
Coherently with its previous editions, Media Mutations 7 encourages 
ecosystemic analyses, encompassing games and play and their role within 
the wider space of media, of the aspects listed below. We accept 
proposals for 20 minute papers on:

* Space of creation and production: What kind of unprecedented products 
emerge from the coexistence between games and other creative objects? 
What types of products have been subject to mutations triggered by the 
increasing presence of digital games in the media ecosystem?  How might 
models of production and creative work migrate between games and other 
media? How does the increasing importance of games affect the 
organization of contemporary media franchises? To what extent the need 
to engage viewers through playful elements influences the styles of 
writing and filmmaking? How has this changed the professional routines 
as well as the geography of workplaces? What are the potential 
educational applications of video games and how do they relate to the 
use of other media in the same context?
* Space of delivery and consumption: How are games showcased and sold in 
physical as well as digital stores, in competition (or in collaboration) 
with other items, such as films and TV series? What are the forms of 
monetization and the marketing strategies they adopt in the competition 
for the limited resources of users’ money and time? How are promotional 
practices and discourses of games affected by other media, and vice 
versa? How are forms of interactive technology and distribution 
contributing to the development of new cross-media experiences, such as 
second screens, mobile media, augmented reality and the like?
* Space of discussion: How have games achieved a culturally legitimate 
status? How are games brought into traditional spaces of exhibition? 
What is the meaning of buzzwords, such as interactive, immersive, 
gamification and transmedia according to the contexts in which they are 
employed (in academia, marketing, industry, etc.)?

We will also consider proposals on the following subjects:
serious games, advergames, interactive Web-docs, educational games, 
amusement parks, gamification of blockbuster movies and TV, Alternate 
Reality Games (ARG), casual games.

The official languages of the conference are English and Italian. 
Abstracts (250-1000 words for 20-minute talks) should be sent to 
(mediamutations.org /at/ gmail.com) by March 5th 2015. Please attach a brief 
biography (maximum 150 words) and an optional selected bibliography (up 
to ten titles) relevant to the conference theme. Notification of paper 
acceptance will be sent to proponents between 15-30 March.
A registration fee will be requested after notification of paper 
acceptance (€40 for speakers; admission to the conference is free for 
students). Papers will be published in the online repository of the 
University of Bologna and a selection will be included in an edited 
collection to be submitted to an international publisher (a volume based 
on the proceedings of Media Mutations 5, The Politics of Ephemeral 
Digital Media is forthcoming by Routledge). For more information on the 
previous editions of Media Mutations, please check the conference's 
website, www.mediamutations.org.


---------------
ECREA-Mailing list
---------------
This mailing list is a free service offered by Nico Carpentier and ECREA.
--
To subscribe, post or unsubscribe, please visit
http://commlist.org/
--
To contact the mailing list manager:
Email: (nico.carpentier /at/ vub.ac.be)
URL: http://homepages.vub.ac.be/~ncarpent/
--
ECREA - European Communication Research and Education Association
Chauss�de Waterloo 1151, 1180 Uccle, Belgium
Email: (info /at/ ecrea.eu)
URL: http://www.ecrea.eu
---------------