[Commlist] ASIA.LIVE: Locating Livestreaming in Asia - virtual workshop [Call for video contributions]

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*Call for Contributions: Virtual Workshop 'ASIA.LIVE: Locating 
Livestreaming in Asia'***

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Hosts: Leiden University, the Leiden Asia Centre, and Asiascape: Digital 
Asia
Organisers: Florian Schneider, Dino Ge Zhang, Gabriele de Seta
Date: 13 September 2019
Abstract Deadline: 20 June 2019

The practice of broadcasting live video through the internet has 
recently seen a resurgence, as livestreaming platforms recuperated the 
format pioneered by cam sites from around the early 2000s (Senft, 2008). 
From Periscope and Twitch to YouTube and Facebook Live, livestreaming 
video is today a popular media format, especially among gaming 
communities, Esports audiences, and popular media commentators (Taylor, 
2018).

The uptake of livestreaming in Asia around 2013 is, as of yet, a largely 
untold story. In the distinct digital ecosystems of the Asia region 
(Steinberg & Li, 2017), this format has been embraced not only by gamers 
and their audiences but by a diverse range of communities and 
performers, fuelling the rise of livestreaming genres like the South 
Korean mukbang (social eating) or the Chinese huwai zhibo (outdoor 
livestreams). This local uptake and regional diversification is 
accompanied by the rise of Asian livestreaming platforms. These are 
either revamped from established video streaming sites, such as 
afreecaTV in Korea, Niconico Namahosho in Japan, or Bilibili Live in 
China, or they come in the new forms of mobile-exclusive apps such as 
Bigo Live in South East Asia or Inke in China.

There are also local scenes of livestreaming cultures on international 
platforms such as Facebook Live, Twitch, and YouTube. The local 
ecologies of Western and Asian platforms in Asian national contexts are 
home to intricate networks of regional livestreaming cultures, and these 
cultures interact in complicated ways with geopolitical flows and 
borders.  Livestreaming in Asia has become a veritable ‘live’ laboratory 
of screen cultures in which new genres, performativities, personalities, 
audiences, and commenting practices emerge.

*Workshop topics:*

ASIA.LIVE aims to bring together researchers interested in Asian 
livestreaming cultures and practices. Through our ‘virtual workshop’ 
format, we support and encourage a live dialogue around this emergent, 
ephemeral, and often undocumented domain of contemporary digital 
culture. The workshop invites submissions of audio-visual presentations 
discussing the following issues and beyond:

•    Emerging theories of liveness and real-timeness.
•    Microhistories of live video in Asia.
•    Situated genres of livestream performance.
•    Live comment cultures.
•    The platformisation of Asian livestreaming.
•    Livestreaming apps and mobility.
•    Representation and intersectionality in livestreaming cultures.
•    Livestreamed localism, nationalism, and regionalism.

*Workshop format:*

As a ‘virtual workshop’, ASIA.LIVE is structured around pre-recorded 
audio-visual presentations that will be broadcasted online, along with 
livestreamed Q&A sessions, on the date of the event. Submissions must be 
15-minute-long videos. However, the format can range from traditional 
slides with voiceover or webcam talk to video essays or even more 
experimental genres (archival footage remixes, mini documentaries, 
performance pieces, livestreamer interviews, etc.). Although it will be 
possible and encouraged to join us at Leiden University during the 
livestream event, participation will be largely remote via a livestream.

*Submissions:*

Interested contributors should submit a 250-word abstract with a short 
bio detailing their idea for the video presentation in order to be 
considered for the workshop. Please submit abstracts to 
(live.asia.workshop /at/ gmail.com) <mailto:(live.asia.workshop /at/ gmail.com)> by 20 
June 2019 and we will respond to your expression of interests on 1 July 
2019. If your abstracts are selected, you will be invited to submit your 
video file before 1 September 2019.

*Journal special issue:*

Particularly promising contributions to the conference may later be 
included in the form of research articles in a special issue of the 
peer-reviewed academic journal Asiascape: Digital Asia (Brill), to be 
published in the spring of 2021. The deadline for these articles will be 
1 April 2020.

*References:*

Senft, T. M. (2008). Celebrity & Community in the Age of Social 
Networks. New York: Peter Lang.
Steinberg, M., & Li, J. (2017). Introduction: Regional Platforms. 
Asiascape: Digital Asia, 4, 173–183.
Taylor, T. L. (2018). Watch Me Play: Twitch and the Rise of Game Live 
Streaming. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.


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