[Commlist] CFP: Screen Studies in the Age of Extended Reality & Synthetic Media

*Call for Abstracts: Screen Studies in the Age of Extended Reality & 
Synthetic Media*

An international conference to take place at Trinity College Dublin, as 
part of the Irish Research Council Laureate Award project “From 
Cinematic Realism to Extended Reality: Reformulating Screen Studies at 
the Precipice of Hyper-reality” (2022-2026).


Deadline for abstracts: February 20th


Keynote speaker:

Professor Jenna Ng, Head of Creative Technologies and Professor of 
Digital Media and Culture at the University of York.

The world is increasingly grappling with an existential crisis of what 
constitutes the real. Contemporary “post-truth” societies are mired by 
so-called fake news and a technological dependence approaching 
philosopher Jean Baudrillard’s (1981) concept of hyper-reality. Already 
noting an increased shift towards versions of reality accessed via 
simulation and replication, he warned of a potential moment where 
“hyperreality” would become indistinguishable from the reality in which 
humans exist. More specifically, the rapid deployment of extended 
reality (XR) technologies like virtual reality (VR) and augmented 
reality (AR), as well as the increased use of virtual production 
practices and machine learning to produce synthetic media including 
“deepfakes” and “AI films,” present creative challenges for screen 
production workers and critical challenges for screen studies. As 
various arts and media scholars have recently highlighted, there is a 
strong need to consider AR and VR not just as hyped technologies but as 
media (Bolter, Engberg and MacIntyre 2021; O’Meara and Szita 2023), 
and for further explorations of the cultural and artistic ramifications 
of algorithmically generated media in arts and humanities research (De 
Vries 2019; Chow 2020). These developments are an extension of earlier 
research into topics like software cinema (Hassapopoulou 2014) and 
broader questions as to the place of traditional screen media in the 
digital age (Gaudreault and Marion, 2015).

Since early cinema, filmmakers and theorists have been preoccupied with 
conventions of realism and its reliance on both analogue technologies 
(camera and film strip) and creative choices. Though extended reality 
and synthetic screen technologies are largely driven by computing and 
the tech industries, their design and use build on a much longer history 
of media technologies and, as such, can intersect meaningfully with 
existing screen theories and critical approaches to screen aesthetics, 
narrative and audience consumption (see: Haslem 2019; Denson 2020). This 
conference will thus consider how approaches from screen studies, media 
history and cultural studies can guide a more critical and humanistic 
development of these technologies and their associated media. It aims to 
address the following questions inter-related topics and questions:

*Technologies.* How can screen studies approaches, histories and 
theories be used to better understand the development of extended 
reality technologies and synthetic media with respect totheir 
technologic features, narrative properties, and audio-visual aesthetics?

*Ethical and Social Impact.* What are the key ethical ramifications of 
synthetic media technologies being 1) used in the screen industries and 
via amateur media practices and 2) consumed by individuals as a form of 
entertainment or recorded document?

**

*Embodiment and Spectatorship.* Acknowledging the proven impact of 
extended reality media and technologies on consumers’ bodies (e.g. Ross 
2020; Crouch and Damjanov, 2021), how can we gain more understanding of 
this impact using, for example, sensory theories of embodiment and 
concepts of screen “gaze”?


*Inclusivity and Identity Politics.* Acknowledging that the design and 
use of media technologies are inherently intertwined with identity 
politics related to gender, race, sexuality and disability, what are the 
related risks and opportunities associated with emergent forms of XR and 
synthetic media?

**

*Disciplinary Impact.* To what degree is the discipline and teaching of 
screen studies being disrupted (forcing a revision of methods and 
practices) by the mainstreaming of extended reality and deceptive 
technologies?

The conference will feature a Keynote address by *Professor Jenna Ng*, 
Head of Creative Technologies and Professor of Digital Media and Culture 
and the University of York. Professor Ng’s work includes “The New 
Virtuality: A Video Essay on the Disappearing Differences Between Real 
and Unreal” (2023); the monograph /The Post-Screen Through Virtual 
Reality, Holograms and Light Projections: Where Screen Boundaries 
Lie/ (2021); the edited collection /Understanding Machinima: essays on 
filmmaking in virtual worlds/ (2013), and a forthcoming book on 
the existential tensions of living in the age of AI.

We welcome abstracts for both *research papers* (20 minutes) and 
*practice-based works* (<30 minutes). A related edited collection is 
also being planned for the post-conference period.

*Topics may include, but are not limited to:*

·       Aesthetic properties of extended reality or synthetic media, 
such as the uses of colour, framing, camera work, editing, sound and music.

·       Narrative properties of extended reality or synthetic media, 
including interactive/ludic elements and elliptical or non-linear 
storytelling.

·       Resulting labour and ethical issues, including the potential 
displacement of creative workers / performers.

·       XR models of spectatorship, including inaccessibility of 
emergent technologies and financial barriers to access.

·       Approaches to these technologies that intersect with film 
philosophy / film theory / theories of media convergence.

·       Historical / media archaeological approaches to XR and synthetic 
media, including those that relate them to concepts of realism/surrealism.

·       Critical language / terminology developing around these 
technologies.

·       Multisensory aspects of immersive media and their potential to 
create new forms of embodiment.

·       Augmented reality trends and distribution channels, including AR 
filters embedded on dominant social media platforms.

·       VR distribution channels, including via festivals and galleries.

·       Collaborations between tech companies and production companies 
or filmmakers.

·       Politicised uses of deepfakes / synthetic media and their links 
to concepts of propaganda and documentary truth or constructed realities.

·       The wider socio-cultural implications of algorithmically 
generated media’s heightened ubiquity/visibility.

·       Ties to parallel developments in other creative realms, 
including algorithmically generated music, sound, and speech.

· Music, sound and immersiveness in XR media.

·       The flow of influences between these technologies and 
representations of them in screen media such as cinema and television.

·       Intersections with identity politics related to gender, race, 
age and disability.

·       Intersections with environmental issues, including media 
obsolescence and sustainable practices for media production and consumption.

·       Intersections with posthumanism and non-human creation or 
co-creation.

·       Intersections with performance, stardom and celebrity culture

·       Videographic or experimental media works that address the 
conference themes

Please submit ~300 words abstracts and a short bio (~100 words) to 
(jennifer.omeara /at/ tcd.ie) <mailto:(jennifer.omeara /at/ tcd.ie)> and 
(james.mcglynn /at/ tcd.ie) <mailto:(james.mcglynn /at/ tcd.ie)> by *February 
20th*. Note: A limited number of remote papers/practice works can be 
facilitated. If you would like to present remotely then please signal 
this when submitting your abstract.

Deadline for abstracts: 20^th  February

Applicants notified of acceptance: by March 1^st

Conference: June 4^th –5^th

^

The conference is generously supported by the Irish Research Council 
(grant number: IRCLA/2022/2959) and by the Trinity Long Room Hub Arts & 
Humanities Research Institute, where it will be held.

*Works cited*

Baudrillard, J. (1981; 1983). /Simulacra and Simulation/. Los Angeles: 
Semiotext(e).

Bolter, J.D., Engberg, M. and MacIntyre, B. (2021). /Reality Media: 
Augmented and Virtual Reality/. The MIT Press.

Chow, P-S. (2020) “Ghost in the (Hollywood) machine: Emergent 
applications of artificial intelligence in the film industry.” /NECSUS 
European Journal of Media Studies/, 9: 193-214.

Crouch, D. & Damjanov, K. (2021). “Extreme VR: strategies of sensorial 
immersion and the intensities of experience.” /The Senses and 
Society/ 16 (3), 308–319.


Denson, S. (2020) /Discorrelated Images/. Duke University Press.

De Vries, P. (2020) /Algorithmic Anxiety in Contemporary Art: A 
Kierkegaardian Inquiry into the Imaginary of Possibility/. Amsterdam: 
Institute of Network Cultures.

Gaudreault, A. and Marion, P. (2015). /The End of Cinema? A Medium in 
Crisis in the Digital Age/, translated by Timothy Barnard. NYC: Columbia 
University Press.

Haslem, W. (2019). /From Méliès to New Media: Spectral Projections/. 
Bristol: Intellect books.

Hassapopoulou, M. (2014) “Reconfiguring Film Studies Through Software 
Cinema and Procedural Spectatorship.” /NECSUS European Journal of Media 
Studies/, 3:2. 2014.

O’Meara, J. and Szita, K. (2023) “AR Cinema: Visual Storytelling and 
Embodied Experiences with Augmented Reality Filters and Backgrounds.” 
/PRESENCE: Virtual and Augmented Reality/ 30: 99–123.

Ross, M. (2020). “Virtual Reality’s New Synesthetic Possibilities,” /New 
Media & Society/, Vol. 21 Issue 3: 297-314.

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