New Modes of Language-Driven Mediated Research – London 12 July 2010, 9-6pm

Date: 12 July 2010 , 09:00 to 18:00
Location: Rooms JG3002 and JG3003, John Galsworthy Building, Penrhyn Road Campus
Fee: £25 full price/£15 students
From the Page to the Screen to Augmented Reality: New Modes of Language-Driven Technology-Mediated Research

The event will be followed by a drinks reception
Event convenor: Dr Maria Mencia

Roundtable workshop

In order to develop language-driven technology mediated collaborative research practice, we propose a preliminary roundtable workshop involving scholars, writers, theoreticians and creative practitioners from Kingston University and other European Universities to discuss the relevance of new technologies in the creation of language mediated practice. We invite the participation of researchers, in particular, those who have just begun to consider the implications and possible use of new technologies in their research practice, as well as international researchers who have migrated from more traditional print-based research practices to multimedial and interdisciplinary research methods that make use of computers, networks, and mobile technologies.

Keynote Speaker

Professor Jay David Bolter

Abstract: Elite and popular: digital art and literature in an era of social and locative media.

The relationship between digital literature and the literary mainstream has always been complicated. Despite a growing body of creative work, digital authors still have difficulty attracting the attention of traditional readers and critics. Digital (visual and performance) art has had a somewhat easier time winning recognition. Meanwhile, the future of literature and art (digital and otherwise) is itself uncertain, because the status of art has changed. The task of “saving” culture, once assigned to Art (with a capital A) seems no longer available in today’s artistic practice. Popular entertainment and the new social and locative media forms do not lay claim to the function once assigned Art; instead, they seem to deny the need for Art altogether. What roles, then, can digital literary artists and critics play in a today’s diverse and divergent media culture?

Roundtable

We will also consider questions including:

  • What new opportunities for expression and registers of meaning do new technology platforms bring to fiction, poetry, and art?
  • To what extent are born-digital genres remediating print, and to what extent are they mixing modalities of practice between literary and artistic orientations?
  • How does electronic literature change the relationships between the author, the reader, and the text?
  • How do the aesthetics, conceptual ideas and theories of the avant- garde poetics become relevant in new media poetics?
  • How does the individual’s creative process work in a collaborative networked environment?
    How can critics and audiences engage with digital artifacts and experiences that are interdisciplinary in nature?

  • To what extent do style, visual design, and aesthetics impact our interpretation of language-based works in digital environments?
  • What are the distinctions between the materiality of the page, the screen, projections, installations, and works made for immersive or mobile
    environments?

  • What effect does technology have in the practice of writing?
  • How can collaborative models of literary and artistic production in networked environments be considered in terms of authorship and literary production?
  • How can we define knowledge and authorship in multimodal frameworks?
  • What can traditional humanities researchers learn from the research methodologies of practicing electronic writers and digital artists about adapting their own research practice to contemporary network environments?
  • Can traditional research methodologies from the humanities be used as creative practice-led research methods or do we need to establish new ways of questioning and making?
  • What constitutes research in a creative work?
  • How do new technologies influence our perception of orality and literacy?
  • Is orality the new written form?
  • How could the advent of touch devices change our way of creating and experiencing literature and language-based art?
  • How can Web 2.0 platforms, social media tools and network environments enhance and implement collaborative literary and artistic projects?

    In the afternoon, selected speakers from the roundtable will be presenting their practical work and there will be an opportunity for discussion.

    Programme

    Download programme (PDF file)

    Registration

    Book online now

    The registration fee includes lunch, refreshments and conference materials.