The Writing & Society Research Centre at the University of Western Sydney
warmly invites you a special seminar

Prof. Will Luers on Composing the Narrative Interface

Wednesday 20 March
1.30pm -3.00pm
Building 3.G.55, Bankstown Campus (via the Henry Lawson Drive exit of the M5)

“Good” interface design, like good prose or cinema editing, sets thought in motion through affective rhythms, patterns and gaps in a semiotic surface. However, unlike mimetic and linear narrative constructions, an interface is typically a non-mimetic map of signs and sign-systems; of images, text fragments and links. How do we compose this multimedia space with the same agility and intuition that we compose text with a word processor, or video with digital editing software? How do we conceive a poetics of the interface that makes room for ambiguity and excess alongside clarity and economy? While many digital artists and e-lit authors continue to draw inspiration from the "radical artifice" and collage aesthetics of the avant-garde, we still lack the proper tools, heuristics and vocabulary to compose, think and teach about the narrative interface. This talk will explore approaches to narrative design by looking at selections of my media work: from simple juxtapositions of video on a page, to spatial montage, to the multimedia book

Will Luers is a professor at the Creative Media & Digital Culture program at Washington State University, Vancouver where he teaches multimedia authoring, video production and mobile app design. His current research and artistic interests are in database narratives, remix video and the multimedia book. In 2010, he was awarded the The Vectors-NEH Summer Fellowship to work on his database documentary, The Father Divine Project. In 2005, he won Nantucket Film Festival and Tony Cox Award for Best Screenplay. Will is currently in Australia to collaborate on a video project with Hazel Smith and Roger Dean funded by the literature board of the Australia Council for the Arts.


All welcome. RSVP/info writing@uws.edu.au

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[reposted from AOIR mailing list]

Keynote Speaker: Mia Consalvo, Concordia University,Montreal
http://about.me/miaconsalvo
Plenary Speaker: John Banks, Queensland University of Technology
http://www.playification.com/

Social, casual and mobile games – primarily experienced on smartphones
and online social networks – are becoming increasingly ubiquitous, and
in the process, changing the ways in which games are designed,
understood and, most importantly, played. This preconference will
explore this rapidly changing gaming landscape and discuss the ludic,
methodological, theoretical, economic, social and cultural challenges
that these changes invoke. Importantly, social, casual and mobile
games do not exist in a vacuum, so the challenges, changes and
continuities in relation to previous digital and physical games and
gaming practices are also open for analysis.

Topics might include, but are by no means limited to:
• Design and industry shifts from traditional games to mobile and
networked games
• New user demographics
• Virtual currencies, in-game purchases, the .99c price-point and
other economic issues
• Games as surveillance and the exchange of user information for game progress
• Zynga: The Rise and (partial) Fall of Facebook’s Biggest Gaming Friend
• Mobile Franchises: Angry Birds, Plants V Zombies, and so on.
• South-East Asian and other non-Western gaming cultures
• Gaming communities
• Gamification - the good, the bad, and the scoreboard
• Convergence and social, casual and mobile games
• Edutainment
• The sociality or otherwise of social games
• Shifting landscape from PC and console games to social, casual and
mobile games
• Locative games: place and mobility

Paper abstracts of no more than 500 words, or full papers of no more
than 5000 words, including a brief biographic statement, using APA 6th
referencing style, are due Friday, 29 March 2013 (accepted papers and
abstracts will be notified by 15 April 2013), emailed to
socialcasualmobile@gmail.com.

Pre-conference papers and abstracts will not appear in the ANZCA
proceedings; rather they will automatically be considered for
inclusion in an edited collection on the topic Social, Casual, Mobile:
Changing Games being organised concurrently with the preconference. If
you do NOT want your paper or abstract considered for inclusion in
this collection, please note this when emailing your submission.

For more details please visit http://socialcasualmobile.blogspot.com.

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[reposted from AOIR mailing list]

NEW BOOK: Crossmedia Innovations: Texts, Markets, Institutions
Editors: Indrek Ibrus, Carlos A. Scolari

Website:
http://www.peterlang.com/index.cfm?event=cmp.ccc.seitenstruktur.detailseiten&seitentyp=produkt&pk=65167

Published by Peter Lang

Blurb: Crossmedia and transmedia are keywords of increasing importance for
media professionals and scholars alike. Although these phenomena are older
than sometimes argued, the affordances of digital networked media have
radically enriched the nature of "crossmedia strategies" of media
industries. As such crossmedia is an emergent practice that arises as one
of the core sources of complexity and innovation for late modern cultures.
This edited volume includes chapters by authors from three continents who
approach the phenomenon from different disciplinary angles: semiotics,
cultural studies, media economics, political economy, innovation studies.
The common interest lies in the dynamics that lead to experiments with
crossmedia and in how our cultures are innovated through such practices.


Contents:

Indrek Ibrus/Carlos A. Scolari: Introduction: Crossmedia innovation?

Maarja Saldre/Peeter Torop: Transmedia space

Carlos A. Scolari: The Triplets and the incredible shrinking narrative: Playing in the borderland between transmedia storytelling and adaptation

Colin B Harvey: Crossmedia cross-stitch: Spinoff stories as transmedial and
intramedial suture

Sarah Atkinson: The view from the fourth wall window: Crossmedia fictions

Andreu Belsunces Gonçalves: Fringe: Playful transmedia

Richard Berger/Ashley Woodfall: The digital utterance: A crossmedia approach to media education

Joan Ramon Rodríguez-Amat/Katharine Sarikakis: The fandom menace or the phantom author? On sharecropping, crossmedia and copyright

Göran Bolin: Audience activity as a co-production of crossmedia content

Cinzia Colapinto/Eleonora Benecchi: Movie industry goes viral in the XXIst century: If what counts is the buzz...

Annika Wiklund-Engblom/Seppo Leminen/Mika Westerlund/Simon Staffans/Michaela Esch/Risto Rajala: Towards transmedia innovation: An empirical analysis of a multiplatform format

Steinar Ellingsen: Web series, independent media and emerging online markets: Then and now

Indrek Ibrus: The AV industry's microcompanies encounter multiplatform production

Aurite Kouts: 'You make the movies': Audiences as new filmmakers in the age of user-generated content

Jose A. García-Avilés: Innovation management in crossmedia production: Leading change in the newsroom

Rosa Franquet i Calvet/María Isabel Villa Montoya: Exploring the crossmedia content of public broadcasters in Catalonia and Denmark

Ivar John Erdal: What media logic? Organization of crossmedia production in two medium-sized Norwegian newsrooms.

Print: ISBN 978-3-631-62228-5 pb.

eBook: ISBN 978-3-653-02575-0

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There's been so much discussion about digital media and mediatisation - it's hard to imagine a world, and just as importantly, a way of thinking about the world, as media. Here's a different angle from new media writer and theorist, 'Lev Manovich', soon to be published in the Journal of Visual Culture, volume 12, number 1, April 2013: "Media After Software." available on the website of the Software Studies Initiative: http://lab.softwarestudies.com/2012/11/new-article-by-lev-manovich-media-after.html

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[reposted from The Conversation]

Social Media Officer at University of Melbourne Graduate Student Association

The Graduate Student Association at the University of Melbourne (GSA) is seeking an experienced social media officer to craft, implement and grow our digital presence. Use your expertise with social media and the web to help us shape our message and provide opportunities for our membership to engage with us.

The right person will merge seamlessly into our association and quickly stake their claim as our online ambassador. They will be aware of all the latest advances, strategies and best practice in digital communication, and will use their first rate public relations skills to ensure our membership is kept informed and energized about GSA’s achievements, events and services.

Applications close 5.00pm on Wednesday, 27 February, 2013.

Read more at: http://jobs.theconversation.edu.au/jobs/3728-social-media-officer?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=tweetbutton&utm_campaign=footer

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"Turing Arts: Growing Connections and Digital Mimicry"

Dr Cate Dowd (University of New England)

11.00am-12.30pm, Monday 5 Nov 2012

Room 170, Transient Building (opposite Mills building)

Please RSVP to Kathy Cleland: kathy.cleland@sydney.edu.au

Synopsis

In 2009 the UK government decided to honour Alan Turing as a national figure. Turing was a code-breaker during World War 2 and a mathematician. His ideas and abstractions also gave birth to digital computers and Computer Science. In 2012 Computer Scientists, Artificial Intelligence Researchers and Philosophers in the UK have been celebrating the work and ideas of Alan Turing. The Turing Arts symposium was one of the research events held in the UK this year. The initial idea for the symposium was conceived by Cate Dowd and grew from conversations with colleagues across arts and computing. Part of the inspiration was Turing’s creative ideas in the late 1940s for machines of the future and ideas for ‘machine intelligence’. Turing also envisaged competition between man and machine and similar ideas are played out in Science Fiction Films. Turing’s ‘Turing Test’ also has similarities with fictional machines like the Voight Kampff machine in the film Blade Runner (based on Phil Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?). Turing’s controversial ideas about ‘machine consciousness’ led to reflections on early forms of Automata and the idea of ‘play’ on machine consciousness found in Surrealism. The research opened up further links across Turing’s ideas for digital mimicry and digital music and Generative Art. It also captured new ideas associated with mimicry of the human brain, embodiment, and random elements of machines and machine intelligence. The research culminated in the Turing Arts symposium held in Birmingham, UK, in July this year as part of the AISB/IACAP World Congress. Cate will present on her own research as well as giving an overview of the Turing Arts Symposium.

Bio

Dr Cate Dowd is a lecturer in Digital Media Studies at the University of New England. Her research is across media and computing with a focus on the semantic web, social media, online journalism, Alan Turing, the ebb and flow across science and science fiction films and literature, film in the digital age and creative ideas for future intelligent agents. Cate has lectured in Information Systems at the University of Melbourne and has also lectured in Media and Journalism at Monash University and Swinburne. Her Master of Information Systems and Management from Monash was on the digitization of television, with a focus on the ABC. Cate has also worked in broadcasting and feature film editing at the SAFC and Crawford Productions and is a graduate from the Centre for Performing Arts, Adelaide, with a major in set design. She is a member of the Society for Artificial Intelligence and Simulation of Behaviour and this year conceived and organised the Turing Arts Symposium, held in Birmingham in the UK.

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[reposted from AOIR mailing list]

The Social Media Collective at Microsoft Research New England (MSRNE) is looking for a social media postdoctoral researcher (start date: 1 July, 2013). This position is an ideal opportunity for a scholar whose work draws on anthropology, communication, media studies, sociology, and/or science and technology studies to bring empirical and critical perspectives to complex socio-technical issues.

Application deadline: Monday 19 November, 2012.

A web version of this call is available here:
http://socialmediacollective.org/2012/10/15/postdoc-opening/

Microsoft Research provides a vibrant multidisciplinary research environment with an open publications policy and close links to top academic institutions around the world. Postdoc researcher positions
provide emerging scholars, (PhDs received in 2012 or to be conferred by July 2013), an opportunity to develop their research career and to interact with some of the top minds in the research community. The position also offers the potential to have research realized in products and services that will be used world-wide. Postdoc researchers are invited to define their own research agenda and demonstrate their ability to drive forward an effective program of research. Successful candidates will have a well-established research track record as demonstrated by journal publications and conference papers, as well as participation on program committees, editorial boards, and advisory panels.

Postdoc researchers receive a competitive salary and benefits package, and are eligible for relocation expenses. Postdoc researchers are hired for a two-year term appointment following the academic calendar, starting in July 2013. Applicants must have completed the requirements for a PhD, including
submission of their dissertation, prior to joining Microsoft Research. We do accept applicants with tenure-track job offers from other institutions so long as they are able to negotiate deferring their start date to accept our position.

While each of the seven Microsoft Research labs has openings in a variety of different disciplines, the Social Media Collective at Microsoft Research New England (located in Cambridge, MA) is especially interested in identifying social science candidates with critical humanistic approaches to their topics. Qualifications include a strong academic record in anthropology, communication, media studies, sociology, science and technology studies, or related fields. The ideal candidate may be trained
in any number of disciplines, but should have a strong methodological, analytical, and theoretical foundation in humanistic approaches to the social sciences, be interested in questions related to technology or the internet and society or culture, and be interested in working across disciplines and with computer scientists.

The Social Media Collective is comprised of full-time researchers, postdocs, visiting faculty, PhD interns, and research assistants. Current projects include:
- How does social media use affect relationships between artists and
audiences in the creative industries? (Nancy Baym)
- How do youth make sense of networked publics? (danah boyd)
- How do we listen to each other in networked environments, and what are
the implications for intimacy, privacy and social change? (Kate Crawford)
- How does information infrastructure shape event epistemology? (Megan Finn)
- How do people with minimal internet access use mobile media to negotiate
marginalization and social immobility? (Mary L. Gray)

To apply for a postdoc position at MSRNE:
1. Submit an online application at:
https://research.microsoft.com/apps/tools/jobs/fulltime.aspx
- Indicate that your research area of interest is “Anthropology,
Communication, Media Studies, and Sociology” and that your location
preference is “New England, U.S.”

- In addition to the CV and names of three referees (including your
dissertation advisor) that the online application will require you to
include, upload the following 3 attachments with your online application:

a) two journal articles, book chapters, or equivalent writing samples
(uploaded as 2 separate attachments);

b) a single research statement (four page maximum length) that addresses
the following: outlines the questions and methodologies central to your
research agenda (~two page maximum length); provides an abstract and
chapter outline of your dissertation (~one page maximum length); offers a
description of how your research agenda relates to research conducted by
the social media collective (~one page maximum length)

2. After you submit your application, send an email (msrnejob@microsoft.com)
alerting us that you have uploaded your application. If an applicant meets
the requirements above, a request for letters will be sent to your list of
referees on your behalf. ALL LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION MUST BE RECEIVED BY
THE DEADLINE IN ORDER FOR AN APPLICATION TO BE CONSIDERED. Please make sure
to check back with your referees or us if you have any questions about the
status of your requested letters of recommendation.

For more information, see:
http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/jobs/fulltime/postdoc.aspx

To learn more about the Social Media Collective, check out our blog:
http://www.socialmediacollective.org

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer

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