*CALL FOR PROPOSALS:*


*Conference of the International Journal of Creative Media
Research: Emerging Technologies and Creative Industries*

*One-Day Conference: 29 June 2020*

*Co-organised by Centre for Cultural and Creative Industries
<https://www.bathspa.ac.uk/research-and-enterprise/research-centres/centre-for-cultural-and-creative-industries/>
& Centre
for Media Research
<https://www.bathspa.ac.uk/research-and-enterprise/research-centres/centre-for-media-research/>
*

*Funded by Bristol+Bath Creative R+D Partnership
<https://bristolbathcreative.org/>*

*Held at Bath Spa University, Newton Park Campus, Newton Park, Newton St
Loe, Bath, BA2 9BN*

*Confirmed keynotes:*

   - Professor Graham Thomas <https://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/people/g-a-thomas>,
   Section Lead for Immersive Content, BBC R&D
   - Professor Mandy Rose <https://www.dcrc.org.uk/people/mandy-rose/>,
   Director of DCRC, University of the West of England
   - Professor Darren Cosker <http://www.cs.bath.ac.uk/~dpc/>, Director of
   CAMERA, University of Bath


We invite proposals from a range of researchers, makers, designers and
producers to showcase their research and creative practice, critically and
creatively exploring how the uniqueness of emerging technologies is
reshaping approaches to research across the creative industries.

Today’s emerging technologies present a unique proposition for the creative
industries. Often characterised as disruptive innovations against the
backdrop of enduring creative processes, emerging technologies such as
virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), robotics, artificial
intelligence (AI), projection mapping, location-based content, motion
capture and spatial audio present rich avenues for the creative industries,
gradually transforming media experiences. However, they also pose new kinds
of methodological challenges for researchers and makers.

Academia and industry alike are now working towards developing an
innovative set of aesthetic categories, terms, concepts, practices and
methodologies to make sense of the uniqueness of emerging technologies in
and across the creative landscape. With much research across the
disciplines of media, performance, art, computing and beyond increasingly
exploring the creative potential of emerging technologies and platforms, it
is key that we also better understand the necessary approaches to
researching these kinds of technologies and platforms.

How, for example, can we best engage with the innate hybridity of immersive
technologies, given the way that VR or AR experiences incorporate elements
from performance, games, film, gallery installations and even theme parks?
What is the impact of this hybridity on our ability to define immersive
technologies as an object of study? If AI is re-imagining relationships
with daily life, then how is this technology reshaping research practices?
More broadly, how do emerging technologies such as motion capture and
projection mapping impact our interpretation of audience or user responses
across the creative industry landscape? And is now the time to develop new
kinds of hybridised research methods that better reflect emerging
technologies?

This conference aims to engage with these questions by exploring the ways
in which different disciplines and different corners of the creative
industries are approaching the task of researching emerging technologies
and their audiences, spanning VR films, experiential AR games and live
experiences, AI and robotics, location-based transmedia productions, and so
on.

Proposal topics may address, but are not limited to:

   - Platform-specific research into emerging technologies (e.g. VR film,
   AR games/apps, AI platforms, creative robotics, motion capture technology,
   spatial audio works, etc.)
   - Sector-specific research into emerging technologies (e.g. performance
   industry, film and television industry, games industry, computing industry,
   etc.)
   - Creative/practice-based approaches to working with emerging
   technologies (e.g. how can AI/automation practices enhance or facilitate
   forms of creativity?)
   - Theoretical approaches to researching emerging technologies (e.g. new
   frameworks)
   - Innovations in industry approaches to researching emerging
   technologies and their audiences (e.g. current trends and tensions in R&D
   contexts, start-ups, etc.)
   - Emerging and cross-disciplinary forms of audience research in the
   context of emerging technologies (e.g. across media studies, performance
   studies, psychology, etc.)

The conference is funded by the Bristol+Bath Creative R+D Partnership
<https://bristolbathcreative.org/>, a £6.8 million AHRC-funded
collaboration between the University of the West of England, Bath Spa
University, University of Bath, University of Bristol and Watershed,
Bristol’s digital creativity centre. The partnership aims to connect the
worlds of university research and creative business to collectively imagine
and develop the future of the creative industries.

All creative work or papers presented at the conference will be considered
for publication in a Special Issue of the International Journal of Creative
Media Research <https://www.creativemediaresearch.org/> (IJCMR), edited by
the event organisers. IJCMR is an interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed and open
access journal devoted to pushing forward the approaches to and
possibilities for publishing creative media research.

Please send proposals of no more than 300 words (accompanied by a short
biography) to Matthew Freeman ([log in to unmask]) by no later than *March
15, 2020*.

*About the keynote speakers:*

   - *Professor Graham Thomas* is Section Lead, Immersive & Interactive
   Content at BBC R&D, where he leads a team of 20 engineers developing
   next-generation audio and video systems in ways that can offer new
   interactive opportunities for audiences. Graham helped establish the BBC
   Audio Research Partnership
   <https://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/projects/audio-research-partnership>. He was a
   key player in the development of the award-winning Piero
   <https://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/projects/piero> sports graphics system and the
   free-d camera tracking system for virtual studios. His earlier work
   included motion-compensated standards conversion, which led to the
   Emmy-award-winning Alchemist standards converter.


   - *Professor Mandy Rose* is Professor of Documentary & Digital Cultures
   at the University of the West of England, where she is Director of the
   Digital Cultures Research Centre. She is Co-Investigator on the
EPSRC Virtual
   Realities: Immersive Documentary Encounters
   <http://vrdocumentaryencounters.co.uk/>project, a £1.2m 2.5 year project
   that interrogates the application of virtual reality for nonfiction. She is
   also co-convenor of the i-Docs <http://i-docs.org/>Symposium. Mandy’s
   background is in TV and film production, sound recording, producing, and
   directing documentary and factual television.


   - *Professor Darren Cosker* is Professor in Computer Science at the
   University of Bath, where he is currently the Director of the Centre for
   the Analysis of Motion, Entertainment Research and Applications (CAMERA)
   <https://www.camera.ac.uk/>, funded by EPSRC/AHRC. His research cuts
   across different disciplines, such as Computer Vision, Graphics, AI and
   Psychology, including work on human motion analysis, recognition and
   synthesis, and data modeling. Applications of Darren’s research have been
   across the creative industries (including partnerships with the BBC and
   Aardman), the healthcare sector, and sport.


Full information about the conference can be found here
<https://www.bathspa.ac.uk/news-and-events/events/ijcmr-conference/>.
General enquiries can be sent to Matthew Freeman ([log in to unmask]).



*Dr Matthew Freeman, FHEA*
*Reader in Multiplatform Media*
*Unit of Assessment Leader, **Communication, Cultural and Media Studies*
*Deputy Director, The Centre for Cultural and Creative Industries
<https://www.bathspa.ac.uk/research-and-enterprise/research-centres/centre-for-cultural-and-creative-industries/>*
*Co-Director, The Centre for Media Research
<https://www.bathspa.ac.uk/schools/liberal-arts/research/centre-for-media-research/>*
*Film and Media Subject Lead**, SWW AHRC DTP <https://www.sww-ahdtp.ac.uk>*

*Telephone:* +44 (0)1225 876708
*Staff Profile:* www.bathspa.ac.uk/our-people/matthew-freeman/

*Recent publications:*

   - Freeman, M (2019) *The World of The Walking Dead*. Routledge, London.
   - Freeman, M (2019) 'Transmedia Historiography as Educational Practice:
   Narrativising Colombian Cultural Memory.' *International Journal of
   Creative Media Research*, 1.
   - Freeman, M (2019) 'Re-building Transmedia Star Wars: Strategies of
   Branding and Un-branding a Galaxy Far, Far Away.' In: Proctor, W and
   McCullough, R, eds. *Disney’s Star Wars: Forces of Production, Promotion
   and Reception*. University of Iowa Press, Iowa City.
   - Freeman, M and Gambarato, R.R, eds. (2018) *The Routledge Companion to
   Transmedia Studies*. Routledge, London.

The School of Creative Industries
Bath Spa University
Newton Park, Bath, BA2 9BN

Visit www.bathspa.ac.uk
Join us on: Facebook <http://www.facebook.com/bath.spa.university> | Twitter
<https://twitter.com/#%21/BathSpaUni> | YouTube
<http://www.youtube.com/BathSpaUniversity> | LinkedIn
<http://www.linkedin.com/company/bath-spa-university>

*Think before you print*


*Disclaimer*If you have received this message in error, please notify us
and remove it from your system. Any views or opinions expressed in personal
emails are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent
those of Bath Spa University. Neither Bath Spa University nor the sender
accepts any responsibility for viruses and it is your responsibility to
scan this email and any attachments for viruses.

----
For past messages, visit the Screen-L Archives:
https://listserv.ua.edu/archives/screen-l.html