CALL FOR PAPERS
As Above, So Below: Drone Culture
Special issue of Culture Machine, Vol.16 (2015)
Edited by Rob Coley and Dean Lockwood (University of Lincoln, UK)
http://www.culturemachine.net

The colloquium, ‘As Above, So Below’, held at the University of Lincoln in May 2014, proved the topic of drone culture to be a productive and resonant point of access for discussions of novel forms of life, power, and social and cultural logics in the twenty-first century. The 2015 special issue of the peer-reviewed open access journal, Culture Machine, will combine papers commissioned from selected speakers at the colloquium together with new contributions. We are particularly keen to gather international perspectives.

The implications of the drone are still unfolding, however its valence as, in Benjamin Noys’s words, the ‘signature device of the present moment’ is indisputable. Certain discourses, practices and lines of investigation are already established.… read more. “Call: ‘As Above, So Below: Drone Culture’ – Special issue of Culture Machine”

Call for Participation

Gaming Bodies
ICA Game Studies Preconference
May 21, 2015 – San Juan, Puerto Rico

Deadline: December 1, 2014

Digital games have complicated notions of what a body is and what it means during and apart from play. Both digital and physical bodies are understood to influence – or be influenced by – gameplay experiences according to their unique traits, states, abilities, materialities, and governing systems. In gamespaces, digital bodies may be considered both as signifiers and agents of players’ intention and as independent entities functioning according to their inherent design. On the other side of the interface, physical bodies may be considered both as manipulators of game content and as being influenced by game events that they help create. In many ways, these interplays between digital and physical bodies are central to notions of play.

The goal of this pre-conference is to shed light on the natures, functions, and interplays of digital and physical bodies in games, and how bodies are engaged in and influenced by play.… read more. “Call: ‘Gaming Bodies’ – ICA 2015 Game Studies Preconference”

4th Annual Symposium on Communicating Complex Information (SCCI)
February 23-24, 2015
East Carolina University
Greenville, NC USA

http://workshop.design4complexity.com/SCCI2015-home.php

Call for Proposals

Building on the success of the previous three conferences, the Symposium on Communicating Complex Information (SCCI) explores the relationships between and within the contexts that affect complex information, information design, information architecture, user experience, and usability. It seeks to examine how design and content choices influence people’s behavior when interacting with complex information, and how the knowledge of situational context improves the design of complex information systems.

The intention of SCCI is to foster an integrated approach to the design of complex information by bringing together members from a range of research and practitioner communities. It strives to build upon what we already know about communicating complex information and to clarify our understanding of what issues urgently need further research.… read more. “Call: 4th Annual Symposium on Communicating Complex Information (SCCI)”

Game Studies Area: 2015 PCA/ACA National Conference

The Game Studies area of the National Popular Culture Association and the American Culture Association Conference invites proposals for papers and panels on games and game studies for the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association National Conference to be held Wednesday, April 1 through Saturday April 4, 2015 at the New Orleans Marriott.

Below, please find:

I. Topics of Interest
II. Submission Process
III. Information about the Conference
IV. Contact Information

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I. Topics of Interest

The organizers seek proposals and papers covering all aspects of gaming, gaming culture and game studies. Proposals can address any game medium (computer, social, console, tabletop, etc) and all theoretical and methodological approaches are welcome. Possible topics include but are not limited to:

• new game mediums and platforms (Facebook, iPhone/iPad/iPod, etc)
• representation or performance of race, class, gender and sexuality in games
• gaming culture, game specific cultures, and multicultural and cross-cultural issues
• game development, design, authorship and other industry issues
• game advertising, reviews, packaging, promotion, integrated marketing and other commercial concerns
• political and legal entailments such as regulation, censorship, intellectual property
• ludology, textual criticism, media ecology, narratology, etc as paradigms for games studies
• player generated content in MUDs and MMORPGs, Mods, maps and machinima
• game genres, platforms, consoles, console wars and connections to other media
• serious games for education, business, healthcare, (military) training, etc
• space and place in games, play spaces, virtual/physical communities, mobile gaming and localization
• digital literacy, discourse practices, social norms and norming, the politics of play
• public discourse/controversy over violence, militarism, sex, criminality, racism, etc in games
• game pedagogy and classroom practices, gamification, learning as play

Call for Editors: “Real Virtual Hardware” issue of Journal of Virtual Worlds Research (JVWR)

http://www.jvwresearch.org/index.php/2011-06-12-18-46-09/10-cfps/65-2ncfp-hardware-editors

We are looking for a Prime Editor and 1-2 co-editors (you can join as a group) to lead this “Real Virtual Hardware” issue due to be published 2015Q3. If you have an interest and background in the field, as well as experience in academic editing, please send us your CV and a cover letter explaining why you are the perfect person to the task. Email the lot to info@jvwresearch.org.

These days’ news is all about technology: Apple Watch; Samsung’s Gear VR headset for smartphones; Oculus Rift acquisition by Facebook; and more. This period is therefore a timely occasion to examine the importance of Virtual Reality hardware and its current and future presence in the market.

Virtual worlds are now being augmented with hardware that includes:

• Oclus Rift
• Leap Motion
• Google  Glass
• Eyesight
• Omnidirectional Treadmills
• Intel Camera
• Precision Position Tracking
• Sony Project Morpheus
• Head Mounted Displays
• …
• …
• And more…

We are looking for research papers on and not limited to:

• Description of current and new hardware
• Research on new interfaces
• New market analyses that stems from new hardware
• Users perception & insights
• Market impacts
• …
• …
• And more

Final decision about the editor will be made by end of October or earlier based on the information we get.… read more. “Call: Editors for “Real Virtual Hardware” issue of Journal of Virtual Worlds Research (JVWR)”