Merging Media: An Interdisciplinary Conference on the Study of Hybrid Arts Call for Papers Saturday 1st February 2014 University of Kent, Canterbury Although we naturally recognise different artistic media as distinct forms – music, painting, sculpture, film, dance, theatre, architecture, animation, and so on – we also understand that these mediums can nevertheless have a meaningful dialogue in the creation of new artworks. Over the course of art history there have been numerous occasions when different media forms have merged or been juxtaposed for artistic purposes. These intermedial examples have seen word and image intertwined on the page in the…

Call for Papers: Unnatural Futures Conference Dates: 3 & 4 July, 2014 Venue: Centre for the Arts University of Tasmania, Hobart From genetically modified foods to zombie apocalypse, concerns about the future are increasingly reflected in contemporary media, policy and culture. An “unnatural future” is being shaped by rapidly escalating anxieties about the social, cultural, environmental and technological risks that now pervade everyday life. This climate of fear and uncertainty about the future requires careful consideration around how best to respond and intervene in debates, discussion and media representations around our “unnatural future”. This conference brings together researchers from a…

Frontiers Special Issue: Uncanny Valley Hypothesis In collaboration with Frontiers in Psychology, a Research Topic titled “The Uncanny Valley Hypothesis and beyond.” is being hosted by Marcus Cheetham and Ayse Pinar Saygin. The idea behind the research topic is to create an organized, comprehensive collection of contributions, as well as a forum for discussion and debate for contributors from different domains (including but not limited to robotics, computer graphics and animation, artistic design, cognitive science, psychology and neuroscience) to present their perspective on the Uncanny Valley Hypothesis and its relevance. We have created a homepage on the Frontiers website (section…

COGNITIVE FUTURES IN THE HUMANITIES 2ND INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE, DURHAM UNIVERSITY, UK, 24-26 APRIL 2014 CALL FOR PAPERS We invite proposals for 20 minute papers and preformed panels for the second international conference associated with the research network, Cognitive Futures in the Humanities, funded by the UK’s Arts and Humanities Research Council. The conference will be hosted by Durham University, on 24-26 April 2014. The purpose is to explore, and critically evaluate, new ways of working in the arts and humanities that respond to concepts developed in the sciences of mind and brain. It will be an interdisciplinary conference for researchers…

Call for Papers: The Culture of the Artificial symposium, at AISB- 50 Goldsmiths, London, 1-­‐4 April 2014 As part of the AISB-‐50 Annual Convention 2014 to be held at Goldsmiths, University of London, on April 1st-4th 2014 [http://aisb50.org/] The convention is organised by the Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and Simulation of Behaviour (AISB) [http://www.aisb.org.uk/] Overview In 1964, when AISB was founded, computing was largely associated with the repetitive operations of the large mainframe machines employed by the military, by industry and by space programmes. Alan Turing, who had died prematurely just a decade before, had formalised the…

Call for Chapters for: EMOTIONS AND TECHNOLOGY: COMMUNICATION OF FEELINGS FOR, WITH, AND THROUGH DIGITAL MEDIA Editors: Sharon Tettegah (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign) & Richard E. Ferdig (Kent State University, USA) Technology, learning, cognition and the social-emotional life focus on emotions and affective interactions with and through technology.  In some cases, these interactions are user to user supported by the technology.  In other situations, these interactions are between the user and the technology.  Emotions and social interactions here refer to such things as anger, love, lust, jealousy, hatred demonstrated by either the human or the technology.  These interactions might happen…