Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film /Literaturhaus Stuttgart, Wednesday, May 6 2015
An academic symposium at the Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film 2015 in collaboration with the Society of Animation Studies, the School of Art, Design and Media at Nanyang Technological University Singapore, the Institute of Media Studies at Eberhard Karls University Tübingen and the Literaturhaus Stuttgart. The symposium is aiming to be highly interdisciplinary and international in nature, bringing together scholars, students, academics and artists from diverse fields of research and professional practice.
Call for papers:
This one-day symposium welcomes papers, which negotiate the role and use of color in the fields of literature, illustration, graphic storytelling and animation.
The symposium invites abstracts for 20-minute presentations and welcomes proposals on all aspects of color in book illustration, comics (graphic novels) and animation/film in general. Proposals, which relate to the symposium topics in the wider sense will be preferred.
Topics can include, but are not limited to:
-Color and visual storytelling
-Color as a dramatic tool in animation and comics
-Use of color in book illustrations
-The role of color in adaptations for comics and/or animation/film
-Socio-cultural context of color in illustration, animation and comics
-Techniques of coloring in comics and animation
-Comparative studies of digital coloring versus traditional methods
Please e-mail abstracts of 250 words maximum (excluding title) to the attention of the conference review committee at: sasconference_itfs@hannesrall.com
Abstracts should include your name, affiliation, e-mail address, and the title of your proposed paper. Please do also provide a short CV, with a maximum of 300 words as a separate document.
The deadline for submissions is Monday, March 9, 2015. Authors of accepted papers will be notified in the last week of March.
The call is open to all interested scholars, researchers and practitioners. Accepted speakers as well as visitors of the symposium will need to get an accreditation for professionals at the Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film 2015. This will allow full access to the symposium as well as to the complete program of Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film for a very moderate fee-details will follow closer to the conference date.
FILM PLATFORM is a joint effort by some of the world’s leading filmmakers and sales agents to bring their finest documentary films to an academic audience. It is an innovative online hub and educational resource, created to provide educators with the best in documentary filmmaking. We believe that documentaries are a germane and stimulating means of learning. Our international selection of films, covering many diverse genres and subjects, can be used to introduce new concepts, expose students to fresh perspectives and ideas, and enhance classroom discussions. Through these films people and ideas from even the most far-flung corners of the world can be brought straight into the classroom to challenge and engage students.
Our carefully curated catalogue combines in-depth stories with out-of-the-box storytelling on a broad range of topics, including the environment, racism, poverty, the effects of globalization, and gender issues. FILM PLATFORM aims to provide such works — at times controversial in form or content, at other times exploring complex and painful histories and memories — with additional context, and to represent the larger discussions to which they respond. Films in our catalogue will be accompanied by carefully selected articles, study guides and interviews with filmmakers.
FILM PLATFORM is designed as an interactive and dynamic sphere of encounter. One of its main objectives is to make filmmakers and even film subjects present in the classroom and part of the discussion. Using our website, filmmakers can engage with viewers through Skype Q&As or live chats. FILM PLATFORM also posts short videos of filmmakers’ commentaries, and initiates conversations between filmmakers and scholars working on related fields. Lastly, aiming to open up a space for dialogue, we encourage all of our users to bring their discussions to the web, where everyone can benefit from their suggestions and insights.
FILM PLATFORM is proud to work with an advisory board, consisting of leading scholars in their fields. Among our board members are: Richard Pena, Michael Renov, Faye Ginsburg, Brian Winston, Chris Berry and Noemi Schory. In addition, FILM PLATFORM collaborates with leading film institutions, film festivals and film professionals around the world such as Sheffield Film Festival, True or False, and with organizations whose causes it wishes to support, such as the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims, and more.
FILM PLATFORM invites scholars to publish their work on our website and to contribute to one of the following categories:
Curated Collections:
Curated collections are used to build a multi-layered and multi-perspective discussion around a specific theme. Curators need to select up to 5-6 films related to their field of expertise.
Each curated section must include:
1. An introduction of up to 1500 words that highlights the main issues, provides some background to the specific context, reviews recent debates or trends, and lastly, introduces some guiding questions that the collection is going to explore.
2. A short description and some reflection on each of the selected films that highlight the contribution this film has to the general inquiry (around 500 words per film).
3. A list of references or suggested readings.
Short Essays and Articles:
A short article or an essay (around 2000-3000 words) that addresses one of the films in our catalogue.
Essays and articles are meant to position the film in a larger historical, social, cultural or aesthetic context. They can for example, provide some more background on the social reality that the film aims to document, or review a wider phenomenon, trend or movement to which the film belong, or rather reflect on the film’s aesthetic choices and creative treatment.
The article/essay’s format and style are not fixed. It can be in the range between an elongated blog post and an academic article. It needs to be well informed and research based, and yet comprehensible to various audiences, including academics and students outside of film studies. We will give preference for short, clear-written essays that tackle specific issues or questions that the film brings out.
Articles or essays may include a list of references or bibliographical sources.
Conversation with Filmmakers:
Additional format published by FILM PLATFORM are transcribed conversations between academics and filmmakers on their shared object of research. At this point this applies only to filmmakers whose films are distributed by FILM PLATFORM.
Conversations should reflect on the complexities of the society/reality/culture in which both filmmaker and scholar are active and on the set of decisions taken or strategies chosen by both filmmaker and scholar. In the given situation what is shared by the two methods of research? How do they differ? What kind of critique do they have to offer? What course of action do they pursue? What is their effect?
Transcribed conversations should be up to 3000 words. We accept either pre-constituted conversations or offers for a potential conversation. In these cases the applying party must send a short abstract and five questions or observations around which the conversation can evolve. If accepted, FILM PLATFORM will reach out to the filmmaker and ask their permission.
Contributions in any of the formats described above can be sent, together with a short bio, to: Laliv@filmplatform.net.
In higher education, media studies bring critical awareness of representations and reproductions of popular personas, artefacts, processes, and practices in social, economic, and political contexts.
From the perspective of cultural studies, critical discourse analysis of media productions enables scholars to go beyond observing aesthetic aspects and to understand social underpinnings of cultural productions. In a similar fashion, journalism can use investigation to educate and inform the public on the limits and potentials of social systems. Journalistic publications can then become credible sources for academic research and effective solutions to critical issues in society. However, in both cases, there is striking lack of research knowledge, critical commentaries, and pragmatic effects in the public sphere. Statistics show that only three percent of the academic population reads journals that carry in-depth knowledge and analysis from industrial media. Furthermore, there is a general crisis in academia with an emphasis on efficiency, commercial support, and market orientation. As well, while graduate enrolment has quadrupled in the last decade, most aspiring PhD graduates struggle to find tenure or tenure-track jobs. Universities are increasingly hiring sessional teachers, thus limiting research and the dissemination of much needed critical perspectives by a new generation of scholars and practitioners. Finally, tabloid journalism uses narrative devices of gossip, rumour and scandals commodifying meritocratic fame while many news media have abandoned facts and intelligent analysis in favour of spectacular outrage and incivility, both situations acting as testaments to the lack of informed opinions. Researchers in both academic and non-academic career paths possess useful knowledge and authority on many important social issues but may lack accessibility and visibility due to their more theoretical and intellectual views that are generally confined to academic gatherings and journals. However, their expertise could greatly benefit journalism and development of progressive media, and provide impetus for social transformation. The inclusion of scholarly commentaries and advocacy in media is imperative to the development of a knowledge-based economy and social innovation based on critical thinking and ethical action.
The Centre for Media and Celebrity (CMCS), in association with the Centre for Ecological, Social, and Informatics Cognitive Research (ESI.CORE), invites cross-disciplinary panel, paper and workshop proposals for the international conference Bridging Gaps – Higher Education, Media and Society. Accepted papers will be published as an open access edited book. Extended version of selected best papers will be published in a peer-reviewed journal.
Submission guidelines:
* 250-word abstract or panel / workshop proposal
* Include a title, your name, e-mail address, and affiliation if applicable
* Submit to conference Chair Dr. Louis Massey at submit@esicore.org
* Deadline for submission: November 30, 2014
* Notification of acceptance: January 15, 2015
The conference aims at being open and inclusive. We welcomes speculative ideas, exploratory practices, position papers, manifestos as well as traditional academic papers from both affiliated and independent researchers, graduate students, media and related industries practitioners, activists, and artists. Topics include but are not limited to:
* Theoretical and methodological approaches
* Use of media content and practices
* Historical perspectives and case studies
* Relationship between researchers and journalists
* Archiving scholarly sources in media
* Influencing public opinion and policy making
* Public relations and op-eds
* Ethical issues in public relations
* Social issues in media content
* Critical thinking in journalism
* Inequality in media and education
* Interviewing media professionals
* Media personas and popular icons as educators
* Politics of personas and selfies / self portraitures
* Fashion and body language
* New directions in celebrity activism
* Art in education and advocacy
* Performance and biographies in storytelling
* Independent media
* Media literacy programs
* Ethical action in media and education
* Alternative knowledge production sites and methods
* Academics as cultural critics
* Media skills and employment in higher education
The conference will be held on May 27-28, 2015 at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada.
Conference fee is $300, which includes:
* The registration fee
* Tea / coffee breaks each day
* Access to a professional workshop
* Electronic copy of an edited book containing all papers presented at the conference
* Publication of extended papers in a peer-reviewed journal for selected best papers
