[NetBehaviour] DAC09communiqué1-17sep08

[info]

(via SImon Penny to Netbehaviour list)

DAC09communiqué1-17sep08

Dear Colleagues,

Greetings to all.

This is the first of several communiqués regarding the Digital Art and 
Culture (DAC)2009 conference. The 2009 conference will occur in 
mid-December, 2009, on the campus of the University of California, 
Irvine, in sunny Orange County, just south of Los Angeles.
Primarily, this communiqué is an invitation for you to be involved - as 
a delegate, as a speaker, as a performer, as a reviewer, as a theme 
leader as an event organizer, or in any other capacity. The first three 
categories are self-explanatory, the paragraphs below explain the 
others. Right now, the most pressing issue is the Call for Themes and 
Theme Leaders. Further down: some details of the calendar and the event 
- provisional, as they must be at this point.

DAC is an international conference series established in 1998. I'm very 
pleased to have the opportunity to direct this iteration of DAC. I hope 
that it is a high point in the tradition of engaged and topical, 
intellectually rigorous, interdisciplinary, mid-scale, horizontally 
structured events which makes DAC, in my opinion, special.

I have been involved in the world of digital art and culture for 25 
years, and active in the development of interdisciplinary approaches to 
practice, discourse and pedagogy. Along with my art practice and 
writing, I edited an early 'new media reader' (Critical Issues in 
Electronic Media, SUNY Press 1995), organized an early exhibition of 
interactive installation (Machine Culture, SIGGRAPH'93). More recently I 
designed and established the Arts Computation Engineering graduate 
program at UCI. Further details of my work can be found at 
www.ace.uci.edu/penny.
I will send such notices regularly to the DAC09-announce list. Every 
attempt will be made to keep them brief and succinct - though this one 
does go on  bit. Please forward this email as you see fit. This posting 
is the first large-scale test of the newly created list, and of the 
newly created email address dac09dir at uci.edu. The address list is 
compiled from previous DAC lists and related email lists. Apologies in 
advance for any for multiple and inappropriate postings. (See below to 
subscribe, unsubscribe, or notify of duplicate addresses etc.) Please 
notify us at dac09inf at uci.edu if you do not get this posting :)

I look forward to seeing you at what promises to be a dynamic and 
generative event.
Simon Penny.


Themes and Theme Leaders
In the interests of an optimally diverse, relevant and topical 
conference, DAC09 will have multiple themes. I invite all to propose 
Themes for DAC09. The conference will be organized around selected 
themes. I hope thiss trategy will generate an event which is responsive 
to contemporary concerns while remaining focused. I personally hope to 
see themes proposed in the following areas: Software Studies/Media 
Archeology, Digital Art and Culture Pedagogy, 
Neuroscience/Cognition/Interaction Design, Mobile Media Practices, and 
other areas. Please do not hesitate to propose in these, related and 
quite different themes. I am keen to support new areas of inquiry 
relevant to DAC, especially themes which go beyond the usual 
Euro-American academic/disciplinary preoccupations. Some massaging of 
themes may be necessary. It may be necessary to subdivide themes which 
receive many accepted papers. Conversely undersubscribed themes may have 
to be merged or not included.
Call for Themes/Theme Leaders:
To propose a theme title and 100 word outline is required. Note that 
acceptance of a proposed theme commits proposer to functioning as theme 
leader. Responsibilities will not be arduous but will include oversight 
of review process for that theme, cooperating with organisers in 
designing conference timetables, and identifying and organising panel 
chairs.
Deadline for theme proposals, 15 October 2008. Send to DAC09Dir at uci.edu 
with DAC09Theme as subject line.


Call for reviewers
A subsequent communiqué will include a call for proposal and paper 
reviewers, when the themes are confirmed.


Call for Event Producers
Proposals for Exhibition Curation and Music/Performance Event 
Productions are requested. This might include touring existing 
exhibitions/productions or specially organized events. An 
organizer/producer for Variety Night Producer is also sought.
Send to DAC09Dir at uci.edu with DAC09Events as subject line.


Call for VaRiEtY Night Talent.
Do you juggle remotes, play telematic tennis, compose epic poetry about 
database structures? Do you have a robot that does card tricks or DJs, 
or an AI system that composes and performs poetry? Please propose your 
act for variety night. : Already confirmed: the multi-talented Perry 
Hoberman will sing some of his cycle of media-arts ballads, including 
the soon-to-be smash hit 'Motion Capture'.
Send to DAC09Dir at uci.edu with DAC09Variety as subject line.


Call for miscellaneous suggestions and support.
Ideas regarding events, geographically and temporally local tie-ins, 
sponsorship, constructive suggestions and offers of assistance gladly 
received. Send to DAC09Dir at uci.edu with DAC09misc as subject line


Conference Structure
DAC09 will be a three-day event preceded by evening registration and 
reception.
Days will be structured with three sessions -
Coffee:  8.30-9
Morning Plenary Session:  9 -12
Lunch: 12-1.15
Panels1: 1.15-2.45 ( 2 or 3 parallel sessions)
Break : 2.45 - 3.30
Panels2:   3.30 - 5 ( 2 or 3 parallel sessions, closing plenary on last day)
Each day will include an optional evening event, ~ 7.30-10.30
(Morning coffee, Lunch and afternoon break will be catered and included 
in registration.
Closing Banquet will be included in full registration).

The morning plenaries will involve at least one presentation 
representing each Theme, and may include other relevant presentations. 
Afternoon sessions will be panels or 'roundtables' organized around 
Themes, with each theme being represented in a session, two consecutive 
sessions on one day, or sessions across more than one day - depending on 
paper acceptances etc. I want to ensure that DAC2009 is maximally 
generative, so I want to support discussion, both formal and informal. 
Opportunities will be available to timetable roundtable discussions, I 
will do my best to ensure that question/discussion times will not be 
abandoned and breaks will be long enough to allow informal discussion.


Evening Events
Evening 0 - registration and reception (exhibition opening?)
Evening1 - Variety show. Continuing in the spirit of the show and tell 
night in Perth07, his will be an informal soireé of presentations by 
registrants, headlined by Perry Hoberman singing his cycle of Digital 
Culture Ballads, including his (soon to be) smash hit 'Motion Capture'. 
Proposals for acts and presentations in any format (from juggling 
remotes to telematic tennis) are welcome.
Evening2 -Music/Performance event
Evening3 - Banquet/Harbor Cruise


Deadlines and Key Dates (Provisional)
(AFAIK, the US is the only country to observe a month-day-year date 
convention. In order to reduce calendric confusion, all dates for DAC09 
will be in the format '1oct08'.)

Theme proposals - 15oct08
Website up and call for paper proposals  - 1jan09
Call for paper proposals (abstracts) - 1Jan09
Deadline for paper proposals (abstracts) - 1apr09
Invitation to submit papers (based on submitted abstracts) -  1jun09
Advanced Registration opens - 1jun09
Paper deadline - 1aug09
Notice of Paper Acceptance - 1sep09
Formatted paper delivery deadline - 1oct09
Conference  - Dec 13-16 (or thereabouts)


Communication, Information Management, Contacts.
This year we are building a web based automated information system which 
will include
automated online submission and review process and online registration 
by credit card. Website address will be publicized soon. It is planned 
that proceedings will be online. Registrants will receive proceedings 
and other documents on a DAC09 datastick at registration. Dedicate email 
addresses have been created for DAC09:
DAC09adm- Dustin Utt - for inquiries regarding delegate correspondence, 
registration, accommodation, catering and campus/facilities liaison.
DAC09inf - Ward Smith - for inquiries regarding website, submission and 
review process, proceedings, information management, etc
DAC09dir - Simon Penny - organisational and committee business only


-- 

 
Simon Penny, Professor of Arts and Engineering - University of 
California, Irvine.
http://www.ace.uci.edu/penny

Director,  DAC09 (Digital Arts and Culture Conference, December, 2009)

University of California Council on Research 'Humanist at Large'

Founding Director - Arts Computation Engineering (ACE) interdisciplinary 
graduate program.
http://www.ace.uci.edu

Office/Post: Building 522 Room 3000, UCI Irvine, CA 92697-2790

Director -ACTION lab for robotics and embodied interaction

Professor - Studio Art, Claire Trevor School of the Arts.
Professor - Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Henry Samueli 
School of Engineering.
Professor - Informatics, Bren School of Information  and Computer Science.

In order to do interdisciplinary work, it is not enough to take a
'subject' (a theme) and to arrange two or three sciences around it.
Interdisciplinary study consists of creating a new object, which belongs
to no one. Roland Barthes
The main point to realise is that all knowledge presents itself within a 
conceptual
framework adapted to account for previous experience and that any such frame
 may prove too narrow to comprehend new experiences. Neils Bohr.