*CFP* "EXPERIENTIAL STORYTELLING" MIX CONFERENCES 2019

After the success of the last four MIX conferences, MIX 2019 returns to the beautiful surroundings of Bath Spa University’s Corsham Court Campus in Wiltshire between 1st and 2nd July 2019. This year’s conference will be a more intimate, single strand version, curated for a smaller audience to give time and space to instigate conversations around digital writing with a focus on experiential storytelling, including immersive technologies and new forms of publishing, from transmedia and poetry film to virtual reality to AI in storytelling. Confirmed speakers include publisher, Maja Thomas, Chief Innovation Officer, Hachette Innovation Program; Thomas Zandegiocomo, Artistic Director Zebra Poetry Film Festival, Berlin; and writer Nikesh Shukla.

Bath Spa University is the UK’s foremost provider of creative writing programmes at undergraduate, masters and PhD level and MIX is well-established as an innovative forum for the discussion and exploration of writing and technology. MIX has attracted an international cohort of contributors from the UK, Australia, and Europe as well as North and South America. MIX is situated within the international research centres, the Centre for Cultural and Creative Industries, in collaboration with the Centre for Media Research, Creative Writing Research Centre, and the online magazine of writing and technology, The Writing Platform.

A conference where creative writing and media creation intersect with and/or are dependent upon technology should be as interdisciplinary as possible, and that’s what we are aiming for with MIX 2019. The conference will host a vibrant mix of academic papers, practitioner presentations and keynotes.

Experiential storytelling encompasses works that foreground the experience of the audience or reader. Works that offer authentic and often personalised experiences are becoming increasingly prevalent and this year MIX offers opportunities to think about what that might mean for digitally-mediated narratives. Additional themes for this year’s conference include immersion and publishing; we define these themes broadly and are interested in how new forms of storytelling can respond to and learn from emerging works that explore the potential of immersive technologies. Our Ethics of Storytelling panel will be curated and chaired by writer Nikesh Shukla, and we’d like to encourage a broad range of responses on that theme. We are also interested in new models of publishing across Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Mixed Reality, Ambient Literature, as well as the influence of the grammars of film and theatre on new forms of storytelling.

Within the single-strand programme there will be four themed panels. We would like to encourage the submission of research papers and artist/practitioner presentations on the following topics;

• Emerging forms of digitally-mediated narrative, including projects that use artificial intelligence, machine learning, algorithmic writing practices and locative-aware narratives. 
• Poetry film, including the future of poetry film, current developments in social media sharing, current developments in poetry film content and practice. 
• Immersive technologies and narrative, including Extended and Mixed Reality, VR, Augmented Reality, and Ambient Literature 
• Ethics of Storytelling, including accessibility and appropriation, but also issues around technology and ethics, i.e embodiment in VR, algorithmic bias in cultural works that use AI, etc.

We are interested in work that takes a wide variety of forms, including digital fiction, poetry film, text-based digital art, collaborations between writers and technologists, hybrid and cross-media practice, transmedia practice, as well as our on-going themes of the future of the book, new forms of publishing, convergent media cultures. We’ll also look for papers and presentations on ambient literature, including mobile, locative, pervasive and other site-specific forms. Papers that deal with pedagogy specific to the panel themes are also welcome.

Alongside scholars and researchers, artists, creative writers and creative technologists are especially encouraged to submit proposals.

We are looking for proposals for 15 minute papers/ presentations or 60 minute panels (composed of three 15 minute papers with time for q&a). Please submit 300 word abstracts for each paper/presentation you are proposing by Monday 4th February 2019.

Please include a 100 word biography (include biographies of all other speakers if you are proposing a panel).

When you submit, please select which one of the following topics your submission addresses;

• Emerging forms of digitally-mediated narrative 
• Poetry film 
• Immersive technologies and narrative 
• Ethics of Storytelling

We will let you know whether your submission has been successful by the end of February 2019.

For queries on your conference submission, email mix@bathspa.ac.uk