*CFP* CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS, “LIVE CINEMA III: FESTIVAL OF RESEARCH AND INNOVATION 2020”

Taking place across the week commencing 18th May 2020, this festival will feature a programme of commissioned live cinema screenings and events, leading academic research, master classes, workshops, an exhibition and demonstration track, Q&A sessions, world premieres of new artistic commissions and exclusive live events.  

The event will showcase the creative and critical advances in the multi-faceted field of live cinema which encompasses a diverse range of forms. These include experimental expanded cinema, the global live-casting of cultural and entertainment events and live performance during film screenings - indeed any instance of the live augmentation of screen spectatorship. This festival marks a unique historical juncture and provides an opportunity to draw together and reflect upon the many landmark and contemporary moments where the trajectories of liveness and emergent screen technologies have intersected. It is 50 years since the touchstone publication of Gene Youngblood’s book ‘Expanded Cinema’ which revolutionised notions of cinema-making and viewing through its pioneering consideration of videos, computers and holography as cinematic technologies. Furthermore, it is 30 years since the publication of Philip Auslander’s influential ‘Liveness: Performance in a Mediatized Culture’. 

The combination of the central ideas of these two works resonate more than ever when considering the new chimeras of contemporary live screen experience. Take for example, Netflix - the home cinema streaming giant’s recent purchase of their first physical cinema venue. This was clearly a commercially strategic move, as was their partnership with UK based organisation Secret Cinema on an immersive experience based around the series ‘Stranger Things.’ These moments of format and platform convergence are symptomatic of the enduring significance of collective viewing experiences and underscore the need for their study despite the predominance of individualised and isolated screen experiences perpetuated by the streaming revolution.

We are currently seeking contributions for the two-day academic programme which will commence on Thursday 21st May.  These contributions may take any presentation format; traditional academic papers, workshops, pre-constituted panels, practice-based contributions, technical demonstrations and alternative formats are very welcome.  We welcome proposals from a broad range of disciplinary contexts such as arts and humanities, computer science, social science, leisure studies, cultural geography, organisation and management studies etc. We particularly welcome interdisciplinary enquiries which embrace methodological innovation.

Areas of significant contribution will be focussed on instances where the live and digital coalesce in the formation of live screen experiences. These may include, but are not limited to, the following themes:

• Liveness, mediation and presence: media events, rituals and happenings;
• Geographies of liveness: local, national and global exhibition and distribution infrastructures, livecasting of cultural and entertainment experiences, tours, touring, pop-ups, mobile exhibition;
• Convergence and intermediality: Intersections between stage, screen and television;
• Media spectacle: ‘Eventization’ and the new screen experience economy, theme parks, installations;
• Audience participation and interaction: Hecklevision, ‘barrage cinema’, sing-a-longs, cult movie practices, ‘call backs’, Secret Cinema, Punchdrunk, audience creativity, fan created content, cos play, role play;
• Performance and Performativity: VJ, live remix, live soundtrack scoring, immersive theatre;
• New Screen Technologies: 4DX, 3D, Magic Leap; Motion Capture, Immersive Sound, XR, Mobile screens;
• Immersion and interactivity: Second screen, dome screens, digital engagements, E-sports, accessible, sensory and inclusive technologies and experiences;
• Organisations and infrastructures: Festivals, cinemas, distributors, new business models, IP, economic considerations, policy dimensions and brand engagement, labour markets, models of working in the screen experience economy;
• Innovations in experience design: game hybrids, pervasive gaming, Alternate Reality Games (ARGs);
• Placemaking and collective experiences: Film festivals, public screens, tourism, leisure industries and ‘destination events;’
• Newness, novelty, exclusivity and scarcity:  experiential ephemera, promotional materials and paratexts.

Potential contributors should submit a 300 word abstract and a short 100 biography to LiveCinemaFestival2020@gmail.com by 4pm on March 2nd, 2020.  Decisions will be sent out on week commencing 16th March, 2020.