WRT: Writer Response Theory

Application deadlines for Digital Arts and Culture (DAC) 2009 are coming up!

• Paper proposals to tracks (such as the Software / Platform Studies Track) are due by May 1.
• Proposals for VaRiEtY Night presentations and Electronic Literary Arts Performances are due by May 15th.

Check the DAC 2009 call for details on all tracks, presentations and performances, and don’t forget to submit a proposal online by the deadline!

Under the management of Simon Penny, DAC 09 will be held at UC Irvine Dec. 12-15th (just in time for your holiday shopping). This year’s theme, “After Media: Embodiment and Context” continues DAC’s expansion, pushing out the boundaries of how we consider digital art and culture.

DAC full list of tracks:

• Embodiment and performativity (Nell Tenhaaf ,Melanie Baljko)
• After mobile media (Kim Sawchuk, Marc Böhlen)
• Software/ platform studies (Jeremy Douglass, Noah Wardrip-Fruin)
• Environment/ sustainability/ climate change (Andrea Polli)
• Interdisciplinary pedagogy (Nina Czegledy)
• Cognition and creativity (Fox Harrell)
• Sex and sexuality (Susanna Paasonen)
• A Space-Time of Ubiquity and Embeddedness (Ulrik Ekman, Mark Hansen)
• The Present and Future of Humanist Inquiry in the Digital Field (Terry Harpold, Lisbeth Klastrup, Susana Tosca)

In 2005, WRT made a debut at DAC, with Jeremy presenting our Benchmark Fiction project on behalf of the triumphant trio. Just four short years later, WRT members have gone from DAC visitors to DAC facilitators and the results are several calls for critical and creative works we hope you cannot pass up!

First, Mark Marino (along with longtime WRT co-conspirator Jessica Pressman) will be organizing the Electronic Literary Arts Performances. Just for you WRT readers, here are some added insights into what we’re looking for: DAC has historically had a broad vision of electronic arts. This event will be no different. These readings will emphasize the diversity of works and the spectacle and drama that these computer-born artworks evoke. We seek works that are both deeply literary and have the power to take the microphone, fill the screen, and sing.

Electronic Literary Arts Performances

From the call:

We are also issuing a call for Artists for the Electronic Literary Arts Performances for DAC 2009. We are seeking the widest variety of digital-born literary works for a 90-minute extravaganza. Each performance is limited to 5-7 minutes and should take the form of interactive engagement with the audience and dramatic presentations of creative digital-born works. Proposals (200-300 words) should include the title and a short description of the work (including any links to your material), a plan for presentation, technology requirements, and a short (50 words) bio for each participant. Available technology will be audio, projector, and wifi. Please email Jessica Pressman (Yale University) and Mark Marino (University of Southern California) [Subject: DAC Literary Arts] at [email protected] with your proposals for first-round selections by May 15, 2009.

Jessica has organized quite a few electronic literature readings and performances, most recently bringing Young Hae Chang Heavy Industries to Yale. She collaborated with Mark and Jeremy on Elit Under the Stars last year at USC, and has long standing ties with the elit community thanks to her work with ELO while it was housed at UCLA.

…next Jeremy Douglass has teamed up with frequent WRT confederate Noah Wardrip-Fruin to organize the Software and Platform Studies theme track.

Software and Platform Studies

From the call:

Software is the engine that drives cyberculture, new media, and digital art - a layer of control and communication that permeates contemporary culture. Platforms are the hardware and software relationships that enable and constrain software expressions. To investigate the logics of visualization, simulation, and representation in contemporary digital arts and culture is to engage in Software Studies and Platform Studies. The DAC09 Software and Platform Studies Theme invites submissions that explore digital art and culture through source codes, platform architectures, or similar engagements. Papers and panels exploring the emerging paradigms of critical code studies and the interpretation of algorithms are particularly encouraged.

Please spread the word far and wide and come join 2/3 of WRT there. Now if we could just get one more theorist from the land of Oz…