Paying Attention: Digital Media Cultures and Generational Responsibility

Applications for the conference Paying Attention: Digital Media Cultures and Generational Responsibility are now open. The conference will be held on September 6-10, 2010 in Scandic Linköping Vast, Linköping, Sweden.

"Paying Attention" concerns the politics, ethics and aesthetics of the attention economy. This is the social and technical milieu in which web native generations live much of their lives. It will address key questions like: What architectures of power are at work in the attention economy ? How is it building new structures of experience? What kinds of value does this architecture produce? "Paying Attention" encourages dialogue between researchers from the fields of Cultural and New Media Studies, Education, Communications, Economics, Internet studies, Human Computer Interface Studies, Art and Design. It also seeks the input and insights of creative practitioners exploring critical and alternative uses of new media forms and technologies.

Applications are invited for research paper contributions on any subject relevant to the conference’s aims. These may include the areas listed below to indicate the broad scope of relevant topics or subjects. The conference also seeks through its poster section contributions of an experimental kind from digital media artists and developers that engage with the conference theme of attention and experiential design in critical and/or creative ways. These may take the form of demos, animatics, ethical or critical design projects, installation treatments or concepts in progress. These will form a major part of the program as key elements in the articulation of viable technocultural futures. We will be seeking submissions that can engage and develop the themes of the event through the summer of 2010 through the online community of conference delegates. Practice based researchers should apply under the poster programme using the 400 word abstract to describe their plans for the event.

Key themes will include:

• Education, Technique & Responsibility
• The Political Economy of Digital Experience
• Emerging forms of knowledge and value transmission
• Ethical design, trust and security
• Experiments with mediated attention and experience
• Value in the new social spaces of digital culture
• Records, archives and digital memories
• Metadata, search algorithms and politics
• Entertainment, marketing and attention technologies
• Web 2.0 : Playbour and Grammatisation
• Profiling Data Mining and Control
• Pervasive media and remediated living spaces

Conference format:

• lectures by invited high level speakers
• short talks by young & early stage researchers
• poster sessions, round table and open discussion periods
• forward look panel discussion about future developments

Conference fees cover an all inclusive package which includes all basic expenses such as accommodation, full board, refreshments and conference dinner. For more details, click here.

Grants are available for students, early stage researchers and other applicants to cover the conference fee and possibly part of the travel costs. Grants are distributed based on financial need, ESF conference participation guidelines and scientific merit. Grantees must attend the entire conference in order to benefit from the grant. Grant requests should be made by ticking appropriate field(s) in the paragraph "Grant application" of the application form.

Deadline for application: 1 May 2010.

To apply online and to learn more about the conference, please click here.