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Creative Energies » Creative Industries. The NECS 2014 Conference (deadline January 31)
full name / name of organization:
NECS - European Network for Cinema & Media Studies
Reflecting on creativity has been central to a great deal of philosophical speculation, production practices and forms of reception of the artistic experience. Notions of creation and creativity concern crucial elements in media industries. Moreover, recent developments in institutional policies refer to the pivotal role of creativity in evaluating and promoting cultural production (see the EC’s most recent cultural program “Creative Europe”).
The 2014 NECS Conference, held in Milan, aims to revise and challenge assumptions on media creation and creativity, by looking at them as discursive formations, sociability instruments, power networks, modes of production and reception undergoing historical, political, theoretical and technological transformations.
The topics include, but are not limited to:
Creative energy: media environments comprise energy in transformation and information flows, and are subject to entropy. Will we keep dissipating what we accumulate, in the form of wasted creative energy? What resources do the media provide for social, cultural, political and economic development? And what resources do they use? How sustainable are the media?
Aesthetics: media creativity has gradually transformed our aesthetic experience. How has “creation” been fostered and promoted throughout media history? And how does the aesthetic experience relate to creativity? In what way is creativity deployed and conceived in the media experience?
Textuality/formats: changes to media scenarios and convergence processes drive the search for new forms of textuality. What are the main directions of change? What are the more promising formats and the discursive structures?
Technological innovation: creativity tends to connect social actors and generate new subjectivities. Does technological innovation enhance or constrain these processes? How does media technology redefine traditional notions of creativity? Does media culture enhance post-human, as opposed to individual, creativity? How far do media technologies shape creation?
Business and production models: the term “creative industries” was the buzz-term of the past decade. The notion aims to “reconcile” bottom-up impulses and top-down procedures and promote personal creativity. What are the features and practices of this new kind of creativity? What kind of distribution models and what kind of sustainability policies does it entail? What kind of divisions do creative industries imply and conceal? How was “creation” included in past production and business media models?
Actors/agencies: as the audience metamorphoses, its role in the evolution of creative practices becomes a relevant issue. What are creative audiences? How do they vary according to different cultural and local contexts? What are their practices? What kind of creative usage and production do “produsers” (e.g. prosumers, Pro-ams) enact? How much do recent shifts affect traditional conceptions of creative flows?
Landscapes of creativity: “Creative environments” examine the resources offered by the location and space where the creative process is taking place. What is the nature of such local networks? What is the relationship between creativity and national, transnational or global cultures?
Ideology: Creativity is influenced by the technological, cultural, political and economical conditions of production. What kind of discursive formations constitute ideologies of creation and creativity? How do these formations work on creativity practices and with which results on the media experience (its political, cultural and aesthetic value).
Gendered creativity: creative practices intersect gender issues. The different access to creative techniques, resources and practices is a crucial point in the debate on new creativity. How do gender politics influence creative industries? How much do gender differences limit or foster access to creative professions within the media industry?
Scholars from all areas of film, media and cultural studies (including radio, television, new media, game studies etc.), whether previously attached to NECS or new to the network, are invited to submit proposals for contributions.
We especially encourage pre-constituted panels in order to strengthen the thematic coherence of individual panels. There are three ways of participating in the Milan conference:
(1) by organizing a pre-constituted panel (members of the NECS workgroups are especially encouraged to put together a pre-constituted panel);
Furthermore, members can actively contribute to the conference in several ways:
(1) by delivering a PAPER and serving as a CHAIR of either a panel or workshop;
Panels may consist of 3-4 speakers with a maximum of 20 minutes speaking time each. All presenters are obliged to provide us with a title, an abstract of max 150 words, 3-5 key bibliographical references, name of the presenter and short bio (max. 100 words).
Panel organizers are asked to submit panel proposals including a panel title, a short description (up to 100 words) of the panel and information on all the papers, as listed above.
A specific CFP for poster presentations will be published shortly. Poster presentations will be a place for a public exhibition of research works and projects, reviews, journals, volumes, and websites in Film and Media Studies.
The NECS annual conference includes also a NECS Graduate Workshop, usually held before the main conference. A separate CFP will be online soon.
Notification will follow shortly thereafter (around February 28, 2014). The conference language is English.
Conference attendance is free, but valid NECS-membership and online registration is required to participate in the conference. Participants must register with NECS at www.necs.org and pay their fee before a proposal is submitted.
Proposals from non-members (including all members of pre-constituted panels) will not be taken into consideration.
For the terms of NECS membership, please refer to our website.
Participants will have to cover their own travel and accommodation expenses. Travel information, as well as a list of affordable hotels and other accommodation, will be posted on the NECS website in the spring of 2014.