DATABASE|NARRATIVE|ARCHIVE
An International Symposium on Nonlinear Digital Storytelling
Revised CFP

Concordia University, Montréal (13-15 May 2011)

SYMPOSIUM WEBSITE JUST LAUNCHED.

Keynotes:
Marsha Kinder (Professor of Critical Studies, School of Cinematic Arts, USC; Executive Director of The Labyrinth Project)
Katerina Cizek (Award-winning experimental documentarian; Filmmaker in Residence, National Film Board of Canada)

With a nonlinear, interactive lecture by Florian Thalhofer (Berlin; documentary filmmaker; inventor of the Korsakow System)

Confirmed participants: Hart Cohen (UWS), Adrian Miles (RMIT), Steve Anderson (USC), David Clark (NSCAD), Tim Schwab (CINER-G), Elena Razlogova (CINER-G), Jason Lewis (CINER-G, Obx Labs), Monika Kin Gagnon (CINER-G, co-organizer), Matt Soar (CINER-G, co-organizer).

Reflecting recent developments in the theories and practices of new media production, described variously as database documentary, interactive narrative, and experimental archiving, D|N|A seeks to highlight some of the most important issues and ideas currently characterizing this emerging discourse – and perhaps constitutive of a future, core set of properties or dynamics. (Contemporary works of note that characterize some of these developments include: Planet Galata; The Thousandth Tower; Gaza/Sderot; 7 Sons; St. Michael’s Hospital; The Whale Hunt; Folk Songs for the Five Points; Klatsassin; Soft Cinema; Life after Wartime; Danube Exodus; Tulse Luper Suitcases.)

This interdisciplinary symposium will bring together theorists, scholars, artists, curators and programmers, currently working in these and related areas for panel presentations, roundtables, screenings, a Korsakow workshop, and an exhibition, in a three-day event intended to foster discussions, creative exchange and debate. We also aim to stimulate and provoke creative/productive community engagements before, during, and after the symposium and will therefore be involving individuals and organizations in several activities that lead into the event and grow out of it.

As a guide, we welcome innovative and engaging proposals addressing the following areas, but also invite other proposals of potential relevance:

- critical engagements with existing works and/or artists
- audiences as communities and vice versa
- theoretical engagements with authorship, interactivity, databases and multimedia archives
- historical precursors (multi-screen cinema; choose your own adventure)
- genres of non-fiction media: archival, interview/oral history, witness/testimonial/first person, ethnographic.
- critiques of commercial practices (eg Second Story; Terra Incognita)
- the potentials and limitations of specific authoring and delivery platforms (eg Flash, Korsakow, HTML 5)
- visual aesthetics and electronic literature
- exhibition, distribution and alternative forms of circulation
- future potentials (mobile applications, haptic screens, voice- and movement-activated interfaces, iPad, HTML5, expressive type)

Proposals (email only, with plaintext, Word, or PDF attachments only) and expressions of interest should be sent to Matt Soar and Monika Kin Gagnon at dnasymposium@gmail.com Please tell us in about 500 words what ideas, research, and/or creative work you’d like to present at the symposium, and bear in mind that we are especially interested in finding ways to break out from traditional conference-style presentations. Your proposal can be work in progress, but should be sufficiently advanced by May 2011 to be presentable. Add a final paragraph explaining who you are, what you do, and where we can contact you. The revised deadline is December 15th, 2010.

D|N|A is being organized by CINER-G, the Concordia Interactive Narrative Experimentation & Research Group, with support from the FQRSC, Concordia University (VP Research & Graduate Studies), and the Goethe Institute. For more information, updates and amendments to this CFP, please visit: www.cinerg.ca