Mapping the Collective: Potentials of Indie Game Collaborative Dynamics
November 10-11 2014

An AHRC Creative Territories Network event

Applications are invited from UK-based postgraduate students working in the field of games-related research for 5 travel bursaries of up to £200 each to support their participation in Mapping the Collective: Potentials of Indie Game Collaborative Dynamics - a two-day symposium hosted by UWE Bristol's Digital Cultures Research Centre at the Pervasive Media Studio/Watershed.

The event marks the final phase of the AHRC Creative Territories project - one of six AHRC Videogames Research Networks - bringing together an international network of researchers, with representatives from UK and EU Indie game collaborations and cultural and creative industry sector organisations.

The Creative Territories research network examines the emerging but economically and culturally significant indie games element of the video games industry. The project aims to identify how the sector makes possible new kinds of cultural production, collaboration and creativity - formulating and mapping forward the key processes and connections that represent commercially viable, creatively sustainable and culturally valuable pathways for development.

Key questions under consideration over the two days will include:

	•	What is the relationship between tools and technologies and the creative development aims and trajectory of indie game collaboration?
	•	How fluid are the dynamics of communication, access and exchange across industry standard boundaries?
	•	Are there exemplary models of activities for collaboration in the sector that enable innovation in content, technological development and modes of production - fostering new forms of creativity?
	•	How does a hub or collective make its place in a neighbourhood, and negotiate or enable participations within its immediate local and creative community?
	•	How are these collaborative spaces supported, endorsed, and promoted by public sector and industry groups?

Presenters include Professor Jen Jenson (Director of the Institute for Research on Learning Technologies at York University, Toronto), Celia Pearce (Director of Indiecade and Associate Professor of Games Design, Northeastern University, Boston), network project partners Tom Rawlings (Co-Director, Bristol Games Hub) and Joost Raessens (Professor of Media and Culture, Utrecht University), and project leaders Patrick Crogan (DCRC) and Helen Kennedy (Brighton University).

Find out more about the network's activities and previous events at www.creativeterritories.dcrc.org.uk.

Interested applicants should submit a brief statement (no more than 200 words) outlining how participation in this event relates to your own research and/or professional development. The bursary is to support travel and accommodation up to the value of £200 (exceptional cases will be considered).

Email your statement to Nick Triggs at [log in to unmask] by 6th October 2014. Successful applicants will be contacted in mid-October. General enquiries about the project should be directed to [log in to unmask] or [log in to unmask]

Mapping the Collective will take place on November 10 & 11 2014 at the Pervasive Media Studio, Watershed BS1 5TX. The event is hosted by the Digital Cultures Research Centre at UWE Bristol.

Creative Territories is an AHRC funded Video Games Research Network