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Digital Research in the Humanities and Arts Conference – DRHA 2022



‘Digital Sustainability: From Resilience to Transformation’



drha.uk/2022<file:///C:/Users/sbroa/Downloads/drha.uk/2022>



4-7 September 2022

Kingston School of Art, Kingston University London & Online



Call for Papers, Panels, Artworks and Performances





DRHA – the 26th Annual Conference for Digital Research in the Humanities and Arts – will bring together artists, scholars, educators, curators, digital researchers, and entrepreneurs interested in the ways digital technology intersects with the arts and humanities. The 2022 conference theme is ‘Digital Sustainability’ in light of the immediate challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic and the longer-term shadow of climate catastrophe.



Since its outbreak in early 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic has been a crisis permeating all types of human activity. It could, thus, be conceived as a distinct hyper-phenomenon – perhaps, the first of its kind in recent history. The creative and cultural industries represent one of the sectors hardest hit by this global health crisis. Venue-based creative practices around the world have been severely affected by closures and social distancing measures (museums, galleries, theatres, performing arts, live music, festivals, cinemas, etc.). The abrupt drop in revenue has put their sustainability at risk, and the effects are expected to be long-lasting. At the same time, the outbreak of the pandemic has coincided with the increasingly present effects of climate catastrophe, with 2020 being pronounced the hottest year on record. Together these brought increased focus on the dual questions of sustainability and resilience.



During Covid-19 lockdowns around the globe, digital technology applications captured our imagination through their potential to support us in enduring isolation and help the cultural and creative sector survive closures and restrictions. Innovations in emerging technologies such as distributed immersive environments and Artificial Intelligence (AI), as well as established technologies such as live streaming, social media, and online social platforms, provided the means of connecting people, distributing content, and moving social and cultural experiences online. UNESCO argues that the Covid-19 crisis reminds us that “we should nurture the socially beneficial aspects of digital technologies” and focus on improving access in parts of the world where it’s lacking.



The resilience and innovation demonstrated over the last two years by the arts, cultural and creative industries and education sectors has been extraordinary. For instance, apart from sharing their permanent collections online since the outbreak of the pandemic, many museums have been employing the Internet as a commissioning terrain for new works and exhibitions. This has been a prominent strategy to maintain a relationship with their audiences, as well as safeguard the relevance of their civic role – particularly through artists’ briefs that have invited direct responses to the crisis. Shifts in educational practice across different levels have forced educators to rethink the ontological dimensions of their work. Artists, cultural operators, and educators have been able to transform the all-encompassing use of digital and online media from a tool of crisis management into an opportunity to gain more agency.  Even in the subject areas most heavily hit by Covid-19 such as performing arts, live performance work has found innovative ways of responding to the crisis, some of which may remain as important tools after the pandemic.



DRHA 2022 will provide a forum for debate across the Humanities, Arts and Sciences, focussing on interdisciplinary responses to the Covid-19 pandemic, the climate crisis, and broader questions of sustainability and resilience. The aim of the conference is to put forward new models of operating, reaching out, connecting audiences, distributing content and engaging communities, with and through the use of digital technologies. How can cultural and creative sectors benefit from technological advances and continue to use those innovations to develop new models and practices, as well as reach out to new, diverse audiences? How is Covid-19 likely to transform culture and creativity? What positive changes could emerge from the devastating context of the global pandemic? How can digital sustainability be rethought in an age of climate crisis? How can digital technologies reshape and transform creative practices to make them more resilient to the medium and long-term challenges projected for the sector, and for global societies at large?



The conference programme will include paper sessions, keynotes, panel discussions, performances, workshops, and a curated art exhibition. Therefore, we seek contributions in the form of papers, panels, performances, workshops or artworks that address the conference theme. Subjects addressed by the proposals may include:



  *   Digital diversity and accessibility in the post-pandemic world
  *   The rise of new digital inequalities and how to confront them
  *   Digital fatigue and digital exhaustion
  *   The Global North and Global South perspectives on digital sustainability
  *   Collaboration and co-creation in digital and hybrid environments
  *   The re-invention of online communities
  *   Online open practices
  *   Digital pedagogies for the arts and humanities
  *   Digital ‘maker culture’
  *   Exploring the intersections of the Covid-19 pandemic and climate catastrophe
  *   Digital innovation as a tool of tackling climate crisis
  *   Digital performance
  *   The migration of cultural content online
  *   The impact of Covid-19 pandemic on forms of cultural practice, particularly through the use of digital technologies
  *   Digital intimacies and the broadcasting of domestic environments
  *   New economic models for the creative industries
  *   ‘All the world is a digital stage’: the agency of digital audiences, participants and contributors
  *   Reviewing globalisation in the aftermath of Covid-19
  *   Digital sustainability and decolonisation
  *   Necessity as the mother of invention: digital new ‘everything’ (?)



The conference’s art exhibition and cultural programme will be curated in collaboration with Stanley Picker Gallery and Dorich House Museum, both part of Kingston University.



Selected contributions will be collated and published as Affiliated Issue 19.2 of the International Journal of Performance Art and Digital Media (Taylor & Francis, 2013).



Submission Guidelines:

Please submit an abstract of up to 500 words accompanied by a short biography of up to 150 words. For artworks and performances, please also submit images, videos, a budget, space requirements and installation plans if relevant.

We accept submissions via EasyChair. Please follow submission link on the website. Submissions open on 15 February 2022.





Deadline: Friday 1 April 2022



For questions please contact: [log in to unmask]



DRHA 2022 local organising committee:

Chair: Prof. Maria Chatzichristodoulou

Deputy Chairs: Dr Bill Balaskas, Dr Oded Ben Tal, Dr Sylvia Tzvetanova Yung

Conference Coordinator: Emma Finch

Website: Alessandra Fasoli

Committee: Prof. Stephen Barber, Dr Heba Elsharkawy, Katie Hall, Dr Paul Micklethwaite, Dr Alex Nevill, Dr Kate Scott




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