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Call for Papers and Proposals: CounterPlay ‘16: Exploring play when it’s difficult Conference and festival. April 14-16, 2016 Dokk1, Aarhus, Denmark Deadline for proposals February 1, 2016 What is play? Why is play important? How do we overcome the challenges to play? CounterPlay explores the role of play in society and focus on supporting and inspiring playfulness. At CounterPlay ‘16 we encourage contributors to examine play when it’s difficult. Play is often thought of as a “luxury” and as something we do when every other need is satisfied. Contrary to this, CounterPlay sees play as an essential part of human society as well as mental and physical well-being and coexistence. It is in this context that we ask for proposals that investigate the ways in which playfulness can contribute to coping with adversities and how play can be a mode of expression that creates connections, raises questions, fuels creativity and inspires to challenge the status quo. We wish to know more about the role of play in times of severe crisis, but we also want to address less threatening situations, where various obstacles nonetheless get in the way of play or in which play can contribute to overcome obstacles. Play when it is difficult should be understood in a wide sense and it encompasses everything from play in war zones, refugee camps and prisons to schools, libraries, museums, public/urban spaces and private companies. At CounterPlay ‘16, we investigate ways of thinking and talking about play: through conversations, panels, workshops and - most importantly - through play. To achieve this, we aim to create a safe and inclusive space for a diverse community of people, where failure is just an opportunity to learn, where taking risks is natural, and where you feel comfortable playing with strangers. We emphasize the playful, exploratory, experimental cross-pollination, collaboration and co-production - of knowledge, ideas, projects, concepts and prototypes. Consequently, we are particularly interested in contributions that are participatory and interactive. Proposals could be for workshops, paper and panel presentations, maker-spaces or take a variety of other explorative forms. Proposals should be 200-300 words and describe the core theme(s) of your contribution. As part of your proposal, please inform us about the minimum requirements for your session (materials, tools, technologies, space), but please also consider what you can bring yourself and how you can keep it simple. Additionally, we ask you to include a short bio of 50-75 words of each person facilitating the session along with a photo (for the description on the website). Deadline for submissions: February 10, 2016 Notification of acceptance: February 17, 2016 Submit your proposals to Mathias Poulsen [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>. Mathias Poulsen will also be available for questions. For more information about the festival visit www.counterplay.org<http://www.counterplay.org/>. All the best Mathias -------------------------------------------------------- MeCCSA mailing list -------------------------------------------------------- To manage your subscription or unsubscribe from the MECCSA list, please visit: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=MECCSA&A=1 ------------------------------------------------------- MeCCSA is the subject association for the field of media, communication and cultural studies in UK Higher Education. This mailing list is a free service and is not restricted to members. It is an unmoderated list and content reflect the views of those who post to the list and not of MeCCSA as an organisation. MeCCSA recommends that the list be used only for posting of information (for example about events, publications, conferences, lectures) of interest to members or to promote discussion of current issues of wide general interest in the field. Posts to the MeCCSA mailing list are public, indexed by Google, and can be accessed from the JISCMail website (http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/meccsa.html). Any messages posted to the list are subject to the JISCMail acceptable use policy, which states that users should avoid engaging in unreasonable behaviour, or disrupting the general flow of discussion on a list. For further information, please visit: http://www.meccsa.org.uk/ --------------------------------------------------------