EKSIG 2011: SkinDeep – Experiential Knowledge and Multi Sensory Communication
International Conference 2011 of the DRS Special Interest Group on Experiential Knowledge

EKSIG 2011 will address the theme of “SkinDeep – Experiential Knowledge and Multi Sensory Communication”. The conference will be convened by the DRS Special Interest Group on Experiential Knowledge (EKSIG), and hosted by the University for the Creative Arts, UK.

Date: Thursday and Friday, 23 - 24 June 2011
Organisers: Kerstin Mey, Kristina Niedderer, Seymour Roworth-Stokes, Linden Reilly
Venue: University for the Creative Arts, UK
Conference home page: http://www.experientialknowledge.org  
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CALL FOR PAPERS

We invite submissions for the theme “SkinDeep - Experiential Knowledge and Multi Sensory Communication”. With this theme, we aim to provide a forum for debate about the multi faceted, multi sensory and multi modal possibilities of communicating knowledge in the creative and practice-led disciplines.

The need to address the issue of communication has arisen from the different approaches and requirements regarding the dissemination of knowledge and experience in research and creative practice. For example, creative practice tends to convey its content and meaning through its outcomes, which can relate to different, often intersecting or converging sensory stimuli such as visual, aural, tactile or olfactory. Equally, procedural or process knowledge – in the creative disciplines more commonly known as skill – relies on demonstration and first hand experience for its communication as much, or more so, than on written text.

In contrast, the presentation of research traditionally has been fixed to its verbal and textual articulation with a whole tradition of dissemination, mainly in written formats, such as peer reviewed conferences and journals. This predominance of textual presentation has long been questioned in the creative disciplines, and recent workshops on the role and balance between text and other forms of the communication of research, and on the multi modal presentation of research have indicated a strong interest and need to exchange knowledge and experiences on the issue of multi sensory communication of research.

With this conference, we wish to explore the different ways in which tacit knowledge can be given more appropriate consideration within the framework of research. This may include for example investigations into the nature, aims, validity, evaluation, and/or necessity of different modes of communication and exchange. 

Questions of interest are, for example:
•	What do we mean when we say we ‘communicate knowledge’? 
•	How can we articulate and/or communicate tacit knowledge/knowing within the process of research?
•	What frameworks, modes and methods are there to guide the communication and presentation of research (process and/or outcomes)?
•	What frameworks are there to guide the communication of the contribution to knowledge?
•	What frameworks are there to guide the reception and interpretation of any research communication, for example research exhibitions or performances, etc?
•	Why is the communication of tacit knowledge important for the understanding of research?
•	What contribution can the use of creative practices make to the understanding and communication of tacit knowledge in research?
•	What issues evolve from criteria of research such as repeatability and transferability for the foregrounding of tacit knowledge in research in the creative disciplines?
•	Can we talk about the communication of tacit knowledge, or should we talk about a transfer, etc?
•	What means and methods do we have to transfer and iterate tacit knowledge?

We wish to bring together engaged practitioners and scholars from various disciplinary backgrounds, fields of knowledge production, and methodological approaches to explore these issues. We invite contributions from the art and design disciplines (design, engineering, craft, media, fine art, etc), philosophy, education, health and knowledge management, neuroscience and others that are concerned with multi sensory and multi modal communication of knowledge in research and in creative and professional practice.


SUBMISSIONS

For EKSIG 2011, we invite papers, which offer challenging new views on the subject. Papers will be selected subject to a double blind review process by an international review team. In the first instance we ask for the submission of abstracts. Authors of selected abstracts will be asked to submit full papers. 

We invite the submission of abstracts of 800 words including title and references by 30 September 2010. Authors of selected abstracts will subsequently be invited to submit full papers (4000–5000w) in January 2011. Please submit your abstract through the conference submission system, which you will be able to access from the conference website. 


For further details, please visit http://www.experientialknowledge.org