Journeys Across Media 2011
Friday 6th May 2011
 
SPACE IN OUR TIME: EXPLORING THE FRONTIERS OF SCREEN AND LIVE PERFORMANCE SPACE
 
Journeys Across Media (JAM) 2011 is the 9th annual international conference for postgraduate students, organized by postgraduates working in the Department of Film, Theatre & Television at the University of Reading. It provides a discussion forum for current and developing research in film, theatre, television and new media. Previous delegates have welcomed the opportunity to gain experience of presenting their work at different stages of development in the active, friendly and supportive research environment of Film, Theatre & Television at the University of Reading. This year JAM will be guest-editing the Autumn issue of Intellect’s Journal of Media Practice and in 2012 an associated journal to the conference will be launched, providing further opportunities for new researchers to publish their work and interact with established scholars. 

Non-presenting delegates are also very welcome; their work, should they wish to submit it to the organising committee, will be considered for the journal.
JAM 2011 will take place in the brand new building of the Film, Theatre & Television department, at the heart of Whiteknights campus. For further details, visit:  http://www.reading.ac.uk/ftt/new-building/ftt-new-build-images.aspx
 
The 9th JAM conference seeks to address issues of space in performance, media and wider society and instigate discussions about space across disciplines, practices and fields of research.

Space in performance and media is constantly shifting. Emerging technologies and new models of physical spaces have radically shaped our conceptions and experiences of performing, the world and our performing within that world. Artistic experimentation in live performance tests and contests space as a neutral/political/liminal/active zone. Through innovative spatial delineations and/or site specific work, contemporary theatre and performance challenge conventions of text and space, performance and institution, and performance and audience. Issues of space are increasingly central to performance studies and the experience of live performance. The growing popularity of companies such as Secret Cinema, reflect the importance of the exhibition site for cinema and possibilities for cross-media events. The organisation and handling of space on screen can reveal the conceptual reality of a time, rather than just function as background. Studies of the cinematic screen continue to focus on ideological articulations through oppositions, such as on-screen/off-screen space, interior/exterior, centre/periphery, inclusion/exclusion in space. Meanwhile, televisual spaces continue to change both in terms of on-screen representation and how the television as an object inhabits space, particularly in relation to its online dissemination and the proliferation of products which facilitate its access.

This is a call for postgraduates engaging in contemporary discourses around space to submit papers for the JAM 2011 conference; topics may include, but are not restricted to:

Cross-disciplinary/inter-disciplinary spaces
National/International space; Globalisation
Centrality – Marginality of/in space
Gendered spaces
Space and memory
Critical masses (people in space)
Space as a character
Absence/non-place
Time and Space in performance
 Architecture and performance
Immersion and illusion in contemporary performance spaces
Space in Contemporary art
Ownership and accountability
Ontology of space
CALL FOR PAPERS, extended deadline: Friday 4th March 2011
 
Deadline for Registration: Friday 8th April 2011
Please send a 250-word abstract and a 50-word biographical note for a fifteen-minute paper to Amanda Beauchamp, Tonia Kazakopoulou, Becki Hillman, Martin O’Brien and James Rattee, at [log in to unmask]  Proposals for practice-as-research presentations/performances are warmly invited; these have to conform to the 15-minute format.
 
A limited number of travel bursaries may be available by the department and JAM Conference 2011; please fill in the relevant section on the registration form if you wish to apply. For further details and registration forms please visit the conference website: http://www.reading.ac.uk/ftt/pg-research/ftt-pgrjam.aspx
We would appreciate the distribution of this call for papers and wider promotion of this conference through your networks. Journeys Across Media is supported by the Standing Committee of University Drama Departments (SCUDD) and the Graduate School in Arts and Humanities, University of Reading.