15.444 calls for papers: medium studies, web delivery of music

From: Humanist Discussion Group (by way of Willard McCarty (w.mccarty@btinternet.com)
Date: Fri Jan 11 2002 - 01:15:36 EST

  • Next message: Humanist Discussion Group (by way of Willard McCarty : "15.445 tenure-track job in humanities computing at Georgia (U.S.)"

                   Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 15, No. 444.
           Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
                   <http://www.princeton.edu/~mccarty/humanist/>
                  <http://www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/>

       [1] From: Jan Van Looy <jan.vanlooy@arts.kuleuven.ac.be> (66)
             Subject: Call for papers: medium studies

       [2] From: Nesi <wedel01@dsi.unifi.it> (31)
             Subject: WEDELMUSIC2002:Intern. Conf. on Web Delivering of
                     Music, Darmstadt, Germany

    --[1]------------------------------------------------------------------
             Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2002 06:10:24 +0000
             From: Jan Van Looy <jan.vanlooy@arts.kuleuven.ac.be>
             Subject: Call for papers: medium studies

    Image & Narrative (www.imageandnarrative.be) is preparing an issue on
    __medium studies__. I believe the call for papers may be interesting for
    the members of Humanist Discussion Group.

    For more information: www.imageandnarrative.be
    The call for papers itself:
    http://millennium.arts.kuleuven.ac.be/narrative/mediumtheory.htm

    Call for papers: Image & Narrative 6, Medium Theory

    Medium theory takes as its object of study the form of media rather than
    what they convey or how such information is received. Its focus is both
    more narrow and more general than that of media theory. It is more narrow
    because the concern is not primarily with the messages that media convey.
    It is more general because media are conceptualised in a much broader way
    than is usually the case in media theory. In medium theory, media are not
    simply newspapers, the internet, digital camera's and so forth. Rather,
    they are the symbolic environment of any communicative act. Joshua
    Meyrowitz characterizes medium theory as follows:

    "A handful of scholars - mostly from fields other than communications,
    sociology and psychology - have tried to call attention to the potential
    influences of communication technologies in addition to and apart from the
    content they convey. I use the singular 'medium theory' to describe this
    research tradition in order to differentiate it from most other 'media
    theory'. Medium theory focuses on the particular characteristics of each
    individual medium or of each particular type of media. Broadly speaking,
    medium theorists ask: what are the relatively fixed features of each means
    of communicating and how do these features make the medium physically,
    psychologically and socially different from other media and from
    face-to-face interaction? Medium theory examines such variables as the
    senses that are required to attend to the medium, whether the communication
    is bi-directional or uni-directional, how quickly messages can be
    disseminated, whether learning to encode and decode in the medium is
    difficult or simple, how many people can attend to the same message at the
    same moment, and so forth. Medium theorists argue that such variables
    influence the medium's use and its social, political, and psychological
    impact."

    We invite contributions dealing with one of the following topics:

    Work and insights from different authors in the field of medium theory
    (Joshua Meyrowitz, Marshall McLuhan, Friedrich Kittler, Walter Ong, etc.).
    How do different authors conceptualise 'medium'? For example, media as
    'extension of the senses' (McLuhan), technical media (Kittler), the
    difference between 'medium' and 'form' (Heider), communication media or
    symbolically generalised media (Luhmann). Which criteria can be used to
    distinguish different media?

    The history and evolution of media of communication. Can one distinguish
    different phases in the evolution of media (the difference between oral and
    literate cultures; the rise of modern print culture; the emergence of
    technological media in the nineteenth century; new media)? Is it
    appropriate to speak of 'media revolutions' ? What is 'new' about new media?

    The influence of the medium concept in different disciplines such as
    literary theory, communication sciences and sociology. Does medium theory
    involve a re-articulation of disciplinary boundaries?

    The conceptualisation of communication in medium theory. Do communication
    media simply serve to transmit information and symbolic content or do they
    take a more active role and involve the creation of new forms of
    communication, interaction, etc.? What is the relation between medium and
    content?

    Send contributions in MSWord or RTF format to
    Michael.Boyden@arts.kuleuven.ac.be. Texts should be accompanied by an
    abstract of no more than 300 words and a maximum of 10 keywords.

    Jan Van Looy
    Instituut voor Culturele Studies
    http://www.culturelestudies.be
    http://www.maerlant.be
    Faculteit Letteren K.U.Leuven
    Blijde Inkomststraat 21
    B-3000 Leuven
    tel: 32 (0)16 32 50 75
    fax: 32 (0)16 32 50 68

    --[2]------------------------------------------------------------------
             Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2002 06:12:17 +0000
             From: Nesi <wedel01@dsi.unifi.it>
             Subject: WEDELMUSIC2002:Intern. Conf. on Web Delivering of Music,
    Darmstadt, Germany

                            WEDELMUSIC-2002
              2nd International Conference on Web Delivering of Music

    WEDELMUSIC2002, Darmstadt, Germany, 9-11 December 2002
    http://www.wedelmusic.org/wedelmusic2002
    http://WWW.wedelmusic.org
    WEDELMUSIC2002@igd.fraunhofer.de
    WEDELMUSIC@dsi.unifi.it

    Sponsored by: Fraunhofer Institute, University of Florence, IRCAM
    With the support of: IEEE CS TC on Computer Generated Music

    --------
    The popularity of Internet and multimedia has increased the need for rapid
    diffusion of culture in new formats. Since its beginnings, music has never
    shied away from incorporating the latest technological advances to maximise
       expressive power. Its pioneering role in the use of Internet technology to
       broadcast audio and music files continues to break new boundaries.
    Current state of the art still distributes music either on paper or on CD or
       similar media. However, the possibility to distribute music in several other
       formats, such as symbolic, audio (in its several available formats) and as
    images of music scores opens several new avenues for research. At the same
    time, Internet technologies are having a strong impact on system architectures
    and business processes, while new regulations are changing the distribution
    mechanisms of music in important ways.

    WEDELMUSIC-2002 aims to deal with these major topics in music-related fields,
    in order to address new ways to distribute music to larger audiences. The
    impact of these developments on cultural heritage will be considered, together
    with their availability to people with limited access to classical archives or
    libraries. In particular, proposals and solutions benefiting visually-impaired
    people are encouraged, to let everybody access this large and hidden cultural
    heritage. Tools for impaired people will contribute to broadening music
    playing
    and enjoyment.

    [material deleted]



    This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Jan 11 2002 - 01:19:56 EST