One more website to keep an eye on, Launched by the IGDA ARG SIG, looks pretty promising, with very understandable definitions of ARGs, a lot of tips for designers, an History of ARGs and much more.. As a bonus, the mighty Christy Dena is in it, check it out www.argology.org.

I am not sure if it is just an accident, or if Crossover Labs have anything to do with cross media production, but, seeing that they are directed by the digital media evangelist Frank Boyd, I would suspect they do. Calls are open.

I missed the deadline, but still, this conference sounds mighty interesting, here is the preliminary programme.

One more call: ChART conference in London, very interesting theme

Here is the call, deadline May 30 :

This year’s CHArt conference takes seeing as its theme and the associated questions of vision, perception, visibility and invisibility, blindness and insight - all in the context of our contemporary digital culture in which our eyes are assaulted by ever greater amounts of visual stimulus, while we are also increasingly being surveyed, on a continual basis.

For the twenty-forth CHArt conference we are looking for papers that reflect upon these issues. We welcome contributions from all sections of the CHArt community: art historians, artists, architects and architectural theorists and historians, curators, museum professionals, scientists, cultural and media theorists, archivists, technologists, software developers, educationalists, philosophers and any others who have a stake in the question of seeing in a digital culture.

Technorati Tags: Call for papers, conference

Oops, the call for papers list wasn’t over yet:
Futureplay has a submission deadline at the end of the month (June 30)

and the Interactive Storytelling conference in Erfurt (putting together the two previous European conference series TIDSE (“Technologies for Interactive Digital Storytelling”) and ICVS (“Virtual Storytelling – Using Virtual Reality Technologies for Storytelling”). Submission deadline also on 30 June 2008.

Here is the call:

Research papers, case studies and demonstrations are invited that present novel scientific results, new technology, best practice showcases, or improvements to existing techniques and approaches in the multidisciplinary research field of interactive digital storytelling and its related application areas, e.g. games, virtual- / online worlds, e-learning, edutainment, and entertainment.

ENOUGH CALLS!!

Technorati Tags: Call for papers, conferences, games, interactive fiction

After missing a number of European events (sadly the Breaking the Magic Circle seminar in Tampere and the Philosophy of Games conference in Potsdam, oh well) I made it to lovely Edinburgh, for an interesting though small two days conference on “Play” - from psychology to literature to videogames, hosted by the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures at the University of Edinburgh.
It was astonishing to see the productivity of a multi-disciplinary approach (and not just because that is “my” approach as well).
The panel to which I participated, with the presentation “Playful Culture and Glamorization of Everyday (Virtual) Life: Elements of Play in Facebook Applications” (soon available) went on smoothly from a presentation on adult play in psychology, to play in Situationism and artistic modding. While not everybody knew about ludus and paidia, still I wonder if such a general (and productive) discourse would have been possible in a very strict “game studies” ambiance.
I wonder also if such an approach to play can be reproduced in media studies.
Here is the full programme.

Deadline for paper proposals at Mindtrek approaching, May 31 (post-script: deadline extended to the 8th of June)

What is Mindtrek?

“MindTrek is a three day conference to explore current and emerging topics of social media, ubimedia and games. MindTrek includes a workshop day, three main tracks, plenary sessions and invited presentations. MindTrek is a leading Northern new media festival and conference series, arranged already for more than a decade, since 1997. “

CONFERENCE THEMES:

3. Games
- theoretical and analytical contributions to the study of games and play
- novel approaches to the design research of games
- discussions of gaming technologies from user- or player-centred perspectives
- studies of social play and role-play
- analyses of online, mobile, casual and cross-media gaming
- research into user-created game content
- studies of pervasive games.

Technorati Tags: Call for papers, conference

From Lance Weiler’s blog:

We launched a new cross-media project last week. “Humans vs. Vampires” is an alternate reality game that runs in conjunction with Hammer Film’s first film in 30 years. BEYOND THE RAVE is a web series that will run for the next 10 weeks. Within the episodes we’ve hidden clues and subliminal frames. Hammer and Myspace brought us in to extend the world that surrounded BTR and to create an engaging social gaming experience.Working with myspace’s new API we’ve created a game app that allows players to travel throughout myspace on a hunt for trophies and weapons. For more info visit http://myspace.com/btrgame

The web series started in April but you can see the previous episodes here

Hello, I haven’t been run over by a car in case you wondered about this long absence (nor haven’t I gotten engaged with George Clooney, who, as everybody knows, spends half of the time of the lake of Como, only 300 kilometers from where I live, what are the odds). It is deadline season again, I apologize, it will soon be over.
One of the reasons why I haven’t really advertised about this blog was because I knew the hardest times where yet to come (and indeed they have come), and I wanted to get the conditions for regular blogging before announcing official commitment. Anyway, posts coming back in two weeks, I promise. I have proof I have at least four readers, I won’t mention their names not to embarrass them I am really thankful for your interest, and I am writing this for you guys!
check out this one

Technorati Tags: personal

The latest effort for CMC literacy from Penguin borrows elements from GoogleEarth, Twitter, maybe the Ultimate Search for Bourne,
“We Tell Stories” proposes 6 classical stories rewritten by well known authors for digital, interactive, social, godknowswhat media.

“The 21 Steps” by Charles Cumming readapts the classical “The 39 Steps” by John Buchan in “GoogleMaps storytelling”; still the geographic distribution of a basically linear story didn’t strike me as overly original, although the quality of the writing can’t be compared to that of many multimedia projects.
“Slice”, by Tobi Litt , is the readaptation of gothic short story The Haunted Doll’s House by M.R.James; you can follow the story on Twitter, from the point of view of the main character, a teenage girl named Lisa (Slice), or you can read her parents’ blog, also on Twitter, haiku-style.

“Fairy Tales” by Kevin Brooks calls for the user’s participation in a mildly interactive narrative : I could customize the names of the characters, choose if the magic help will be delivered by a Dull Caterpillar or by a Lowly Fly;

the magic seem to arise mostly from the technologic interface, although a bit crude, as most interactive storytelling. You can also add your own ending.
“Your Place or Mine” by Nicci French, a blog novel I guess, is inspired by Zola’s novel Therese Raquin - I wonder if the novelty of this one wasn’t rather its performance quality (the author would be blogging “live” for a week).

(to be continued)