Journeys Across Media: a Postgraduate Conference

15th September 2021

Department of Film, Theatre & Television, University of Reading

Beyond the Pandemic – productive and situational legacies in media

The potential for a successful global vaccine rollout means a possible return to pre-pandemic media practices. This conference seeks to reflect on the productive and situational legacies of media strategies devised during the pandemic as the spread of the virus is brought under control.

The creative industries have become reliant on digital communications to survive. Will these practices become normalised, with smaller screens and micro audiences becoming a permanent aspect of media production? What shifts in research and practice methodologies and innovative ideas for performance and production will continue beyond the pandemic? How have arts organisations pivoted to ensure survival, where have these failed, and at what cost the communities of interest they serve? What changes will be borne from necessity rather than choice? The pandemic has in many ways gifted global audiences with greater access to culture via digitisation. What are the opportunities and challenges from a social perspective, and how do we answer those challenges with our own practice?

We welcome Practice as Research contributions.

The conference seeks to draw together curated groups on topics included but not limited to:

  • Sharing research stories: engaging with the virtual audience
  • Sharing across borders, cultures and communities through practice
  • Legacies of online film festivals
  • The online audience in live TV and Theatre
  • Staging/Screening the pandemic
  • Notions of practice and the live environment
  • Human connections in sharing
  • The immediacy of working in a pandemic
  • The reality of staged screenings
  • Access, participation and the virtual meeting
  • World-making in online events
  • Blended futures
  • Virtual/Digital places and spaces

Format

The conference aims to take place live in Minghella Studios at the University of Reading and streamed to online audiences. We will include online and live presentations and panel members as a way of proposing how conferences might function in the future to include some of the positive legacies of productions during the pandemic.

We welcome proposals in a variety of forms, including:

  • 20-minute papers
  • Preconstituted panels with up to 3 papers
  • Video essays
  • Participatory workshops – both online and live

Please send abstracts of no more than 500 words by 19th July, 2021 to: jamconference2020@gmail.com

 

Indicative timings

14th June — CfP published

19th July  — response deadline

2nd August — spots offered