The Visual Politics of Play: On the Signifying Practices of Digital Games
Panel Chair: Soraya Murray, University of California, Santa Cruz, semurray@ucsc.edu
College Art Association [CAA] 104th Annual Conference Washington, DC, February 3-6, 2016
Digital games are now culture, and like other forms—such as literature, art, film, and television—they constitute “networks of meaningness which individuals and groups use to make sense of and communicate with one another” (Stuart Hall). Increasingly shaping how people ascribe significance to their world, games expand the ways that we image our own possibilities, create empathetic connection, and seed ethical engagement with lived-world challenges. Many notable contemporary artists and intellectuals like Harun Farocki, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Feng Mengbo, and Cory Arcangel utilize visual rhetorics and vocabularies of games in their cultural production, warranting nuanced critical analysis. This panel examines the social functions of playable media as ideological world making, welcoming contributions in critical games research that engage the politics of representation, inclusivity, and signifying practices of video games as art and visual culture. Analyses that conside!
r the playability of specific gamic texts using critical studies and/or visual studies approaches are of particular interest.
The deadline for proposals of papers for the DC conference is Friday, May 8, 2015.
Email applications to: semurray@ucsc.edu
For more information, please see:
http://www.collegeart.org/proposals/2016callforparticipation
GENERAL GUIDELINES FOR SPEAKERS
1. CAA individual membership is required of ALL participants.
2. No one may participate in the same capacity two years in a row. Speakers in the 2015 conference may not be speakers in 2016; a 2015 speaker may, however, be a discussant in 2016, and vice versa.
3. No one may participate in more than one session in any capacity (e.g., a chair, speaker, or discussant in one session is ineligible for participation in any capacity in any other session), although a chair may deliver a paper or serve as discussant in his or her own session provided he or she did not serve in that capacity in 2015. Exception: A speaker who participates in a practical session on professional and educational issues may present a paper in a second session.
4. Session chairs must be informed if one or more proposals are being submitted to other sessions for consideration.
5. A paper that has been published previously or presented at another scholarly conference may not be delivered at the CAA Annual Conference.
6. Only one individual may submit a proposal and present a paper at the conference.
7. Acceptance in a session implies a commitment to attend that session and participate *in person*.
PROPOSALS FOR PAPERS TO SESSION CHAIRS Due May 8, 2015
Proposals for participation in sessions should be sent directly to the appropriate session chair(s). Every proposal should include the following five items:
1. Completed session participation proposal form, located at the end of attached pdf (found here: http://www.collegeart.org/pdf/2016CallforParticipation.pdf ), or an email with the requested
information.
2. Preliminary abstract of one to two double-spaced, typed pages.
3. Letter explaining speaker’s interest, expertise in the topic, and CAA membership status.
4. CV with home and office mailing addresses, email address, and phone and fax numbers. Include summer address and telephone number, if applicable.
5. Documentation of work when appropriate, especially for sessions in which artists might discuss their own work.
CHAIRS DETERMINE THE SPEAKERS FOR THEIR SESSIONS AND REPLY TO ALL APPLICANTS BY JUNE 5, 2015.
ABSTRACTS OF PAPERS TO SESSION CHAIRS Due August 7, 2015
A final abstract must be prepared by each speaker and submitted to the session chair for publication in Abstracts 2016. Detailed specifications for preparation of abstracts are sent to all chairs, who will then disseminate to the speakers. Submissions to Abstracts 2016 are determined by the session chair(s).
FULL TEXTS OF PAPERS TO SESSION CHAIRS Due December 1, 2015
Speakers are required to submit the full texts of their papers to chairs. Where sessions have contributions other than prepared papers, chairs may require equivalent materials by the same deadline. These submissions are essential to the success of the sessions; they assure the quality and designated length of the papers and permit their circulation to discussants and other participants as requested by the chair.
About The CAA Annual Conference
The 2016 Annual Conference will be held in Washington, DC, Wednesday–Saturday, February 3–6, 2016. Sessions are scheduled for two and a half hours. Chairs develop sessions in a manner that is appropriate to the topics and participants of their sessions. A characteristic, though certainly not standard, format includes four or five presentations of twenty minutes each, amplified by audience participation or by a discussant’s commentary. Other forms of presentation are encouraged.
