[Air-L] Call for Abstracts: Screen Studies in the Age of Extended Reality & Synthetic Media, Trinity College Dublin, June 4th-5th 2024

[Jennifer O'Meara]

*With apologies for cross-posting*

*Call for Abstracts: Screen Studies in the Age of Extended Reality &
Synthetic Media*

An international conference to take place at Trinity College Dublin, as
part of the Irish Research Council Laureate Award project “From Cinematic
Realism to Extended Reality: Reformulating Screen Studies at the Precipice
of Hyper-reality” (2022-2026).
*Keynote speaker: *

Professor Jenna Ng, Head of Creative Technologies and Professor of Digital
Media and Culture at the University of York.



The world is increasingly grappling with an existential crisis of what
constitutes the real. Contemporary “post-truth” societies are mired by
so-called fake news and a technological dependence approaching philosopher
Jean Baudrillard’s (1981) concept of hyper-reality. Already noting an
increased shift towards versions of reality accessed via simulation and
replication, he warned of a potential moment where “hyperreality” would
become indistinguishable from the reality in which humans exist. More
specifically, the rapid deployment of extended reality (XR) technologies
like virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), as well as the
increased use of virtual production practices and machine learning to
produce synthetic media including “deepfakes” and “AI films,” present
creative challenges for screen production workers and critical challenges
for screen studies. As various arts and media scholars have recently
highlighted, there is a strong need to consider AR and VR not just as hyped
technologies but as media (Bolter, Engberg and MacIntyre 2021; O’Meara and
Szita 2023), and for further explorations of the cultural and artistic
ramifications of algorithmically generated media in arts and humanities
research (De Vries 2019; Chow 2020). These developments are an extension of
earlier research into topics like software cinema (Hassapopoulou 2014) and
broader questions as to the place of traditional screen media in the
digital age (Gaudreault and Marion, 2015).



Since early cinema, filmmakers and theorists have been preoccupied with
conventions of realism and its reliance on both analogue technologies
(camera and film strip) and creative choices. Though extended reality and
synthetic screen technologies are largely driven by computing and the tech
industries, their design and use build on a much longer history of media
technologies and, as such, can intersect meaningfully with existing screen
theories and critical approaches to screen aesthetics, narrative and
audience consumption (see: Haslem 2019; Denson 2020). This conference will
thus consider how approaches from screen studies, media history and
cultural studies can guide a more critical and humanistic development of
these technologies and their associated media. It aims to address the
following questions inter-related topics and questions:



*Technologies.* How can screen studies approaches, histories and theories
be used to better understand the development of extended reality
technologies and synthetic media with respect to their technologic
features, narrative properties, and audio-visual aesthetics?

*Ethical and Social Impact.* What are the key ethical ramifications of
synthetic media technologies being 1) used in the screen industries and via
amateur media practices and 2) consumed by individuals as a form of
entertainment or recorded document?

*Embodiment and Spectatorship.* Acknowledging the proven impact of extended
reality media and technologies on consumers’ bodies (e.g. Ross 2020; Crouch
and Damjanov, 2021), how can we gain more understanding of this impact
using, for example, sensory theories of embodiment and concepts of screen
“gaze”?

*Inclusivity and Identity Politics.* Acknowledging that the design and use
of media technologies are inherently intertwined with identity politics
related to gender, race, sexuality and disability, what are the related
risks and opportunities associated with emergent forms of XR and synthetic
media?

*Disciplinary Impact.* To what degree is the discipline and teaching of
screen studies being

disrupted (forcing a revision of methods and practices) by the
mainstreaming of extended reality

and deceptive technologies?



The conference will feature a Keynote address by *Professor Jenna Ng*, Head
of Creative Technologies and Professor of Digital Media and Culture and the
University of York. Professor Ng’s work includes “The New Virtuality: A
Video Essay on the Disappearing Differences Between Real and Unreal”
(2023); the
monograph *T**he Post-Screen Through Virtual Reality, Holograms and Light
Projections: Where Screen Boundaries Lie* (2021); the edited
collection *Understanding
Machinima: essays on filmmaking in virtual worlds* (2013), and a
forthcoming book on the existential tensions of living in the age of AI.



We welcome abstracts for both *research papers* (20 minutes) and
*practice-based
works* (<30 minutes). A related edited collection is also being planned for
the post-conference period.



*Topics may include, but are not limited to:*

·       Aesthetic properties of extended reality or synthetic media, such
as the uses of colour, framing, camera work, editing, sound and music.

·       Narrative properties of extended reality or synthetic media,
including interactive/ludic elements and elliptical or non-linear
storytelling.

·       Resulting labour and ethical issues, including the potential
displacement of creative workers / performers.

·       XR models of spectatorship, including inaccessibility of emergent
technologies and financial barriers to access.

·       Approaches to these technologies that intersect with film
philosophy / film theory / theories of media convergence.

·       Historical / media archaeological approaches to XR and synthetic
media, including those that relate them to concepts of realism/surrealism.

·       Critical language / terminology developing around these
technologies.

·       Multisensory aspects of immersive media and their potential to
create new forms of embodiment.

·       Augmented reality trends and distribution channels, including AR
filters embedded on dominant social media platforms.

·       VR distribution channels, including via festivals and galleries.

·       Collaborations between tech companies and production companies or
filmmakers.

·       Politicised uses of deepfakes / synthetic media and their links to
concepts of propaganda and documentary truth or constructed realities.

·       The wider socio-cultural implications of algorithmically generated
media’s heightened ubiquity/visibility.

·       Ties to parallel developments in other creative realms, including
algorithmically generated music, sound, and speech.

·       Music, sound and immersiveness in XR media.

·       The flow of influences between these technologies and
representations of them in screen media such as cinema and television.

·       Intersections with identity politics related to gender, race, age
and disability.

·       Intersections with environmental issues, including media
obsolescence and sustainable practices for media production and
consumption.

·       Intersections with posthumanism and non-human creation or
co-creation.

·       Intersections with performance, stardom and celebrity culture

·       Videographic or experimental media works that address the
conference themes



Please submit ~300 words abstracts and a short bio (~100 words) to
jennifer.omeara at tcd.ie and james.mcglynn at tcd.ie by *February 20th*. Note: A
limited number of remote papers/practice works can be facilitated. If you
would like to present remotely then please signal this when submitting your
abstract.



Deadline for abstracts: 20th February

Applicants notified of acceptance: by March 1st

Conference: June 4th–5th



The conference is generously supported by the Irish Research Council (grant
number: IRCLA/2022/2959) and by the Trinity Long Room Hub Arts & Humanities
Research Institute, where it will be held.



*Works cited*

Baudrillard, J. (1981; 1983). *Simulacra and Simulation*. Los Angeles:
Semiotext(e).



Bolter, J.D., Engberg, M. and MacIntyre, B. (2021). *Reality Media:
Augmented and Virtual Reality*. The MIT Press.



Chow, P-S. (2020) “Ghost in the (Hollywood) machine: Emergent applications
of artificial intelligence in the film industry.” *NECSUS European Journal
of Media Studies*, 9: 193-214.



Crouch, D. & Damjanov, K. (2021). “Extreme VR: strategies of sensorial
immersion and the intensities of experience.” *The Senses and Society* 16
(3), 308–319.


Denson, S. (2020) *Discorrelated Images*. Duke University Press.



De Vries, P. (2020) *Algorithmic Anxiety in Contemporary Art: A
Kierkegaardian Inquiry into the Imaginary of Possibility*. Amsterdam:
Institute of Network Cultures.



Gaudreault, A. and Marion, P. (2015). *The End of Cinema? A Medium in
Crisis in the Digital Age*, translated by Timothy Barnard. NYC: Columbia
University Press.



Haslem, W. (2019). *From Méliès to New Media: Spectral Projections*.
Bristol: Intellect books.



Hassapopoulou, M. (2014) “Reconfiguring Film Studies Through Software
Cinema and Procedural Spectatorship.” *NECSUS European Journal of Media
Studies*, 3:2. 2014.



O’Meara, J. and Szita, K. (2023) “AR Cinema: Visual Storytelling and
Embodied Experiences with Augmented Reality Filters and Backgrounds.”
*PRESENCE:
Virtual and Augmented Reality* 30: 99–123.



Ross, M. (2020). “Virtual Reality’s New Synesthetic Possibilities,” *New
Media & Society*, Vol. 21 Issue 3: 297-314.


––––––––––––

Dr Jennifer O’Meara
Associate Professor in Film Studies, FTCD

Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin
Dublin 2, Ireland.