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FEBRUARY 2024
WELCOME TO THE NEW LOOK CPC CONNECTS NEWSLETTER FOR FEBRUARY 2024
After losing access to the campaign manager some time ago, we're finally back!
The Centre for Postdigital Cultures brings together postdigital media theorists, practitioners, activists and artists from more than 15 countries to critically investigate some of the core foundational concepts and values of the arts and humanities. By drawing on cross-disciplinary ideas associated with open, disruptive and immersive media, feminism, the posthuman, art, the city and the politics of care, we endeavour to help 21st century society and its cultural institutions (galleries, libraries, archives, museums etc.) respond to the challenges they face in relation to the digital at a global, national and local level.
IN THIS ISSUE
AI & ALGORITHMIC CULTURES
Associate Prof. Kevin Walker asks 'Can Objects Program People'.
ARTSPACECITY
MRES Researcher and artist Duncan Whitley joins the team, Prof. Mel Jordan is invited to moderate The Role of Public Art in the Nordic Cultural Model seminar, and Marley Treloar undertakes a 31-day secondment at the Sirius Art Centre in Cobh, Ireland.
LUDIC DESIGN
The ACES Project wins Bronze at the QS Reimagine Education Awards, and four new projects are announced.
POSTDIGITAL INTIMACIES
'Preventing Digital Gender-based Violence in the UK and Spain' secures ESRC Impact Acceleration Priority Award funding, and Dr. Marcus Maloney features as an expert for BBC Radio Ulster and ITV News.
POST-PUBLISHING
Judith Fathallah's new book, 'Killer Fandom: Fan Studies and the Celebrity Serial Killer' is released.
EVENTS
Prof. Adrienne Evans to take part in roundtable discussion at the BFI, whilst Dr. Marjo Kolehmainen joins the Postdigital Intimacies team for a week to exchange research and ideas, and the first hybrid workshop for Postdigital Intimacies and the Networked Public-Private takes place.
AI & ALGORITHMIC CULTURES
CAN OBJECTS PROGRAM PEOPLE?
Do you talk to your phone? AI makes actual conversations increasingly possible. But what if we were to look at everyday, nondigital objects as having some kind of computational power? It turns out there’s a long history of this idea. CPC Associate Professor Kevin Walker publishes a newsletter about art and technology, interviewing artists and analysing current issues related to AI and other advanced technologies. A recent article is about 'object-oriented programming' in the real world. He shows how we can take computing concepts out of the box and off the screen, looks at some of the ideas behind objects as active agents, and the social implications of this. Read and subscribe for free at https://increasinglyunclear.substack.com.
ARTSPACECITY
ARTSPACECITY WELCOMES DUNCAN WHITLEY
ArtSpaceCity welcome new MRES researcher and artist Duncan Whitley. He will be undertaking a project entitled ‘Noisemaking, Performing and Listening, as functions of opinion formation in UK civil society’, which sees him grappling with the unsaid codes and practices of political debate in an exploration of the aurality of the House of Commons. Duncan’s project is funded by a M4C Routes In bursary and is co-supervised with Dr. Charis Rice for the Centre for Trust Peace and Social Relations.
Visit ArtSpaceCity’s new Facebook page and follow at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61556775952962
PROF. MEL JORDAN TO MODERATE THE ROLE OF PUBLIC ART IN THE NORDIC CULTURAL MODEL SEMINAR
Professor Mel Jordan was invited to moderate the recent seminar (29 January 2024), The Role of Public Art in the Nordic Cultural Model: A Research Symposium on Renegotiations of Swedish Public Art Policies from the 1930s to the Present. The event explored historical and contemporary dimensions of public art as a strategy for implementing culture in welfare policy. The scholars and public art professionals speaking as part of the seminar reassessed the concept of public art from a Swedish perspective, where the state and municipalities have a long history of commissioning artworks for government institutions such as universities, prisons, and military facilities as well as for open public spaces. ArtSpaceCity are developing ongoing relationships with the team from Södertörn University, Stockholm and The Swedish Public Art Agency.
MARLEY TRELOAR UNDERTAKES SECONDMENT AT SIRIUS ART CENTRE
Marley Treloar undertook a 31-day secondment to Sirius Art Centre in Cobh, Ireland as part of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Funded project, ‘Spatial Practices in Art and ArChitecture for Empathetic Exchange’ (SPACEX). SPACEX is a key ArtSpaceCity project that brings together 29 international partners to participate in cross sector secondments, work package meetings, training events, and workshops. This secondment contributes to Treloar’s PhD research on infrastructural social art practices and as a result of this secondment she created a body of artwork which explores the relationship between politics, arts public funding structures, and the formation of institutional processes.
LUDIC DESIGN
ACES PROJECT WINS PRESTIGIOUS AWARD
The ACES project won the Bronze Award for Sustainability Education at the QS Reimagine Education Awards 2023 (https://www.reimagine-education.com/)! It's an honour to be recognised among such remarkable projects. ACES emphasis on fostering resilience through playful and frugal educational design across Malaysia, Indonesia, and Vietnam, stood out amidst fierce competition with over 1200 nominations across 17 categories. Learn more about the ACES project.
UK-INDONESIA DISABILITY INCLUSION PARTNERSHIP GRANT SECURED
We’re excited to announce that the Ludic Design team have secured the UK-Indonesia Disability Inclusion Partnerships Grant from the British Council. I-HEDU is a 12-month initiative building on past successes with partners in Universitas Negeri Malang and Universitas Muhamadiyah Ponorogo and aims to enhance higher education accessibility in Indonesia, especially for disabled students. Learn more about the project here.
REDF FUNDING SUCCESS
The Ludic Design team were successful in securing funding for three REDF projects, which are now in the early stages of design and development:
Pedagogy-driven Design for Sensor-centric Games Experiences. Building on our collaboration with Manchester Metropolitan University (led by Dr. John Henry) on investigating the use of wearable technology in playful practice for improving wearer health. Learn more…
Remixing AI-Generated Media Playfully for Education. Building on the playful approaches explored and developed in the ACES project for exploring the creative and critical integration of General Artificial Intelligence (GAI) into education. Learn more…
XFORMS: Navigating Societal Adaptation Through Cultural Spaces and Cyberspaces for Democratic Expression. In collaboration with CYENS research centre, Cyprus and Aston University, the XFORMS project aims to investigate the impact of cultural and artistic spaces, alongside cyberspaces and metaverses, on political and democratic expression using immersive and emerging technology. Learn more…
XFORMS KICK-OFF MEETING TAKES PLACE IN CYPRUS
In January 2024, partners for the XFORMS REDF project (comprised of the Centre for Postdigital Cultures, Aston University, and CYENS research centre) convened at CYENS in Cyprus, Nicosia and refined the project proposal with a focus on leveraging AI, interactive storytelling, and learning interfaces to enhance democratic expression across digital and physical spaces, spanning creative arts, education, social innovation, policy, and citizen engagement. Initial discussions had been held in Coventry in December 2023, where partners shared technologies and methodologies. Learn more at https://plameras4.wordpress.com/2024/02/12/uniting-technology-and-democracy-the-journey-of-xform/
PHD STUDENT ACHIEVEMENTS
Ludic Design PhD student Jaimz Winter recently participated in the Doctoral College's Immersive Research Day “Show Us Your Research” event. Jaimz showcased a virtual reality showroom featuring preliminary findings from his ongoing PhD survey titled "Gamer's Perception of Video Game Privacy". Attendees were able to wear Oculus headsets to experience the showroom and watch a short presentation to learn more about the PhD project’s aims and research questions. Jaimz is still in the process of gathering responses for his survey. If you are interested by this research, you can participate in the survey here.
Congratulations to Ludic Design PhD student Saif Alatrash who has just completed his viva and been recommended a Pass with minor corrections for his thesis titled ‘Gamified Immersive Museum Experience for Engineering and Design Heritage’. All three examiners were very impressed with his work. Many thanks to the supervisory teams from Coventry University and Deakin University in Australia. You can read about part of his research in his most recent journal paper.
Ludic Design PhD student Khurram Adeel Shaikh participated in the PAK-UK PGR Research Mobility Programme funded by the British Council Pakistan. The programme involved an incoming 2-week visit from Pakistani partners and an outgoing 2-week visit to Pakistani universities of PGRs and senior researchers. The exchange involved mentoring and developing expertise, and provided Khurram the opportunity to understand how research is organized in Pakistan and experience different research environments. He was able to explore transdisciplinary collaborative research opportunities aligning with his research area of pedagogical game design.
POSTDIGITAL INTIMACIES
ESRC IMPACT ACCELERATION PRIORITY AWARD FUNDING SECURED
Dr. Lindsay Balfour and Professor Adrienne Evans secure ESRC Impact Acceleration Priority Award funding for their project ‘Preventing digital gender-based violence in the UK and Spain: Cross-cultural collaboration through widening literacy and education’. The project builds on networks in the UK and Spain with partners from the Universudad Complutense de Madrid, FemBloc, Márgenes y Vínculos, Chayn and others, who are working to end digital and technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV). The outcome of the project will be a curriculum and training tools for prevention, which will be launched in Brussels in the Autumn.
The funding follows on the footsteps of their collaborative ESRC Impact Acceleration Follow-On funding that is creating a toolkit for those looking for information and seeking support for TFGBV. This toolkit has been co-produced with Refuge, Revenge Porn Website, End Violence Against Women Coalition, Women in Data, Walksafe, Chayn, Suzy Lamplugh Trust, MSI Choices, and Thrive Agency. This project in turn develops insights generated through the Postdigital Intimacies for Online Safety project (with Dr. Marcus Maloney and Dr. Sarah Kate Merry).
DR. MARCUS MALONEY FEATURES AS EXPERT COMMENTATOR ON BBC & ITV
Dr. Marcus Maloney was recently featured as an expert in reports by BBC Radio Ulster and ITV News to discuss recent data from the Office of National Statistics showing that over-70s are now the second most active internet user demographic behind Gen Z and how this is only surprising because of the assumptions we make around age and technology. "When we think of leisure time regardless of age, for all of us these technologies are an increasing part of that time." You can view details of the radio programme at https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001vbbb.
HANNAH WESTWOOD PRESENTS PAPER AT UPPSALA UNIVERSITY
Hannah Westwood alongside a colleague at Uppsala University co-presented a working paper titled 'Mapping FemTech: Reproductive Health Apps, Social Media and Empowerment' at an online workshop on 20th February 2024. The presentation presented their findings from mapping the FemTech industry and their current work-in-progress findings relating to how reproductive health apps construct empowerment through their Instagram presence.
POST-PUBLISHING
ART & THE PUBLIC SPHERE: THE STRUGGLE BEFORE US
Principal and Founding Editor Mel Jordan is pleased to present Art & the Public Sphere 11.2, ‘The Struggle Before Us’, special issue edited by Marc James Léger. This issue includes contributions by Alain Badiou and John Roberts and can be read at https://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/aps/11/2
ADEOLA EZE PRESENTS RESEARCH AT CONFERENCE AND RECIEVES A RARE BOOK SCHOOL (RBS) SCHOLARSHIP
Adeola Eze has presented her research at various conferences and events, including the paper ‘Layers Unveiled: Exploring Palimpsests and Unravelling Cicero’s De Republica in Gilbert Augustine Thierry’s novel, The Palimpsest and David Annwn’s poem “Palimpsest’’’, at the Centre for Arts, Memory and Communities’ (CAMC) Work-in-Progress seminar in January 2024, and she will present the paper ‘Textual and Visual Interplay of Antiquity in Kathleen Fraser’s m ov a b le TYYPE’, at the Classical Association Conference 2024 at Warwick University, 22-24 March 2024. Adeola has also received a Rare Book School (RBS) Scholarship (2024), given by theBibliographical Society of the University of Virginia (BSUVA) to attend the course ‘The Photographic Book since 1843’ by the librarian and author Richard Ovenden.
KILLER FANDOM: FAN STUDIES AND THE CELEBRITY SERIAL KILLER
Judith Fathallah’s new book Killer Fandom. Fan Studies and the Celebrity Serial Killer came out in December, the first long-form treatment of serial killer fandom, published open access by mediastudies.press. Judith has been promoting the book in various places, including by doing a podcast interview for an episode of New Books Network, and by giving a talk at a book launch for Killer Fandom at the Centre for Postdigital Cultures on 12 December. Judith has also, as part of her work on the Open Book Futures project, organised a workshop in South Africa at the University of Cape Town from 7 to 9 February, Towards Sustainable Open Access Book Publishing in the African Context (with the OBC, the Association of African Universities, the African Platform for Open Scholarship, Lancaster University, Thoth, and OAPEN/DOAB). The workshop explored challenges that inhibit a sustainable open access book publishing ecosystem with the remit of developing interventions that contribute and/or accelerate the growth of African scholarship. On 19 January, Judith also gave a keynote at the Fanficforum at Goethe University Frankfurt (Germany) on ‘Queerbaiting: still a useful concept?’
REBEKKA KIESEWETTER TO GUEST EDIT CULTURE MACHINE JOURNAL
Rebekka Kiesewetter has been invited to guest edit the next issue of the peer-reviewed open access journal Culture Machine that is titled ‘Publishing after Progress’ and will be released in July 2024. The issue invites scholars, activists, and artists to address the growing dissonance between the progress dynamics of ‘mainstream publishing’ and the way in which individuals and communities, in their editing and publishing practices, have started to tentatively experiment with ways of living and working in a ‘world after progress’ marked by humanitarian and planetary emergencies. As part of her work for the Open Book Futures research project, Rebekka has recently co-organised a matchmaking workshop in the context of the Open Call for Experimental Book Pilots connecting authors, academic presses, and open source tool and platform providers that share an interest in experimental monograph publishing.
INSPIRE CULTURES 'I AM A WRITER' PROJECT
Clare Harvey is currently one of the lead writers with Inspire Culture’s ‘I Am A Writer’ (IAAW) project, which runs co-created writing projects with elderly, neurodiverse/neurodivergent, and hard-to-reach participants in a variety of community settings throughout the East Midlands this spring. Clare aims to remix participants’ local memories with some of DH Lawrence’s descriptions of the Nottinghamshire landscape to create new fiction with a strong sense of place.
More info on IAAW here: https://www.inspireculture.org.uk/reading-information/reading/i-am-a-creator/i-am-a-writer-2023-writers-commission/
COPIM COMMUNITY WEBSITE REDEVELOPMENT
Simon Bowie, as part of his work for the Copim community and Open Book Futures project, recently redeveloped the Copim website with an entirely new look and structure to reflect the changing nature of Copim’s expansive scope. All the code that underlies the website is available open source (MIT License) on GitHub. Simon also wrote a short blog post for Copim’s PubPub documentation site reflecting on the thinking behind the new website design and the technology used to support not only the new website structure but also the open source automated machine translation translating the site content into several non-English languages. Outside his day job, in his capacity as Associate Editor for TAKE ONE, Simon is covering Glasgow Film Festival running from 28 February to 10 March 2024 and will be coordinating his team’s coverage (and hopefully getting to write a few reviews himself!).
THE OTHER SIDE OF HOPE
Alexandros Plasatis is the lead-editor of the literary magazine The Other Side of Hope, which this December published its third online issue, which includes 7 short stories, 1 novel excerpt, 20 poems, 7 non-fiction pieces, 3 book reviews, and a collection of poetry by young refugee women at Young Roots and Refugee Council. Alexandros and the issues’ contributors have been promoting the new issue and all their previous and upcoming events can be found on the magazine’s website, under the “diary” section of the magazine. Alexandros has also published an article in The Bookseller (Alexandros Plasatis, ‘Don’t Marginalise Migrants’, The Bookseller, 18 December 2023) and he did an interview for the Un/Documented podcast by IMIX: ‘International Migrants Day: I am a migrant’ in which he discusses the other side of hope with Julie Rampen (in the second part).
MADDALENA FRAGNITO CONTRIBUTES TO FEMINIST EDUCATION IN ITALY AND BEYOND
Maddalena Fragnito contributed to the talk and discussion ‘Feminist education in Italy and beyond. Lea Melandri in conversation with Maddalena Fragnito’ held at the Istituto Italiano di Cultura (ICI) in London on 25 and 26 January. Dedicated to key lessons from her long-standing career as a writer, feminist activist, and Chair of the Free University of Women in Milan, Melandri discussed the acclaimed film Scuola Senza Fine (School Without End) directed by Adriana Monti (1983), in conversation with Maddalena.
EVA WEINMAYR TO CO-EDIT PARSE JOURNAL ISSUE 20
Eva Weinmayr, as part of the current artistic research project Ecologies of Dissemination – decolonial knowledge practice, feminist methodology, open access, a collaboration with Femke Snelting, will be co-editing PARSE Journal issue 20 (Platform for Artistic Research Sweden) forthcoming in autumn 2024. The issue titled ‘Ecologies of Dissemination’ centres on potential strategies of dissemination that acknowledge the tensions and overlaps between feminist methodologies, decolonial knowledge practices, and principles of open access. Concerned with how the current drive to openness in dissemination policies might overlook relational aspects, it seeks to develop non-universalist policies, agreements, frameworks, licences that consider that there might be ethical reasons to refrain from release and re-use. Recently, Eva also gave a talk titled ‘Noun to Verb – the micro-politics of publishing’ at the Estonian Museum of Modern Art in Tallinn.
JANNEKE ADEMA JOINS EDITORIAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE (EAC) FOR COVENTRY OPEN PRESS
Janneke Adema has been invited to join the Editorial Advisory Committee (EAC) of the recently launched Coventry Open Press. As co-editor of the Journal of Electronic Publishing, Janneke is also editing a special issue on Publishing and Climate Justice, which asks whether the publishing industry as a whole has really reflected on its own complicity in the climate emergency and on the long-term sustainability of its knowledge production and distribution practices. The Call for Papers is now live with abstract submissions due on 30 April.
UPCOMING EVENTS
FUNDING SECURED FOR ARTS IN SOLIDARITY EVENT
Professor Mel Jordan secured Research England Development Funding for an up-and-coming impact event at CASCO Arts, Utrecht, Netherlands. The event entitled ‘Arts in Solidarity: Navigating Funding Constraints and Shifting Paradigms of Growth and Competition’ is generated through work carried out on for the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Funded project, ‘Spatial Practices in Art and ArChitecture for Empathetic Exchange’ (SPACEX). SPACEX is a key ArtSpaceCity project that brings together 29 international partners to participate in cross sector secondments, work package meetings, training events, and workshops. The event builds on Jordan’s recent journal article ‘Depoliticization, participation and social art practice: On the function of social art practice for politicization’ in Art & the Public Sphere, 11:1, pp. 19–36, 2022. Along with members of the Partisan Social Club, Jordan will be making a series of three new artworks for the event.
8TH MARCH 2024 - WORKING WOMEN ON SCREEN AT THE BFI
Professor Adrienne Evans will be part of a roundtable discussion at the BFI along with Dr. Hannah Hamad (Cardiff University), Dr. Louise Coopey (University of Birmingham), Dr. Eleonora Sammartino (University of Southampton), and the editors of the new book Working Women on Screen. The event will celebrate International Women’s Day 2024 and Professor Evans will reflect on her contribution to the book, titled ‘“The person inside has experienced the most change…”: The labour of fitness, positivity and narratives of suffering’. Booking is available here:
12TH - 14TH MARCH 2024 - BI-MONTHLY READING GROUPS
Dr. Marjo Kolehmainen, Academy Research Fellow at the University of Turku, Finland, will be joining the Postdigital Intimacies theme on the 12th, 13th and 14th March 2024 for a week of research exchange and ideas. As part of the visit Postdigital Intimacies has an open invitation to our bi-monthly reading groups, at which Dr. Kolehmainen with explore her co-authored European Journal of Cultural Studies article ‘Affective labour of creating atmospheres’ with us (https://doi.org/10.1177/1367549419886021). She will also be presenting research from her Research Council of Finland funded project ‘Networked Care: Intimate Matters in Online Mental Health Support’ at a seminar titled Intimate Issues: Postdigital Intimacies and Mental Health Care.
Please contact Professor Adrienne Evans (adrienne.evans@coventry.ac.uk) for more details, times, and locations.
14 MARCH 2024 - POSTDIGITAL INTIMACIES AND THE NETWORKED PUBLIC-PRIVATE HYBRID WORKSHOPS
The first of two hybrid workshops for the forthcoming edited collection Postdigital Intimacies and the Networked Public-Private will take place on 14 March 2024. Co-edited by Professor Adrienne Evans, Professor Jessica Ringrose (UCL), Dr. Jamie Hakim (Kings College), Dr. Amy Dobson (Curtin, Perth) and Professor Shaka McGlotten (Purchase College, NY), and published open access by UCL Press, the edited collection brings together contributions from the AHRC Postdigital Intimacies and the Networked Public-Private Network (Evans, PI) and generates a ‘state-of-the-field’ account of postdigital intimacies research to orient new and emerging scholars and define future directions. At the workshop, the aim is to enrich contributions, with authors collaboratively work through chapters and providing a holistic and networked understanding of the book. The hybrid writing workshops are funded by the Research Excellence Development Fund.
