CFP: Special Issue of Visual Studies on New Visual Technologies

CALL FOR PAPERS: Special Issue of Visual Studies

TITLE: New Visual Technologies – Shifting Boundaries, Shared Moments

LINK TO FULL CALL: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/cfp/rvstcfp.pdf

GUEST EDITORS: Connor Graham, Eric Laurier, Vincent O'Brien, Mark Rouncefield

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SYNOPSIS
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This special issue of Visual Studies aims to explore the implications of the wide range of
contemporary and emerging visual technologies for social groups, professions and
institutions. Visual technology has been and is being transformed in a number of areas:
carriers (e.g. cellular networks, the Internet), production technologies (e.g. digital
camcorders and cameras, mobile phones), display technologies (e.g. public displays,
mobile phone projectors) and services (e.g. Flickr, MMS, blogs), Of particular interest for
this special issue is the dissolving boundaries of exchange and media mobilities that these
transformations entail. New visual technologies (e.g. the Internet) now support sharing of
visual media across geographical regions, temporal zones and cultural conventions. This
not only has implications for how boundaries between individual (e.g. friends) and groups
(e.g. different households) are defined but also for how these boundaries are managed
through the use of different forms of media. Some examples of this are the visual
narratives portrayed in digital photographs on Flickr and snippets of video on YouTube.
Such visual technologies can be used to maintain family through the remote,
asynchronous sharing of digital photos or to bring home the experience and impact of a
particular event.

This special issue represents an exploration of both new visual technologies material form
and their content-carrying capabilities across different settings as well as how these
technologies interlock and interweave with more traditional visual (e.g. paper photos) and
written technologies (e.g. text on paper) to achieve particular purposes. We wish to
gather articles on new visual technologies which represent forays into visual research,
explorations of the visual aspects of culture, as well as new or adaptations to existing
methods and methodologies for investigating particular social worlds. Submissions can
include uses of digital photography and video and other new visual media in domestic,
community and leisure settings.

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SUBMISSIONS
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Appropriate longer submissions include:

* Extended reports from the field studies using visual and other technologies;
* Critical literature reviews of uses of visual technologies in other studies;
* Discursive pieces exploring themes in visual technology use and/or their potential in
particular settings;
* Developments of existing/proposal of new methods/methodologies.

Shorter submissions can include:
* Reflections on approaches and methods;
* Opinion pieces;
* Early reports on studies of technologies in situ;
* Design proposals addressing particular themes.

Given the topic of the special issue and the nature of the journal, visual materials (e.g.
photographs, screen shots, figures) are encouraged as an integral part of submissions.

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SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS
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Submitting authors should conform with the journal's guidelines including copyright
guidelines available from: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/journal.asp?issn=1472-
586X&linktype=44. Papers can either be long submissions of between 7,000 and 8,000
words or shorter papers of between to 2,000 and 3,000 words. Papers should be
submitted via email to Connor Graham at cgraham@unimelb.edu.au.

Information on the Visual Studies journal is available from:
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/1472586X.asp. Please contact Connor Graham
(cgraham@unimelb.edu.au) if you have any questions.

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KEY DATES
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15th February 2010 : Papers due*
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31st July 2010 : Final notification:
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late 2010/early 2011: Target Publication
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*2400 (EST) to cgraham [at] unimelb.edu.au