[artinfo] Call for Contributions VideoVortex XII

[Barbara Dubbeldam]

Call for Contributions
VideoVortex XII, Malta
Conference: September 27-28, 2019
Exhibition:  6 September until 10 November (in Gallery, space C)

Deadline: 31st January 2019
Please submit to: submissions at vv12.org
Website: http://vv12.org

VideoVortex, an artistic network that deals with 
the aesthetics and politics of online video, will 
gather again, this time in Malta, for a two day 
conference/event. There will be a seperate 
exhibtion (from early September to early November 
2019), curated in partnership between Spazju 
Kreattiv and Video Vortex, to be held in the 
gallery spaces of Spazju Kreattiv 
(https://www.kreattivita.org), particularly to 
enable Malta-based participants to engage 
significantly with the conference delegates' work 
before and after the conference.

We are interested in the sharing of propositions, 
research, speculations, video and film work that 
responds to current debates in film, video, 
media, networks, and game theory, while being 
particularly attentive to the implications that 
technologies of live video, virtual reality, 
augmented reality, and artificial intelligence 
have for the future of video & media cultures.

If you want to get involved, contribute to the 
conference, exhibition or screening program, 
please send us a proposal on submissions at vv12.org.

Topics:
1) Video cultures on social media/mobile 
platforms (Facebook Live, Instagram, Snapchat, 
Smart phone aesthetics)
- Streaming realtime video & streaming platforms
- Surveillance Cinema
2) Online video, activism and migration
- Automated and algorithmic filmmaking (AI), bots, online video archives
- Drone aesthetics (e.g. Wiki loves monuments)
3) Digital preservation of online video (archives / curating)
- Use of online video in the established film industry

Films, videos & curated screening programs:
Filmmakers and video artists are invited to 
submit work that addresses the themes and 
concepts outlined here. curators are invited to 
propose short screening programs of up to 3 hours 
that showcase video/film in response to the 
themes outlined.

Workshop proposals:
We invite video practitioners, artists, 
researchers, scientists, content producers and 
theorists to submit proposals for workshops that 
explore critical making as a mode of critique and 
inquiry. We are particularly interested in 
hearing from those working with virtual or 
augmented reality. If you are proposing a 
workshop, please indicate costs for materials, as 
these will have to be built in separately as 
registration fees. All workshop organizers will 
have to make their own arrangements for materials 
required.

Talks & lecture-performances:
We welcome proposals for presentations addressing 
the topics outlined in the call, as well as 
proposals for lecture-performances that play with 
the standard academic form of presentation.

Program committee:
Andreas Treske (Department of Communication and 
Design, Bilkent University, Ankara)
Toni Sant, Justin Galea, Daniel Azzopardi (Spazju Kreattiv, Malta)
Matthew Galea & Adnan Hadzi (Department of Digital Arts, University of Malta)
Barbara Dubbeldam & Geert Lovink (Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam)

Background of VideoVortex

VideoVortex is a network of video makers, geeks, 
activists, artists and researchers that work on 
the politics and aesthetics of online video. The 
initiative was established in 2007 by the 
Institute of Network Cultures in Amsterdam. Video 
technology has radically altered the way in which 
we produce, consume and circulate images, 
influencing the aesthetics and possibilities of 
moving image cultures, as well as yielding a rich 
body of scholarship across various disciplines. 
Given its ease of access and use, video has 
historically been aligned with media activism and 
collaborative work. Video is driving social media 
and the web. It is dominating the internet of 
things. Cameras causing breakdowns in networks. 
Online video became lifelike.

Rapidly changing technological formats implicate 
the urgent need to engage with practices of 
archiving and curation, modes of collaboration & 
political mobilization, as well as fresh 
comprehensions of the subject-spectator, actors & 
networks constituted by contemporary video and 
digital cultures.

Previous events:

videovortex #1: Brussels, Belgium, October 2007
videovortex #2: Amsterdam, the Netherlands, January 2008
videovortex #3: Ankara, Turkey, October 2008
videovortex #4: Split, Croatia, October 2009
videovortex #5: Brussels, Belgium, November 2009
videovortex #6: Amsterdam, the Netherlands, March 2011
videovortex #7: Yogyakarta, Indonesia, July 2011
videovortex #8: Zagreb, Croatia, May 2012
videovortex #9: Lüneburg, Germany, February 2013
videovortex #10: Istanbul, Turkey, September 2014
videovortex #11: Kochi, India, February 2017