Eduardo Navas

Call for papers for special issue on Forking Paths in New Media Art Practices: Investigating Remix for Media-N Journal

We invite paper proposals for a peer reviewed special themed issue for Media-N Journal titled “Forking Paths in New Media Art Practices: Investigating Remix.” Inspired by Jorge Luis Borges’s short story “The Garden of Forking Paths,” this issue aims to include essays that function as samples of the sprawling role remix continues to have on cultural production beyond the arts. Contributions to this issue will focus on in-depth evaluations of remix in the digital arts as part of the wider interdisciplinary spectrum among the arts, humanities, and social sciences.

Remix studies is a field of research that, with the implementation of digital technology, increasingly bridges creative media practice across various areas of research and production. Over the last decade, the rise of remix as a cultural activity has been explored in a number of international conferences with the aim of evaluating its importance beyond music, thus crossing over to various fields in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. Remix as an interdisciplinary subject of research has found its way through many forking paths to appear across different peer reviewed journals; yet it has seldom received attention as a dedicated topic for journal issues. For this reason, we request papers for a Media -N special issue on Remix with a focus on its diverging influence on criticality in digital media. The issue will reflect on, and be an indirect update on, subjects previously discussed in the Media-N issue “Found, Sampled, Stolen: Strategies of Appropriation in New Media,” FALL 2012: V.08 N.02. Since the previous Media-N special issue, remix has evolved to become both a subject of research and practice beyond the arts; therefore, the aim is to include interdisciplinary contributions that come from diverse and unexpected paths across different fields of research and practice. The goal is to reflect on the broad effects of remix as an interdisciplinary cultural activity, and how this broadening reshapes remix practice in the visual arts, particularly digital media.

We look forward to the inclusion of scholarly essays (approximately 5-7k words) as well as focused studies of creative projects (approximately 2-4k words). The essay proposals can vary in terms of their focus as long as they directly relate to the role of remix in digital art or creativity.

Questions for potential contributors to consider include but are not be limited to:

How do creative individuals and collaborative groups relate to creative practices now that remixing has become fairly common and is acknowledged across various areas of culture?
What type of changes has remixing experienced as it is increasingly used across networks for diverse purposes?
What are the implications of remix as a proper field of research that also influences different disciplines?
How do practitioners utilize remix as a strategy—for instance, for disruption, change, or communication?
How does remix creativity impact so-called ‘original’ content creation and where does the line exist between derivative work, plagiarism, and originality in new media art?
What are the implications for political / media credibility and accountability in an age when advanced technologies and remix creativity can be used to significantly alter political speech and journalistic media broadcasts for artistic purposes?
What is the future of remix itself as a creative paradigm?
How does remix function in education, from early childhood to college?
How does remix function in relation to fake news and/or deep fakes?
What role does remix play in the ongoing emergence of Artificial Intelligence and machine learning?
Artists and scholars are invited to contribute essays, reflections, interviews, and experimental forms of publications relevant to remix as both a field of research and practice.

Please submit a 250 word abstract by [November 31, 2019]. We will request full papers of 2000 – 7000 words (see above), which will be due by [March 31, 2020]

Please forward any questions and your submissions to remixstudies@gmail.com



About:

Eduardo Navas, Owen Gallagher and xtine burrough are artists and researchers focusing on remix's role in art and culture. Their collaborations can be found at http://remixstudies.com

The Routledge Companion to Remix Studies comprises contemporary texts by key authors and artists who are active in the emerging field of remix studies. As an organic international movement, remix culture originated in the popular music culture of the 1970s, and has since grown into a rich cultural activity encompassing numerous forms of media.

The act of recombining pre-existing material brings up pressing questions of authenticity, reception, authorship, copyright, and the techno-politics of media activism. This book approaches remix studies from various angles, including sections on history, aesthetics, ethics, politics, and practice, and presents theoretical chapters alongside case studies of remix projects. The Routledge Companion to Remix Studies is a valuable resource for both researchers and remix practitioners, as well as a teaching tool for instructors using remix practices in the classroom.