CAS Sofia is pleased to invite you to the international workshop "Digital Creativity in Times of Crisis: Bulgarian Networked Culture in Global Contexts". The event is to be held at the Centre for Advanced Study Sofia on 15-16 November 2013, at 7B, Stefan Karadja Str., Sofia, Bulgaria.
"Digital Icons: Studies in Russian, Eurasian and Central European New Media" invites submissions for a planned special issue of the journal and an associated workshop to be held in Sofia, Bulgaria in November 2013. (http://www.digitalicons.org/forthcoming/)
Digital and networked communication technologies have evolved into a mass phenomenon everywhere in the world in the past two decades. The so called ‘new media’ continue to be ‘new’ thanks to the rapid changes in usage patterns and social functions, for example, in terms of political mobilization. At the same time, distinct historical narratives of digital culture and its dynamics have emerged.
From the outset the development of digital and networked communication technologies has been related to two factors: crisis and creativity. For example, the early development of CMC and ICT in the United States is linked to the politics of the Cold War, on the one hand, and to American alternative culture with its playfulness and inventiveness, on the other. In Central and Eastern Europe the proliferation of CMC and ICT has coincided with a period of radical political transformations.
This special issue aims to investigate the significance of digital creativity at times of crisis, both in the historical and contemporary contexts, and considers Bulgaria as its main case study.
The special issue of Digital Icons aims to explore the following questions:
* What are the characteristics of the early infrastructural, economic and cultural development of the internet in Southeast Europe and in Bulgaria?
* What kind of historical narratives of digital culture in Bulgaria and the region have emerged?
* To what extent are the specific dynamics of digital communication and ICT development in Bulgaria and in the region informed or shaped by real or imagined political, economical or cultural crises?
* In what ways do digital technologies and creative industries embody reactions to and escape from economic and political crises?
* Are creative communication techniques used for social mobilization a reaction to political crises?
* How do digital artistic projects react to the phenomenon of political, economic and cultural crises?
The special issue invites both academic and artistic submissions, as well as interviews and digital memoirs. For example, you may submit artworks devoted to the emergence of digital and networked culture as well as interviews with participants and actors of Bulgarian web culture. Digital Icons provides a unique platform for the publication of texts with different kinds of expertise as it has sections for scholarly, artistic and anthropological examinations of the internet.
The issue will be published in English. For more details regarding the publications see ‘Information for Authors’.
The editors also invite submissions for an accompanying workshop to be held at the Centre for Advanced Study in Sofia on 15-16 November, 2013. The purpose of the workshop is to provide a platform for a discussion of the research questions listed above and to facilitate engagement with the broader public.
Unfortunately the organizers of the Sofia workshop cannot cover travel and accommodation costs of the participants. The language of the workshop will be English. The selection of the participants in the workshop will be made on the basis of their submissions. For publication in the DI special issue submissions will be additionally peer-reviewed. Participation in the workshop is not required for submission and publication of materials in the special issue of Digital Icons.
Deadline for expression of interest in the workshop in Sofia: 25 October 2013.
Deadline for submissions: 30 October 2013.
Anticipated date of publication: July 2014.
To discuss your submission please contact:
Henrike Schmidt:
Orlin Spassov:
When submitting your work, please include the following information: a biographical statement (100-120 words in English) and an abstract/description of the submission (or the first paragraph of the essay if appropriate) (about 150 words in English).