What, when & where
Beyond Adaptation. Theories, Forms and Aesthetic of Media Transcoding
L’Aquila, Italy, 4-5 febbraio 2019
The international conference “Beyond Adaptation. Theories, Forms and Aesthetic of Media Transcoding” aims at promoting in a full-ranging debate on modes of transcoding a text into another semiotic frame. To do so, we shall take into account the modalities of adaptation, as well as its most recent formal and procedural developments, with particular regard to ways and forms of intermediality and transmediality.
Our aim is to pay special attention to the patterns occurring during the transition from one medium to another, in a context in which there is a close interrelationship between literary and audiovisual artistic languages; a context in which long-standing media and technological innovations produce storytelling narration that hybridise codes and languages (book, movies, television; but also contemporary art, video installations, videogames, Internet and its creative uses, such as fandom, memes, online videos, webseries and so on). Moreover, if we consider intermediality – a widespread notion in the academic international debate by now, which provides for a text of any kind (literary, audiovisual, theatrical, ecc.) including languages, forms, styles, codes and aesthetics from several media, within a relation of integration, cooperation and complementarity. This modus operandi can be found in several experimental visual forms, such as in performing arts, multimedia plays, videomapping installations (which put back the movie experience in specific urban architectural contexts), selected applications of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality technologies. In addition to intermediality, a “transmedia” approach has increasingly taken shape: such an approach envisages a narration expanding throughout different media arranged in a converging, interrelated way (transmedia storytelling).
How does the theory of adaptation deal with such formal and procedural developments? What is left of the idea of adaptation among traditional media? What requires, instead, a theoretical recalibration, starting from digital evolution in media environments and ensuing narrative practices? What is the artistic and communicative extent of the increasing interrelation between different media, which leads an artwork to become a brand, readapted into a wider network? How do both kinetic and static features – crucial for the realisation of an artwork – modify, intersect and evolve across adaptation? How do we deal with adaptations stretching toward interactivity? Is it possible to reduce the distance from the audience through digital media?
Deadline & how to apply
Submission deadline: December 8th, 2018
Proposals must be submitted to the following address: adaptationsconference2019@gmail.com
We accept only proposals containing: a 500 words abstract, 5 keywords, a short biographical profile and a valid email address.
Notification of acceptance: December 31th, 2018
Duration of the talk: 20 minutes each (excluding questions and answers)
Languages accepted: Italian, English
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