Events

Intersections of art, creative practice, copyright, storytelling and technology.

December 4th-6th, 2024, University of Technology Sydney, Australia

Submissions are being sought for Hacking Visual Culture, a 2-day conference and exhibition hosted by the Faculty of Law and Creative Practice Research Group (Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences) at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). This event encourages a diversity of research proposals bringing together scholarly research with creative practice-based research and artistic endeavours.

The conference will explore the complex and evolving relationship between creativity, copyright law, artistic practices, storytelling and technological innovation in the data-driven, digital age. As the boundaries between the physical and virtual realms blur, traditional notions of ownership, authorship, and dissemination are challenged, prompting urgent questions about the future of creative and cultural expressions and their relationship with copyright law.

We invite papers, presentations, installations and artistic interventions which address (but are not limited to) the following themes:

• Workers in the Machine: How are the affordances, complexities, and opportunities of generative AI, and other computational and infrastructural modes of visualisation, impacting upon the creative and cultural industries? How does this impact workers in arts, culture, and technology and are new creator ecosystems emerging?
• Voice and agency: How can creatives retain control over their work in the digital marketplace? What role can alternative licensing models, extra-legal strategies such as NFTs, and artist-driven initiatives play in empowering creators?
• Digital colonialism: where is the line between ‘art’, ‘culture’ and ‘knowledge’? Does copyright enable new forms of colonialism through digitisation? Does copyright contribute to new knowledge inequities?
• Access and democratisation: How can copyright policy promote equitable access to creative and/or cultural works and foster a diverse and vibrant digital ecosystem for art and culture?
• Transformations in contemporary visual culture: What are the ways in which artists disrupt and destabilise machine-generated images? How is artificial intelligence (AI) impacting storytelling, narrative, and contemporary visual culture?
• The impact of new technologies: How are emerging technologies like blockchain, artificial intelligence, and augmented reality shaping the creation, distribution and consumption of art? What are the copyright implications of these technologies?
• Copyright concepts and artistic practices: How do different disciplines/different cultures/different eras conceptualise notions such as “original” and “copy”, and what does copying mean in different contexts?
• New stories / New audiences: How are data visualisations and immersive media experiences redefining screen storytelling today? How do these technologically-driven stories alter the relationship between the work and the audience? What is the impact?

We welcome submissions from academics, creative practice-based researchers, artists working in the above fields, legal scholars, technologists, policymakers, and all those interested in the intersection of creativity, copyright, art, storytelling and technology. We encourage diverse perspectives and approaches, including theoretical frameworks, case studies, and empirical research. PGR/PhD students are particularly encouraged to submit proposals: there is a planned PGR networking evening event.

• We welcome creative interventions and artistic practices and forms including photographic, moving image, spatial media, virtual reality, XR, and other forms of immersive media. At UTS we have the following bespoke media spaces to exhibit recent or new works for this event:
• The conference will have exhibition components within the UTS Data Arena which is a 360-degree interactive data visualisation facility on campus. If you propose to use this space, ensure you include this in your submission.
• The UTS Broadway Screen, pixel dimensions (5760 x 1080 mpeg4 file, 25 frames per second, under 2 Gb). If you propose to use this large format screen, ensure you include this in your submission.
• In addition, there is gallery-style installation space for media arts and visual arts-based submissions. If you are proposing an installation, ensure you include this in your submission.

Submission Guidelines:

• Abstracts: Please submit abstracts of no more than 300 words, outlining your proposed paper, presentation, or artistic intervention. Please also submit a short biography and 2-page CV.
• If you are proposing an artwork or creative practice research based work, include a 200 word statement noting its proposed completion date and technical requirements for public display.
• Deadline for submissions: 17 June 2024
• Email address for submissions: artechlaw@gmail.com (please use “Hacking Visual Culture submission” as the subject line)

Acceptances will be communicated by: 15 July 2024

Join us for a stimulating and thought-provoking exploration of the past, present, and future of creativity, art, copyright, storytelling, and technology!

This event is funded by an ARC Discovery Project grant and there will be no charge for attendees

For any questions contact:

Professor Isabella Alexander (isabella.alexander@uts.edu.au), UTS Law

Associate Professor Alex Munt (alex.munt@uts.edu.au), FASS Creative Practice Research Group