DRHA 2022 : Digital Research in the Humanities and Arts Conference

CALL FOR PAPERS: DRHA 22 Kingston School of Art

Welcome to DRHA 2022, taking place from September 4-7, 2022 in Kingston-on-Thames, Greater London, and hosted by Kingston School of Art. The theme for the 26th annual DRHA conference is:

DIGITAL SUSTAINABILITY: FROM RESILIENCE TO TRANSFORMATION

DRHA –the 26th Annual Conference for Digital Research in the Humanities and Arts –will bring together artists, scholars, educators, curators, digital researchers, and entrepreneurs interested in the ways digital technology intersects with the arts and humanities. The 2022 conference theme is ‘Digital Sustainability’ in light of the immediate challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic and the longer-term shadow of climate catastrophe.

Since its outbreak in early 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic has been a crisis permeating all types of human activity. It could, thus, be conceived as a distinct hyper-phenomenon –perhaps, the first of its kind in recent history. The creative and cultural industries represent one of the sectors hardest hit by this global health crisis. Venue-based creative practices around the world have been severely affected by closures and social distancing measures (museums, galleries, theatres, performing arts, live music, festivals, cinemas, etc.). The abrupt drop in revenue has put their sustainability at risk, and the effects are expected to be long-lasting. At the same time, the outbreak of the pandemic has coincided with the increasingly present effects of climate catastrophe, with 2020 being pronounced the hottest year on record. Together these brought increased focus on the dual questions of sustainability and resilience.

During Covid-19 lockdowns around the globe, digital technology applications captured our imagination through their potential to support us in enduring isolation and help the cultural and creative sector survive closures and restrictions.
Innovations in emerging technologies such as distributed immersive environments and Artificial Intelligence (AI), as well as established technologies such as live streaming, social media, and online social platforms, provided the means of connecting people, distributing content, and moving social and cultural experiences online. UNESCO argues that the Covid-19 crisis reminds us that “we should nurture the socially beneficial aspects of digital technologies” and focus on improving access in parts of the world where it’s lacking.

The conference programme will include paper sessions, keynotes, panel discussions, performances, workshops, and a curated art exhibition. Therefore, we seek contributions in the form of papers, panels, performances, workshops or artworks that address the conference theme. Subjects addressed by the proposals may include:
Digital diversity and accessibility in the post-pandemic world
The rise of new digital inequalities and how to confront them
Digital fatigue and digital exhaustion
The Global North and Global South perspectives on digital sustainability
Collaboration and co-creation in digital and hybrid environments
The re-invention of online communities
Online open practices
Digital pedagogies for the arts and humanities
Digital ‘maker culture’
Exploring the intersections of the Covid-19 pandemic and climate catastrophe
Digital innovation as a tool of tackling climate crisis
Digital performance
The migration of cultural content online
The impact of Covid-19 pandemic on forms of cultural practice, particularly through the use of digital technologies
Digital intimacies and the broadcasting of domestic environments
New economic models for the creative industries
‘All the world is a digital stage’: the agency of digital audiences, participants and contributors
Reviewing globalisation in the aftermath of Covid-19
Digital sustainability and decolonisation
Necessity as the mother of invention: digital new ‘everything’ (?)

The conference’s art exhibition and cultural programme will be curated in collaboration with Stanley Picker Gallery and Dorich House Museum, both part of Kingston University.

Selected contributions will be collated and published as Affiliated Issue 19.2 of the International Journal of Performance Art and Digital Media (Taylor & Francis, 2013).

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Please submit an abstract of up to 500 words accompanied by a short biography of up to 150 words. For artworks and performances, please also submit images, videos, space requirements and installation plans if relevant.

We accept submissions via EasyChair. Please follow submission link on the website.

Submissions open on 15 February 2022.

Deadline: Friday 1 April 2022