Live Cinema III: Exhibition and Demonstrations programme

Call for Participation

Taking place across the week commencing 18thMay, this festival will feature a programme of commissioned live cinema screenings and events, leading academic research, master classes, workshops, an exhibition and demonstration track, Q&A sessions, world premieres of new artistic commissions and exclusive live events.

The event will showcase the creative and critical advances in the multi-faceted field of live cinema which encompasses a diverse range of forms. These include experimental expanded cinema, the global live-casting of theatrical, cultural and entertainment events and live performance during film screenings – indeed any instance of the live augmentation of screen spectatorship. This festival marks a unique historical juncture and provides an opportunity to draw together and reflect upon the many landmark and contemporary moments where the trajectories of liveness and emergent screen technologies have intersected.  It is 50 years since the touchstone publication of Gene Youngblood’s book ‘Expanded Cinema’ which revolutionised notions of cinema-making and viewing through its pioneering consideration of videos, computers and holography as cinematic technologies. Furthermore, it is 30 years since the publication of Philip Auslander’s influential ‘Liveness: Performance in a Mediatized Culture’. The combination of the central ideas of these two works resonate more than everwhen considering the new chimeras of contemporary live screen experience.

We are currently seeking contributions for the exhibition and demonstrations programmewhich will run across the week. We are looking to showcase experimental projects, tools and technologies that are exploringlivenessin relation to contemporary experience design including (but not limited to):

  • New Screen Technologies: VR, AR, XR, 3D, Motion Capture, public screens, mobile devices;
  • Immersion: Second screens, dome screens, CAVE VR, accessible, sensory and inclusive technologies and experiences;
  • Haptics and embodied interfaces: tactile experiences and feedback, wearables, gestural interfaces, visual tactile integration and proprioceptive devices;
  • Interactivity: real-time responsive systems, branching narratives, adaptive experiences, open story worlds, play streaming, location-based content, virtual agents;
  • Affective Computing: brain-computer interfaces, eye tracking, face recognition, emotion recognition, GSR and heartrate monitoring, natural language processing.

Potential contributors should submit a maximum 300 word project outline and technical requirements and a short 100 biography to LiveCinemaFestival2020@gmail.com by 4pm on March 2nd, 2020.  Decisions will be sent out on week commencing 16thMarch, 2020.

Live Cinema III: Festival of Research and Innovationis a collaboration between Live Cinema UK, Live Cinema Network, King’s College London and University of Nottingham.  The LCF2020 demonstrator strand is convened by Sarah Atkinson, Helen W. Kennedy & Sarah Martindale. For further information contact Professor Kennedy, Department of Cultural, Media and Visual Studies at the University of Nottingham. Helen.Kennedy@Nottingham.ac.uk