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FuseBox 08

Introduction to FuseBox 08

Similar to conceptual art in which the idea involved in the work takes precedence over material concerns, the FUSEBOX 08 event propositions that media art can also be practiced by putting new emphasis on the presentation of the idea, or concept behind media art through a reductionist approach, i.e. “unplugged media art”. The concept of festival is thus reduced to a conceptual artwork that challenges the viewer to see the idea as artwork through the magnifying lens of the senses. The artworks presented still rely on the art object to make an impact, but remain in principal conceptual because they emphasize that the idea behind them is more important the scale of their presentation. The common theme that therefore runs through all of the artworks selected for FUSEBOX 08 is the idea of ‘cultural transfer’, or how shifted identities can be traced back to cultural assimilation as it appears as an artefact in works of art. The exhibition therefore reveals a sympathetic stance toward Asian culture, which acts as a unifying rubric that creates a joint collective identity between both cultures.

- Art Clay, Artistic Director

FuseBox 08

Online worlds as media and communication format

Call for papers: Online worlds as media and communication format

Special issue. Guest editor: Kjetil Sandvik, University of Copenhagen
Submission deadline: February 1, 2009
Publication date: Fall 2009
Used for gaming and/or social networking, the avatar-navigated, 3D, Online World has emerged as a reasonably stable, digital medium. Accordingly, a number of academic perspectives have emerged, e.g., the ludological, sociological, economic, and narratological perspectives. The complex nature of the medium seem to invite a multi-disciplinary approach, or at least a multi-disciplinary openness on part of the media studies community. With this special issue on Online Worlds, we would like to take stock of the medium; the challenges it possess as an object of studies, and the possibilities it contains for furthering media and communications studies.

Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):
• Online Worlds as a methodological challenge to media studies and/or communications studies.
• Online Worlds as a challenge to our concepts of communication, e.g. the avatar-based communication as online face-to-face communication• Cross-media tendencies in Online Worlds: connecting worlds, facilitating new media-networks, integrating new media systems etc.
• The multi-player, multi-vocal, collaborative and play-centric media platform of Online Worlds as a challenge to strategic communication.