Midlands Multidisciplinary Meet-up: Culture and Heritage in the Digital Age

The British Academy Early Career Researcher Network brings together ECRs across the humanities and social sciences disciplines, regardless of their funding source or background.

Midlands Multidisciplinary Meetup: Culture and Heritage in the Digital Age

Date and Time: 27 and 28 March 2023

Location: The Exchange, Birmingham

The aim of this two-day event is to bring Early Career Researchers in the region working on Culture and Heritage in the Digital Age together with senior academics and industry professionals, to learn from each other and foster new collaborations through a mix of keynote speakers, workshops, demonstrations and network opportunities. We invite people interested in presenting their work to broadly interpret the theme to include the use of new and emerging art forms and technologies, and their impact within the culture and heritage sectors (see CFP details below). We are thrilled to announce two confirmed keynote speakers:

Professor Beryl Graham – Emeritus Professor of New Media Art at the University of Sunderland, and co-founder and editor of CRUMB, the resource for curators of new media art. Professor Graham curated the international exhibition Serious Games for the Laing and Barbican art galleries, and has worked with The Exploratorium, San Francisco, and San Francisco Camerawork. She has been an invited speaker at conferences including Navigating Intelligence (Banff Centre for the Arts, Canada), Decoding the Digital (Victoria and Albert Museum), and Cultural Value and the Digital (Tate Modern).

Maxime Durand – World-Design Director, Ubisoft Montréal. Maxime began his career directly at Ubisoft Montreal as a historian supporting game productions, providing teams with his expertise in history, archaeology and popularization of science. He has been involved in the Assassin's Creed series highlighting various historical periods for the enjoyment of millions of players. He is one of the instigators of Discovery Tour, an inclusive platform to visit games while learning about history and which is being used by many teachers as a fun and efficient learning tool. Maxime is involved in the academic sphere and is participating in research projects, museum projects, conferences and international presentations.

Call for papers/contributions

We welcome proposals for presentations and demonstrations from ECRs in the region in the following sub-themes, relating to the general theme:

• ​Digitising spaces, places and artefacts: e.g. digital archives, museums and galleries
• Digital communities and ownership: e.g. social spaces, sharing, co-authorship
• The future of AI: beyond the hype: e.g. computer generated content, implications for creators and consumers
• From COVID to the unknown: e.g. potential and challenges of the digital in/post crisis, lessons learnt from the use of digital technologies during the pandemic
• (Re)engaging physical and/or digitally remote audiences: e.g. the use of technology to create new and engaging content
• The future of the metaverse / virtual, augmented, and mixed reality: e.g. potential and challenges, digital selves, implications for the cultural and heritage sectors
• Serious games: e.g. education, information and recreation
• Cross-disciplinary collaboration and/or working with external stakeholders: e.g. best practice and lessons learned

This event offers ECRs the opportunity to present their work in three different formats:

1. Academic papers: ECRs are invited to submit abstracts for paper presentations within the above sub-categories. Please specify how your paper relates to the sub-category and general theme and if you like to present for 10 or 20 minutes.

2. Demonstrations, Performances, Screenings and other Artistic Works: We welcome artistic expressions from practice-based researchers and other researchers engaging in creative research methods and research output, to reflect the varied and create nature of research within the arts, humanities and social sciences. If appropriate please provide an indication of how many hours/minutes your performance/demo/screening takes.

3. Other formats of presentation: We welcome suggestions of alternative and innovative methods of presenting research.

How to submit a proposal

Proposals should include:

• The name(s) of presenter(s);
• Contact email address;
• Institutional affiliation, if any;
• Short biography of no more than 50 words;
• Your contribution category (e.g. academic paper, demo, other) and the sub-theme under which you are submitting;
• Title and abstract of no more than 250 words;
• A full list of any technical requirements and if appropriate the time;

Please send your proposals by email to j.mills8@wlv.ac.uk and t.pijnaker@bham.ac.uk on or before Monday 20 February 2023.

While all ECRs in the region are invited to attend the conference, unfortunately we might not be able to give everybody the opportunity to present their work. Thank you for understanding.

The British Academy is able to provide travel support and if necessary, accommodation support for the event. For details please mail ecr_network@thebritishacademy.ac.uk or t.pijnaker@bham.ac.uk.

SCHEDULE

Monday 27th March
9.30: Registration, tea and coffee (Assembly Room)

9:30: Set up demos (Mary Sturge Room)

10.15: Welcome and introduction (Assembly Room)

10:30: Keynote: Professor Beryl Graham ‘Critical Digital and the PostDoc Condition: 'Have fun and change things' (Assembly Room)

12:00: Lunch and networking (Assembly Room)

12:00: Demonstrations (Mary Sturge Room)

13:00:
Panel A - Digital Innovation and Mediation: Immersion and Engagement (Chair – Antonio Roberts) - followed by panel Q&A (Assembly Room)
1.10 Lora Markova
1.30 Joshua Blamire
1.50 Joanne Mills

14:30: Coffee and tea (Assembly Room)

14:30: Demonstrations (Mary Sturge Room)

15:00: Panel B – Serious Games and Education (Chair – Dr Esther Wright) - followed by panel Q&A (Assembly Room)
15.10 David White 
15.30 Marc Bosward  
15.50 Sherezade Rangel 

16.30: Johnny Digby – British Academy Policy Team (Assembly Room)
Laura Cole, Lauren Watson and Rachel Porteous: ‘Games Hub: Developing pathways to academic gamification’.

Tuesday 28th March

10:30: Keynote: Maxime Durand ‘What have videogames ever done for us?’ (Assembly Room)

12:00: Lunch and networking (Assembly Room)

13:00: Workshop: Maxime Durand ‘Creating a digital experience to engage audiences’ (Assembly Room)

15:00: Comfort Break

15:15: Dr Claire Bailey-Ross: ‘Connectivity and Collaboration in Digital Heritage’ (Assembly Room)

16:00: Reflections and wrap-up (Assembly Room)

The Network can cover travel and accommodation expenses for ECRs, speakers and partners to attend the event. This can be done in two ways: you can cover the costs and be reimbursed or this can be booked for you and details will be sent. If you require the latter you will need to let the team know 3 weeks before the event to give us enough time to book this for you. If you would like your expenses covered either way, fill in a copy of our Travel and Expenses procedure form available on the online community platform or by sending us an email at ecr_network@thebritishacademy.ac.uk.

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