Call for Papers, Architectural Concepts and Media Art Projects
MEDIACITY – Situations, Practices and Encounters
Conference of the MEDIACITY project
Bauhaus-Universität Weimar
18-19th January 2008

The conference will investigate how the social settings and spaces of the city are created, experienced and practiced through the use and presence of new media. We will take the position that new media enables different settings, practices and behaviours to occur in urban space. These media create opportunities for diverse forms of connections between people and spaces and enable and create flows; of information, of communication and of knowledge.

The conference will consist of three parallel sessions and a workshop, which will explore these themes in a focussed way. We invite papers for the conference and less formal presentations on practices for the workshop session from academics, practitioners, activists close to disciplines such as media studies, architecture, urban studies, cultural and urban geography and sociology – using in innovative ways and reflecting critically on processes, methods and impacts of public participation and technologies in urban realm, within their theoretical and practical research, teaching, or activism roles.

Submission
Please submit a paper of between 2 and 4 pages as an extended abstract. The conference language will be English. Papers will be submitted to external review.

Outcomes
Selected papers from the conference will be published in a post-conference volume.

Important Dates
1st October 2007: Extended Abstracts dues
1st November 2007: Acceptance notification
18-19th January 2008: Conference

Contact and submissions: info(at)mediacityproject.com
Website: www.mediacityproject.com

Organizers
Prof. Frank Eckardt, Chair of Sociology of Globalization, Faculty of Architecture
Prof. Jens Geelhaar, Chair of Interface Design, Faculty of Media
Katharine S. Willis, Research Fellow
Laura Colini, Research Fellow
Konstantinos Chorianopoulos, Research Fellow
Ralf Hennig, Researcher, Co-ordination

The IPCity proposal to organise a workshop during CHI 2008 in Florence, Italy has been accepted. The one day workshop will be held on the 6th of April and in addition to IPCity members two outside experts have also been invited onto the programme committee. For more information see the IPCity website.

CHI2008: http://www.chi2008.org
MR workshop: https://websites.fraunhofer.de/Ipcity_eu/workshop
CHI workshop page http://www.chi2008.org/workshopParticipants.html
CHI format page http://www.chi2008.org/formatting.html

The Street Beat music tour of Berlin is currently being tested. The system takes people on a tour of the underground culture of Berlin. The tests are ongoing and so far around eight people have taken part, more are expected over the coming weeks.

The first usability and presence tests for Timewarp took place in Cologne during August. Around eight people took part and they had a chance to meet the Heinzelmenchen of Cologne, some members of the public also expressed an interest with a group of children shouting “Cyborg” at one study participant. Further tests are planned.