I first went to MIX in July 2013. It was the second MIX and the first conference I had ever attended. When I arrived, I stood at the bottom of Corsham Court’s long driveway and looked up at one of  the grandest houses I had ever seen; an Elizabethan mansion that houses Bath Spa University’s graduate courses. The grounds had been designed generations ago by Capability Brown and there were peacocks wandering across the lawn.

The conference – which is all about creative writing and technology – was special. At that time I was an independent researcher and gave a paper on collaborative forms of digital authorship. I had never presented at a conference before and didn’t really know the conventions of what was expected. Everyone was supportive; they asked questions about my research, they prompted me to think about my subject in new ways and I met people that I still know today.

Over the years, I have kept coming back to MIX for conversations about digital writing, for the keynotes and workshops, for insights from writers who have worked in the field for decades and from new researchers. Held every two years, this year is the fifth MIX conference. I have now been to dozens of conferences but MIX is still special to me. This year, the conference is returning to Corsham Court, to the peacocks and one of the grandest houses I have ever seen; where I now work.

Returning to Corsham Court means that the conference will be an intimate, single strand version, curated for a smaller audience. We want to bring an international audience to a beautiful corner of Wiltshire for the time to think and the space to talk about the intersections between writing and technology.

This year, I’m  producing the conference, along with Professor Kate Pullinger, Lucy English and Dr Helen Goodman. We are focusing on experiential storytelling, including immersive technologies and new forms of publishing, from transmedia and poetry film to virtual reality to AI in storytelling. We are proud to an announce a packed programme of six panels and our speakers; Guy Gadney, CEO of To Play For and Charisma.ai, a storytelling platform powered by artificial intelligence; Dr Donna Hancox, transmedia and digital storytelling scholar at Queensland Institute of Technology and editor of The Writing Platform; Thomas Zandegiocomo, Artistic Director Zebra Poetry Film Festival, Berlin; and writer Nikesh Shukla.

We think we have curated a MIX that will appeal to new scholars, writers and practitioners attending their first conference and those who have given keynotes all over the world.

We hope you’ll book your ticket and join us. There will be plenty to talk about.

After the success of the last four MIX conferences, MIX 2019 returns to the beautiful surroundings of Bath Spa University’s Corsham Court Campus in Wiltshire on the 1^st and 2^nd July 2019. This year’s conference will be a more intimate, single strand version, curated for a smaller audience to give time and space to instigate conversations around digital writing with a focus on experiential storytelling, including immersive technologies and new forms of publishing, from transmedia and poetry film to virtual reality to AI in storytelling. Confirmed speakers include publisher, Maja Thomas, Chief Innovation Officer, Hachette Innovation Program; Thomas Zandegiocomo, Artistic Director Zebra Poetry Film Festival, Berlin; Guy Gadney, Charisma.ai and writer Nikesh Shukla.

Bath Spa University is the UK’s foremost provider of creative writing programmes at undergraduate, masters and PhD level and MIX is well-established as an innovative forum for the discussion and exploration of writing and technology. MIX has previously attracted an international cohort of contributors from the UK, Australia, and Europe as well as North and South America. MIX is situated within the international research centres, the Centre for Cultural and Creative Industries, in collaboration with the Centre for Media Research, Creative Writing Research Centre, and The Writing Platform.

This year, our conference focuses on experiential storytelling, which encompasses works that foreground the experience of the audience or reader. Within the single-strand programme there will be four themed panels. We would like to encourage the submission of research papers and artist/practitioner presentations on the following topics;

• Emerging forms of digitally-mediated narrative, including projects that use artificial intelligence, machine learning, algorithmic writing practices and locative-aware narratives.
• Poetry film, including the future of poetry film, current developments in social media sharing, current developments in poetry film content and practice.
• Immersive technologies and narrative, including Extended and Mixed Reality, VR, Augmented Reality, and Ambient Literature
• Ethics of Storytelling, including accessibility and appropriation, but also issues around technology and ethics, i.e embodiment in VR, algorithmic bias in cultural works that use AI, etc.

A conference where creative writing and media creation intersect with and/or are dependent upon technology should be as interdisciplinary as possible, and that’s what we are aiming for with MIX 2019. The conference will host a vibrant mix of academic papers, practitioner presentations and keynotes.

We are looking for proposals for 15 minute papers/ presentations or 60 minute panels (composed of three 15 minute papers with time for q&a). Please submit 300 word abstracts for each paper/presentation you are proposing via http://mixconference.org/submit/ by Monday 4th February 2019. We will let you know whether your submission has been successful by the end of February 2019.

Speakers who are selected to present at the conference will be encouraged to develop their papers into innovative, practice-focused outputs published in Bath Spa University’s recently launched International Journal of Creative Media Research. The journal is an interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed and open access journal devoted to pushing forward the approaches to and possibilities for publishing creative media-based research.

For queries on your conference submission, email mix@bathspa.ac.uk

You can find the full call for papers on our website.