Last week, we returned to Bath Spa University for the annual three-day MIX Digital Conference, held for the first time in the new Commons building on Newton Park Campus.

Writing Digital: MIX Digital 3, supported by partnerships with the Digital Cultures Research Centre (DCRC), The Writing Platform, and Conducttr, gave participants the chance to catch up with artists, writers and academics who are working at the forefront of where arts practice meets technology, where the artificial division between the digital and the analogue no longer exists.

Over the three days, there was a vibrant mix of academic papers, practitioner presentations, seminars, keynotes, discussions, workshops and an exhibition of the work by conference participants.

It was also the chance for The Writing Platform’s 2015 Bursary Recipients to showcase their work. Kate Pullinger, conference co-chair and co-founder of The Writing Platform, introduced the recipients: Victoria Bennett (writer), Adam Clarke (technologist), Kelly Jones (writer) and Linda Sandvik (technologist).

Victoria Bennett and Adam Clarke applied as a team and their project, My Mother’s House, used Minecraft to immerse the player in the experience of the poem and expand the idea of what literature and video games can be.

Speaking about their project, Victoria and Adam said, “Minecraft offers potential for shared expression and experience of literature in really interesting and playful ways.

“We are keen to share this work with the growing Minecraft community and see how it may seed new ideas.”

At the conference delegates witnessed a video walkthrough of My Mother’s House, which was an emotive experience for many delegates.

Elspeth Penny, tweeted: “Thanks for your touching poetry Minecraft film ‪@thecommonpeople at Mix. I am now going to join my kids on Minecraft and explore.”

The judging panel paired Kelly Jones and Linda Sandvik because, as judge Naomi Alderman prize-winning author and Professor of Creative Writing and Digital Media at Bath Spa noted, they both wanted to explore “telling a story that cannot help but be shaped by and respond to technology.”

Their project, 1.4 for copy, is an interactive sound sculpture with the ability to connect audience members throughout the conference space. Inspired by the real life meeting of Kelly’s parents on a CB radio in 1980 and the science of radio waves and their infinite but fading travel, Kelly and Linda have created a piece that takes us away from our phone screens and see’s us connecting with one another.

Kelly created a mock-up of the project in room 133 in Commons. In the discussion, Kelly took us through their installation explaining how it came about and why it was named 1.4 for copy, “1.4 is the channel but they always call it the one four…For copy means for someone to come back to me. It’s all a language.”

Naomi shared her enthusiasm for the bursary projects. “So often, in digital writing, either the ‘digital’ or the ‘writing’ ends up feeling like second fiddle, the bit that’s put in at the end when the other bit’s all dealt with. So I’m always thrilled when a digital writer has a story to tell – not just a new way to use the medium, but a story that cannot help but be shaped by and respond to technology.

“I was particularly excited, therefore, to see Kelly’s story of how her parents met over CB radio.

“It feels like precisely the thing I was looking for here – a story that is not only told via technology but is actually about how technology shapes our lives.”

The Bursary Programme has undoubtedly grown since its inception three years ago. In its first year, there were only four technologist applicants.

Joanna Ellis, co-founder of The Writing Platform, commented, “We had 218 applications for the 2015 programme, three times the number we had in 2013.”

MIX 03 highlights

Throughout the conference, there was a vibrant and diverse list of visiting speakers and discussions. Anna Gerber and Britt Iverson founders of London-based publishing house Visual Editions discussed its new project Editions at Play, a collaboration with Google Creative Labs. They hope to create a place to showcase, celebrate, and bring out digital books that are immersive, written and developed with the idea of being digital.

Chris Meade, writer and founder of if:book, kept delegates entertained throughout the conference, encouraging visitors to his pod to donate their “nearly” stories. He presented his transmedia novel in progress, What Didn’t Quite, about how we live with the things we’ve nearly done.

“Far more things nearly happen than happen,” he said. “The universe is held together by the dust of human kind’s nearlyincidence.”

‪Cardiff-based academic, Jenny Kidd took us through her collaborative research project with the creative marketing agency, yello brick, funded by REACT. “With New Eyes I see” explores whether documentary can become an experience or a journey beyond the screen. The project will research a site-specific documentary using torches, projection and RFID to trigger content as participants walk around Cathays Park in Cardiff.

Further highlights over the three days included:

• Bambo Soyinka chaired a great discussion on Digital Remediation: From Analogue to Digital with Dan Prichard, Sharon Clark and Miriam Rasch.
• Kate Pullinger’s presentation, “From dBook to pBook and Back Again”
• Naomi Alderman discussed her hugely successful apps, Zombies! Run, and The Walk
• Blast Theory – internationally renowned as one of the most adventurous artists’ groups using interactive media, creating new forms of performance and interactive art – discussed their current kickstarter-funded project, Karen.

One of the most thought-provoking events of the conference was the launch of James Coupe’s artwork “General Intellect” on Bath Spa’s MediaWall, an architectural scale portrait format gallery display, consisting of ten 55″ panels. At just under 4m wide and rising 7.5m from floor level it is uniquely positioned at the heart of the Commons building.

The project is a thirty channel video work, which uses video that has been acquired from Mechanical Turk an Amazon.com service, showing how computer algorithms can hire human beings to complete tasks that are hard for computers to do.

James says in a short video about the piece, “The work is largely concerned with labour, in particular digital labour. Most of the people on Mechanical Turk are completing tasks for which they have no idea who they’re working for or what the purpose of those jobs are.

“The work has something to say about relationships between humans and machines, between humans and algorithms, and the nature of dissociative, potentially disenfranchised, relationship with technological narratives.”

As the three days drew to a close, it became clear that technology really is transforming narrative.

Writing Platform Bursary recipients showcase their work alongside keynote speakers writer Naomi Alderman, theorist Florian Cramer, and performers Blast Theory at this year’s Writing digital: MIX Digital Conference.

Mix Digital is taking place between 2nd and 4th July 2015. The full programme is available on the MIX Digital website. Tickets can be booked via the Bath Spa Live website. 

The new Commons building at the Newton Park campus of Bath Spa University will be the home of this year’s MIX DIGITAL conference. Following the success of the last two MIX DIGITAL conferences, held at Corsham Court, the University’s School of Humanities and Creative Industries continues to be at the forefront of both research and teaching of creative practice across many forms.

This year’s conference will take place from 2 – 4 July 2015 and will take advantage of the features and interactive spaces in the new Commons building where it will host a vibrant mix of academic papers, practitioner presentations, seminars, keynotes, discussions, workshops and an exhibition of the work by conference participants.

The full schedule of keynote speakers is yet to be finalised but confirmed speakers are Professor of Creative Writing and Digital Media Naomi Alderman, theorist of the post-digital Florian Cramer, and adventurous artists’ group Blast Theory.

Professor Alderman is a prize-winning author; in 2006 she won the Orange Award for New Writers, and in 2007 was named as Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year, and one of Waterstones’ 25 Writers of the Future.   In 2012, she co-created the top-selling fitness game and audio adventure Zombies, Run! which has been shortlisted for a Develop award for narrative and the Writer’s Guild of Great Britain best videogame award.

This is a call for papers, presentations and works for exhibition for the Writing Digital: MIX DIGITAL 3 conference.

The deadline for submissions is 31st January 2015.

Writing  Digital: MIX DIGITAL 3 will take place from 2-4 July 2015 at Bath Spa University’s Commons Building.

Papers/presentations and workshops are invited in relation to the on-going themes of:

• Creative writing and digital technology
• The future of the book
• New forms of publishing
• New forms of digital curation

and in any of the following areas:

• Digital fiction and digital poetry
• Digital art and text
• Non-fiction and multiplatform publication (digital and print)
• Digital and interactive script-writing (including theatre-making and film -making)
• Transmedia practice
• Collaborations between writers and technologists
• Participatory media
• Transnational creativity

In partnership with the Digital Cultures Research Centre at UWE there will be co-curated strand for which presentations on the following are sought:

• The practice of interactive documentary and/ or
• The emergent field of ‘ambient literature’ (including mobile, locative, and other site-specific storytelling forms)

In partnership with Bath Spa’s Media Futures Research Centre there will be co-curated strand on ‘Analogue Futures’ for which invitations on the following are sought:

• The digitalisation of writing practices and techniques
• Remediation associated with emerging digital technologies
• Slow media
• Concepts and cultures of vintage, heritage and authenticity
• Sustainability and materiality within the realm of digital media

Workshops on creative practice and pedagogical papers in relation to any aspect of the above are welcome.

HOW TO SUBMIT

Abstracts of up to 300 words for a 20-minute paper/presentation or a 90-minute workshop should be sent to mixdigital2015 [at] gmail.com.

The deadline for submissions 31 January 2015.

Works submitted for exhibition will not be considered unless the artist is attending the conference.

A selection of conference papers will be developed for publication in a special issue of Convergence: the International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies.

The Bath Spa University Conference Committee is: Katharine Reeve, Lucy English, Kate Pullinger, Maggie Gee, Mike Johnston, Kristin Doern, Dan Ashton and Anthony Head.

There will also be a separate competitive international call to create a new artwork for MediaWall, our eight-metre high digital gallery space;  this work will be launched during Writing Digital: MIX DIGITAL 3

Conference booking will open in November. A limited number of rooms on campus will be available for delegates. We will be posting news and updates on the Writing Digital: MIX DIGITAL 3 website.

ABOUT WRITING DIGITAL: MIX DIGITAL 3 

After the success of the last two MIX DIGITAL conferences, Bath Spa University is hosting Writing Digital: MIX DIGITAL 3 in the newly completed Commons building at the Newton Park Campus, just outside of Bath.

Bath Spa University’s School of Humanities and Creative Industries, with its stellar Creative Writing Department, is at the forefront of both research into and teaching of creative practice across many forms. MIX DIGITAL has established itself as an innovative forum for the discussion and exploration of writing and technology, attracting an international cohort of contributors from the UK, Australia, and Europe as well as North and South America. From 2015 the conference will be biennial and will become one of the flagship conferences for the university.

Writing Digital: MIX DIGITAL 3 will take full advantage of our brand-new Commons building and its interactive spaces through hosting a vibrant mix of academic papers, practitioner presentations, seminars, keynotes, discussions and workshops, as well as an exhibition of work by conference participants.

Our partners, The Writing Platform, will showcase the two winning projects from the competitive bursaries they will have awarded earlier in 2015 for new creative writing and technology projects. There will also be a separate call to digital artists for entries to an international competition to create work for our Media Wall.

Confirmed keynotes include Naomi Alderman talking about how and why a literary novelist came to be the imaginative power behind the hugely successful apps, Zombies! Run, and The Walk; also confirmed is Blast Theory, internationally renowned as one of the most adventurous artists’ groups using interactive media, creating new forms of performance and interactive art – they’ll be discussing their current kickstarter-funded project, Karen.

For more information and updates about Writing Digital: MIX DIGITAL 3 please visit: mix-bathspa.org/