An international invitation and call for participation in a major
conference for practitioners and scholars working with digital resources in
the Humanities and Arts.

DIGITAL RESOURCES IN THE HUMANITIES AND ARTS
CONFERENCE 2006
DARTINGTON COLLEGE OF ARTS, UK
SEPTEMBER 3-6, 2006

for further details see
http://www.dartington.ac.uk/drha06/index.asp

and
http://www.ahds.ac.uk/drha2006/index.php?cf=5

This year the renamed DRHA Conference - Digital Resources in the Humanities
and Arts - is choosing to bring a new dimension into its standard range of
digital projects and interests across the major disciplines of the
humanities (archaeology, history, literature, languages, linguistics...) by
offering an exceptional invitation to practitioners and scholars working
with digital media across the creative, visual, performing and media arts
(music, performance, dance, visual arts, gaming, media...). This
development is intended to draw upon and give greater opportunity to
consider changes that have occurred through the various applications of
digital resources across multi-media platforms and practice-based and
practice-led arts research.  This development offers an opportunity to all
participants involved in either the arts or the humanities to present,
witness, experience and exchange knowledge and applications of accessible
digital resources, and to appreciate how the collaborative practices of
everyone involved with digital resources has a considerable potential to
inform and influence other disciplines.

If you are working with digital processes and resources in any discipline
in the arts or the humanities or allied subjects, you are warmly invited to
consider making a presentation about your work or to articulate your
perspective on the key themes of Conference 2006 which will be considering
digital strategies, engagements and developments both as of now and in the
future.

This significant and unique opportunity for an exchange of views,
experience, approaches and knowledge across all the disciplines of both the
humanities and the arts involved with digital resources, will be held at
Dartington College of Arts (Totnes, Devon, UK) from Sunday September 3rd to
Wednesday September 6th, 2006.

The history and environment of Dartington College of Arts make it
theperfect location for this Arts and Humanities Conference 2006. Well
known as a place of special beauty and seclusion, the performance studios
and exhibition facilities are equally superlative and include the 14th
Century Great Hall, The Barn Theatre, The Gallery, plus several 'black-box'
and 'white-box' studios equipped with highly sophisticated computer
installations appropriate for music, sound, theatre, dance,
media,  exhibition, installation, screenings, demonstrations and
presentations of both completed digital works and work in progress;
comfortable well-equipped seminar rooms complement these facilities for the
presentation of academic papers, panels sessions and debates; outdoor
events are possible in the extensive gardens and estate grounds. You can
visit Dartington College of Arts online at:
http://www.dartington.ac.uk/space/index.asp

For this Conference two websites have been commissioned to give expanded
up-to-date Conference details and to provide opportunities for making
proposals and registering online. The Dartington venue website is at
http://www.dartington.ac.uk/drha06/index.asp

and the DRHA2006 website (providing further details and facilities for
making online proposals and checking the overall Programme as it develops)
is at http://www.ahds.ac.uk/drha2006/index.php?cf=5

On these websites and also duplicated below you will find more detailed
information on:
key themes for Conference 2006;
how you can participate and make proposals for presentations;
the variety of presentation formats available;
additional notes for practitioners with particular technical requirements;
key dates;
points of contact for further information.

DRHA Conferences are never less than inspirational for those working with
digital resources in the arts and humanities. The conference series has
established itself firmly in the UK and international calendar as a major
forum bringing together scholars, practitioners, artists, innovators,
curators, archivists, librarians, postgraduates, information scientists and
computing professionals in an unique and positive way, to share ideas and
information about the creation, exploitation, use, management and
preservation of digital resources in the arts and humanities and to analyse
the all-important contemporary issues surrounding them.

With the advent of DRHA this conference series enters a new decade (the
first DRH Conference was at Somerville College, University of Oxford in
1996) and begins an exploration of new horizons in digital resources. I
hope you will feel a sense of anticipation and be inclined to join this
significant and exceptional Conference 2006 in order to participate in its
presentations and debates and to contribute to and further its fine
traditions of scholarly, artistic and cultural endeavours and exchange .
Further details on how to participate are available on the websites and
duplicated below for convenience and easy reference.

I look forward to welcoming you to Dartington and DRHA2006.
Barry Smith
Programme Chair, DRHA Conference 2006
[log in to unmask]

FURTHER DETAILS ON DRHA CONFERENCE 2006
Please find below more detailed information on:
key themes for Conference 2006;
how you can participate and make proposals for presentations;
the variety of presentation formats available;
additional notes for practitioners with particular technical requirements;
key dates;
contacts for further information.

CONFERENCE THEMES 2006:
The Conference will continue to address the key emerging themes and
strategic issues that engagement with ICT (Information Communications
Technology) brings to scholarly research and artistic practice.  In 2006 it
will be particularly concerned to address such issues as:
the benefits of digital resources for creative work, teaching, learning,
scholarship;
the application, creative use and development of digital resources; the
problems associated with scale and sustainability;
new insights arising from the integration and cross-fertilisation of
digital resources in the arts/humanities/sciences;
the achievement and further development of global networks across the arts
and humanities and the strategies for change this situation merits;
the socio-political impact of engagement with global ICT.

The Conference will seek to answer such questions as:
What have been the advantages of the digital developments of the last
decade on humanities and creative arts processes (including publishing and
broadcasting)?
What new benefits will be on offer for the future?
What have been the effects of digital developments of the last decade on
the range of cultural industries (including design, fashion, gaming etc)
and what are the implications for future research cultures?
What changes will further technological advances and social trends a) make
possible and b) demand?
What can scholars in the humanities using visualisation and digital
rendering methods learn from computing developments in the creative,
visual, performing and media arts and what developments might be
advantageous vice-versa?
What have been and what will in the future be the influence of digital
media on scholarly and practice-based research in the arts and humanities?
How has technology and working with technologists changed the way
practitioners and scholars work in the arts and humanities?
What is the potential for fruitful digital resource-based relationships
between academia and business, creative and professional development,
investment and professional opportunities?
How are new advantages best exploited and any conceptual and
infrastructural problems brought in the wake of new technologies best
overcome?
What are the differences and what the similarities between knowledges
produced mainly through material contact and those produced solely through
digital media?
What are the consequences of digital resources on education at all levels
and what parameters exist and should exist to encourage e-learning?
How have e-learning, e-science and the range of distributed social network
technologies impacted on research in the arts and humanities and what
strategic changes might they bring in the future?

HOW YOU CAN PARTICIPATE AND MAKE PROPOSALS FOR PRESENTATIONS:
DRHA is currently accepting proposals for the 2006 Conference: individual
papers, panel sessions, workshops and poster presentations, work in
progress, performances, exhibitions, demonstrations. The online system for
submitting a proposal is now operational at:
http://www.ahds.ac.uk/drha2006/index.php?cf=5

Deadline: Proposals should be submitted by 15th April 2006.
Please note: all proposals will be peer-reviewed before being accepted and
all participants, whether or not making a presentation, are expected to
meet conference registration costs.

THE VARIETY OF PRESENTATION FORMATS AVAILABLE:
The conference will consist of a lively mix of papers, demonstrations,
events, keynotes, "posters", debates and panel sessions. The Programme
Group undertake to timetable accepted proposals to achieve this mix and in
order to facilitate this you are requested to present your proposal in one
of the formats outlined below:

Presentations of ARTWORKS or WORK IN PROGRESS (in most appropriate form)
having particular regard to digital resources. Contributions may vary from
live or recorded performances (music, dance, theatre), exhibitions (visual
arts, photography), screenings (film, video formats, media), mixed-media
arts, installations and video games, writing, text and online publishing to
demonstrations and excerpts outlining the key ICT and digital aspects
contributing to the work.  Proposals to present an artwork should be made
via the standard online procedures with a statement of approximately 500
words about the piece plus details of space and technical requirements. In
addition practitioners proposing presentation of artworks are advised to
read the additional notes below, "Additional notes for practitioners".

PAPERS: Proposals to present papers on any aspect of digital resources in
the arts and humanities (including innovations, investigative research,
archives and digitisation, language translation, AI applications etc)
should be of approximately 500 words. Papers will be allocated 30 minutes
for presentation, including questions.

"SESSIONS": Sessions (90 minutes) take the form of either:

THREE PAPERS. The session organiser should submit a 500 word statement
describing the proposed session topic, and include abstracts of
approximately 500 words for each paper. The session organiser must also
indicate that each author is willing to participate in the session;

or

A PANEL of four to six speakers. The panel organiser should submit an
abstract of approximately 1000 words describing the panel topic, how it
will be organized, the names of all the speakers and how they might be
expected to contribute to the topic, and an indication that each speaker is
willing to participate in the session.

POSTER Presentations: Poster presentations may include computer technology
and project demonstrations. Poster presentations may be the most suitable
way of presenting late-breaking results or significant work still in
progress and, in acknowledgement of the special contribution made by Poster
Presentations, the Programme Committee will once again make a "Poster
Presentation" award.

ADDITIONAL NOTES FOR PRACTITIONERS:
Practitioners may wish to show/demonstrate their work on one occasion but
introduce and/or invite discussion about it at a separate session before or
after the production/demonstration, as most appropriate. This configuration
is encouraged but the organisers request any such explanatory session
should fit into one of the structures outlined above (i.e. paper/s or
panel). Artists and practitioners will doubtless also want to ensure that
technical requirements are fully discussed and agreed beforehand and are
requested to include full technical requirements with their proposals.

KEY DATES
 From March 1st 2006 proposals can be submitted via the electronic
submission  form at the conference website:
http://www.ahds.ac.uk/drha2006/index.php?cf=5

Saturday 15th April 2006: Deadline for submission of proposals/abstracts.
Monday 1st May 2006:
Notification of acceptance of proposals.
Registration opens (early booking advised, restricted to a maximum of 250
persons).
Provisional programme announced.

CONFERENCE DATES:
 From Sunday September 3rd to Wednesday September 6th, 2006.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


6.    CONTACTS FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:
The Local Organising Committee at the Dartington College of Arts is headed
by Chris Pressler: [log in to unmask]

Please contact the local organisers with any questions about registration or
conference arrangements at Dartington: [log in to unmask]

The 2006 Programme Chair is Barry Smith who will be pleased to answer any
questions about submitting proposals or the reviewing process:
[log in to unmask]


From Franklin Furnace to Judith A. Hoffberg

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