A must for any media geographer and independent filmmaker. Please ask your library to purchase a copy today.
Kathy McCurdy. 2011. Shooting On Location: The Logistics of Filming on Location, Whatever Your Budget or Experience. Focal Press: Burlington: MA. ISBN 978-0-240-81497.

Aether: The Journal of Media Geography

Volume Eight A: September 2011

Current articles on the relationship of media and geography including a discussion on the work of Donna Haraway. Also featuring Harald Bauder’s deconstruction of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Rabbit/Duck and Marcia England’s insight into SuicideGirls.com.

Rabbit and Duck

Harald Bauder

SuicideGirls

Marcia England

The Pain and Exultation of Representing Place

Joshua P. Ewalt

Cyborg Spaces and Monstrous Places

Wilson, Hockey, Craine, Fawcett, Oberhauser, Roe and Warkentin

Interpreting the City

April Lindgren

Book Review: City of Rhetoric

Ron Davidson

Volume Eight B: September 2011

The power of representation, as Debord understood so well, is not so much in what it portrays, but in what it conceals – and today media undoubtedly is the most powerful adjudicator and disseminator of what is to be shown and what is to be hidden. It is in this context that this special issue on media geography and the Middle East can be best understood.

The Middle of Where?

Giorgio Hadi Curti (Guest Editor)

Frank Miller’s 300

Murat Es

Nationality Undefined

Linda Quiquivix and Giorgio Hadi Curti

Bellydancing, Bombs, and Back Beats

Maytha Alhassen

The Face of Danger

Karen Culcasi and Mahmut Gokmen

From Cyberspace to The World

El Hadi Jazairy

A Note of Remembrance of Mahmut Gokmen

Necati Anaz and Karen Culcasi

Sponsored by Aether: The Journal of Media Geography

We are seeking papers that examine geographies of cinema, television, music, art, advertising, the Internet, newspapers and magazines, video and animation etc.  These sessions should include contributions to current issues surrounding these media, beginning with constructions of space & place, cultural, society, and identity.
We are hoping to present a wide range of both topic and context and seek participants interested in the geographical implications – social, political, cultural, and economic – that are often contained within the spaces and places of different forms of media. Media extend beyond their original form and so papers should also envision these geographies as part of a broader industrial and political complex in which culture is an economic commodity set within the broader frame of a global and postmodern era, and with the links between these realms and our daily lived experiences, from our cities to streets to living rooms to imaginations. These contexts invite inquiries into the production, distribution, exhibition, and consumption of all types of media and we encourage critical, pedagogical and discursive contributions. We would also welcome inquiries from anyone wishing to assemble a special themed session or act as a discussant in a session.
To present a paper you must do the following before September 28, 2011:
1. Compose an abstract following the AAG guidelines
2.  Register online with the AAG to obtain a personal ID number
3.  Email Presenter Identification Number (PIN) and abstract to:
Chris Lukinbeal (chris.lukinbeal@arizona.edu)

For further information please contact:
• Chris Lukinbeal
• Jim Craine (jwc53531@csun.edu)
• Jason Dittmer (j.dittmer@ucl.ac.uk)

Also upcoming (much sooner) is the Comics and Conflicts conference:

http://www.comicafestival.com/index.php/site/news/comics_conflicts_conference_call_for_papers/

The Comics & Conflicts Conference will be held on 19-20 August, 2011 at the Imperial War Museum in London, and is aimed at comics scholars, practitioners, and enthusiasts. Invited conference speakers and guests will include: Pat Mills (Charley’s War); Martin Barker and Roger Sabin on Doonesbury; Garth Ennis (Troubled Souls, War Story); Jacques Tardi (It Was The War Of The Trenches) and Jean-Pierre Verney (Putain de Guerre), the latter two subject to confirmation.

Papers for the conference are welcomed that explore the ways in which comics around the world represent and articulate the experience and impact of war and conflict. For example, topics may include:

• Depictions of conflict in comics created for children.
• Representations of trauma in comic books, graphic novels, manga & other forms of international comics.
• Visual representations of conflict in such places as Afghanistan, Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Korea, The Middle East, Northern Ireland, and Vietnam.
• Journalism, biography, and memoir in comics on conflict.
• Focus on key practitioners such as Guibert, Kubert, Mills, Sacco, Satrapi, Spiegelman, Tardi & Trudeau.
• Comics as a space to depict/critique national ideology.
• Comics as tools of propaganda, both of the state and of protest organisations.

Geographers and regional planners have given much credence to “creative economy” focused schemes for urban development, particularly highlighting loose connections between arts and music and urban growth. Less attention has been given to the labor politics and emotions of people in arts and music occupations and how the everyday lives and livelihood strategies of these producers fit into the place making of the cities and regions trying to brand themselves as creative. This session explores what factors motivate and / or constrain people in arts occupations; how emotions impact art creation, distribution and consumption; how artists are compensated for their labor; and how artists’ labor creates value in communities. Contributions to this session are welcome from multiple conceptual and empirical perspectives that explore, but aren’t limited to: creative economies and critiques of that concept labor politics and emotions of arts occupations everyday lives and livelihood strategies of artists and musicians spatial and virtual strategies of art production, consumption, collaboration and distribution emotions of art production, consumption, collaboration and distribution connections between arts occupations and urban development exploring concepts of creative cities, how such places are experienced, and the labor involved

Please contact Jessica R. Barnes (barnes.418@osu.edu ) if you have questions, ideas, or to contribute to the session send an abstract of not more than 250 words by Monday, October 11th at 5 p.m.

Call for Papers

Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting

Seattle, WA

Last Day for Abstract Submission: October 13, 2010

Please note that sessions will likely fill earlier than the final deadline.

Geographies of Media

Co-Sponsored by the Political Geography Specialty Group, the Cultural Geography Specialty Group, the Communication Geography Specialty Group and Aether: The Journal of Media Geography

We are seeking papers that examine geographies of the various forms of media, including cinema, television, the Internet, music, art, advertising, newspapers and magazines, video and animation, etc.  These sessions should include contributions to current geographic issues surrounding these media, beginning with constructions of space & place, culture, society, and identity.

We are hoping to present a wide range of both topic and context and seek participants interested in the geographical implications – social, political, cultural, and economic – that are often contained within the spaces and places of different forms of media. Media extend beyond their original form and so papers should also envision these geographies as part of a broader industrial and political complex in which culture is an economic commodity set within the broader frame of a global and postmodern era, and with the links between these realms and our daily lived experiences, from our cities to streets to living rooms to imaginations. These contexts invite inquiries into the production, distribution, exhibition, and consumption of all types of media and we encourage critical, pedagogical and discursive contributions. We would also welcome inquiries from anyone wishing to assemble a special themed session, a panel session, or act as a discussant in a session.

To present a paper you must do the following before October 13, 2010:

1. Register online for the AAG conference to obtain a PIN number

2. Compose and submit an abstract following the guidelines of the AAG website

3.  Email Presenter Identification Number (PIN) and abstract before October 13, 2010 to:

Jason Dittmer <j.dittmer@ucl.ac.uk>

The Departments of Media Arts and Politics and International Relations (PIR)

Keynote Speakers: Prof. Thomas Diez -Political Science, University of Tübingen
Prof. Deniz Göktürk -Department of German, University of California, Berkeley
Prof. Randall Halle -Department of German, University of Pittsburgh

This interdisciplinary postgraduate conference focuses on transnationalism and securitisation, issues of increasing relevance in both Politics and International Relations, and Media and Film Studies. In both disciplines, there is currently a prevailing tendency to conceive of borders as ever increasingly permeable elements in a globalising world. The new communication technologies have certainly reinforced the image that the world becomes a single place. However, a ‘borderless world’ proves to be illusionary as witnessed in the global rise of securitization practices after the September 11 terrorist attacks. Since then, even a bottle of water -at the airport- has started to be perceived as a potential security threat. ‘Transnationalism’ thereby becomes a useful lens through which issues such as securitization, borders, legitimacy, citizenship, memory and solidarity can be re-examined from a fresh theoretical perspective. Within this framework, the major aims of this international conference are threefold: to question the extent and limitations of transnationalism; to analyse the cultural and political functions of transnational actors and the impact of new communication technologies such as the internet in the contemporary world; and finally to encourage interdisciplinary approaches and critical perspectives in the studies of transnationalism. This conference will be organised by and run for postgraduate students from various disciplinary backgrounds. It aims to give all participants the opportunity to develop and broaden our knowledge in this area of research. In this respect, the Departments of Media Arts and Politics and International Relations would like to collaborate to highlight the interdisciplinary character of transnationalism as a phenomenon within a context whereby a diverse range of techniques such as paper presentations, poster exhibitions and plenary discussions are combined. In order to disseminate the research findings, selected papers will be considered for publication in the Journal of Critical Globalisation Studies, a fully peer-reviewed, open-access academic journal published by Royal Holloway, University of London.
The topics include but are not limited to:
• Current restrictions over the free movement of people, goods and ideas
• Border policies
• Communication policies
• Political freedoms and cultural diversity
• National, religious, ethnic and gender issues
• The role of media in framing transnational terrorism, conflicts and humanitarian crises
• Power of transnational media
• Power of transnational non-governmental actors
• Soft/hard power
• Multiculturalism, pluralism, cultural diversity
• Cosmopolitanism
• Post-colonial or post-national; centres versus margins/periphery
• Hybridity
• Glocalisation
• Representation of transnational identities
• Transnational cinema
• Diasporas and diasporic cinema

Submission of abstracts: by 10 September 2010 Official Acceptance: by 1 October Early registration: by 15 October 2010 For submission guidelines, registration and further details please see: http://royalhollowayconference.wordpress.com/

Human Rights and Information Communication Technologies: Trends and Consequences of Use

A book edited by John Lannon (University of Limerick, Ireland), Edward F. Halpin (Leeds Metropolitan University, UK) and Steven Hick (Carleton University, Canada)
To be published by IGI Global
Website: http://tinyurl.com/33hy2zw

INTRODUCTION
Intergovernmental agencies, governments and non-governmental organizations are now using Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) to collect, organize and disseminate information on peoples’ rights, the promotion of human rights, and the protection of individuals and communities at risk. These efforts have moved beyond the traditional human rights regime, as more attention is being paid to rights based approaches to development, and to the interconnectedness of environmental protection, climate change and the wellbeing of humanity. As a result, ICT policies and practices are having an even more far-reaching effect on the enjoyment of human rights by all.
Since 2001 ICTs have transformed the capacity of organisations, movements and oppressed communities to highlight human rights abuse, and to advocate for causes and victims of oppression. They make it easier to share and to access information; they facilitate human rights data aggregation and analysis; they offer innovative tactical approaches to campaigning; and they precipitate real-world campaigning and lobbying activities. They enable global participation, and give local actors and previously invisible groups international visibility. At the same time the features that make ICTs an effective tool for the promotion and protection of human rights also make them useful in the exploitation of people and the violation of human rights. They contribute directly and indirectly to the abuse of children, for example; they facilitate the distribution of material that is hostile to racial and religious groups; they threaten the security and the privacy of individuals; and they contribute to the operation of international trafficking and other criminal activities.

OBJECTIVE OF THE BOOK
Human Rights and Information Communication Technologies: Trends and Consequences of Use will provide a comprehensive examination of the use and application of information and communication technologies in the world of human rights. This will contribute significantly to understandings of the impact of ICTs on the promotion and protection of human rights in societies around the world.

TARGET AUDIENCE
This book will provide a valuable tool and insight for academics from a range of fields, including information management, information systems, communications, information technology, international relations, human rights, politics, law, and sociology. It will also be useful to international non-governmental organisations, non-governmental organisations, and governments, for policy and practice.

RECOMMENDED TOPICS include, but are not limited to, the following:
-          the impact of ICT policies on human rights;
-          the role of information in the promotion and protection of human rights;
-          the opportunities and pitfalls of ICTs for human rights campaigning;
-          ICTs and human rights education;
-          Human rights activism in the information age;
-          communication rights, privacy and free speech;
-          human rights and the Internet;
-          ICTs and gender-based rights
-          Information systems deployment in human rights
-          Mobile technologies and their application to human rights
-          Human rights organizations and the application/deployment of ICT
-          Information security
-      Information poverty, exclusion, and social, economic and cultural implications

SUBMISSION PROCEDURE
Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit on or before August 27th, 2010, a 2-3 page chapter proposal clearly explaining the mission and concerns of his or her proposed chapter. Authors of accepted proposals will be notified by October 8th 2010 about the status of their proposals and sent chapter guidelines. Full chapters are expected to be submitted by December 17th, 2010. All submitted chapters will be reviewed on a double-blind review basis. Contributors may also be requested to serve as reviewers for this project.

PUBLISHER
This book is scheduled to be published by IGI Global (formerly Idea Group Inc.), publisher of the “Information Science Reference” (formerly Idea Group Reference), “Medical Information Science Reference,” “Business Science Reference,” and “Engineering Science Reference” imprints. For additional information regarding the publisher, please visit www.igi-global.com <http://www.igi-global.com/> . This publication is anticipated to be released in 2011.

IMPORTANT DATES
August 27, 2010:      Proposal Submission Deadline
October 8, 2010:      Notification of Acceptance
December 17, 2010:    Full Chapter Submission
February 18, 2011:    Review Results Returned
May 20, 2011:         Final Chapter Submission
September 30, 2011:   inal Deadline

Inquiries and submissions can be forwarded electronically (Word document) or by mail to:
John Lannon
Centre for Information and Knowledge Management
S1-20, Kemmy Business School,
University of Limerick,
IRELAND
Tel.: +353 87 8225087  E-mail: john.lannon@ul.ie

The Davis Feminist Film Festival welcomes films from professionals, students, and community members locally, nationally, and internationally. People underrepresented in the media field are especially encouraged to submit a film for consideration.

The Davis Feminist Film Festival is a short film festival. This year’s
2011 festival will accept films shorter than 35 minutes in length.

Films submitted to the festival for consideration must meet two of the following criteria:
Films created with an eye for gender and/or social justice issues Films that link local & global issues Films created by people underrepresented in the media field (women, people of color, queer/transgender, disabled) Films made by people from the Davis/Sacramento area

A completed application includes:
Entry Submission form
Signed Submission Agreement Form
Film Synopsis (250 words maximum)
Short 1-page Cover Letter addressing how your film fits two of the submission criteria Short 2-page Resume/CV DVD of film (must be formatted for the United States, Region 1 or 0) Label your DVD with: 1) your name, e-mail address, telephone number 2) the name of the film 3) Run Time in minutes and 4) Format.

Please send your application to:
Consortium for Women and Research
154 Kerr Hall
University of California
One Shields Avenue
Davis, CA 95616

Applications are due: Monday November 15, 2010.

For more information, please check out http://femfilmfest.ucdavis.edu, or e-mail femfilmfest@ucdavis.edu.

The 12th annual Allied Media Conference will be held June 17-20, 2010 in the McGregor Conference Center (495 Ferry Mall) on the campus of Wayne State University in Detroit.

The Allied Media Conference is the central project of the Allied Media Projects (AMP) network, which emerges out of ten years of organic relationship-building. Since the first conference (then the Midwest Zine Conference) in 1999, people have been compelled by the concept of do-it-yourself media. Later, as the Underground Publishing Conference, the emphasis was on building a movement of alternative media makers. With the shift towards Allied Media, the AMC has attracted more and more people who are interested in using participatory media as a strategy for social justice organizing.