[spectre] Call for Papers (Royal Geographic Society conference): Geographies of Co-Production

[Penny travlou]

*CALL FOR PAPERS: RGS-IBG INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE, LONDON, AUGUST 26-29
2014*

 Session title: *Defining the Spatiality of Co-Creation, Collaboration and
Peer Production in the Digital Age.*



Session conveners: Penny Travlou (University of Edinburgh), Marc Garrett
(Furtherfield) and Ruth Catlow (Furtherfield/Writtle College of Design)



Discussant: Michel Bauwens, Peer-to-Peer Foundation



Sponsored by the Social and Cultural Geography Research Group



This session looks at novel models of creativity in reference to
collaborative practices, co-creation and peer production focusing on their
spatiality within a transglobal and digitally-fused environment. Within
this context, creativity is understood as a synergy of spaces, practices
and artifacts, interlinked in such a manner that their singularity(-ies)
form an assemblage. We can consider creativity, and subsequent knowledge
formation, as forms of social interaction rather than the outcomes of
social activities. Whilst we commonly perceive creativity as the product of
the individual artist, or creative ensemble, from this perspective
creativity can also be considered an emergent phenomenon of communities,
driving change and facilitating individual or ensemble creativity.
Creativity can be a performative activity released when engaged through and
by a community. Creativity, thus, can be also regarded as an emergent
property of relations, of communities. As James Leach (2004), the British
anthropologist, suggests creativity can be proposed as a collective
becoming where the creation of new things, and the ritualized forms of
exchange enacted around them, function to “create” individuals and bind
them in social groups, thus “creating” the community they inhabit and
generate new places in the landscape.



Following this theoretical framework, we invite papers that investigate the
spatiality of novel forms of creativity presenting examples of creative
landscapes. Papers can focus and reflect on one of the following issues:


·         Case studies on spaces of collaborative and co-creative practices
such as hackerspaces, fablabs, co-design studios, co-working offices,
online forums and collaborative platforms, social innovation hubs, DIY
biohacking labs etc. We will particularly welcome papers that reflect on
spaces of co-authorship and co-production where authority and voice of the
persons involved may shift towards horizontal structures of power and
control.



·         The methodological framework(s) that best accommodate(s) these
insights on the spatialities of creativity as an emergent property of
assemblages (e.g. collaborative & peer-to-peer ethnography, co-design and
prototyping, research by design, digital research methods, multi-sited
fieldwork).



·         Insights and reflections on the current theoretical approaches on
co-creation and peer production in the digital (network) age:
collaboration, Do-It-With-Others (DIWO), hacktivism, open source and free
software movement, heterarchy, peer-to-peer culture and the commons.
Special focus will be on the linkage of the above concepts to current
theoretical debates within cultural geography.



The session will also include a fieldtrip to Furtherfield Gallery and
Furtherfield Commons in Finsbury Park. Furtherfield is a "dedicated space
for media art", providing a platform for "creating, viewing, discussing and
learning about experimental practices in art, technology and social change"
(www.Furtherfield.org <http://www.furtherfield.org>). Unlike commercial
private galleries, however, *Furtherfield* functions as a non-profit
artist-run space, aiming to "initiate and provide infrastructure for
commissions, events, exhibitions, internships, networking, participatory
projects, peer exchange, publishing, research, residencies and workshops" (
www.Furtherfield.org <http://www.furtherfield.org>). The scope of the field
visit is to look at a ‘creative’ space that champions co-creative and peer
production practices where digital artists, audience and local communities
work together through cultural practices and creative processes exploring
ways to establish contemporary commons.



Please send abstracts of no more than 250 words by 10th February to
p.travlou at ed.ac.uk.

Acceptance of the papers will be confirmed by email and they will be
included in the conference programme. Please feel free to contact us with
any queries you might have.


Annual International Conference 2014:

http://www.rgs.org/WhatsOn/ConferencesAndSeminars/Annual+International+Conference/Annual+international+conference.htm



Penny Travlou

Lecturer in Cultural Geography & Theory

Edinburgh School of Architecture & Landscape Architecture

University of Edinburgh

Lauriston Place

EH9 3DF



www.esala.ac.uk
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