<nettime> M/C - Call for Contributors (fwd)

[McKenzie Wark <mwark@laurel.ocs.mq.edu.au>]

__________________________________________
"We no longer have roots, we have aerials."
http://www.mcs.mq.edu.au/~mwark
 -- McKenzie Wark 

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: 05 Apr 99 18:13:18 +1000
From: Axel Bruns <mc@mailbox.uq.edu.au>
To: M/C - A Journal of Media and Culture <mc@mailbox.uq.edu.au>
Subject: M/C - Call for Contributors
Resent-Date: Tue, 6 Apr 99 7:50:45 +1000
Resent-From: kwark@pip.elm.mq.edu.au
Resent-To: mwark@laurel.ocs.mq.edu.au

                    M/C - A Journal of Media and Culture
                         <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/>

                            Call for Contributors

The University of Queensland's award-winning journal of media and culture,
M/C, is looking for new contributors. M/C is a crossover journal between
the popular and the academic. Initiated by cultural critic David Marshall
and supported by a variety of contributors from the University of
Queensland and elsewhere, it is a journal that is set to be a premier site
of cultural debate on the Net. M/C's incisive and insightful articles,
presented in a Website that is well-designed and easy to navigate, have
already won a number of Web awards.

M/C issues are each organised around a theme. Future issues will deal with
concepts such as 'flesh', 'pop', 'desire', 'machine', and 'food'. For these
issues, we're looking for article contributors -- please contact us if you
think you have an interesting contribution to make on any of these topics.
M/C is a blind- and peer-reviewed journal. Australian academics should note
that articles in M/C are classified in the DEETYA category 'C1', as long as
they are connected to new research.

To see what M/C is all about, check out our Website, which contains all the
issues released so far, at <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/>. To find out how and
in what format to contribute your work, visit
<http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/contribute.html>. We're also welcoming submissions
to our companion publication M/C Reviews, an ongoing series of reviews of
events in culture and the media. M/C Reviews is available at
<http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/reviews/>.

These are the M/C issues scheduled for 1999:


'flesh' - article deadline: 23 Apr. 1999

Underneath all our disguises, we're all ultimately made of flesh and bone
-- a fact that has caused much fascination with 'flesh' throughout the
history of human thought. Flesh has become a symbol, good or bad, in many
religions, and while many people today do whatever it takes to live out
their material, bodily existence to the fullest, just as many attempt to
overcome the limitations of the flesh -- by attaining higher levels of
spiritual purification, or through the latest developments in VR
technology, which promise the ability to leave the human 'meat' behind.
Animal meat, of course, is similarly a centre of much debate, sometimes
sparking violent clashes between vegetarians and meat-eaters. These ideas
and more will be fleshed out in the third issue of M/C in 1999 -- first
come, first served!

          issue release date: 6 May 1999


'pop' - article deadline: 4 June 1999

It would be easy to take a highbrow approach to popular culture, condemning
it outright -- many academics still do. Cultural studies, however, is
centrally concerned with pop in all its forms, be they pop music,
mainstream cinema, popular fiction, or anything else that has captured the
attention of a large slice of the public. What makes things popular? What
are the processes behind the production and worship of popular culture?
Where are the boundaries to populism? Can mainstream appeal and artistic
integrity exist in combination, or are they mutually exclusive? Does
anybody really <I>like</I> to listen to the Spice Girls? Our answers to
these questions mightn't always be popular, but should make for an
interesting read anyway. Have some popcorn ready, perhaps?

        issue release date: 17 June 1999


'desire' - article deadline: 16 July 1999

For the tenth issue of M/C, and as close to our anniversary as it gets,
perhaps it's appropriate that our attention should turn to one of the most
basic, most powerful driving forces in anything humans do. M/C itself,
admittedly, was begun partly out of a desire for recognition -- but we're
not alone in this. People desire anything, from a cool glass of water to
peace on earth, and how they go about fulfilling their desires can be as
fascinating (or as frightening) as the desires themselves. Our desire in
this issue is to publish a number of thought-provoking articles -- judge
for yourselves whether we achieve this goal.

           issue release date: 29 July 1999


'machine' - article deadline: 27 Aug. 1999

To point out that machines permeate our lives surely means stating the
obvious; to use a machine to make this observation only heightens the
irony. On a historical scale, it's only been a short time since the
industrial revolution, and much less since the invention of modern
computers, but where would we be without them, today? (Some would say:
'better off'.) Are machines a threat, as many science fiction writers have
forecast, or will they ultimately free us from our tedious chores? The
questions have been around for decades -- now M/C writers will fire up
their word processors to add their ideas to the debate.

            issue release date: 9 Sep. 1999


'food' - article deadline: 8 Oct. 1999

>From the last issue's technological focus we return to a thoroughly
biological topic, and (to get the inevitable pun out of the way right now)
hope to provide much food for thought. Along with air and water, food
belongs to the bare necessities in life; on the other hand, and perhaps
because of its all-important position, it has become a cause for much
celebration and ritual in most human cultures. Cooking is an art form, we
are what we eat -- more to the point, perhaps, we are what we ingest on any
number of levels, from tangible meals to the diet which our eyes and ears
receive every day. Our contribution to this is a feast of articles -- bon
appétit!

         issue release date: 21 Oct. 1999


'end' - article deadline: 19 Nov. 1999

Yes, officially it's not the end of the millennium for another year yet,
but of course at the end of the 1900s everybody is going to party like it's
1999. Apart from those that fear the world is coming to an end, of course
-- be it because of an impending religious judgment day, or more
prosaically as a result of the chaos caused by the Y2K bug. In any event,
it's timely for M/C to look at the idea of the 'end', as a fitting final
issue for the second volume of the journal. Fears or hopes for a final
event have been put to serve many ends ('the future's uncertain but the end
is always near', as the song goes) -- in our case, to inspire a collection
of fascinating, and hopefully not too gloomy articles. Don't worry,
though: this is certainly not the end of M/C (barring any divine
interventions, that is).

        issue release date: 2 Dec. 1999


'future' - article deadline: 31 Dec. 1999

As every ending is a new beginning, what better time to look into our
crystal balls and toward the future than in this, the first post-Y2K issue?
Providing that the Internet, or global technology in general, hasn't failed
completely, we'll engage with the concept of 'future'. What will the 2000s
bring? With most of the fin-de-siècle anxiety behind us, will rational
thought take hold again? Will there be a new era of global cooperation? Or
will this be the millennium in which humanity terminates itself, through
wars, ecological destruction, or biological devastation? Will technology
save us, or destroy us? Will there be a remake of 2001: A Space Odyssey,
with Bill Gates as the voice of HAL? One thing is certain, at least: there
will be another volume of M/C.

           issue release date: 14 Jan. 2000


We're looking forward to your articles !

                                                          Axel Bruns

--
M/C - A Journal of Media and Culture                  mc@mailbox.uq.edu.au
The University of Queensland                      http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/

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