Summer Fellowship Call for Projects

Vectors: Journal of Culture and Technology in a Dynamic Vernacular

The Institute for Multimedia Literacy (IML) at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Center for Communication is pleased to announce a Fellowship program for summer 2004 to foster innovative research for its new electronic publishing venture, Vectors: Journal of Culture and Technology in a Dynamic Vernacular.

Vectors is a new, international electronic journal dedicated to expanding the potentials of academic publication via emergent and transitional media. Vectors brings together visionary scholars with cutting-edge designers and technologists to propose a thorough rethinking of the dynamic relationship of form to content in academic research, focusing on the ways technology shapes, transforms and reconfigures social and cultural relations.

Vectors will adhere to the highest standards of quality in a strenuously reviewed format. The journal is edited by Tara McPherson and Steve Anderson and guided by the collective knowledge of a prestigious international board.

About the Fellowships

· Vectors Fellowships will be awarded to up to six individuals or teams of collaborators in the early to mid- stages of development of a scholarly multimedia project related to the themes of Evidence or Mobility. Completed projects will be included in the first two issues of the journal beginning in fall 2004. Vectors will feature next-generation multimedia work, moving far beyond the ‘text with image’ format of most online scholarly publications.

Fall 2004: Evidence

· The first issue of the journal will be devoted to a broad reconsideration of the notion of Evidence and its multiple transformations in contemporary scholarship and digital culture.

Spring 2005: Mobility

· The second issue will be devoted to exploring the shifting concepts and practices of Mobility in contemporary culture, creatively limning the possibilities and limits of such a concept for understanding 21st century life.

About the Awards

All fellowship recipients will participate in a one-week residency June 21-25, 2004 at the Institute for Multimedia Literacy in Los Angeles, where they will have access to the IML’s state of the art, Mac-based production facilities. Fellows will have continuing access to work in collaboration with world-class designers and the IML’s technical support and programming team throughout the project’s development.

The residency will include colloquia and working sessions where participants will have the chance to develop project foundations and collectively engage relevant issues in scholarly multimedia. Applicants need not be proficient with new media authoring; however, evidence of successful collaboration and scholarly innovation is desirable. Fellowship awards will include an honorarium of $2000 for each participant or team of collaborators, in addition to travel and accommodation expenses.

About the Proposals

We are seeking project proposals that creatively address issues related to the first two themes of Evidence and Mobility. While the format of the journal is meant to explore innovative forms of multimedia scholarship, we are not necessarily looking for projects that are about new media. Rather, we are interested in the various ways that new media suggest a transformation of scholarship, art and communication practices and their relevance to everyday life in an unevenly mediated world.

Applicants are encouraged to think beyond the computer screen to consider possibilities created by the proliferation of wireless technology, handheld devices, alternative exhibition venues, etc. Fellows will also have the possibility to imagine scholarly applications for newly developing technologies through productive collaborations with scientists and engineers. Projects may translate existing scholarly work or be entirely conceived for new media. We are particularly interested
in work that re-imagines the role of the user and seeks to reach broader publics while creatively exploring the value of collaboration and interactivity.

Proposals should include the following:

· Title of project and a one-sentence description
· A 3-5 page description of the project concept, goals and outcome (this description should address questions of audience, innovative uses of interactivity, address and form, as well the project’s contribution to the field of multimedia scholarship and to contemporary scholarship more generally)
· Brief biography of each applicant, including relevant qualifications and experience for this fellowship
· Full CV for each applicant
· Anticipated required resources (design, technical, hardware, software, exhibition, etc.)
· Projected timeline
· Sample media if available (CD, DVD, VHS (any standard), or NTSC Mini-DV); for electronic submissions, URLs are preferred but still images may be sent as e-mail attachments if necessary)

Please submit to:

Vectors Summer Fellowships
Institute for Multimedia Literacy
746 W. Adams Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90089
e-mail: vectors@annenberg.edu

Priority will be given to applications received by March 12, 2004.
Fellowship recipients will be notified in mid-April.

Additional Information

For additional information about the Vectors Summer Fellowship Program, please consult our informational website at
http://www.iml.annenberg.edu/vectors . Questions may be directed to Associate Editor Steve Anderson, sanderson@annenberg.edu .