melbourneDAC

MelbourneDAC papers now available

All the papers and panels presented at MelbourneDAC are now publicly available. They are in pdf, and are listed from the abstracts page located in the papers directory. The papers are also going to be collected and published in a special issue of Fine Art Forum, and via RMIT Publishing's electronic publication system. The conference has always had a major commitment to disseminating this work in the public domain as soon as possible. Authors retain full copyright of this work, but if you wish to cite the work from here then the citation ought to be (depending on your style guide requirements) something like:

Lastname, Firstname. Proceedings of the Fifth International Digital Arts and Culture Conference. "Title of Paper". RMIT, Melbourne, Australia. May 19 - 23, 2003. http://media.rmit.edu.au/projects/dac/papers/n.pdf accessed: insert date of access here.

Also on Friday

I am diong a workshop for the Port Phillip Specialist School on using hypermedia techniques to work with students with developmental disabilities. From 2 - 4 pm at the Specialist School. To get there, take the 109 tram, go to Graham, walk 1 block west.

Heard about town

I don't blog. I just do drugs.
Someone said that here... oh yes, that was me...
If you can't get to all the lexias, then you have dyslexia
There are limits to every intellectual inquiry--it can get out of control
Signification is an event that comes later in this work...
We need time to develop the politics of time to develop a new media theory.
In Flash, we can do timelines within timelines and break for a timeless dimension. We can jumpbetween timelines and between layers of memory..
Are you doing the process or are you being processed?

program 4 friday

here is a run down of what is happening on Friday 23rd May

READING TEXTS, READING THEORISTS

From Lisbeth Klastrup, on the understanding of "ludology"

In Limits of Interpretation, Eco allegedly argues that texts can be read in many different ways, however, based on empirical facts amongst other things, some readings are in the end, more valid or "convincing" than others. As theoretists researching a variety of cultural texts and artefacts, many of the presenters of this conference are trained readers. Some of us have turned our attention primarily to that form of text or cultural artefact which is called games, and many of us at the current point in time struggle not to read these text on the level of meaning, but on the level of _production_ of meaning: what are the limits and defining characterics of games or game worlds, how can we approach them on a very basic analytical level?

Ned

Ned Rossiter has become Ned Kelly. His presentation has started with an Edward de Bono homage with coloured overhead markers, overheads, and thinking out aloud and sideways. The glow from the projector illuminates his face in ways that are wildly reminescent of early German expressionist cinema. He's trying to describe the manner in which ways of knowing remain unacknowledged in the debates about things like games and game theory, and new media theory in general. That the debate is, as I understand it, already about determined or determinable objects, but the discourse that is determining the determinable is not visible. From here he's moved to his paper, more or less, where Ned seems to want to develop an argument around intellectual property rights, the conditions of production and reception, and the politics of these. Somewhere in here is cybernetics, feedback loops, and a critique of recent commentary on the political economy (is that what it's called) which thinks that in a networked postindustrial environment there is no outside. For Ned there is, there are a plurality of outsides, and this ought to be the site of critique. I think, if I were trying to conclude Ned's argument, I'd probably read this as the critique should be located in this outside, not in the work itself where the outside has not been articulated.

Round Table: New Media Difference New Media Future

From 10.30am tomorrow (Friday) morning at the State Library of Victoria theaterette MelbourneDAC is running a public roundtable discussion. This is to discuss some of the ideas that have arisen from the conference. The ostensible focus is more or less what should we be studying (how should we be studying)?, what should we be teaching, and what are our differences?

Something that has become very visible at this DAC are the national differences between the theoretical epistemes being used to think about new media (which is now increasingly obvious as a useless descriptor). Many of the Scandinavians seem to come from what I understand to be a very deep comparative literature tradition, the North Americans have always an empiricist undergirth, and the Australian's seem to be the ones about flow, event, and force. These differences are quite evident, and problematic, and hopefully productive.

So I've invited two Europeans, Espen Aarseth and Susana Tosca, two North American's, Mary Flanagan and Noah Wardrip-Fruin, and two Australian's, Andrew Murphie and Anna Munster. 10.30am, State Library of Victoria, Experimenta.

GAMES AND OTHER THINGS

From Susana Pajares Tosca, on the understanding of "ludology".

As one of the Gamestudies editors, I have to say that it is really disappointing how an attempt at actually making games into a serious academic discipline has been confused with colonisation from a certain perspective that everybody calls "ludology". When we asked that games be treated as games, it was a call for people to stop considering them as a subset of another academic discipline (literature, psychology, sociology, you name it). This is not to mean that we cannot use the tools of all these sciences, and others, to look at a multifaceted object that is so fascinating from so many points of view. We want integration, but games should be the focus, not the excuse. That was the whole point.

Ph. D. Panel Session

I think the oddest experience I had this conference was being part of this panel. But I guess the mix of male and female, European, American and Australian Ph D students did represent a rather wide selection of "types". The main advice from the experienced Doctorate Candidates:

• don't mess up your life just before you submit the thesis. (keep your boyfriend or husband around until after you have submitted.)
• write about something you like.
• spend time on preparing your work.
• focus on theory - whether you want to use it or develop it.
• write, write, write, present and publish.
• get a good supervisor.

typology, incoherence and wargames

Three men in the session I watched before the Ph.D panel: Thomas A. Porter, Nitzan Ben-Shaul and Patrick Crogan.

Heard about town

This is a simulation of a simulation...

Towards the end of my paper, I began to realize that digital stuff is really complex.

We were going to do nude ergodic dancing, but decided instead to give the paper.
(note this may be corrected to laptop dancing...)

Most of Thursday morning

I missed the first session as I was trying very hard to pay my hospital bills from my previous time in Melbourne. It got to the point where I was explaining on the phone, look there is a crazy American who wants to give you money for treatment. Why haven't I gotten a bill? They tried explaining the concept of socialized medicine to me, but it hasn't really sunk in. I am still in shock at a hospital with no billing department, with no way to actually take my money for treatment.

Anyway, click for more my notes from the rest of the morning here...

Australian Wine

Adrian is not just a great organizer (he must be a very fuzzy father, the way he cares for his baby, the DAC 2003), but also a really fun guide to Australian wildlife. No need to read the labels in the zoo, because Adrian had made sure we were well informed before we reached the careful selection of dangerous or cuddly animals the ones trotting along behind him had requested. But the high-light of Wednesday was the much advertised wine tasting. I even learned something new, surprising and interesting, as I poured out a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon that was just too bitter: Women have more tastebuds than men, and therefore more sensitive particularly to the bitterness of certain grapes. Neat!

conference review

Danny Butt's already gone home, but he's posteda review of the conference to Fibreculture. His ideas for in-session citation gathering among the wifi-enabled audience are interesting...

Questions and Answers

I had originally proposed for all session chairs to only have questions and answers at the end of each session, but that just isn't working well (as has been pointed out to me), so questions are now happening after each speaker. Minor point, but since the sessions aren't themed to encourage people to hear things they might not wish they ought to, questions at the end seem to dissipate the energy of the papers.

Andrew Murphie's paper

Andrew's paper this morning was, well, intimidating. This is, in many ways, the sort of work that I was hoping to attract with the emphasis on time based media and the rather abstract 'streaming worlds'. Time has been absent from much of what I've seen (though it appears in numerous ways today). The notion of force, of flow, and differentials is an extremely productive idea that moves us away from the idea of signification as somehow primary. Something must be prior to signification, or if prior is the wrong model, then alongside. Signification is subject to this.

After Lunch, Tuesday

Jane McGonigal's paper uses "The Beast" as its object of stud three features of immersive gaming: they're invasive, episodic, subversive. The Beast was a viral marketing campaign for Speilberg's AI. The game had no identifcation in any way to indicate any sort of corporate ownership. Jane's research interest is about the dissolution of the difference between reality and games, well, not quite. What happens when game play enters the real world, is in the world and follows the time and flow of the quotidian world? Wow, Jane just detailed some collective groups that are investigating real life crime but treating it as like a game world.

Old school immersion v. new school immersion. Old school about VR, simulation, needs a special interface, limited interaction. New immersion is augmented reality, everday interfaces, everyday spaces, and interactivity is not constrained through things like an 'interface'.

Andrew Hutchison's presentation is thinking about what they really made in their Juvenate project. Which is quite a useful problem to pose. Interested in a comparative analysis that allows us to compare apples with oranges, games with hypertexts with multimedia works. Looked to narratology and Mieke Bal's idea of the way a work implicates the reader (this work that I know Jill has also done). It applies to work that may not be traditionally narrative, not constrained by categorisation and can be applied to any constructed artefact. Bal's model uses fabula (events, actors, time, location and their interactions), story (what is made more specific), and text (the specific manifestation of this).

Bal has these three levels and the text as the manifestation of these and is where experience 'happens' (experience here is defined in terms of relation of reader to text). Used this to produce a 'matrix' of what sorts of things can be done in a text, by who, as a way of being able to compare differences and similarities between different texts. I'll have to read the paper, as I can't see what the connection is between the introduced idea of implication and then the analysis performed, why the implicated reader is necessary to the categories being used to consider the objects of study.

And he managed an ad for BEAP 2004.

Tiffany Holmes' presentation is on the art game genre. Suffering conference note taking fatigue about now.

Greetings from trAce

Hi all, Sue Thomas, Helen Whitehead, Randy Adams and all from trAce wish they were here and add: Please mention the two vacancies we have at the moment on our new Writers for the Future project http://www.writersforthefuture.com/ - Digital Writer in Residence and Digital Teacher in Residence, closing date 28 May.We also have some good content on the front page at the moment including conference reviews, Jim Andrews, and Children's Hypermedia. Finally, the Incubation3 Conference will be in Nottingham on July 12-14, 2004, (note *4*, not this year!) and the call for papers will go out in September.

Our big dayout

Of course, I couldn't sleep. I "conference slept" that is, my body was in bed and trying to relax for 6 hours, whilst my mind travelled hundreds of miles at unimaginable speeds, engaging one concept after the other like ghost citizens whirling about in macabre dances, skeletons of concepts like sound situated meaning and navagability and n-grammatic constructions bowing to me and whisking me away in fast paced waltzes that went ...well I would say nowhere, but I think they did go somewhere...it will just take time to settle these wild thoughts and give them flesh and being. Of course, I will have to chose which poor wraiths to embody, and some will be left in limbo or even purgatory for the foreseeable future.

Anyway, I "awoke" tired and exhausted from my night of whirling ideas. This is the point in most conferences where I reach for coffee (which I am not supposed to have and which can land me in the hospital pretty quickly), beatifically smile at the artificial energy imparted, and go on thinking. This is where I lose my health and well being for the sake of ideas...

However, Adrian brilliantly designed this conference to include a day out between sessions, a daytime to let these ideas simmer and surge. So I went forth...

A night out

+++Nick, Noah, Rob Swigart, Rob Kendall, Jim Bizzochi, and Andrew went off for dinner and found an italian/indian place which lead to jokes about Pastafarians and other oonsperisms which we thought inspirational and quite funny. Rob and Jim got into a pun war reminiscent of Spider Robinson's Cross Time Callahan Saloon stories (it was about a story about shoes, following a discussion of the shoe bomber who was the sole survivor, which had us in stitches--but I don't think I can cobble together the entire piece of leather.)

Rest of Tuesday notes

The space here is gothic building meets deconstructionalist theory, with odd almost stone arches broken by geodesic tile patterns. It is an odd juxtaposition of old and new, which seems to be most of the materials that we see here...immersive games insinuating themselves into reality.

See what is below for what transpired here.. or what I think went on...

heard about town

Hiding behind the technology is a sociological phenomenon. We tend to forget things like character. (Think Star Wars)

game/not game distinction is really boring.

Some things are just fun in the game, and some are fun for the subversion of the game.

The game world is as wide and varied and open as the real world--there are no illegal moves.

There is a pleasure in performing belief. There is a pleasure in wanting the game to be real--or wanting reality to be more like a game.

Watching people interact with a game in a bar is like watching people interact with a book in a bookstore--if you put Ulysses down in a bookstore, is it a failure?

buzz

Jill says, in her presentation, and suddenly the room is indeed buzzing, the noise-level raising in a well-orchestrated crescendo, words like ontology and action surfacing at random intervals from this sea of noise. To stop it takes a little more time though...

Mutter, drawl and second language

Before lunch I went to the presentations of Caroline McCaw and Darshana Jayemanne. I can't really say much about that though.

Who are those ludologists?

I hear it over and over: "The ludologists think of game in this and this manner. They analyze this but exclude that. They do, they say, they focus on, they argue, they exclude..."

Glide re-contexted

Thanks Adrian for the remarks on Glide. Glide is a website (See discussion and link at http://www.eliterature.org/state/work-SlatteryD.shtml) as well as a novel. Glide is also a poetic language using 27 glyphs you can manipulate. Diana Slattery and others wrote the novel, website, and now a 3d application that may be shown in Play Engines.

Monday evening out of sequence

==Evening at the Federation Square

Nick had a bottle of wine out that we simply had to help him finish before going on and out, so we had a great talk beforehand.

The Federation Square is a building based on a deconstructionalist theory of architecture--and it shows. The building has odd corners sticking up, angular halls that curve in strange places. We listened to an interesting promo of PlayEngines, an exhibition of electronic art and lit hosted by the Victorian Library.

listening to Tues sessions

Sitting on the floor next to a trashbasket smelling of apple cores, as the room is full up and the chairs are all taken, thinking about visible and invisible.

Administrative Announcements for after Lunch

The list of people attending the conference dinner is located on the wall to the right of the elevator in the foyer. Could people please confirm that you're there. Also some have registered for the dinner but have not paid. If you ticked the box but didn't pay for it, check, so we don't have to come looking for you (we know where you live).

Remember that the list of those coming on the busses is also on the wall. If you're not on the list, you are not on the bus.

The panel session scheduled for this afternoon on Interface Design and Visual Indexing is now scheduled for Thursday afternoon. There is only one panel on this afternoon, "Whatever it Takes, the New Media Editor".

Friday, at Experimedia, we are running a roundtable on new media research, games, and futures. What research agendas ought there be, what should we be teaching, why, what matters.

Major schedule change. Session Thu3A, Room one, 12:00pm - 1:00pm is now a roundtable

Another Tuesday Session

William Gillespie couldn't make the conference so the incomparable Rob Swigart presented his paper. This is about the relation of innovation, technology, and band culture to the creative practice undertaken by The Unknown. What I hadn't realised was the way in which the original idea for The Unknown was to write an anthology of work on the work of the unknown, where of course they would need to publish the work of the unknown first of all (an imagined book of poetry). So there was an original sort of Borgesian sort of model. The hypertext was only going to be promotional work attached to this larger project. The connection to the Beatles? Still not sure, but I think it is that The Unknown is a 'three piece' writing band where they overdubbed from each others work and so on. They would write in each others style and point of view. This then developed into things like writing a fictional piece about presenting work at Brown in a digital auditiorium, only to find themselves doing exactly this, which was recorded producing complex layers of diegetic embedding and what I'd characterise as ironic conflations of the diegetic and the real.

Rob Kendall described the Electronic Literature Organizations database directory of hypertext and new media writing. It is a complex directory attempting to list new media works. Definition used of electronic literature is anything that would lose something in being translated to print. Rob then went on to list all the major issues that arise when trying to maintain a viable archive directory of new media works. I'm interested in the tension

Tuesday, Session 2B

Deena Laresn's introduction to Glide, which seems to be a complex combinatory glyph 'language' that provides english translations of the glyphs that are generated by the system. It seems to be a bit like the I-Ching meets a combinatory textual apparatus. She has invited everybody to use the combinatory engine to build their own poem from the system. The thing that I don't know, but it could be because I arrived late for the session, is just what the system or process is for. Is it a constrained combinatory system, is it about deep narrative (in some sort of Joseph Campbell sort of manner?), is it about poetry, or is it something else. The paper is very good and a fantastic introduction to Glide and how it works, and I really like the idea of a mode of writing that is non textual.

Julianne Chatelain presented Diana Slattery's paper on Glide. She did a fantastic job of pointing out the major points and possibilities of Glide, and it really is just an exciting idea to build what is almost a runic system.

Truna gave an almost dramatic, aka highly performative, presentation about interaction design. Was various, wide ranging.

darlings

Other times, peoples' personalities lets you remember what they said. "It's not just you and the computer in that darkened room, darlings," Truna told us this morning with a seductive toss of her long red ringlets, "it's a menage a trois, darlings, the designer's in there with you too!"

Tuesday Morning, Session One

Keith Armstrong connects an ecological crisis with the crisis in subjectivity. Ecosophy is a wisdom of the dwelling and that creative practitioners would like to engage with ecosophical ideas, but how. This study and action research project is refining praxis and new media is useful in developing this conversation. Documented a research project around 'Public Relations' an installation design project around a platform in a major public railway station in Brisbane. What I enjoyed about this is that it is work thoroughly in the public domain and combines analog feedback (suggestions box for instance) with digital systems, with a public sphere sort of project.

Ecology, empire and tigers

The session this morning is on a wide mix of topics. Keith Armstrong speaks of New media design and ecosophical praxis, Dan Fleming presents the paper Hypertext and Empire, and Nick Montford is presenting a work he did with Stuart Moulthrop, Face it, Tiger on interactive fiction.

Public Access to the Dac Papers

All the papers presented at MelbourneDAC will be publicly available from the MelbourneDAC site (here) from next week (after the conference). They will be available as pdfs.

Tuesday's Announcements

The Rod Quantock Comedy Bus Tour, for Friday night. There are still 10 places available for this bit of local colour. Deena Larsen is the contact person. A list is on the message board if you would like to go.

Metraform's "Ecstasis" is a part of the +playengines+ show, but it runs in a cave and there is limited space. You will find booking forms for their performances on the registration desk, so if you want to see the work you must book a session.

There will be a list put up next to the registration desk for all those we think are participating in the DAC Day Out. Only those who have registered for the entire event (that is each of the days) have this as part of their conference package. Please check the list to confirm that you're on it (if you think you should be on it and you're not, let us know, if you've only registered for one or two days, you are not on it, $80 will get you on it).

There will also be a list of those attending the conference dinner. Please also check this list to confirm that you are attending. The dinner was not included in your registration.

Final reminder: tonights performance event is from 9pm, at Bourgie, which is at 397 Little Lonsdale, not Little Latrobe, as included on the information page.

Comedy Tour May 23

for those of you in Melbourne, there is a special end of conference treat--a comedy tour with Rod Quantock. Rod Quantock is a Melbourne legend, a comic genius who leads a group on a bus tour to unexpected and
interesting places in Melbourne. It all forms an impromptu comedy show which is a unique experience.

Sign up at the message board! We have 14 spaces left to fill.

deena's long notes--more interesting parallels

Have you thought about the parallels between the Sears Roebuck catalogue and the interactive spaces on the web? Nanette Carter just showed some beautiful examples of these ways of looking at text and pictures to SELL something.
Yet you could use the same ideas to write ...

stuff heard around here

Some things are just fun in the game, and some are fun for the subversion of the game.

historical parallels

Had you thought about the similarities between nineteenth century paper doll houses and The Sims? I hadn't even heard about paper doll houses, but Mary Flanagan has. Talking about her paper she showed wonderful (and hilarious) parallels between these cut out worlds and the Sims. Paper dolls houses and regular dolls even had their own fan fiction, Mary said, explaining how magazines encouraged readers to send in stories they'd enacted with their own dolls. Right now similarly Victorian images fill the large screen in Storey Hall, as Nanette Carter is comparing nineteenth century shops, advertising, department stores and modern shopping malls to online shopping. She's finishing up by talking about rather creative online shopping sites, like vuitton.com - which compares favourably to Sportsgirl's bland backdrop of noisy music.

After Lunch

As chair the opening nerves are gone (it is certainly more stressful than presenting a paper, though the same sorts of anxieties, it would be good for people to remember that everyone has performance anxiety) and things seem to be bubbling along pretty well. The immediate response has been positive, with a lot of people acknowledging that having fully written papers before hand has made a substantial difference to the quality of the work presented, and the positions represented. This is pleasing, of course, and my immediate impression is that a lot of what I hoped and wanted to have happen is beginning to develop. So I think we can chalk that one up to a being a good outcome of the process that has been engaged with.

matching faces to websites

I've noticed that sometimes I recognise people at conferences by their websites rather than their names or faces. Danny Butt's t-shirt is as vibrant a blue as his website is yellow.

Deena's online notes

Well, here I am at DAC, in an odd green building full of geometric patterns and shapes, a very appropriate venue. A quick welcome from the dignataries of Melbourne started us off with a rush.

In the foyer - some quiet time

I should of course have been upstairs listening to Bernadette Flynn, Mark McGuire and Stefan Greuter, but instead I am here, feeling guilty but already overwhelmed. The first three long papers this morning were directly relevant to my work, particularly those of Mikael Jakobsson and T.L. Taylor and Lisbeth Klastrup, who all spoke of their experiences in EverQuest.

Jakobsson and Taylor spoke of the socialisation processes in the games and compared that to Sopranos, where the guilds were "The Family". I agree, it's comparable, but I think there is an even better and more obvious comparison simply by comparing game guilds and real guilds. Historically, guilds have functioned exactly as Jakobsson and Taylor describe, sponsorship, specialisation, socialisation and all.

Lisbeth Klastrup spoke of a poetics of Virtual Worlds, and hurried through her presentation quicker than I could take notes. She had some interesting points on online games, but her final statement, that her methodology can be used on any other type of computer-mediated texts, such as hypertext literature, was not really convincingly founded in her presentation. After the way she dwelled on the aspects of EverQuest that were social, game-related and motivated by the need to interact with others, the leap to include hypertext literature was quite sudden.

Anyway - change of sessions, and I don't want to miss Mary Flanagan's presentation... I didn't recognize her right way earlier today, and I am still embarassed with my bad face-recognition skills.

Sunday Shopping Spree

Something we did before the conference, and something others may like to do during or after, was to bolster our not always so well-armoured egos with the heal-all: shopping!

I will not go into details, as the actual purchases are a lot more fun to see than to hear about, but I'll do some shameless plugging. If you are male, female or not entirely convinced about either, you may want to have a look at the shop where Jill, Hanne Lovise and I spent two hours trying on clothes and dreaming of places to wear the stuff they sell. The store is Anton's, Level 3 Shop 368, Melbourne Central, 300 Lonsdale Street - that's upstairs in a big department store not far from the conference venue. Not cheap - but even if you are not in desperate need of a new corset or a suit in the style of Greta Garbo, the need just may arise once you are there.

Lisbeth (again)

Lisbeth asked "have you ever seen a book with a bug screen?" A good question. I wonder if an errata is a book's bug screen, or is there something more substantial recorded by or via a bug screen?

Lisbeth

Lisbeth Klastrup is talking about the poetics of virtual worlds. Something I'd invited presenters to do is talk to their papers, and to let us know why their work is of value and exciting to them. Lisbeth, as a result of this question, has pointed out that from the question she realised that her interest in this research goes back to her childhood and the carpet she used to play on. How the carpet provided a border which was the virtual world of her games. Minor point, perhaps trivial academically (who can tell yet), but it is good that as a researcher she has been able to identify a qualitative reason for why she does what she does.

Sweat, Anxiety and Speeches

Ok, it is now 10:00am on day one, gone through the the first opening official speeches (I live in dread of such formal moments, convinced that I will misprounce someone's name, leave them off the list of thank you's, stammer, knock over the water over an important person's notes, my list of possible disasters is endless).

Mikkael Jakobsson and TL Taylor are discussing trust and guilds in Everquest and have joined it to trust and honour in the mafia with The Soprano's providing the model. Really nice mix of popular culture, game theory, and social theory.

So, survived the opening, did not do the managing of the VIP guests as well as I ought (did I mention how hard I find this to do), but everyone seemed to be happy. Plenty of coffee to go around, and we got the first session underway, not as late as I had expected.

The palms are still sweaty, another round of formal things this evening at the ACMI reception and then I can relax. Some.

Amended Schedule

Have placed an amended schedule online, and an A3 photocopy of this will be on the notice board for all the delegates to note the changes. I'm pretty pleased, all in all, there are only 6 sessions that have changes, and only 4 of these relate to absent presenters.

ExtraDAC activities

Wednesday, May 21st, DAC Day Out

On Wednesday all full delegates are invited to come on the busses with us up the bush. We're leaving RMIT at 9:00am and will be travelling into the Yarra Valley up to Healsville. This is a small town on the edge of the Great Dividing Range (runs from western Victoria to the top of Cape York Peninsula in Queensland, in other words the length of the entire east coast) and here we're visiting Healsville sanctuary. Now for the Australians going on the trip, this is some nice bush and a park full of kangaroos, koalas, lyrebirds, snakes, platypus's and so on. For overseas guests it means you can't go to DAC and not see a koala, kangaroo, or platypus, and a chance for the Australian's to show you around and do the Australian thing of relaxing, chatting, and being in the bush.

We leave the sanctuary at 12.30 and head to De Bertoli's winery in the Yarra Valley for lunch, some wine, and a wander. We pack up at 4 to head back to RMIT.

This is a networking day out of the sobriety of the conference venue. A chance to relax after two days of talk and rush, and to return to discussions, arguments, and friendships that the conference has started.

Friday, May 23rd. DAC goes to Experimedia

Friday, the last day of the conference, we move location to the new Experimedia new media centre at the State Library of Victoria. This is literally next door (well, over the road) from where the conference is being held at RMIT.

We would like everyone to be able to get to the library by 10am. There are a series of artists presentations scheduled, by those who have work in the MelbourneDAC +playengines+ show, as well as a roundtable discussion in the library theaterette which will serve as a summary and discussion of the conference, future directions for new media research and practice, and so forth. Panellists will be invited to participate in the roundtable during the conference and the list will be confirmed Monday May 19.

Registration Price Update

Well, something to keep in mind for future. On the registration page I had not added the on the day registration costs (though all of these are very clearly detailed on the registration form that is required). Have no amended that, so that the web page includes details of on the day registration costs.

Dac does Empyre

Via Melinda Rackham:

The MelbourneDAC -empyre - meeting will be held on Wednesday, May 21, from9pm at:Bourgie (upstairs)397 Lt Latrobe StMelbourne

According to locals Bourgie is a new and very typical Melbourne bar, with nosignage to speak of, down a narrow city back street.. The upstairs bar willbe set aside for -empyreans- . If you go to the DAC performance night onTuesday it is in the same spot.. so easy to locat. Thanx to Adrian Miles forsuggesting and organising the venue.

For anyone in Melbourne but not at DAC, as the meeting is outside theconference progam please feel welcome to come along as well and meet otherAustralian and International list members. See ya there!!

Network Facilities

Some lampshade iMacs will be available to check for email, blog, surf, burn CDs and that usual sort of stuff. We are expecting wireless to be available in parts of the foyer and main auditorium.

An account has been set up on the conference server so that you can move your content off your laptops to burn to CD, place on the presentation machines, and so on.

The tech. support staff can show you how to do this. However on each of the iMacs the network drive should be already mounted and visible. From another computer the url is:
ftp://hypertext.rmit.edu.au/

username: dac
pwrd. smile

this is public access so please don't treat the content in here as secure, and don't delete other's material!

Presentation Hardware

Each of the three presentation spaces will have a lampshade iMac for use. This will be networked, and has a DVD drive. This will be attached to a data projector. An overhead projector, and television with a VCR will also be provided.

Presenters are able to connect their own laptops, however please make sure you visit your presentation room during the morning tea (or morning coffee) time to make contact with the tech. support crew and to check that things will be ok.

Alternatively you can connect your laptop to the network, move your presentation to the conference server, and connect to that from the presentation machine. In the same way you could move material to the server and then pick it up from one of the iMacs we are providing in the foyer and burn a CDROM for use in your session.

Tuesday Night: DAC Performance Night Out

Jeremy Yuille, Melbourne sound artist, Flash whiz, member of the DAC Academic Board and one of my mates in the School of Applied Communication has put together the DAC performance night out.

Free entry for delegates (bring your name tag to flash the door if needed), $5 entry for others. Cash bar.

Being held at:

bourgie
397 Little Latrobe St
Melbourne

The lineup:

9:00 Robert Kendall
Faith

9:15 boo chapple
untitled

9:45 Christina McPhee
NAXSMASH/Memoires of a cyborg

10:00 Jeremy plays ceedees - maybe Daniel will come down too

10:15 jayne fenton keane
untitled

10:30 Roger Dean
ProseThetic Memories, by Anne Brewster, Hazel Smith and Roger Dean

10:45 ceedees again...

11:15 Adam Nash
Chromacy-Yellow2

11:40 choons till we all go home

DAC Day Out

On Wednesday all full delegates are invited to come on the busses with us up the bush. We're leaving RMIT at 9:00am and will be travelling into the Yarra Valley up to Healsville. This is a small town on the edge of the Great Dividing Range (runs from western Victoria to the top of Cape York Peninsula in Queensland, in other words the length of the entire east coast) and here we're visiting Healsville sanctuary. Now for the Australians going on the trip, this is some nice bush and a park full of kangaroos, koalas, lyrebirds, snakes, platypus's and so on. For overseas guests it means you can't go to DAC and not see a koala, kangaroo, or platypus, and a chance for the Australian's to show you around and do the Australian thing of relaxing, chatting, and being in the bush.

We leave the sanctuary at 12.30 and head to De Bertoli's winery in the Yarra Valley for lunch, some wine, and a wander. We pack up at 4 to head back to RMIT.

This is a networking day out of the sobriety of the conference venue. A chance to relax after two days of talk and rush, and to return to discussions, arguments, and friendships that the conference has started.

DAC goes to Experimedia

Friday, the last day of the conference, we move location to the new Experimedia new media centre at the State Library of Victoria. This is literally next door (well, over the road) from where the conference is being held at RMIT.

We would like everyone to be able to get to the library by 10am. There are a series of artists presentations scheduled, by those who have work in the MelbourneDAC +playengines+ show, as well as a roundtable discussion in the library theaterette which will serve as a summary and discussion of the conference, future directions for new media research and practice, and so forth. Panellists will be invited to participate in the roundtable during the conference and the list will be confirmed Monday May 19.

Things I'd do Again (next time)

A checklist of the things that we've done well in preparing for MelbourneDAC:

Winter Fog

So this is Melbourne. Foggy, grey, rather cool - very familiar actually, jacket and keep-your-umbrella-close weather. I hope that most of the chill comes from the cold I picked up on the plane (if you still haven't left home, remember to wear something warm on the plane!). The Hotel I am at is really close to RMIT - tested that out yesterday - there's an internet cafe at Elisabeth street where I am connected for au$ 3.30 a minute, and Australians are easy to be around, nice, comfortable people for a Norwegian.

Most of the time yesterday was spent nursing my cold - something it seems like most of Melbourne should have been doing. Well, not my cold, theirs. Perhaps I am hyper-sensitive because of the SARS scare, but I have never heard as many people sniff, cough, sneeze and blow their noses in public as on this trip. So that's an other thing you may want to do - pick up a pack of paper handkerchiefs, seems like this is cold and flu-season here. Logical, though, since it's winter.

And I should have skimmed through and downloaded the conference papers before I left my broadband in Norway. But Adrian promises that we'll get it all on CD, so I guess Monday it will be all right. I haven't seen Adrian yet, but judging from the amount of blogging here, he's busy finding volunteers to test out Melbourne bars for us. Well, it's a rough job, and I am glad somebody is doing it for us. Not even my native Scandinavian stamina would have endured for long enough to bring you all this list.

Some Bits Working

Well, just got some email from some of the authors which shows that people are reading each others papers before they get here and are emailing each other. This is brilliant and is one of the things I had hoped would happen by making all papers available to all delegates ahead of the event. Helped no doubt that there have been a series of didactic emails explaining and insisting that no one is to read their paper, and that delegates are not to assume that papers will be 'delivered' but will be presented on the assumption that the audience has some familiarity already with the content. This has taken a lot of cajoling and effort since it is outside of the usual mould for humanities conferences: submit an abstract, no requirement to see a final paper, turn up and read it. At such conferences over 6 years I have only ever met 2 people who had actually had a finished paper to read when they arrived at the conference. Here the work is finished, and more or less already published to the delegates. Now we use that as a springboard to think from, rather than just repeating what has already been written.

It is good to learn that people are already making contact with each other. This is good.

Useful Reminder

To find where the conference venues are, just check the list of information we've collected under the FAQ and Melbourne categories (they're listed down the left side of the conference site). These have links to maps of Melbourne and RMIT. The conference itself is being held at Storey Hall, RMIT. This is on Swanston Street, just north of the corner of Latrobe Street, and will have signage out the front. It is the big green and purple and grey cave with a little glass door entrance. trés postmodern and difficult to miss (except for the size of the door...)

Oh, and we've included maps in the conference pack, and volunteers will also be able to show you around the place on maps.

Session Chairs

Below is an extract from the information that is being given to session chairs. I'm providing it here so that everyone attending knows what the session procedures will be, which hopefully will also help you frame questions that are in the 'spirit of things'. Being explicit about these things I'm hoping will give the event consistency, a shape, and will help encourage and frame conversation and dialogue.

The conference committee wishes to encourage delegates to meet each other, and so we would like you to find (the authors have also been told to find you!) each of the presenters listed below to get a very brief bio so that you can introduce them.

When introducing your session please first of all introduce yourself and give yourself 30 seconds or so stating your own research or creative interests. This helps everyone else know who you are and so encourages others to talk to you through the conference too!

Please introduce speakers immediately before each speaker (not all at once), and do this quickly. Key information is who they are, where they are from, and what their general research or creative practice is. Be strict about time, and I’d perhaps give a 5 minute and 2 minute warning.

Sessions are generally not themed, in an effort to encourage people to hear work from a broad range of participants.

For your session please remind each presenter that they have only 15 minutes to speak to their papers. There are to be no questions at the end of the paper but all questions are to be held to the end of the session. This will allow approximately 15 minutes for discussion at the end of each session. Each presenter has been invited to read their co-presenters papers and to have a couple of questions or observations about what they found of value from the paper. If there are no questions from the floor then please invite a speaker to offer one of the observation–questions. If there are questions from the floor, even where they may be directed to a specific author, please try and use the question and the response in a manner that allows you to let each of the other speakers to comment or reply.

meet

Here are a few veggie restaurants with comments….

The Vegie Bar
380 Brunswick St, Fitzroy (03) 9417-6935
fun atmosphere, huge meals, reasonable prices, beer

Shakahari Vegetarian Restaurant
201-203 Faraday St, Carlton (03) 9347-3848
Fine dining, great service, organic vine.

Moroccan Soup Bar
183 St Georges Rd, Fitzroy North (03) 9482-4240
no soup for you! Cheep fast, satisfying.

Gopal's Vegetarian Restaurant
139 Swanston St, Melbourne (03) 9650-1578
The Krishna’s are consistent….

The White Lotus Vegetarian Restaurant
185 Victoria St, West Melbourne (03) 9326-6040
Simulated meats and cheep prices.

cheers

bar bar

as you may have heard melbourne is home to a vibrant bar scene.....they lurk in the most unusual places. i have gathered a list of some of the best based on input from the dac volunteers and my own vague memories. there should be something for everyone...

see you monday!

Alia
83 Smith St, Fitzroy (03) 9486-0999

Arthur
Corporation La (off Flinders La), Melbourne (03) 9654-9744

Bennetts Lane Jazz Club
25 Bennetts La, Melbourne (03) 9663-2856

Botanical Hotel The
169 Domain Rd, South Yarra (03) 9866-1684
nice view of the gardens. no: 8 tram from swanston st
Cherry Bar
103 Flinders La, Melbourne (03) 9639-8122
creat tunes and live music. ***
Club Evolution
138 Commercial Rd, Prahran (03) 9529-2088
commercial road is for men who like men...
Commercial Bar
149 Commercial Rd, South Yarra (03) 9827-5997

The Croft Institute
Croft Alley, Melbourne
cool!
Deco Wine Bar
209 St Georges Rd, Fitzroy North (03) 9486-6746

Dizzy's Jazz Bar
90 Swan St, Richmond (03) 9428-1233

e:fiftyfive
55 Elizabeth St, Melbourne (03) 9620-3899

Elou's Stray Kat
19 McKillop St, Melbourne* (03) 9670-0890

Embassy
9 Drewery La, Melbourne (03) 9654-8000

Icon Bar
125 Flinders La, Melbourne (03) 9654-3622

Khokolat Bar
43 Hardware La, Melbourne (03) 9642-1142

Laundry
50 Johnston St, Fitzroy (03) 9419-7111
young, shakin
Lounge Bar Club Cafe
Flr 1,243 Swanston St, Melbourne (03) 9663-2916

The Melbourne Supper Club Bar
161 Spring St, Melbourne (03) 9654-6300
nice wine list....
Misty Place
3-5 Hosier La, Melbourne (03) 9663-9202

The Night Cat
141 Johnston St, Fitzroy (03) 9417-0090
swinging...
Onesixone
161 High St, Prahran (03) 9533-8433
2 cool....
Robot Sushi & Bar
12 Bligh Pl, Melbourne (03) 9620-3646

Tony Starr's Kitten Club
Lvl 2,267 Lt Collins St, Melbourne (03) 9650-2448
swinging 30 somethings....(who-ever you are)
Troika Bar
106 Lt Lonsdale St, Melbourne (03) 9663-0221
close to conference, cool ****
Yelza
245 Gertrude St, Fitzroy (03) 9416-2689

enjoy.

Things I'd do Differently (next time) 3

I'd let everyone know that everyone feels insecure about their papers. New researchers right through to professors. After mentoring I don't know how many writers through this process for MelbourneDAC I can vouch for this utterly. I'd also point out that the conversation that is happening about papers before being presented can only happen because a) everyone had to write finished papers which have been fully reviewed, and b) authors are not going to be reading their papers at the conference. This is the sort of discussion that the conference is about. Yes, it could be managed better, yes, perhaps it should have been said after the conference, but we are going to be thinking about processes and this is part of the process. Learning when to say and not to say is as important as learning what to say.

Mea Culpa

Blogs can be volatile, can't they? One of the my 'things I'd do differently' posts has stirred things quite a bit. There was another one, which stirred things even more which I have removed because yes, it ought not to have been written and published by the conference chair.

Anyway, this particular post, which I am leaving since it has created a minor eddy of resistance which has been productive, needs clearing up a bit, doesn't it. The issue about 30+ references isn't the number of references. It was about saying that for future conferences it would be good to mentor new researchers away from the habits they have to learn and perform in their role as PhD students (a role that is markedly different in Australia and Europe to that in the United States). What I was alluding too, indirectly and crudely, was that in a 4 or 10 page conference paper there is no need to (sometimes) spend a quarter of your time doing a literature review. This is what you do when writing a thesis, a necessary and important part. But as you mature as a writer and researcher then you tend to find that good conference papers are opportunities to explore your ideas. Of course this means you do have to contextualise them appropriately, but that is a very different process and method (or manner or style) to opening with a literature survey. In this conference all the papers are generally excellent, and everyone has something worthwhile that they believe they want to say. That is where the effort and time in the writing ought to go. That is what I wanted to write the other day, and it is something I would try to do if I ever tried to host a conference again (and right now the answer to that would be a resounding no way).

Saturday and Sunday

So, you're about to arrive in Melbourne, just before the conference, and am wondering what to do. Well, I'd think about checking out Federation Square, there are plenty of cinemas in the city centre (major commercial ones but also art house). For arthouse I'd check out the Kino (eastern end of Collins St), the Lumiere (Lonsdale St between Russell and Exhibition Streets), or the ACMI screenings (which I think might be free this Sunday afternoon) which are at Fed. Square.

For food, well hard to go wrong as long as you keep away from most of the cafes and restaurants that run down Swanston St. (Good rule, further north up Swanston St, that's closer to RMIT btw), the better the food. Don't bother with anything between Collins and Bourke Sts, once north of Bourke I still wouldn't stop until you've crossed Little Bourke, then you can start looking. There's an asian soup place (Mekong, I think) that is awesome, just ask for the beef or chicken soup, don't bother with the menu.

For breakfast Hairy Canary on Little Collins St, just up from the Town Hall, would be worth a look. Isn't cheap but usually good. There's also the Italian place next to the Town Hall (cnr Swanston and Little Collins) that is OK.

Chinatown runs along Little Bourke from the top of Spring St (the eastern end of the city) down to Swanston St. Hard to go wrong here but local knowledge is useful. Supper Inn (in the delightfully named Celestial Lane) is a perennial favourite. Always full.

Oh, Federation Square now has lots of cafes, haven't been so can't say but reports are excellent food but priced for the visitor or the professional... You'll find heaps of 'what to do in Melbourne' information at the Melbourne visitor centre which is at Fed Square, right on the corner of Flinders and Swanston Streets. If you cross the Yarra (that's the river just next to Fed Square) you'll find dozens of cafes right along the south bank, it continues for about a kilometre I guess, into the casino precinct which is also full of riverside cafes. Broad range of food and prices, if the weather's good this can be very nice. Usually some good buskers down here on a weekend if you want 30 minutes of circus style entertainment.

Tech Update

Slight changes to the technical services stuff we're providing. At this point we will have a lampshade iMac (running OS X) available in each of the presentation rooms. Will have powerpoint, some browsers, ethernet connection and data projector. There will be a vcr and TV in each presentation room (PAL), and an overhead projector.

Yes, you can connect your own laptop. If you want to do this then we invite you to go to your presentation room during the morning tea break where a tech person will be on hand to a) confirm that you can connect, b) show you how, c) answer any of your questions.

There will be lampshade iMacs available to check your email. There will be stray ethernet connections available for self serve laptop users, we'll provide full TCP/IP configuration information. It also looks like we can provide wireless access in the conference foyer, and hopefully the major auditorium. So those of you with wireless should manage pretty well.

Shows to see

This is from Nanette Carter (presenting at the conference). Please note the reference to football, as I posted here a while back it defines this city:

Two very worthwhile video installation shows that opened on Friday night within a kick of a footy from each other;
Brendan Lee at 200 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy
Aberrant by Christopher Koller at 69 Smith Street, Fitzroy

Reception reminder

The latest email that I sent to the conference delegates:

just a reminder, there is a welcoming reception at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Monday night. you're all invited, including the kiddies (if they're coming). it is crucial for catering that you've confirmed you're attending. if you said yep on the registration form, great. if you didn't and wanna come, with others, please let Anna Farago know via email ASAP. (anna.farago@rmit.edu.au).

There are some door prizes for the reception (fair dinkum) and we need your names in advance to make sure you go in the barrell...

If you are starving for lunch, dinner or late night munchies...

Cafe Baloo is the place to do!

I can recommend it 9/10.

I am munching on Baloo food as I do this. We are burning the midnight oil in the DAC office tonight (which looks like a tornado has hit it). We have lots of brown boxes stacked very haphazardly on top of each other. They contain all kinds of goodies that you will get in your conference packs (that's if the satchel thingies arrive from Sydney in time - shit...one more thing to stress about!)

Anyway, I best get back to it. Here are Baloo's details:

258 Russell St, Melbourne (Russell St runs parallel to Swanston where the conference venue is)
Eat in or Take away
Odd menu mixture of Indian Curries & Italian Pasta

I recommend the Dhal & the basmati rice, which is cooked to perfection

Oh yeah, if you have any queries about administrative stuff, I'll do my best to help you out. anna.farago@rmit.edu.au

Things are looking good for next week. See yas all then. Safe travels.

Anna

PS. 'Thank wish' to all the volunteers who are doing such good stuff for us.

Conference Logic

Strange title. MelbourneDAC is serious about encouraging dialogue and conversation around key ideas. This is why all the conference papers have already been made available to presenters, and are about to be made to all delegates a week before the event starts.

The sessions are divided into two streams, long papers and short papers. Long papers run to around 10 pages in the proceedings, but authors will only get 20 - 25 minutes to present their work. Short papers run to 4 pages in the proceedings and presenters only get 15 minutes to present. The major difference between these sessions is not in duration, it is audience. Long paper sessions are single track which means the entire conference cohort will hear them. The short papers are in dual track sessions, so the conference community will divide in two for these. We are not running a 5 or whatever track conference where your audience consists of 12 people.

The nice thing about single sessions is that everyone hears the work and this makes a major difference to discussion. Instead of coffee being "which session did you go to?", then "how was it?", it runs something like "what did you think of X's paper? I reckon it rocked." While the short papers are being delivered in dual sessions, the larger single track presentations still give the conference focus and some cohesiveness (socially and intellectually).

All papers have been made available to all delegates prior to arriving here, so at a minimum it is hoped that people will skim the papers that they are strongly interested in so that when they go to the relevant session it will not be to hear the paper repeated but to hear it spoken to. There is a difference there, and it is a useful difference.

Everyone will also get a CDROM with all the papers included (as pdfs) which of course means you could skim them during the conference if you have a laptop (or used the computers provided). More usefully, I hope, it just makes it very easy for each person to leave with a complete record of all the academic content in a readily accessible format, so that the conference doesn't disappear into fine fond memories of discussion and chatter, but there is a decent durable record of parts of it. This is common for scientific conferences, but in my experience is rare for humanities conferences.

Conference Name Tags

I well remember my first conferences where I would dutifully put on my name tag, and then be utterly intimated by the old guard who all knew each other, so didn't see the necessity of having to wear their name tags, which had the unfortunate (or intended) effect of gentrifying the conference. Not here please. Just assume that everyone you don't know also don't know you, and would like to know you.

So in a moment of original insight we are providing every delegate at MelbourneDAC with their very own name tag, which comes on a lovely piece of ribbon. Well, more like string. Your name tag is what will let you in to sessions, to morning and afternoon tea, and lunch. No name tag, no entry. This is not because we want a way to police attendance, but because it is the easiest way to ensure people actually wear their name tags. If you see someone with red string, they're a DAC helper, blue string, common folk.

Performance Night

The MelbourneDAC performance night is falling into place (literally :-) ). It is Tuesday, May 20th, from 9pm at <drumroll>
Bourgie
397 Lt Latrobe St
Melbourne</drumroll>

Bourgie is a new and very typical Melbourne bar. No signage to speak of, down a narrow city back street, local knowledge only.

List of performers available shortly.

Frustration, anticipation, butterflies and wasps

I wanted to address Adrian's rash list of things he would do differently the next time, and Elizabeth Lane Lawley's harsh statement that she is very glad she did not submit a paper. I will however not touch this issue beyond stating that even before the conference is opened things heat up, lines of potential conflict are drawn, the dramatic curve is climbing upwards, and the temperature in Melbourne may not indicate winter. (That it does not anyway, to a frozen Norwegian.) Stay tuned, in 6 days I will be blogging the drama of the 6th DAC conference straight from the center of events.

fine food & wine

The restaurants listed here are all close to the city centre. They have fancy food, wine and prices. All come highly recommended by me. (does this make my blog style more personal?)

Flower Drum
17 Market La Melbourne
Zukini
310 Flinders La, Melbourne
Langton’s
61 Flinders La, Melbourne
Bistro 1
126 Lt Collins St, Melbourne
Verge
1 Flinders La Melbourne
Café K
35 Lt Bourke St, Melbourne
European
The European
161 Spring St, Melbourne
ezard at adelphi
187 Flinders La, Melbourne
Flower Drum
17 Market La, Melbourne
Il Bacaro Cucina e Bar
168-170 Lt Collins St, Melbourne
Italy 1
27 George Pde, Melbourne
Shakahari Vegetarian Restaurant
201-203 Faraday St, Carlton
Walter's Wine Bar
Shop Ur1, Southgate, Southbank
Becco
11-25 Crossley St Melbourne
if you can get past the pop up menus/ visit citysearch to find specific information about Melbourne events, food, bars etc…

Can I Get a Copy of the Proceedings?

The entire proceedings of the conference will be available on CDROM. All full delegates (those who have signed up for the full catastrophe of 5 days) get this as part of their all inclusive purchase price (we tried to get a set of steak knives too but, you know). For anyone else, AUD$27.50 (including GST) should see you get a copy. Send a cheque, payable to RMIT to:
MelbourneDAC
School of Applied Communication
GPO Box 2476V
Melbourne 3001
Australia

And we'll send it right on out to you. Supplies are limited (well, we could burn more but you'd miss the cover artwork).

Welcome

This is a copy of the email I just sent to all the DAC delegates. If you're coming and you didn't get this then get in touch, pronto!

Dear Dac Delegates

(yes, we're fond of alliteration in mellifluous marvellous Melbourne) . . .

First of all, welcome to MelbourneDAC. We've been busy preparing things for the conference and exhibition next week, and this is an update to help you get the most from the event.

1. There is a conference blog which is being continually updated with information about the conference, things to do, places to go, information about sessions, hardware available, and so on. The url is:
http://media.rmit.edu.au/projects/dac/

2. If you'd like to join the blog community just ask (there will be live conference blogging). I'm using the blog to disseminate information to delegates, but also to document the conference.

3. All papers are available for download (pdf) from your special password only entry magic key web page:
http://media.rmit.edu.au/projects/dac/dacdelegates/

full papers have been properly formatted, short papers have been pdf'd as they arrived (they'll be corrected over time).

4. Skim the abstracts (http://media.rmit.edu.au/projects/dac/abstracts.html) to see what you're really interested in. Then get the pdfs for the relevant papers and skim them too. During the conference speakers will *not* be reading papers but will be speaking to their work. This is because
i. We don't have time to let readers read 10 pages of A4 text.
ii. The papers are already written so let's assume some familiarity with what's in them and use this as a place to begin from, rather than get to.
iii. We want discussion and academic creativity: instead of feigning absolute knowledge (the finished closed academic paper) let's acknowledge gaps, noise, problems, why the research matters and excites (hopefully someone).
iv. Speakers are being encouraged to speak for even less, and opening the sessions to discussion and debate.
v. There is a blanket ban on conference questions of the "excellent paper [insert very long question that contains 3 subclauses], is a problem, comment please?" which is too often academic street talk for "good paper, if you had only used the theorists/theories/ideas that I have/would have used then it would be a great paper".
vi. Instead read, listen, and ask about the idea (or if you're *real* lucky, ideas) that you will walk away with and use in your own practice.
vii. If you just disagree, there really isn't any need to tell everyone else during question time, is there? Hell, blog it instead.
viii. if you really really disagree then don't treat your question as a substitute paper (see point v.) Just make your point in the manner of a cat burglar. Surgical, brief, hit and run: "Your suggestion that offers a viable theory to deal with the sex lives of is a dilution of this theory to the point of trivia. I'd recommend reading for a much more productive approach." Of course if you can't suggest the reference, keep your mouth shut. If you're going to criticise, provide it in a way that helps by at least indicating where the speaker can find what you refer to.

5. Can I read/send email from the conference? We'll have 5 or so iMacs running OS X available in the conference foyer or nearby. They will have a web browser running for webmail, or you can use telnet (if that works for you). We won't be running any specific email clients (raises too many privacy issues for you).

6. Can I connect my laptop to the network to do networky stuff? The conference rooms are very, um, architectural, which means cable poor. We will set up a desk with a hub so you can get your ethernet fix. This will be self serve which means we'll provide all the IP/gateway/proxy TCP/IP details and it is up to you to connect.

7. Will there be wireless? working on it. can't promise anything, and if there is then will probably be in the foyer only. (Or I'll stick it on a really long bit of ethernet lead and just move it around the place, wireless on demand).

cheers
Adrian Miles

Things I'd do Differently (next time)

A checklist of things to do differently next time I chair a conference.

• provide a template for authors to use to write their abstracts. Probably a variation of the four sentence model (this is particularly the case for those wanting to skim the list of abstracts to see whether a paper might be relevant).
• mentor emerging researchers (late PhD researchers) to present work that does not contain 30+ references - it is a conference paper, not a thesis chapter (30 references is fine, but when they include a range of theorists from high french poststructuralism through to pop psychology, you begin to think that too much is being attempted)
• mentor all contributors that in 10 double column A4 pages (long papers) you can only explore one major idea in detail, or 4 or 5 a broader manner
• provide specific guidelines with minimum standards and formats for graphic work that is to be included
• confirm I have the venue for as long as I thought I had the venue

Papers Available

All those attending DAC will shortly receive an email providing access details to all the conference papers. This lets everyone skim read papers before the conference. Why? Because in short paper sessions authors only get 15 minutes in which to present their work, in long paper sessions this is 20 - 25 minutes. This means no one will be reading their paper but will instead be talking to their key points, and will assume that a) everyone has skimmed the work before hand, b) is then reasonably familiar with the content, and c) lets the conference concentrate on dialogue around these ideas rather than their representation (they're written and available, let's add to that when we're all together).

The long papers are in their final format, the short papers have not had their final polish added yet, some their formatting (per the conference paper stylesheet) will be variable.

All papers will be publicly available after the conference via this site after the conference.

Email and Laptops

Can I read/send email from the conference? We'll have 5 or so iMacs running OS X available in the conference foyer or nearby. They will have a web browser running for webmail, or you can use telnet (if that works for you). We won't be running any specific email clients (raises too many privacy issues for you).

Can I connect my laptop to the network to do networky stuff? The conference rooms are very, um, architectural, which means cable poor. We will set up a desk with a hub so you can get your ethernet fix. This will be self serve which means we'll provide all the IP/gateway/proxy TCP/IP details and it is up to you to connect.

DAC and me

I was there for the planning of the first of the DAC conferences, in Bergen 1998. Jill needed a hand in finding a restaurant for the conferences dinner, it was in the autumn in Norway, and the restaurants were almost all booked for the pre-Christmas parties. I don't know how many Bergen restaurants I called, until I remembered about Gamle Bergen Tracteursted, a restaurant within the museum Gamle Bergen.

We just managed to squeeze everybody into the restaurant, with its lovely late 1800, early 1900 furnishings. The dinner was marinated salmon, reindeer and cloudberry cream, a very norwegian menu. Somehow this has always accentuated the DAC conferences for me - the intimacy of rooms which are barely large enough for the attendees, the crowded social events, the food, ranging in quality from pre-packed lunch sandwiches to lavish dinners - and the play and banter encountering the meals. And laughter. Memories of DAC are memories of an almost euphoric feeling of being understood. Finally, everybody around me knows what I am talking about, and I get their stuff too!

This is what I expect to find again, and nothing less. Euphoric intellectual experiences, and meals to annoy and delight the senses, interlaced with the buzz of people, people, people - some of whom I have missed for a long time now.

latte?

Melbourne prides itself on great coffee.

Druids, Cite Espresso and Caffeine are all on Swanston St close to Storey Hall.

What does all that mean? Well, Storey Hall is where the conference is being held, it is part of RMIT. Swanston St is where you'll find Storey Hall, and when you step outside of Storey Hall then the road right in front of you is, you guessed it, Swanston Street. Now, directly over the road, right next door to the Hungry Jacks, is Cite Espresso. Good coffee, better cakes and puddings, wonderful traditional pizza. Caffeine is sort of part of the Storey Hall complex, just walk along Swanston Street to the north (that's to the right if you have your back to Storey Hall) and it's about 20 metres away. Druids is over the road, about 50 metres to the north. Dark, busy, make more latte's an hour than probably anywhere else in Melbourne. Go here for fast strong coffee, but not the food. (Anyway most of your stuff is catered during the day anyway...)

First time

Everything happens for the first time. It is not the first time I go to Australia for a conference, even if it is too rarely. The first time for that was one of the IAMCR conferences in 1996. But it is the first time I blog the conference, and it's the first time I do so in movable type.

I am leaving early for Melbourne. I will leave safe, clean, quiet Volda Tuesday 13, and I'll be waiting in Melbourne when the others arrive. Travelling alone gives me a sensation of freedom, that anything and everything can happen. What can happen in Melbourne? Hopefully it will happen somewhere within reach of an internet connection, and I just may share it...

Who I am? Some of the people who read this blog already know me, both from four of the five earlier DAC conferences and my weblog. I am Torill Mortensen, I write thinking with my fingers, I am an assistant professor at Volda College in Norway, and I know I will meet friends from the flesh- and the digital life.

Cheap Japanese

Izakaya Chuji is at 165 Lonsdale St, in the city. This is 5 minutes from RMIT (the conference) and is open every day except Sunday. Cheap Japanese food, middle quality but for the price excellent.

MelbourneDAC with the kids

Well, the conference itself really won't be much chop for the kids, though they'll be plenty for them on the DAC Day Out. But in Melbourne, which is a large cosmopolitan city, the top list of things to do with the kids (in no specific order):

Melbourne Zoo

Standard sort of zoo with wide collection of Australian and international animals. For the locals the exotic beasts are things like giraffes, zebras, elephants, gorillas and so on. Some of the cages look to the old days, but the gorillas get a pretty good gig, and the new elephant enclosure is a must see. Also wander into the Australian animal section to find kangaroos, koalas, echidnas, wombats, emus and so on. Highlights: elephants, gorillas, butterfly house (stand still and they'll land on you), and then whatever critters you want. There is a playground near the central cafe (next to the seals). Easy tram access, the gift shop is a trap, can get food there, easy to spend most of the day here.

Melbourne Aquarium

This is down on the Yarra River in the city, opposite the Casino (major landmark, everyone knows where the casino is). Has some coral and reef fish but the centre of the collection is a very very large bowl which is full of local species (including some bloody big stingrays collected from St Kilda). There are feedings and presentations at various times during the day, some hands on stuff, a free theme park style ride (if you're over the minimum height, don't remember but you'd need to be 7 or so I reckon), and so on.

Melbourne Museum

There are three campuses to the Melbourne Museum. The big new one (which is the one I'm describing) in Carlton's Exhibition Gardens, Scienceworks (which kids love) in a nearby suburb (but not the easiest to get to), and the Immigration Museum (in the city, exceptional). The Carlton Museum is a wonderful building, and is what the natural history museum has mutated into. Fantastic children's museum, then it is things like dinosaurs, collections of animals, technology, bodies (particularly grizzly), Aboriginal history, and a section of Australiana that documents most of Melbourne's sacred history (football, a horse called Phar Lap, school, Neighbours) and so on. Plenty of food available, inside down one end is a playground, outside for free is a much better one, and the Exhibition Gardens themselves are a great place to run around in.

s

In the Treasury Gardens (right next door to the State Parliament, at the eastern end of Collins St, go there after dark, s everywhere. If you take pieces of apple they will come and take it, but a) very sharp claws, b) very sharp teeth, c) they are wild. Oh, a is a furry critter, to us they're much like North American squirrels - tons bigger, but any park in the city is full of 'em after dark and they are very cute.

Melbourne botanic gardens

Hectares of open space, recognised as a landmark garden in the English landscape tradition, for the kids check out the eels in the lakes near the central cafe, the bats in the fern gully, and there are heaps of black swans (which you can feed but expect them to be bullies). They are large, if you've got a heap of energy then a tram to the gardens, walk through down to the river, cross at the Swan St Bridge then back to the city through Birrarung Marr (new park on the city side of the river and Federation Square can be good. Probably 3 kilometres though...

Fitzroy Gardens

Next door but over the road from the Treasury Gardens. Famous for its fairy tree (for my money a rather dull carved stump but been there forever), miniature village, and Captain Cook's Cottage (first Englishman to 'discover' Australia - never mind the local inhabitants or the Dutch who were on the west coast much earlier), but again heaps of space and if the kids want to explore then the path that follows the water is mighty good fun.

In case you're wondering, Federation Square (Fed Square to us) is good, but all capital 'C' culture. Free new gallery (just go to enjoy the architecture), the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (free) and a range of cafes. Essential if you want cultural stuff, YMMV with the kids. The Melbourne visitor centre is at fed square, so good place to get info.

There is only one half decent playground in the centre of the city, this is located to the west of Queen Victoria Market, in the Flagstaff Gardens (the gardens are the block formed by King, Latrobe, William, and um, some other street to the north). This has some playground equipment (swings, slides and so on). This combined with a trip to the markets (sorry for that web page, it really is disgusting) might be good, make sure it is a market day though. The market has fantastic food, fresh fruit and cheeses and so on, and is, well, vibrant.