Call for Submissions
Go Mobile, Stay Creative
Mobile Studies Congress 2023
Hangzhou, China, 16-17 December
(In-person, virtual, and hybrid)
After successfully organizing its past three congresses since its debut in 2020, Mobile Studies Congress 2023 (MSC2023) will take place on the 16th and 17th of December 2023 at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China.
This year’s theme is “Go Mobile, Stay Creative.” What role does creativity play in shaping and continuously redefining mobile media, mobile and smartphone filmmaking, mobility research, mobile creative arts, mobile music making, and mobile communication?
MSC2023 will explore and examine innovation and creativity in screen storytelling, community engagement, and novel production formats such as smartphone filmmaking, vertical video, mobile social networks, live streaming, music/sound creation with apps, micro movies, and mobile XR.
Developments towards Industry 4.0 (including Artificial Intelligence, algorithms, and automation) and ongoing digital transformations continue to disrupt creative industries to produce new business models, production environments, and distribution channels. Innovative technologies and mobile creativity allow various communities to create artistic and cultural productions globally and forge new synergies among academic disciplines. Mobile is the window to the world for most of us (Xu, 2019). As much of our world has gone mobile, it is vital to examine the changes, challenges, and chances that define mobile studies and mobile media making in 2024 and the near future.
Mobile media remixes and remediates old and new media and shapes storytelling to generate new forms and formats (Berry and Schleser, 2016). Mobile media’s specificity is expressed through accessibility, mobility, and its intimate and immediate qualities (Schleser, 2021). Since the early days of mobile media, this emerging research field has continuously redefined itself and its practices and contributed to cultural change.
As our world has entered a disturbing and disrupted period after the disastrous COVID-19 pandemic, the pressing need is to creatively leverage mobile technologies, mobile media, mobilities, mobile storytelling, mobile music, smartphone filmmaking, and mobile communications to help achieve Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.
Keynote speakers include Professor Susan Kerrigan (Professor in Film and Television, Department of Film, Games and Animation, Centre for Transformative Media Technologies, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia), Professor Hu Wenzhong (Dean of Institute of Journalism and Communication, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China) and Professor Wei Lu (Dean of the College of Media and International Culture, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China) and Associate Professor Dafydd Sills-Jones (Deputy Head of School Design & Creative Technologies, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand/Aotearoa), and Dr. Angus Cheong (Founder and CEO of ERS e-Research & Solutions, Macao).
The suggested topics for paper presentations include, but are not limited to, the following.
Creative Approaches and Creative Practices of
- Mobile Creativity
- Mobile for SDGs
- Mobile Communications
- Mobile Documentaries
- Mobile Music
- Mobile News Coverage
- Mobile Journalism
- Mobile Newsroom
- Mobile Photography
- Mobile and Smartphone Filmmaking
- Mobile XR
- Mobile Communications of National Images
- Mobile Communications of City Images
- Mobile First-Media / Mobile First-Design
MSC2023 has daily morning, afternoon, and evening sessions to attract more participants from different time zones. The main venue is Hangzhou, a city famous for its West Lake, Alibaba. Alongside MSC2023, the 13th International Mobile Innovation Screening & Smartphone Film Festival (www.mina.pro) will be held at Zhejiang University, the Mobile Studies Congress 2023 host.
This congress will seek further efforts to leverage mobile media, mobility, creativity, and communication to stay creative through its panels, smartphone film festivals, industry showcases, and workshops.
Please submit your abstract (around 300 words) and a bio (about 150 words including name/title/affiliation/email/social media) via https://forms.office.com/r/xrAJidfFvJ by 20th September.
The agenda will be announced on the 2nd of October. Registrations will open on the 3rd of October. Congress fees will be CN¥300, AUD60, or US$45 for on-site scholars, CN¥150, AUD30, or US$23 for online scholars. For students, 50% discounts will be available. The congress fees cover a smartphone film festival screening, workshops, and logistic expenses of holding the congress.
Selected papers from this upcoming congress will be published in a special issue in Media Practice and Education (SJR Q1 and SSCI Q2) in 2025.
Selected papers from the previous three congresses have been published in the edited collections Mobile Storytelling in an Age of Smartphones in 2021 and Coping with COVID-19, the Mobile Way: Experience and Expertise from China in 2022 by Palgrave MacMillan and in the Sightlines Special Issue Mobile and Smartphone Filmmaking – Past, Present & Future (https://www.aspera.org.au/issue-5).
Organized by
Mobile Studies International, Singapore
Mobile Innovation Networks & Association, Australia
College of Media and International Culture, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
In collaboration with
Asian Media Information and Communication Centre
Centre for Transformative Media Technologies and Australian Environments on Screen
Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia
ERS e-Research & Solutions, Macau, China
Asia-Pacific Communication Exchange Association, Macau, China
School of Culture and Communication, Zhejiang Wanli University, Ningbo, China
School of Communications, Soochow University, Suzhou, China
Center for Digital Media and Communication, Chongqing University, China
School of Journalism, Chongqing University, Chongqing, China
School of Journalism and Communication, Shanghai International Studies University, Shanghai, China
Hosted by
College of Media and International Culture, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
Committee Chairs:
Dr. Xiaoge Xu, Founder of Mobile Studies International, Singapore
Dr. Max Schleser, Associate Professor, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia
Dr. Wei Lu, Professor/Dean, College of Media and International Culture, Zhejiang University, China
Committee Members:
Dr. Md. Abdul Kabil Khan, Associate Professor, Department of Journalism, Media, and Communication, Daffodil International University, Bangladesh
Mr. Augustus Raymond Segar, Head of School, School of Design and Arts, Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak, Malaysia
Dr. Martin Koszolko, School of Humanities, Creative Industries and Social Sciences, University of Newcastle, Australia
Dr. Dafydd Sills-jones, Associate Professor, Deputy Head of School Design & Creative Technologies, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand/Aotearoa
Mr. Wilson Suai Moses, Discipline Leader (Design) & Lecturer in Multimedia Design, Faculty of Business, Design and Arts, Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak, Malaysia
Delwyn Remedios, Assistant Professor, Design, Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, India
Deepak John Mathew, Professor, Design, Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, India
Tokushu Inamura, Assistant Professor, Department of Strategic Design, Kyushu University, Japan
Dr. Qumo Ren, Guizhou University of Finance and Economics, China
Dr. Guo Ke, Prof/Dean, Shanghai International Studies University, China