2nd Call for Participation at the Conference Love and Sex in Digital Age: a Semiotic Perspective

SECOND Call for participation at the conference

Love and Sex in the Digital Age: a Semiotic Perspective

XXIII EFSS’ 2018, 5-9 September, Sozopol, Bulgaria
Deadline for the abstracts: 15 July

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Confirmed keynote speakers:[1]

Dr. Kristian Daneback is a professor of Social Work. He is also a Pro-Dean at the Faculty of Social Science at the University of Gothenburg with specific responsibility for research and PhD programs. He has published extensively on internet sexuality for more than 15 years. He is the Associate Editor for CyberPsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace and is a member of the Editorial Board for Sexualization, Media, & Society. He is also a full member of the International Academy of Sex Research.		Pascal Lardellier is a Professor (information and communication sciences at the University of Burgundy, Dijon, France), also scientific Director of PROPEDIA, laboratory of « Groupe IGS », Paris. He is the author of twenty books covering several topics: social uses of ICT by teen-agers, online dating, forms and functions of rituals in western societies, food, non-verbal communication…). Pascal has given hundreds of conferences worldwide, devoted to sociological and anthropological topics. He very often expresses his points of view and analysis in media.

Prof. Dario Martinelli (1974) is a Chief-Resear-cher at the Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Full Professor at Kaunas University of Technology, and Adjunct Professor at the Universities of Helsinki and Lapland. He is also Editor-in-chief of the series “Numanities – Arts and Humanities in Progress”, published by Springer. As of 2018, he has published eleven scientific monographs and more than one hundred among edited collections, studies and scientific articles.	Massimo Leone is a Professor of Semiotics, Cultural Semiotics, and Visual Semiotics at the Department of Philosophy, University of Turin, Italy. His work focuses on the role of religion in modern and contemporary cultures. Massimo Leone has single-authored seven books, edited thirty collective volumes, and published more than four hundred articles in semiotics and religious studies. He has lectured in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, and the Americas. He is the chief editor of Lexia, the Semiotic Journal.		Momchil Alexiev is a BA in Performance Studies from La Sapienza University in Rome and a MA from The Netherlands Film Academy. Over the past 10 years he works as a filmmaker, VR researcher and theatre scenographer. His VR films have been shown at numerous festivals like GoShort and SIFF. He teaches Cinematic VR and is founder of VR Lab BG. The focus of his projects is to raise a discussion on the changing conditions of film spectatorship.

[1] We did our best to assure gender equality among the keynote speakers and we have contacted many important female researchers in the field, but for issues of schedule overlapping and trips overseas they could not make it.

Topics of the keynote lectures:

Kristian Daneback: “Internet sexuality: The past, the present, and the future”

Pascal Lardellier: “”Find me somebody to love”. Online dating sites: history, uses, strategies, values”

Dario Martinelli: “It’s a #metoo world! Social media communication around sexual harassment and silence breakers”

Massimo Leone: “The Semiotics of the Face in Digital Dating”

Momchil Alexiev is going to lead a VR workshop on “Intimacy, closeness and Virtual Reality?”

We would like to invite our fellow semioticians, as well as scholars from related disciplines, to contribute research on one of the most dynamic spheres of the digital age – the (semio)sphere of love and sex. And if you think this only encompasses the movie “You’ve Got Mail” and online pornography, these are only a minimal part of a huge sociocultural phenomenon:

Cyber dating and hookup culture
Social media, sexuality and sexting
Online voyeurism: webcamming, hidden cams and Mr. Skin
Erotica and pornography websites
Sex workers’ platforms, websites and forums
Digitally engineered sex: Teledildonics and sex robots
The dark side: revenge porn, Internet-related child sexual abuse, etc.

All these sociocultural phenomena can be approached from various semiotic perspectives: as culturally codified forms of social life, where the generative method can reveal meaning making mechanisms; as new cognitive realities, where habit changing and embodiment matter to understand the pragmatics and realism of digital love and sex; as new generation modeling systems, where human desires and artificial intelligence join forces to create new cultural forms or as a biosemiotic challenge to some of humanity’s most important vital functions.

Workshop on Virtual Reality (open to all participants)

Intimacy, closeness and Virtual Reality? The current technological frame radically reshapes the way we communicate. This context sets forward a qualitatively new discussion on the conditions of “being with someone” today. Join us for a workshop which combines the theory and practice of virtual reality to give you greater insight on its growing social role in the digital age. This workshop is led by Momchil Alexiev, founder of VR Lab BG.

Registration fee: 80 Euro (for IASS members, 100 Euro for non members) The fee includes: access to all lectures, workshops, seminars and round tables; badge and materials; 10 coffee breaks, small welcoming reception on 5 September.

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WEBSITE (for the payment): http://www.sociosemiotics.net/events/2018/love-and-sex-digital-age-semiotic-perspective

EFSS 2018 is organized by the Southeast European Center for Semiotic Studies, with the support of the STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENT FUND of New Bulgarian University

EFSS 2018 is organized in collaboration with the Hungarian cultural institute Sofia, VR LAB-BG and Centro Interdipartimentale di Ricerca sulla Comunicazione – CIRCe, University of Turin, Italy

EFSS 2018 is an event under the auspices of the International Association for Semiotic Studies

1st Call for participation: http://iass-ais.org/cfp-love-and-sex-in-the-digital-age-a-semiotic-perspective/