1st International Conference on
COMPUTATIONAL SEMIOTICS IN GAMES AND NEW MEDIA

http://www.kinonet.com/cosign2001

CWI, Amsterdam (The Netherlands)

10th September - 12th September, 2001

+ +

REGISTRATION NOW OPEN

http://www.cwi.nl/conferences/Cosign2001

+ + +

REGISTRATION DETAILS

Registration is now open for COSIGN 2001: Computational Semiotics in
Games and New Media. There are discounts for early registration and
special student rates. Details can be found at:

http://www.cwi.nl/conferences/Cosign2001

Early registration is encouraged, and attendees are advised to book
their hotel rooms well in advance due to the limited amount of
accommodation available in Amsterdam. Links to hotel listings are
available on the main conference website:

http://www.kinonet.com/cosign2001

The programme for the conference will be posted to this website shortly.

+ + +

CONFERENCE SCOPE

This cross-disciplinary conference explores the ways in which semiotics
(and related theories such as structuralism and post-structuralism) can
be applied to creating and analysing computer-based media. It is
intended for anyone with an interest in areas of overlap (or potential
overlap) between semiotics and interactive digital media - including
artists, designers, critics, computer scientists, HCI, AI and VR
practitioners, semioticians, narratologists and new media practitioners.

Computational semiotics is understood here to be the application of
semiotic theories to interactive digital media and has three main areas
(which overlap). They are:

+ The way in which meaning can be created by, encoded in, or understood
by, the computer (using systems or techniques based upon semiotics).

+ The way in which meaning in interactive digital media is understood by
the viewer or user (again using systems or techniques based upon
semiotics).

+ The use of semiotics as the starting point for a system for looking
critically at the content of interactive digital media - devising a
critical framework equivalent in status and depth to art theory or
academic film criticism.

Media that make use of the unique capabilities of digital systems are of
particular interest to this conference. These include: computer games,
interactive narratives and other forms of interactive entertainment;
interactive video; virtual reality systems and virtual environments; and
hypermedia.

In addition to academic and theoretical papers, there will be
presentations by several digital artists of practice-based work relevant
to the themes of this conference. Selection of these artworks has been
based upon their relevance to the themes of the conference, their
interest in demonstrating or exploring the potential of new media, and
their challenging of perceptions, theoretical assumptions, or
understanding in any areas related to the conference.

+ + +

CONFERENCE PROGRAMME

The conference brings together academic papers and posters from as far
afield as the USA, Australia, Japan, Norway, Denmark, Croatia, Italy,
Germany, Brazil, and the UK. Topics covered include: the aesthetics of
virtual environments; the production of place in role-playing games;
semiotic and non-semiotic MUD performance; literary theory and computer
games; the design of interactive narratives; the mapping of movement to
sound; web-based documentaries; the design of content management
systems; montage; the semiotics of interface design; etc.

In addition to academic and theoretical papers, there will be
presentations by several internationally-known digital artists of
practice-based work. Selection of these artworks has been based upon
their relevance to the themes of the conference, their interest in
demonstrating or exploring the potential of new media, and their
challenging of perceptions, theoretical assumptions, or understanding in
any areas related to the conference.

A list of selected papers, posters and artworks can be found on the main
conference website at +