Community Informatics Research Network (CIRM) conference

25 27 October 2017

Monash University Prato Centre, Prato, Italy

There has long been discussion about the relationship between art and archives, not just in the sense that archives may represent curated collections relating to specific artists or forms of art, but that art may be used to provide new conceptions of what is in archival collections, and fresh ways of thinking about the nature and meaning of those collections. As part of the CIRN 2016 conference, we wish explore this relationship from the perspective of Community Informatics or Community Archiving.

What is Community Informatics?

Community Informatics is primarily concerned with improving the well-being of people and their communities through more effective use of information and communication technologies. Community-centric archival research, education and practice are concerned with empowering communities in support of such desirable objectives as democracy, human and civil rights, self-determination, sustainable development, and social inclusion. Recordkeeping and archiving are fundamental infrastructural components supporting these objectives, and this year, we are particularly interested in extending their discussion to new perspectives that raise the issue of “open heritage” in the context of community engagement with cultural archives or in expanding the role of archives, libraries and museums within the community.

Special Call for Papers – Internationally, museums, libraries, and archives are embracing open movements. While openness, in itself, is not entirely new to these institutions, what exactly does “open” mean for the role of cultural institutions in the 21st century? Participatory, “open heritage” is disruptive and points to the broader impact of information and communication technologies on society. Through establishing infrastructure to support digital cultural collaboration and open innovation, greater access and engagement with cultural and historical collections is being promoted. In many instances, artists are at the vanguard of such developments.

There has long been discussion about the relationship between art and archives, not just the conventional role of archives and collections and their representation of artists or artworks, but in more provocative ways that artists and other institutional “outsiders” can intervene with archival collections to reveal new ways of seeing and thinking about the nature and meaning of those collections. This year’s special Call-for-papers is seeking research that contributes to this “archival turn” by exploring archives, the act of archiving and archival processes from multiple, mixed perspectives.For more information, contact: vince.dziekan@monash.edu

Submission Guidelines –

In addition to considering papers, works-in-progress, workshop proposals and posters related to any aspect of Community Informatics, Development Informatics or Community Archiving, for CIRN2017 we are seeking papers that explore art and archives.

Additionally, we have a strong stream for research students in Masters and PhD programs who may wish to present their work to an international scholarly audience. We will consider traditional papers (refereed, non-refereed), works in progress (working papers) as well as alternative formats of communicating, presenting or displaying research relevant to the conference themes.

Deadline for proposals: 9 June 2017

Notification of acceptance: 30 June 2017

Deadline for full papers: 31 July 2017

For more information, contact: prato2017@fastmail.fm

Submissions can be made online via the submission database: http://cirn.wikispaces.com/conference+2017