Digital Resources for the Humanities and Arts (DRHA) 2006

The Conference continues to address the key emerging themes and strategic issues that engagement with ICT (Information Communications Technology) brings to scholarly research and artistic practice. In 2006 it will be particularly concerned to address such issues as:

-the benefits of digital resources for creative work, teaching, learning, scholarship;
-the application, creative use and development of digital resources;
-the problems associated with scale and sustainability;
-new insights arising from the integration and cross-fertilisation of digital resources in the arts/humanities/sciences;
-the achievement and further development of global networks across the arts and humanities and the strategies for change this situation merits;
-the socio-political impact of engagement with global ICT.

Key dates:
From February 2006 proposals can be submitted via the electronic submission form at the conference website.

15th April 2006: Deadline for submission of proposals/abstracts.

1st May 2006: Registration opens (early booking advised as restricted to a maximum of 200 persons There are 'early bird' rates available on all University rooms, for more information see 'Conference Fees').

May 2006: Provisional programme announced.

Postgraduate Bursaries
The AHRC ICT Methods Network provides funding for postgraduate students to attend DRHA. Bursaries are available for postgraduates registered at a UK institution, who have had a proposal for a paper or poster accepted. For more information, please see: http://www.methodsnetwork.ac.uk/community/postgraduates.html.

Contacts:
The Local Organising Committee at the Dartington College of Arts is headed by Christopher Pressler, c.pressler@dartington.ac.uk.

Please contact the local organisers with any questions about registration or conference arrangements at Dartington: drha2006@dartington.ac.uk.

Please contact the 2006 Programme Chair with any questions about submitting abstracts or the reviewing process: Barry Smith (Senior Research Fellow University of Bristol Drama Department) barry.smith@bristol.ac.uk.

The Conference will seek to answer such questions as:
What have been the advantages of the digital developments of the last decade on humanities and creative arts processes (including publishing and broadcasting)?

What new benefits will be on offer for the future?

What have been the effects of digital developments of the last decade on the range of cultural industries (including design, fashion, gaming etc) and what are the implications for future research cultures?

What changes will further technological advances and social trends a) make possible and b) demand?

What can scholars in the humanities using visualisation and digital rendering methods learn from computing developments in the creative, visual, performing and media arts and what developments might be advantageous vice-versa?

What have been and what will in the future be the influence of digital media on scholarly and practice-based research in the arts and humanities?

How has technology and working with technologists changed the way practitioners and scholars work in the arts and humanities?

What is the potential for fruitful digital resource-based relationships between academia and business, creative and professional development, investment and professional opportunities?

How are new advantages best exploited and any conceptual and infrastructural problems brought in the wake of new technologies best overcome?

What are the differences and what the similarities between knowledges produced mainly through material contact and those produced solely through digital media?

What are the consequences of digital resources on education at all levels and what parameters exist and should exist to encourage e-learning?

How have e-learning, e-science and the range of distributed social network technologies impacted on research in the arts and humanities and what strategic changes might they bring in the future?