call for submissions:

The Art of Media Research

Deadline: June 30th, 2023 (for publication in Dec 2023).

MAST (The Journal of Media Art Study and Theory) invites art-based research submissions for its upcoming issue. Submissions are open to artists and researchers in the field who can present original research based on at least one media artwork or creative practice that engages with media and technology.

Today, art-based research has brought an understanding that art practice and research can be complementary and co-informing, equally regarded as essential and valuable for their contributions to knowledge production. Linda Candy and Ernest Edmonds have highlighted an important aspect of practice-based research: a loop that begins from practice and eventually feeds the practice or, as the authors write, “new knowledge about practice that informs practice” (2018, 63). Speaking of media art, one particular aspect should be highlighted: the artwork and the process of creation allow artists to explore and reveal the potential of media technology beyond common use. In other words, media art does not communicate what we already know, but it opens our eyes to something new and transforms our ways of seeing, experiencing, and understanding the world. In this sense, media art inevitably can become a form (as well as, the processes) of studying media, or the art of media research.

The upcoming issue of MAST seeks to further explore this potential in media art, and how media art, as a form of media study, can direct us to the possibilities in media technology that usually remain invisible.

Submissions may consider (but are not restricted to) the following topics:

  • media archaeology

  • the analog and the digital

  • archives and archival art practice

  • aesthetics of glitch, error, and noise in media art

  • haptic and tactile media art

  • locative and mobile media art

Submissions must include a short essay (1,000 – 2,000 words) composed around at least one original media artwork, articulating research aims and the process of work in the context of suggested themes. Media artworks for submission may include (but are not limited to) video and sound art, virtual/augmented/interactive/mixed reality projects, locative and mobile media art, multimedia and web-based projects, among others.

Essays will be assessed based on originality and relevance to the scope of the journal and the themes above. Authors are encouraged to include 3-4 still images or recorded clips of their artwork in their essay as well as a link to the work in its entirety. Essays must be previously unpublished to be considered, and all copyrights for published images and artworks must be cleared by the publication date. All aspects of the submission (essay, images, link(s) to the artwork, bio, contact info) should be included in one Word document file.

For formatting, style, and full submission guidelines, please visit Submission Guidelines.

The deadline for submission is June 30th, 2023.

Please send your submissions (and questions) to editors@mast-nemla.org with the subject heading THE ART OF MEDIA RESEARCH.

about MAST:

MAST (The Journal of Media Art Study and Theory) is an online, open-access, and blind peer-reviewed journal featuring interdisciplinary scholarship in the domain of media studies. MAST is sponsored by NeMLA at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Editors: Dr. Maryam Muliaee and Dr. Mani Mehrvarz.