CFP: Digital Aesthetics of Violence

This special issue of the Journal of Popular Film and Television is designed to focus on the implications of the relationship between digital technologies and the aesthetic of violence. Contributors may explore (but are not limited to) questions such as:

• In what ways has the digital aesthetic changed the visual expression of violence in specific traditional media genres—action-adventure, science fiction, horror, crime dramas and police procedurals, etc.?
• How has the increased accessibility and affordability of digital technologies impacted production, reproduction, circulation, consumption of, and discourses around violent imagery?
• What can we learn about the cultural and historical impacts of the real-world violence encountered by citizen reporters transmitting digital video—live and viral—of pro-democracy protests worldwide?
• How has the digital aesthetic reimagined war and combat, from live feeds in war zones to film and television narratives, to videogame battle scenarios? In what ways has this impacted popular and criticalreception of war-themed media
• As digital imaging continues to blur the line between live-action and animation, how has the aesthetic realism of violence changed—for media industries, filmmakers, and spectators?
• How has the audience experience and expectations of cinematic and televisual verisimilitude been transformed by spectacular displays of bodies, vehicles, and skyscrapers programmed into hyperreal collision?

We encourage a variety of academic, historical, critical, analytical, and theoretical approaches, as well as submissions from authors in the popular press. Submissions should be limited to twenty-five pages, double-spaced, and conform to MLA style. Please include a fifty-word abstract and five to seven key words to facilitate online searches.

Send an electronic copy no later than October 15, 2015 to Stuart Bender, Curtin University (email Stuart.Bender@curtin.edu.au) OR Lorrie Palmer, DePauw University (email lorriepalmer@depauw.edu).

For more information: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/cfp/vjpfcfp1.pdf