Conferences and Events

International Conference
VISUALITY 2023: MEDIA AND COMMUNICATION IN THE AGE OF (DIS)INFORMATION
20-21 April 2023
Vilnius Gediminas Technical University
Faculty of Creative Industries
Vilnius, Lithuania 
 

GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE CONFERENCE
 

The biennial international interdisciplinary scientific conference “Visuality” is organized by the Department of Philosophy and Cultural Studies (VILNIUS TECH Faculty of Creative Industries). The event attracts participants from various European and other countries: the USA, Australia, Brazil, Columbia, Taiwan, Brunei, England, France, Italy, Portugal, Finland, Germany, Czech Republic, Romania, Slovenia, Poland, Latvia, Turkey, Ukraine, etc. For example, the last conference “Visuality 2021: Media and Communication” received a record number of participants (86) and papers (68) from 23 countries (the USA, Australia, Colombia, England, France, Brazil, Italy, Portugal, Finland, Czech Republic, Sultanate of Brunei, etc.)
The conference deals with various aspects of visuality from communication and media, philosophical, sociological, cultural, psychological, political, educational, technological, arts, creative industries etc. perspectives.
Both Lithuanian and foreign peer-reviewed articles, based on the conference reports, will be published in international research journals „Filosofija. Sociologija“ (Eng. "Philosophy. Sociology") and "Creativity Studies".
 

CALL FOR PAPERS
 

The Organizing Committee proudly announces that Call for Papers on International Conference Visuality 2023: Media and Communication in the Age of (Dis)Information is now open.

In his landmark work Picture Theory: Essays on Verbal and Visual Representation (1994), W. J. T. Mitchel claimed that a broadly post-structuralist interest in language and textuality (often referred to as ‘visual turn’) had given way to a new interest in the notion of visuality. Since language could not offer a full explanation of reality, cultural theorists were united in their increasing emphasis on the power of the visuals in art, science and indeed, everyday life. In other words, visuality is intertextual, cross-sectoral and coextensive with the phenomenal field we move towards and the domain we live, interact and communicate (Mickunas).

One of the main regions of the above mentioned field is socio-political space, which nowadays rotates mainly about various forms of media and (dis)information they spread. Visual communication as the intersection point of visuality, creativity and communication plays a very significant role in this area. Namely, visual communication points to the contemporary political context and particularly to the visual aspects of new media and (dis)information. In the contest among  media and politics, a more imaginative player usually succeeds. Moreover, visuality has connotations of truth in a propagandistic war. Visual information discloses the brutal reality of the war, provokes political reaction, memorandums and protests. On the other hand, visuality becomes the means of disinformation. Therefore, despite or even instead of the post-truth situation, visual communication forces to choose one side or the other, namely, truth or disinformation.

One of the most effective measures for preventing or at least mitigating the impact of disinformation is critical thinking supported and followed by scientific knowledge the spread of which requires relevant communication.  For a long time, science communication has been related to the written format and research papers. However, the rising importance of the Internet and information technologies has profoundly changed the way science is communicated. Researchers, science communicators and other players are using audio-visual media to reinvent their stories, deconstruct complex phenomena and increase the outreach of scientific publications. Digital tools also allow elevating public engagement in higher levels through the inclusion of citizens and other stakeholders into scientific processes. In this case, citizen science acts as one of the most discussed practices of such arrangement. This is a broad area covering a range of engagement levels from being observers or funders to tagging pictures or collecting observations. As a quite new phenomenon, this type of engagement requires more research leading to new ways, strategies and methods. The search for the latter will be one of the most significant goals of the conference, as one of its sections will start with the official opening of Vilnius Tech Citizen Science Hub.

Key questions on visuality

Within the aforementioned theoretical frameworks and beyond, our conference will attempt to address the following questions about a number of various contexts of visuality as we understand them today:

The international conference „Visuality 2019“ was devoted to visual and creative communication in emerging constellations. The key areas of the conference revolved around visuality, arts and technologies; challenges of communication for creative industries; visuality in the philosophy of communication; visuality in education; visuality in entertainment industries; visuality, media and politics; visuality and semiotic analysis; visuality and creativity in emerging constellations. The conference received 84 presenters of 64 papers from 16 countries (USA, UK, Brunei, Portugal, Denmark, Czech Republic, Estonia, Albania, Northern Macedonia, Ukraine, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Lithuania etc.) The Research Council of Lithuania partially financed the conference. One of the conference sections was dedicated to the international Erasmus+ program project “Cultural Studies in Business”.