Loved seeing @harryburson presenting at #SCMS23 on Metaverse, Multiverse, Server-verse: Fantasies of Control and Connection! https://bcnm.berkeley.edu/news-research/5616/conference-grants-harry-burson-at-scms

Heading home after a fantastic and cathartic SCMS conference. This has always been my scholarly home, and this year was a joyous family reunion, and welcome to newer grad students and scholars. Excellent presentations and conversations, and capped off by an especially enthusiastic karaoke party last night. 🎤🎵🍸

Thanks to all, and especially the SCMS board and volunteers, and the staff at the Denver Sheraton, for a fantastic conference. On to Boston in 2024!

#SCMS23 #MediaStudies

I had a fantastic time last night with a few dozen old and new friends, and an equally fantastic time tonight with just one old friend. So glad to have had the opportunity to have it both ways. #SCMS23

The Birth of Computer Vision spotted at #SCMS23

#SCMS23 it may be snowing today, but once you factor in the last few days of 80+ degree weather, the average temps at the conference has been downright pleasant

As may come as no surprise, Hollywood does a terrible job of representing narcolepsy and other parasomnias

#SCMS23

And the last presentation by Aleks Kaminska gives us another perspective on sleepiness and its portrayals -

"Mediated Narcosis and Chronically Disordered Sleep: The Sleept Life on and off the Screen"

#SCMS23

Continuing the discussion of sleep is Allana Thain and her work on how sleep is measured and portrayed by sleep labs and sleep researchers, and increasingly in devices meant to be worn and used at home. What does it mean to create metrics of what "good sleep" looks like?

#SCMS23

Loving this #SCMS23 panel on sleep and rest - Here, Neta Alexander is talking about "Soporific Media," technology to help users sleep, and describing a theory of "horizonal media" - devices and interfaces designed to be used while lying down

After much deliberation, I decided to attend the Bi Now: Bisexuality in Contemporary Media/Studies panel. So far I’m relieved of how the first paper by Jacob Engelberg is theorizing trans and bi affinities. #scms23

And the final paper on this panel, Patrick Vonderau’s “Grey Zone Research: An Ethnography of Big Tech Lobbying”

As what should come as no surprise, mega tech companies actively try to influence political processes. Tech lobbying to the EU is more money than the pharmaceutical or oil industries

#SCMS23

#SCMS23

And now another powerhouse UW-Madison presentation: Lesley Stevenson analyzing iCarly (2007) and iCarly (2021) and their depictions of precarious creative labor

It’s an incredibly popular session - the audience is full with some folks sitting in the back and others standing in the doorway.

The tiny basement rooms the hotel has for us are…. Not really sufficient

#SCMS23

More #SCMS23 updates: session G23 on Digital Political Economies

Starting out with Sarah Edwards surveying apps like “Fuck you pay me” designed for influencers to manage payments and make their labor more visible.

She’s also trying to set the record for most times “fuck” is said in a presentation

Kara's project is a solar-power webserver to host games which specifically engage with climate issues. Because it runs on a Raspberry Pi powered by the sun, it may be unavailable at some times of the year, but accepting this ephemerality and making visible the effects of the climate crisis is important to starting to address it:

http://solarserver.games/

https://karastonesite.com/

#SCMS23

Yandong Li's paper "Peasants, Workers, and Proeuctivity: a Cultural History of Greenhouses" views greenhouses as "energy objects" which prioritize the un-ending improvements of efficiency, production, and extracting more and more from nature.

#SCMS23

#SCMS23

Panel on Environmental Media starting out with Danny Kimball giving a survey of the techno-utopian discourses of the "energy internet" but noting thag media studies scholars have an opportunity and responsibility to use our tools and techniques to respond to the ongoing climate crisis

Had some fun this morning talking about the MHDL - including some of the insightful user feedback we've received.

Thanks to @HoytEric@twitter.com for stepping in as the impromptu panel chair and thanks to everyone who came out!

#SCMS23

I may try to do a bit more posting about #SCMS23 today - at the last in-person conference I was at, I was a bit better at live-tweeting but I think the pandemic years of zoom conferences have fried my brain a bit.

I'll use the #SCMS23 hashtag so if you want to avoid me spamming your timeline, you can add a filter to the phrase (but I think that everyone's talking about cool stuff and might want to follow along!)

Had a very pleasant if short time at #scms23. Saw friends. Talked about at least one possible collaboration. Gave a talk on a panel I was genuinely very pleased to be part of. Got to see a roundtable and two other panels, all of which were great. Went to a cool toy store. Ate at my favorite Austin-based taco chain. Checked out Convergence Station. Lots I am sad to miss this time around (especially the book exhibit!), but it really was a pleasure to be there.