We pass along this call for papers which has appeared on a number of listservs...

CALL FOR PAPERS
CHArt (Computers and the History of Art)
23rd Annual Conference

DIGITAL ARCHIVE FEVER
Thursday 8 - Friday 9 November 2007
London England - Venue to be confirmed

Museums, galleries, archives, libraries and media organisations such as publishers and film and broadcast companies, have traditionally mediated and controlled access to cultural resources and knowledge. What is the future of such "top-down" institutions in the age of "bottom-up" access to knowledge and cultural artifacts through what is generally known as Web 2.0 (encompassing YouTube, Bittorrent, Napster, Wikipedia, Google, MySpace and more)? Will such institutions respond to this threat to their cultural hegemony by resistance or adaptation? How can a museum or a gallery or, for that matter, a broadcasting company, appeal to an audience which has unprecedented access to cultural resources? How can institutions predicated on a cultural economy of scarcity compete in an emerging state of cultural abundance?

For the twenty-second CHArt conference we are looking for papers that reflect upon these issues, especially in relation to visual culture. We particularly welcome contributions from those working in either "traditional" cultural organisations or those involved in new forms of cultural access and distribution.

Please email submissions (a three hundred word synopsis of the proposed paper with CV of presenter/s and other key figures) by 31 May 2007 to
Hazel Gardiner (hazel.gardiner@kcl.ac.uk ).

Dr Charlie Gere
Chair, CHArt
c/o Centre for Computing in the Humanities
Kings College, University of London
Kay House
7 Arundel Street
London WC2R 3DX
ENGLAND