Malmö University Comics Hub

 CALL FOR PAPERS 

LUDIFICATIONS OF VISION 

University of Amsterdam – March 5-7, 2026 

Organizers: Mathieu Li-Goyette, Erin La Cour, Toni Pape, Rik Spanjers 

At the turn of the 20th century, techniques of observation and of visual representation were achieving an exponentially fast industrial revolution of production, distribution, and reception. Presses and cameras were faster, more precise, and as their influence on society rapidly broadened, a whole new set of visual practices became available to artists. Since then, vision has become fully fragmented or accelerated, with the collapse of “classical models of vision and their stable space of representations. Instead, observation [became] increasingly a question of equivalent sensations and stimuli that have no reference to a spatial location” (Crary 1990). These advancements encouraged a perpetual deconstruction of vision prompting new techniques of representation, which are still ongoing in our technological age. 

During this period, print and visual media developed new modes of combining words and images that both dynamize vision and normalize it in new directions. This results in media forms that playfully engage the eye in nonlinear visual explorations, forms that are implicitly forces of deinstitutionalization of subjects, framing, and usages. Examples can be found in comic strips and magazines, but also advertisements, games, miniatures, puzzles, rebus, travelogues and visual bibles. 

This conference invites an intermedial reflection on the development of modes of reading and seeing in relation to constraints of production and distribution. We welcome contributions on subjects ranging from a medium’s early stages of development up to the present digital world, while addressing issues of readability, narrativity, interactivity, and/or materiality. How did new ludic modes of seeing develop from scientific observation to artistic production? What techniques did artists develop to increase the readability of their medium? How did they negotiate the tensions between originality and standardization? What new visual norms were established along the way? 

Bringing together scholars and practitioners, the conference aims to understand how popular media art contributed to the ludification of vision, training our eyes to see in playful, nonlinear and equivocal ways. 

We welcome submissions on any aspect of ludification in the visual arts and its adjacent practices. Please send an abstract (300 words maximum) with a title, bio, and a brief bibliography related to the paper (maximum of 5 titles) through this submission form by October 31st. We plan to announce decisions by November 21. 

Bibliography 

Beringer, Alex. 2024. Lost Literacies. Columbus: Ohio State University Press. 

Crary, Jonathan. 1992. Techniques of the Observer: On Vision and Modernity in the Nineteenth Century. Cambridge: MIT Press. 

De Koven, Bernard. 2025. The Well-Played Game: A Player’s Philosophy. Cambridge: MIT Press. 

Ensslin, Astrid and Alice Bell. 2021. Digital Fiction and the Unnatural: Transmedial Narrative Theory, Method, and Analysis. Columbus: Ohio State University Press. 

Gardner, Jared. 2012. Projections: Comics and the History of Twenty-First-Century Storytelling. Stanford: Stanford University Press. 

Gaudreault, André. 2009. From Plato to Lumière. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. 

Gidding, Seth. 2024. Toy Theory. Cambridge: MIT Press. 

Hatfield, Charles. 2005. Alternative Comics: An Emerging Literature. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. 

Horstkotte, Silke and Nancy Pedri. 2022. Experiencing Visual Storyworlds: Focalization in Comics. Columbus: Ohio State University Press. 

Kashtan, Aaron. 2019. Between Pen and Pixel: Comics, Materiality, and the Book of the Future. Columbus: Ohio State University Press. 

LaMarre, Thomas. 2009. The Anime Machine. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. 

Lury, Celia. 1998. Prosthetic Culture: Photography, Memory and Identity. London: Routledge. 

Macfarlane, Robert. 2007. Original Copy: Plagiarism and Originality in Nineteenth- Century Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 

Morgan, David. 1999. Protestants and Pictures: Religion, Visual Culture, and the Age of American Mass Production. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 

Saguisag, Lara. 2019. Incorrigibles and Innocents: Constructing Childhood and Citizenship in Progressive Era Comics. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. 

Stewart, Susan. 1993. On Longing: Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection. Durham: Duke University Press. 

A symposium on illustration research and practise in relation to notions of womanhood. 
The School of Design, University of Leeds, UK. 
Monday 19th May 2024 10am – 5pm.  

“When we change the way we see, the things we see also change.” 
Catherine McCormack 

This symposium aims to bring together academics and practitioners to discuss the phenomenon of the illustrated woman – a constructed or drawn image of a woman with a defined purpose to promote, illuminate, educate or entertain. Though  designed for dissemination to large audiences, illustration remains an often academically overlooked site of potential power, particularly in the ways in which it covertly or explicitly reflects or challenges ideological positions of womanhood.

To what extent do we actually see illustrated women? Whilst there is a wealth of studies about representation of women in art or photography, this symposium seeks to ask similar and new questions of illustration to uncover a fresh discourse.  Such questions include – How do contemporary illustrated “spaces of femininity” or topographies of womanhood operate? Is there a characteristic of the Gen-AI woman that contributes to key debates about visual constructions of femaleness and femininity?  What new (and old) theoretical positions may shape our understanding of historical and contemporary illustrations of women? What can our own contemporary illustration practice contribute to our understanding of the illustrated female form? How do different cultural contexts influence the portrayal of women in illustration? Are there cultural variations in the depiction of femininity, and how do they reflect or challenge local ideologies? How have historical shifts in societal attitudes towards women influenced the style and content of illustrated representations? What lessons can be drawn from past illustration that inform contemporary practices? 

We welcome proposals addressing (but not limited to) female representation in relation to: specific illustrators/collectives; genres of illustration (editorial, commercial (packaging/advertising), children’s books, comics/graphic novels etc.); race; modes of making; cultural similarity/difference; spaces of femininity; anatomy and physicality; Gen-AI; queer illustration; theoretical frameworks or positions; historical or contemporary perspectives; the gaze; authorial or professional motivations; production or reception regimes; social or commercial contexts; methodological approaches. 

Proposal Submission 

Please submit a 500 word proposal (appropriate for a 20 minute presentation) to c.m.stones@leeds.ac.uk and c.zlotea@leeds.ac.uk.  

The proposal should include a clear aim/research question, an outline of key arguments/findings and a conclusion. Illustrations may also be included. 

There will be plans following the conference to publish presented papers in an edited volume. More details will follow after the conference.  

Deadline for proposal submission: 30th Jan 2025.  

Notification of Acceptance: 28th Feb 2025 

Date of Symposium: Monday 19th May 2024 10am – 5pm. 

In-person Attendance Fees: £30 (full price) £5 (student price).  

For more information or questions please contact Dr Catherine Stones (c.m.stones@leeds.ac.uk)  or Dr Cătălina Zlotea (c.zlotea@leeds.ac.uk).