perhaps of interest this to some. m. --- Call for papers We are currently planning a special issue of Convergence: the journal of research into new media technologies on 'Intermedia', with a targeted publication date of Winter 2002. This issue will be guest-edited by Yvonne Spielmann and Jack Ox. What is 'intermedia'? Intermedia is the combination of structural elements from two or more different media into one medium. It can or cannot be multimedia, although they are of course two very different concepts. Intermedia has become an important strategy and issue today because computers are such natural tools for producing it. The merging of different media in intermedia creates a new form. It is a transformation which can be compared to emergent behaviours in the science of complexity, where independent systems acting simultaneously on each other produce something quite different than the sum of their parts. In 1966 Dick Higgins, noted Fluxus theorist and artist, first named and defined intermedia: intermedia differs from mixed media; an opera is a mixed medium, inasmuch as we know what is music, what is text, and what is mise-en-scène. In an intermedium, on the other hand, there is a conceptual fusion.' The debate The variety of terms used to describe and define the phenomenon of merging/converging elements of different media are many and often have overlapping and contradictory meanings. Besides intermedia and multimedia there are also the terms hypertext and hybridisation. The question at stake is if and how the apparent modes of interchangeablility, flexibility and fluidity of media appearances extend our understanding of intermedia in ways that the 'new' strategies of interrelationship expand and alter - but nevertheless continue - representational forms we have seen during the twentieth century. Such media appearances are prominently exemplified through the use of multiple layers, complex composites and further tools of connectivity. What is the relationship between early and late forms of intermedia? How has it been developed through the use of new media and technologies. The focus of the special issue We would welcome contributions which both explore the boundaries of the newly expanded use of the intermedia concept and address the essential category of transformation. What does this conceptual phenomenon look or sound like? How does it relate to the earlier development of intermedia as both theory and practice when it was newly born in the avant-garde movements? How does the combination of different media structures realise itself in digital media? This is the area we would like to concentrate on in this special 'Intermedia' issue of Convergence. The practice of intermedia in analogue techniques must be far more conscious and deliberate than in our new digital technologies because the tools of new media allow an easier convergence. Can we find a structural difference between historical intermedia and current intermedia? Copy deadline for refereed research articles: 1 April 2002. All proposals, inquiries and submissions for this special issue to: Yvonne Spielmann Maria-Hilf-Strasse 3 50677 Koeln Germany tel: +49-221-31 11 72 e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] and Jack Ox 712 Broadway #5 New York, NY 10003 tel: +1 212 254-2590 fax: +1 212 475-1297 e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----------------- Convergence: The Journal of Research into New Media Technologies Convergence is a paper journal. To join our e-mailing list, for further information and for details of back issues, see our web site at http://www.luton.ac.uk/Convergence The copyright of all articles, papers, reports and reviews published in Convergence rests with the University of Luton Press. Any author(s) wishing to have their published text reproduced elsewhere should seek the necessary permission via the Editors Edited by Julia Knight, Jeanette Steemers & Alexis Weedon Dept of Media Arts, University of Luton, 75 Castle St., Luton, LU1 3AJ, UK Editorial email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tel: +44 1582 489031/489144 Fax: +44 1582 489014 Web site: http://www.luton.ac.uk/Convergence -
