MOCO'24 Call for Papers

Utrecht welcomes MOCO

We are pleased to invite submissions for paper presentations, performances, workshops and more to the 9th International Conference on Movement and Computing (MOCO) which will be organised from Thursday 30 May – Sunday 2 June 2024 by the research group Transmission in Motion at the Department of Media and Culture Studies at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. The conference is organized in collaboration with the SPRING Performing Arts festival (23 May – 1 June 2024) in Utrecht. MOCO’24 also coincides with the Utrecht Pride (1 June 2024).

MOCO’s 10th anniversary

The MOCO’24 conference in Utrecht marks the 10-year anniversary of the pioneering MOCO initiative, which has brought together researchers from the arts, humanities and sciences for interdisciplinary encounters at the intersection of movement and computing. Since MOCO is organised this year at the Faculty of Humanities of Utrecht University, this conference puts the spotlight on the critical potential of exchanges between arts, humanities and sciences. How can arts and performance be understood as a place for exploration and inspiration, as a ‘testbed’ for new ideas relating to movement and computing? MOCO’24 also offers (a limited amount of) vouchers for artists for free participation in the conference, as well as by providing the possibility of presenting artistic research, and by including performance visits to relevant shows at the SPRING Festival in the conference programme.

On the conference theme: Beyond Control

In Control: Digitality as Cultural Logic (2015), Seb Franklin has identified control as the cultural logic that underpins our current information economy. Drawing on critical theory, media theory and the history of science, Franklin traces how digitality can be understood as the basis of this episteme of control and explains how this may lead to modes of exclusion and dispossession: “Digitality promises to render the world legible, recordable, and knowable via particular numeric and linguistic constructs. For this rendering of the world to take place, however, there must be processes of capture, definition, optimization, and filtering that necessarily implement a distinction between those aspects of the world that are intended and included within a given digital representation and those that are excluded or filtered out” (Franklin 2015: xix).

In the interdisciplinary research field of movement and computing, the manifestation of the cultural logic of control and its deep engagement with digitality constitutes a central problem. How to prevent computation-based research from inadvertently perpetuating systems of oppression across concerns of class, race, dis/ability and gendered difference (Eubanks 2017; Noble 2018)? The event of generative AI provides another urgent prompt to examine what the implications are of this paradigm of control as a structural force in movement computation research.

Posthuman and new materialist perspectives offer one mode to examine the complex assemblages that constitute our research settings, and what they bring about in the world. Concepts such as ‘vitality of materiality’ (Bennett 2010), ‘posthuman performativity’ (Barad), ‘tentacular practices’ (Haraway 2016), and the proposal to investigate the ‘intra-action’ between human and non-human agents (Barad 2003) have focused the attention on the performative quality of technologies that we use for imagining new forms of corporeal computation.

​ Another mode of approaching this problem is through research on embodied knowledge. This is a distinctive strength of the MOCO research community. At the heart of this line of approach, there seems to be a paradox at first: In order to make sense of how digital movement operates – be it in VR, motion capture, Human Robot Interaction, or other such applications -, we first need to acquire a better understanding of the phenomenological complexity of embodied movement. Such dedicated engagement with ‘embodied thinking’ (Rajko 2018) may provide the key to ‘make motion data speak’ (Vincs and Barbour 2014; Karreman 2017), whilst also revealing how data are never simply ‘raw’ (Bowker 2005), but are instead ‘always already framed when sought’ (Van Es and Verhoeff 2023: 16).

We invite you to share how your research navigates these and other challenges. What new concepts and methods emerge from making sense of new entanglements between human and non-human agents, either created in your own practice, or as observed in other settings? What could be ways of movement computation that subvert the cultural logic of control, and explore the critical space that lies beyond?

References

• Barad, Karen. “Posthumanist performativity: Toward an understanding of how matter comes tomatter.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 28, no. 3 (2003): 801-831.
• Bennett, Jane. Vibrant matter: A political ecology of things. Duke University Press, 2010.
• Bowker, Geoffrey C. 2005. Memory Practices in the Sciences. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
• Eubanks, Virginia. 2017. Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
• Franklin, Seb. Control: Digitality as cultural logic. MIT Press, 2015.
• Haraway, Donna J. Staying with the trouble: Making kin in the Chthulucene. Duke University Press, 2016.
• Karreman, Laura. “The Motion Capture Imaginary: Digital renderings of dance knowledge.” PhD diss., Ghent University, 2017.
• Noble, Safiya Umoja. 2018. Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism. New York: NYU Press.
• Rajko, Jessica. “A Call to Action: Embodied thinking and human-computer interaction design.” In: The Routledge companion to media studies and digital humanities, pp. 195-203. Routledge, 2018.
• van Es, Karin, and Nanna Verhoeff (Eds). Situating Data: Inquiries in Algorithmic Culture. Amsterdam University Press, 2023
• Vincs, Kim, and Kim Barbour. “Snapshots of complexity: using motion capture and principal component analysis to reconceptualise dance.” Digital Creativity 25, no. 1 (2014): 62-78.

Important Dates

• Submission Deadline Abstracts (for all submission formats that do not follow ACM publication track) : 15 January 2024
• Submission Deadline Full Papers and extended abstracts (ACM publication track only): 15 January 2024
• Registration Opens: 15 March 2024
• Notification of Acceptance: 21 March 2024
• Camera-Ready papers Deadline: 5 April 2024
• Conference: Thursday 30 May - Sunday 2 June 2024

Submissions

MOCO is an interdisciplinary community where artistic and technical contributions are synergistic and equally valued. Thus, we invite submissions that span academic approaches, applied practices, and fields of study, unified by the concepts of movement and computing. We encourage submitters to carefully articulate the relationship of their work to this lens through both scientific and artistic methods of inquiry. Topics include, but are not limited to:

• Cultural movement practices and technology
• Dance and technology
• Entrainment and movement
• Embodied cognition and movement
• Embodied interaction
• Full body interaction
• Gesture and sound
• Glitch feminism
• Individual and group movement capture
• Interactive, experiential performances and installations
• Learning detection through bodily movement
• Machine learning for movement
• Mechanisms of coordination dynamics
• Movement analysis and analytics
• Movement as a proxy of human brain
• Movement in social interaction
• Movement computation in education
• Movement computation in ergonomics, sports, and health
• Movement expression in virtual humans and robots
• Movement notation systems
• Music and movement
• Philosophical perspectives on movement and computing
• Sensory augmentation of movement
• Sensorimotor learning
• Surveillance and biometrics
• Tangible interaction
• Technique analysis
• Theoretical approaches to movement understanding
• Telepresence and togetherness
• Wearable devices for movement tracking
• Topics of special relevance in 2024:
  • Looking back on 10 years MOCO
  • Humanities perspectives on movement computation
  • Movement computation and race
  • Movement computation and generative AI
  • Robotics

In order to support our interdisciplinary community, MOCO is open to a wide range of formats for presenting work. In addition to papers for oral and poster presentations, we invite submission of practice works such as demos, performances, games, artistic works and movement workshops. We are open to novel formats and we encourage submitters to be creative in proposals for practice sessions. We anticipate being able to provide limited support for student travel for accepted work across all categories.

Submission Format and Procedure

In this MOCO conference, we give you the option to publish your paper in the conference proceedings that will be indexed and published in the ACM digital library. We call this the ‘ACM publication track’. However, it is also possible to only submit an abstract of your presentation for review. In this case, your paper will not be published in the ACM conference proceedings.

Submissions in the ACM publication track should be in pdf format and should use the ACM proceedings format: http://www.acm.org/publications/proceedings-template All papers submissions must be as anonymous as possible, including references that may reveal the author(s).

All submissions must be made through Oxford Abstracts, this is the link for submissions: https://app.oxfordabstracts.com/stages/6986/submitter

A note on reviews: For MOCO by MOCO

Please note that after submitting your proposal to the MOCO conference, you may be approached by the MOCO Programme Committee to act as a reviewer for this conference. We would like to ask you to consider this question carefully, because without the support of the MOCO community in this process, it becomes very challenging to organize the conference. We would appreciate your engagement and contribution very much.

Submission categories

The submission categories are:

Papers and posters

The conference is an opportunity to present original research and details of collaborative work. Participants will have the chance to offer a presentation of the results of their research on one of the themes of the conference and to interact with their scientific/artistic peers in a friendly and constructive environment.

Three types of published submissions are accepted:

• Long paper with oral presentation (8 pages maximum)
• Short paper with oral presentation (4 pages maximum)
• Extended abstract with poster presentation (6 pages maximum in the extended abstract format)

There are two options of submitting your proposal for Papers and Posters:

1. An abstract of 400-800 words, to be submitted on 15 January 2024 (not ACM track).
2. If you want to participate in the ACM Publication track: Please submit the full version of the long paper, short paper or extended abstract of the poster presentation on 15 January 2024.

All submissions should be original and anonymized and will be peer-reviewed in a double blind review process by members of the MOCO community. All submissions will receive at least two reviews which will be reviewed by the publications and proceedings chairs. Reviewers will allot 4-8 weeks for completing reviews. Minor revisions will be accepted.

Practice Works

We deliberately use a very open term – “practice work” – to encourage diverse ideas of what practice in movement and computing is – and could be – and how such practice can be presented. We suggest the following as examples of what a practice work might be, but also stress that the list is not exhaustive and other types of presentation can be considered, the only criteria being excellence of the work and appropriateness to the conference theme. Please note that MOCO has no financial means and limited practical means to present live work. Accepted Practice Works that require significant resources, time, and/or space will need to be presented in alternative formats, e.g. video, structured discussion, or at independent or remote venues that can be made accessible to MOCO attendees.

Suggested practice work formats:

Artworks

• Live performances

  • Dance
  • Music
  • Theater
  • Performance art
  • Internet-based performance

• Installations

  • Interactive installations
  • Projections
  • Kinetic sculptures
  • Virtual reality and immersive video

Demos

• Games
• Technology demonstrations
• Movement tracking systems
• Wearables
• Robotics
• Video presentations

Workshops

• Open-ended movement improvisations
• Physical practice sessions or tutorials

These are the options for submitting proposals for Practice Works:

1. An abstract of 400-800 words + supporting media and technical requirements, to be submitted on 15 January 2024 (not part of the ACM track).
2. If you want to participate in the ACM Publication track: Please submit an extended abstract (2 pages minimum, 6 pages maximum) on 15 January 2024. This document will be published in the ACM conference proceedings for accepted papers and should be a standalone description of the work, including relevant references.
3. Supporting media (videos, pictures, audio) needed to explain the contribution of the work. Please list prior presentations of the practice work and articulate how this presentation will be distinct.
4. Detailed technical requirements and possible additional information. Accepted works will be required to fill out this information in a site-specific technical rider that will be emailed to authors following acceptance.

All submissions should be original and will be peer-reviewed by the MOCO community.

Please note that we are an academic conference with a relatively low registration fee, which means we cannot pay for commissioned performances and art works.

Doctoral Consortium

The Doctoral Consortium takes place on Thursday 30 May 2024, the opening day of the conference. It is an opportunity for graduate students to present their work-in-progress on their advanced studies, especially their terminal degree, e.g., doctorate or MFA, to share and develop their research ideas in a supportive environment with participation from experts in the field. Students will have the opportunity to establish a community with other graduate students at a similar stage of their research.

Accepted students will give an oral presentation in a dedicated session. We encourage students to submit a description of their doctoral work even if they are at an early stage. Videos and other supplementary materials are welcomed and encouraged. Students accepted to present their work at the Doctoral Consortium must plan to attend.

Submissions consist of:

1. An abstract (400-800 words) describing the graduate work towards an advanced degree, to be submitted on 15 January 2024. Accepted abstracts will appear in the conference program.
2. Optional: Supporting media (videos, pictures, audio) that help explain the contribution of the work.

Contact

If you have any questions please contact conference chair Laura Karreman at l.l.karreman@uu.nl.

Conference Committee

Organizing Committee

• Conference chair: Laura Karreman, Utrecht University
• Scientific Program Chair: Maaike Bleeker, Utrecht University
• Demo and artistic chair: Evelyn Wan, Utrecht University
• Workshop and Tutorials chair: Kim Baraka, Free University of Amsterdam
• Doctoral Symposium co-chairs: Irene Alcubilla Troughton and Yotam Shibolet, PhD candidates at Utrecht University.
• Festival chair: Grzegorz Reske, artistic director SPRING Performing Arts Festival

MOCO Steering Committee

• Frédéric Bevilacqua, IRCAM
• Kristin Carlson, Illinois State University
• Grisha Coleman, Arizona State University
• Greg Corness, Columbia College Chicago
• Cumhur Erkut, Aalborg University Copenhagen,
• Sarah Fdili Alaoui, LRI-Université Paris-Sud 11
• Jules Françoise, LIMSI-CNRS
• Marco Gillies, Goldsmiths, University of London
• Garrett Johnson, Arizona State University
• Vilelmini Kalampratsidou, Athena Research & Innovation Center
• Steven Kemper, George Mason University
• Sotiris Manitsaris, MINES ParisTech, PSL Université Paris.
• Thecla Schiphorst, Simon Fraser University
• Gualtiero Volpe, University of Genova
• Antonia Zaferiou, Stevens Institute of Technology