Workshop Organisers
Francesca Benatti, The Open University
Linda Berube, City, University of London
Ernesto Priego, City, University of London
Web/Comics 2024: Creativity in Small Spaces is the second iteration of the Web/Comics workshop series for the ACM Hypertext conference. Web/Comics 2024 wants to investigate whether webcomics exemplify the expansion of hypertext beyond the linearity of information processing systems. Comics have always been hypertextual. From their origins in newspapers to their present as pillars of multi-billion dollar media franchises, comics have always existed within networks of texts, images, and other media. Hypertext represents the last in a series of transformations of the comics medium and has the potential of being among the most profound, enabling for example new models of interactions between authors, readers and publishers. In a sense, webcomics in themselves offer a kind of constrained creativity whereby their structure promotes creativity, rather than inhibits it. Webcomics can moreover be “an accessible form of content” not only because of their structure, but also because of a range of accessible tools that allow people to experiment and create. At the same time, the workshop asks how profoundly new tools such as text-to-image models and other forms of generative AI are altering comics production and consumption.
The workshop will be held in conjunction with the Hypertext 2024 conference, 10-13 September, at the University of Poznan, Poland. The workshop will take place in a hybrid modality. While in-person attendance is preferred, we will allow remote presentations to maximize inclusivity.
Participants are asked to submit a short lightning paper (2-4 pages) representing current work or original thinking in this area with the intention of encouraging interactive group discussion. The work presented should directly engage with the hypertextual specificity of webcomics.
Email organisers on webcomics-HT24 [at] easychair [dot] org
Topics
Submissions of original, previously unpublished papers are invited in the following, not exhaustive, topic areas:
- Webcomics as creative hypertext media
- Webcomics and generative AI
- Hypertext systems for webcomics publishing
- Webcomics and healthcare
- Cognitive processing, hypertext and webcomics
- Constraint development in creative processes
- Webcomics formats
- Page, screen, scroll
- Webcomics and transmedia
- User interface in webcomics
- Reading webcomics as hypertexts
- Authoring webcomics
- Crowdsourcing and crowdfunding in webcomics
- Issues in interdisciplinary webcomics research
Important dates
- Papers submission:
June 15, 2024July 13, 2024* - Paper review:
June 17 – July 7, 2024July 14 – July 24, 2024* - Notification of acceptance:
July 15, 2024July 25,2024 - Camera-ready paper due: August 10, 2024
- Workshop: September 9, 2024 (half day, afternoon session)