INPUTS / OUTPUTS: Inter-disciplinary Approaches to Causality in Engagement, Immersion, Presence and Related Concepts in Performance and Human Computer Interaction Conference Call for Papers EXTENDED INPUTS / OUTPUTS: Inter-disciplinary Approaches to Causality in Engagement, Immersion, Presence and Related Concepts in Performance and Human Computer Interaction University of Sussex Brighton, UK 26 June 2013 EXTENDED DEADLINE FOR CONTRIBUTIONS: 15 MARCH 2013 Engagement is much sought after in the public discourse of politics, theatre and education. Immersion, presence, and motivation attract further research to the engagement continuum. The goal of this symposium is to inspire an interdisciplinary spectrum of academics, practitioners and funders interested in deeper engagement (and related terms) toward novel collaborative solutions and projects. By mixing practitioners and researchers from arts, media and science, the conference will offer a platform for adaptation of discoveries made in other disciplines. The title “Inputs/Outputs” concerns the interaction between ‘sender’ and ‘receiver’. Examples of human-centred inputs are computer games, immersive theatre, novels, music, and classroom lessons; examples of outputs are emotions, memories, neural activities, physiological changes, and motivated behaviours. The rationale for the symposium is to improve the models for understanding the relationship between cause (pre-designed or scripted interventions) and effects (emotions, memories, neural activities) engendered in the audience or end-user. In interactive experiences, proposing causal relationships is made more difficult as human responses are sometimes conflated with causes. The symposium will focus its inter-disciplinary discourse on teasing apart scripted factors (inputs to the audience) that elicit or cause states like engagement, and on the human, observable effects that result from states like engagement (outputs from the audience). We welcome submissions on the central questions of the conference: * The relationship between physical, emotional, and intellectual engagement * Results from assessment and quantification of engagement in different fields * Methodologies and modalities for measuring engagement in different fields Other relevant topics include: rapport, immersion, ‘presence’, hypnotic absorption, neuroscience of engagement, interactional synchrony, engagement during interactivity in HCI, social signal processing, games, and the arts. Presentations should take the form of posters or 15-minute papers. We also welcome proposals for workshops or panels. For posters and individual papers, please submit a 250-word abstract as well as a short biographical note of 100 words. For panel and workshop proposals, please provide a brief outline of the session’s aims together with abstracts and biographical notes for each speaker and for the proposed panel chair or discussants. Please bear in mind that the conference is an interdisciplinary platform, and that submissions should be easily understood by an audience from outside of your discipline. All proposals should be emailed as pdf to the organisers at io-conf@sussex.ac.uk All proposals will be acknowledged and successful contributions confirm no later than 15 March 2013. For information about speakers and programme, please visit www.inputs-outputs.org Russell Pearce Carina Westling Harry Witchel