Hello Everyone, It's my pleasure to announce #AoIR2018 Montreal's Keynote Speaker! Jason Edward Lewis is a digital media poet, artist, and software designer. He is presently the Concordia University Research Chair in Computational Media and the Indigenous Future Imaginary as well as Professor of Computation Arts<http://computationarts.concordia.ca/> at Concordia University, Montreal. He founded Obx Laboratory for Experimental Media<http://www.obxlabs.net/>, where he directs research/creation projects devising new means of creating and reading digital texts, developing systems for creative use of mobile technology and using virtual environments to assist Aboriginal communities in preserving, interpreting and communicating cultural histories. Along with the artist Skawennati<http://www.skawennati.com/>, he co-directs Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace<http://www.abtec.org/>, Skins Workshops on Aboriginal Stortyelling and Video Game Design<http://vimeo.com/channels/skins> and the Initiative for Indigenous Futures<http://www.abtec.org/iif>. His other interests include computation as a creative material, emergent media theory and history, and methodologies for conducting art-led technology research. Lewis' creative work has been featured at Ars Electronica, Mobilefest, Elektra, Urban Screens, ISEA, SIGGRAPH, and FILE, among other venues, and has been recognized with the inaugural Robert Coover Award for Best Work of Electronic Literature, a Prix Ars Electronica Honorable Mention, several imagineNATIVE Best New Media awards and five solo exhibitions. He's the author or co-author of chapters in collected editions covering mobile media, video game design, machinima and experimental pedagogy with Indigenous communities, as well as numerous journal articles and conference papers. Lewis is a Trudeau Fellow, and a former Carnegie Fellow. He received a B.S. in Symbolic Systems and B.A. in German Studies (Philosophy) from Stanford University, and an M.Phil. in Design from the Royal College of Art. Born and raised in northern California, Lewis is Cherokee, Hawaiian and Samoan. I would like to thank Jason for agreeing to be our keynote and my fellow members of the conference organizing committee (Jeremy Hunsinger, Mary Elizabeth Luka, Melanie Millette and Cindy Tekkobe) for brainstorming such a terrific choice. May the conference gods continue to smile upon us as we sail the good ship #AoIR 2018 Montreal towards its terminus on October 10-13, 2018 Andrew Herman AoIR2018 Conference Chair, on behalf of the program committee Communication Studies Wilfrid Laurier University Important Dates!: 1 March 2018 Submissions due for PAPERS, PANELS, ROUNDTABLES and FISHBOWLS, EXPERIMENTAL SESSIONS, and PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOPS 15 April 2018 Nominations for Nancy Baym Book Award<https://aoir.org/awards/nancy-baym-annual-book-award/> and Best Dissertation Award<https://aoir.org/awards/dissertation-award/> due 5 May 2018 Notification of acceptances for presenters 20 May 2018 Applications due for conference travel SCHOLARSHIPS and for DOCTORAL COLLOQUIUM 1 August 2018 Early Bird Registration Deadline for all presenters 15 August 2018 The full #AoIR2018 Conference Program goes live. 15 August 2018 Deadline for Visa Letter requests (for presenters only - Visa Letters not provided for attendees) 30 September 2018 Deadline for uploading accepted, non-blind, final version of paper and panel submissions 10 October 2018 Pre-conference Workshops 11-13 October 2018 Main Conference Links: [1] https://aoir.org/aoir2018/ [2] https://aoir.org/aoir2018/aoir2018cfp/ [3] https://aoir.org/aoir2018/2018subinfo/ [4] https://www.conftool.com/aoir2018/ ?