Update, 1st March 2021: Registration is now open and submissions will no longer be considered.
delighted to announce that we are now accepting submissions for our 2021 conference. The conference will take place online, on the 23–25 April, 2021. The deadline for proposals is 8th January 2021.
As usual, we welcomeproposals on all aspects of sound and music in games. This year, we are particularly interested in papers that support the conference theme of ‘Where in the world is video game music? Geographies, Cultures, and Regions of Game Music’.
Our confirmed keynotes are Prof. Hillegonda Rietveld, Professor of Sonic Culture at London South Bank University and Markus Zierhofer, composer of The Wagadu Chroniclesand founder of AudioCreatures.
The Ludomusicology Research Group is pleased to announce the Ludo2021 Tenth European Conference on Video Game Music and Sound.
The conference will take place online, on the 23–25 April, 2021. Register here!
We are no longer accepting proposals for research presentations but the below Call for Papers is maintained for posterity. The programme is available here!
We welcome proposals on all aspects of sound and music in games.
This year, we are particularly interested in papers that support the conference theme of ‘Where in the world is video game music? Geographies, Cultures, and Regions of Game Music’. Papers on this topic may include:
Transculturality in game soundtracks
Game audio production between the local and the global
Game sound and its others
Exoticism and orientalism in game scoring
Postcolonial perspectives on video game music
Interactions across game-musical and cultural contexts
Presentations should last twenty minutes and will be followed by questions. Please submit your paper proposal (c.250 words) with a short provisional bibliography by email to ludomusicology@gmail.com by January 8th 2021. We aim to communicate the programme decisions by January 22nd 2021. If you require more information, please email the organizers.
We encourage practitioners and composers to submit proposals for showcasing practice as research, bearing in mind the limits and possibilities of an online environment.
There will be no charges for attendees or presenters.
Thank you very much for your patience while we have been organizing alternative plans for Ludo2020. We now have some news to share.
Rather than a full conference at once, we are pleased to announce a short series of Ludo sessions at weekly intervals, on Saturdays. They will be streamed for free online using Microsoft Teams; no account is necessary, just sign up with your name and email address using the form below and you will be emailed a link to the live stream shortly before each session.
We hope this will give you more flexibility for timing and preparation, as well as being an easier time commitment, and, perhaps, something fun and exciting for a few weeks through these difficult times.
We will have up to three papers per session, with presentations pre-recorded ahead of a live Q&A with the presenter.
25th April Stephen Tatlow – Speak of the Devil: Player Voice in Video Game Marketing Ariel Huang – Characterizing Generative Inscription from a Ludomusicological Perspective
2nd May Anselm Weber – Alien Buster: A 3D Audio Game Costantino Oliva – Identifying Musical Situations in Digital Games John Vinzant – Sed Non Eodem Modo: Comparing Ludomusicology to Ninteenth-Century Musikwissenschaft
9th May Michael Austin – Beeps, Boops and Boyz: Sonic Representations of Gay Men in Video Games Aaron Price – From Grinding to Grooving: An Investigation of Motoi Sakuraba’s RPG Combat Music Andra Ivanescu – Transmedia Storytelling, Marketing and the Live Performance of Riot Games Music
The timings are all 4–6pm, Central European Time. We hope you can join us!
Like many other event organizers all around the world, the committee have been closely monitoring the rapidly evolving public health situation. With WHO’s recent decision to declare the coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic, and increasing travel restrictions across Europe in particular, we have decided with great regret to cancel the in-person conference this year. The University of Malta has simultaneously announced that they are cancelling or postponing all their events.
For delegates who have already registered, the University will reach out to you directly with full refunds; you don’t need to do anything. Unfortunately, we cannot provide refunds or support for privately booked travel and accommodation.
We are exploring alternative options including a digital conference and will announce further details in due course.
