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Refractory: a Journal of Entertainment Media is a refereed, peer-reviewed, e-journal that explores the diverging and intersecting aspects of current and past entertainment media. The journal is published by the Screen Studies Program, School of Culture and Communication, University of Melbourne.

Current Issues

Call for papers…

Special Issue: Transmedia Horror  (Abstracts due 20th of June 2013)

Horror revolves around the distortion and transgression of apparently secure boundaries: those which separate life from death, subject from object, and past from present.  The monsters of the horror film are interstitial beings who defy the ontological security of hermetic categories. Yet as the lines between media forms become increasingly blurred in contemporary culture, we are continually confronted with the question: if the monstrous is that which refuses to be categorized, where do monsters belong? By rearing their ugly heads in teen romance films, comedies and even in the ‘real’ world through theme park rides and alternate reality games, the monstrous beings of horror film extend their threats beyond the diegetic world, erupting through the boundaries which delineate genres and mediums as well. This special issue of Refractory: a Journal of Entertainment Media seeks original essays that explore the ways in which horror functions when the monstrous creeps through no longer distinct generic and media forms. Possible areas of inquiry will include, but are not limited to:

  • Horror in games, theme parks and the internet
  • High concept horror television
  • Advertising spaces, censorship and horror
  • The melting of the boundary which fences horror off from other genres
  • Horror in viral marketing and alternate reality games
  • Liminal media spaces
  • Disturbances to the ‘safe’ role of the spectator when the monster threatens to extend beyond the diegetic narrative and into the ‘real’ world
  • The function and construction of the monster in paranormal romance texts
  • The role of monsters and the monstrous in contemporary news media

Interested contributors are invited to submit abstracts between 400 and 500 words long (attached as a Word document) by the 20th of June, 2013.

Notification of acceptance: 30th of July, 2013.

Full papers between 5,000 and 7,000 words due 20th of October, 2013 – to be edited and redrafted thereafter.

Final essays due back: 20th of December, 2013

Refractory: a Journal of Entertainment Media is an online, fully refereed journal.
Its on-line form encourages the use of links and thus the incorporation of other media objects, information and environments. Authors are encouraged, especially in this issue, to take advantage of this format.

Abstracts and questions should be directed to Naja.McFadden@unimelb.edu.au and Jessica.Balanzategui@unimelb.edu.au

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Special Issue: Mise-en-Scene in the Era of Remediation  (Deadline over)

In the history of the cinema, scholars have debated the significance of mise-en-scene as both a material practice of filmmaking and an *idea*. In 1992, Adrian Martin began an introduction to a special issue on “matters of style” in Continuum  with a question: is mise-en-scene dead?  How might we ‘think’ mise-en-scene today when ‘setting the scene’ is no longer isolated (either conceptually or materially) to the cinema? This special edition of Refractory invites contributors to critically engage with mise-en-scene within the field of expanded cinema extending to games of all platforms (video, online and social gaming), installation and mixed reality art; including practices of remediation and transmedia.

Contributions might consider:

  • Games in relation to filmic notions of mise-en-scene:  what happens to historical and technical concerns with lighting and props in the gaming environment? Is it possible and productive to read a genre or oeuvre in terms of motifs and styles in the same way that mise-en-scene has operated in film analysis? If so what are the implications?
  • What impact has transmedia storytelling had upon the operations and meanings of mise-en-scene?
  • What are the implications of extending mise-en-scene to experiential media environments like theme parks?
  • Truth or fiction? If mise-en-scene was key to film scholarships understanding of deep focus cinema and the cinema’s relation to reality (following Andre Bazin), how do contemporary practices play with the relations between truth and fiction and how might attention to mise-en-scene enable an understanding of the implications of doing so within contemporary contexts.
  • What does mise-en-scene mean in an era of pervasive and ubiquitous computing – will the now emerging Internet of Things change our understanding of the ‘staging of objects’ for the camera?
  • In the context of software media and cultures, do we now  inhabit mise-en-scenes that are co-created with interactive agents?

Timeline:

300-500 word proposal in the form of an extended abstract that addresses the aims of the paper and its arguments in the context of this topic. Due December 20th, 2012
Notification of acceptance, January 20th
Full papers between 5,000 – 7,000 due March 31st, 2013.
Publication Date: May 31st, 2013

Refractory is an online, fully refereed journal.
Its on-line form encourages the use of links and thus the incorporation of other media objects, information and environments. Authors are encouraged, especially in this issue, to take advantage of this format.

Proposals and questions should be directed to Leonie.Cooper@monash.edu

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