Dear friends, colleagues, possible participants, anticipated attendees, past-players and past-play makers,
We hope that you are well, healthy, safe and as happy as can be in these frankly not so fun and kind of scary times. In this post, we would like to update you on the status of TIPC3 .
The TL;DR version:
- For now, we have decided to keep the dates and physical event in place.
- We will make a final call in mid-June.
- The call for papers is extended until June 6.
- We will open up more potential slots for remote papers.
- We’d love to hear what you think about this and if you have any ideas for TIPC3 Plan B’s!
The TR;IL (Text Reading, I Love) version:
We are planning to go forward with TIPC3 on November 4-6 and like to explain to you how and why. After discussing with the Dutch Institute for Sound and Vision (where TIPC3 is going to be hosted), and given the current gradual lift of measures related to the COVID-19 as well as the possibility that things will open up more during the summer, we think it is still within the realm of plausible possibilities that we could go ahead with the conference in November.
Given, however, the uncertainty of the situation in the Netherlands and abroad, we also don’t want to make the final call right now. As such, we will reassess things mid-June and make a final decision and announcement before the end of June. This is around the same time we will have contacted you to let you know if your contribution made it into the programme.
Ducking the May Deadline
The fact that we won’t make our own final call for a go-ahead until later, is one of the reasons we will extend the Call for Contributions by one month to June 6. It might not have the same pun potential as May the 4th, but what the hell do we care about that!
Another important consideration here is to give all of you some more time to decide if and what to contribute. We know that you would have already made up your mind and written that abstract if you didn’t need to entertain/homeschool your kid(s) all day long, worked hard to spread good vibes and thoughts to family, friends and essential workers, teach or take online classes, got stuck in an 80 person business strategy zoom meeting, or just were not so damned tired of not knowing what will happen next.
We wish we could, but we can’t take over those things from you — we also actually don’t want to be in another mass-Zoom meeting, sorry. What we can do is offer you more time to get your ducks in a row for a contribution to TIPC3.
As an aside, do you know your superbly brilliant ducks are excellently aligned already? You know you and your ideas about gaming and the past rock, don’t you? Even if the abstract is hastily written while dodging TP hoarders during your food procurement run, it will tell us what it needs to. What we mean to say is, we would be super excited to receive your rockstar contribution for our consideration, there is no need to 110% it.
It’s even more real when it is digital
In the long-ago times of 2015 the above motto was meant to shock analog academics into considering the value of studying digital cultures. We try to live up to our past principles (even if they seem a bit silly now), so we will most certainly live-stream TIPC3. We have also decided to open up slots for potential video presentations much more. While initially we had a strong preference for live presentations, in the current conditions travel between countries might still be impossible or inadvisable in the Fall.
We will do our best to accommodate video presentations to the maximum possible extent for a live conference. We may even decide to move the entire conference online, although if we can help it we would really like to see many of you in Hilversum (again) to give you an enthusiastic 1,5 meter distance airhug and geek out on cool talks about the past and play in person.
If you do plan to make it over in person to TIPC3, note that the bursaries are, of course, still in place. Check them out on the conference info page! Also, no matter if the economy goes for a triple-nose dive, TIPC3 is and will remain free to attend. As promised, we also throw in coffee, drinks, and lunch.
Talk to us!
Finally, we know we are the wrong doctors to make the best kind of pandemic related decisions. So, we are asking for all and any community feedback on how we could move forward with TIPC3 in a smart, interesting, but also safe way. Our conferences aim to facilitate deep and fun exchanges of diverse minds and we are more committed than ever to make TIPC3 the best possible experience it can be for everyone. Have a cool idea about how TIPC3 could be best realized, are left hanging with some questions, or would you just like to shoot the breeze with us for a bit? Send us an email, a message on Facebook or Twitter, or pop by during our Tuesday and Thursday livestreams on Twitch!
Take the best possible care of yourself and others, stay safe, healthy, and happy,
The VALUE team
P.S. You and your row of ducks really do rock!