Call for Papers: First Workshop on the History of Expressive Systems === Website: http://www.expressive-systems.org/hex/01/ Held November 14, 2017, in conjunction with the International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling (ICIDS) in Funchal, Madeira, Portugal. We invite researchers interested in the history of expressive systems to participate in the first Workshop on the History of Expressive Systems (HEX1), to be held at ICIDS 2017 in beautiful Funchal, Madeira, on November 14, 2017. The purpose of this workshop is to improve the historical understanding of our field, both to ensure an accurate historical record for its own sake, but also to bring the history 'into the present' by understanding lines of research and their implications for current work in this rapidly expanding area. By 'expressive systems', we broadly mean computer systems (or predigital procedural methods) that were developed with expressive or creative aims; this is meant to be a superset of the areas called creative AI, expressive AI, videogame AI, computational creativity, interactive storytelling, computational narrative, procedural music, computer poetry, generative art, and more. Important Dates === * September 15, 2017: All submissions due. * September 29, 2017: Submission notifications sent. * November 1, 2017: Camera-ready copies due. * November 14, 2017: Workshop held. Submission Types === HEX1 will be accepting submissions of the following kinds: * Abstracts: Papers up to two pages in length, with unlimited additional space for references and appendices (e.g., supporting visual materials). Accepted abstracts will be invited for oral presentation at the workshop. * Papers: Papers of any length. Accepted papers will be invited for oral presentation at the workshop. Additionally, accepted papers will be invited for publication in the workshop proceedings, which will be made freely available online. Scope === For this first iteration of the workshop held at ICIDS, we prefer a focus on systems within the usual scope of ICIDS, i.e. historical computational narrative systems, videogame narrative, story generation, expressive natural language generation, text bots, e-literature, story understanding, computational narratology, etc. Additionally, histories of the field itself (or specific eras, approaches, etc.) would be a great fit for HEX. Here are some examples of potential contributions: * Portraits of forgotten or relatively unknown expressive systems. * Histories of specific research labs, such as the Yale AI Project led by Roger Schank in the 1970s. * Overviews of the careers of unheralded researchers or practitioners. * Reimplementations of early expressive systems, such as Montfort's reimplementation of Strachey's 1952 love-letter generator. * Rational reconstructions and rethinkings of historical expressive systems, such as Skald or Wide Ruled. * Reappraisals of conventionally disregarded systems, such as Wardrip-Fruin's extensive overview of Tale-Spin's underlying processes. * Reframings of known historical systems as expressive systems, or specifically as narrative systems — for example, mainframe war simulations of the 1950s. * Discussion of obscure computer games as early examples of interactive storytelling, such as Don Daglow's 1973 Star Trek game that extensively featured character dialogue. * Bringing history into the present: borrowing old techniques for new settings and architectures. * Bringing the present into history: applying new techniques to old settings and architectures. * Many more. Not sure if your project is a good fit? Reach out and ask us! -- Mark J. Nelson The MetaMakers Institute Falmouth University http://www.kmjn.org