Proposals are invited for the 2011 AusStage Symposium from artists, scholars and students researching live performance in Australia. The symposium aims to demonstrate how we are using AusStage in research and foster new ideas for future development.

Topics of interest include: event mapping, artists networks, audience research, demographics, visualisation, collections, digitisation, archiving, curatorial, editorial, digital publishing, web technologies, performance histories and international links.

Proposals that connect with the AusStage database, interact with the dataset, tackle new challenges and demonstrate potential for innovative research are particularly welcome. Proposals that imagine future possibilities for AusStage are also welcome.

The symposium will be held in Melbourne over two days in September:

• Thursday 29 September is an open day. It will feature presentations, demonstrations and work-in-progress showings from artists, scholars and students using AusStage in research. Attendance on this day will be open to the public.
• Friday 30 September is a planning day. Discussion will shape directions for AusStage in the future and develop plans for the next round of funding. This is an in-house round-table meeting for AusStage partners and associates. Future partners are welcome to attend by invitation.

Send proposals for the open day (20 minutes, 250 word abstract + 100 word bio) to Jonathan Bollen (jonathan.bollen@flinders.edu.au) by Monday 15 August 2011. Expressions of interest in attending the planning day may also be sent to Jonathan.

Proposals and expressions of interest will be reviewed by the AusStage management committee. Participants will notified by 29 August 2011.