Nine Worlds 2014 – looking forward

After the great long weekend we had last year the wife and I are looking forward to this years Nine Worlds – the 8th August to the 10th, we saw some amazing people last year, learnt so much and had a lot of fun, so this year I have got myself some business cards I can hand out to hopefully keep in contact with people we meet!

Business Card

Some of the tracks I’m looking forward to this year with their intros from the Nine Worlds website:

Academia:
Lectures, discussions and paper presentations, by geeky students, researchers and academics. Come discuss everything from philosophy in Terry Pratchett to LGBTQ subtext in genre TV, and from the trope of the silent Asian female assassin in comics, to gender performance in Avatar: The Last Airbender.

ALL OF THE BOOKS:
With over thirty programme items, ALL OF THE BOOKS features workshops, game shows, debates, signings and panels covering all aspects of literary geekery. As well as discussions of everything you might expect (and more!).

Creative Writing:
The creative writing track is brimming with discussions, panels, workshops and socials on all aspects of honing your craft and having a whole lot of creative fun. We’ll be talking about writing your own fantasy language, giving alien perspectives, and creating mysteries for the modern age. We’re looking forward to inspiring new ideas and helping the next Ray Bradbury or Robin Hobb find their feet. From our “Battle Rapping Monsters” kids’ session, to “Creating your Own Fantasy Language”, to our late night “Smut Slam”, we’ve got something for everyone!

Fanfic:
Following the success of the Fanfic Track at Nine Worlds 2013, we’ll continue to take a multi-fandom approach in 2014. We’re aiming to provide for all levels of fandom involvement; from those just beginning to explore the joys of fanworks to fans with decades of experience, and from readers to authors to beta-readers. We’ll be exploring fanworks in a wider context, including podficcing, fanvidding, fanart and crafts. We hope to hear a variety of voices, including those of fanfic readers and authors, commentators, fan academics, and professional authors whose writing supports a not-so-secret fanfic habit (some of whom are fanfic authors turned pro). We’re also attempting to situate fanworks in the wider geek context, by joining with other Nine Worlds tracks (including Comics, LGBTQ+, Podcasting, Geek Feminism), and by getting authors, fanficcers and historians to explore the extent to which writing historical fiction is essentially fanfic. We’re going to party, panel, workshop, create, slam, play and discuss. If you’d like to appear on programme, e-mail us at fanfic@nineworlds.co.uk. Being in the audience is just fine too.

Food Geekery:
Discover another side to food: we’ll be talking experiential food, home restaurants, food as art, and more, with some of the UK’s most innovative food geeks. Learn about supper clubs and food history, experience edible stories, create your perfect liqueur blend, and look out for our feast of cheese (the edible kind) coupled with cheese (the writing kind.) We’ll also be talking about the roles of food in building fictional worlds, trying out edible knitting, and putting together a collaborative cookbook!

Future Tech:
Future Tech is for the curious-minded. It is designed to let Nine Worlds attendees experience the latest innovations and all sorts of geeks, from NASA scientists to brainwave hackers. As well as talks that’ll challenge and amuse, expect interactive sessions, including gadget demonstrations, coding workshops, hacktivism, gaming, and socialising.

Geek Feminism:
Geek Feminism is a movement which seeks to end sexism, sexist exploitation and oppression in geek culture. The Geek Feminism Track aims to create a space that is interesting and exciting to existing feminists as well as welcoming and safe to those who are new to feminism but understand the need to redress the imbalance in much of mainstream geek culture. We’ll be discussing everything from cyborgs to manga to zombies to the creative industry; hosting our keynote speakers, Laurie Penny and Jane Fae; running a photography project on why geek culture needs feminism, and lots more: see you there!

Race & Culture:
We’re living in the future. Is it post-racial? Probably not. But join us for an exploration of race and culture in science fiction and fantasy fandom: we’ll be hosting discussions of race in SFF, running workshops for writers writing other cultures, and celebrating the work of the people of colour who’ve taken us to the stars.

Retro Fandom (with Redemption):
Brought to you by the Redemption conrunners, Retro Fandom will look at genre media pre-2000 and its effect on current and future shows. We’ll explore the “Golden Age” of British sci-fi in the 1960s and 1970s; the glam, glitz and shoulder pads era of Blake’s 7; and the decade of the emerging story arc in the 1990s, focusing on Babylon 5. We’ll also be looking forward: considering the remaking of Battlestar Galactica in 2004, and the revival of the hero arc in Da Vinci’s Demons.

Retro Fandom will be a chance to share passions, discover new gems, and wallow in undisguised nostalgia. Older fans can share and reassess their fandoms, and all of us can speculate on the exciting new shows and fandoms that owe something to the influence of the old. Join us, for a sometimes light-hearted, and sometimes no-holds-barred, look at the cool, the not-so-cool, and the never-repeated.

Redemption is a fan-run multimedia sci-fi convention, next running in Coventry in 2015

Skepticism:
Curated by The Skeptic Magazine, the Nine Worlds Skepticism track will host talks and discussions on science and critical thinking. Skeptics like evidence – so we get into all the most interesting subjects with the question: “How do you back that up?” If you’ve ever wondered about alien contact experiences, vampires, the brain-science of religious experiences, how PR came to rule modern journalism, and lots more: these talks and discussions are for you.

Space, Ships, and Steampunk (with the Royal Observatory):
Astronomers and curators from the National Maritime Museum and the Royal Observatory Greenwich will be running lectures and demonstrations for geeks of all ages, themed around the current special exhibitions running in Greenwich: “Ships, Clocks and Stars: The Quest for Longitude” on navigation at sea; “Stars to Satellites” on the history of satellite navigation; and “Longitude Punk’d”, a steampunk showcase of fantastical inventions alongside historical artefacts.

Steampunk:
The Steampunk strand at Nine Worlds looks forward to welcoming you to the “future that never was” hosted by the Victorian Steampunk Society; organisers of The Asylum, Europe’s biggest and longest established steampunk festival. Whether you are a regular member of the British Steampunk Community or you are just interested to learn more about Steampunk then you can be sure of a friendly welcome and something to interest you.

Whedon:
As any big fan of the Whedonverse will know, whether you’re a Browncoat, Doll, or avid Scooby Gang enthusiast: Joss and the team are like demi-gods in the storytelling industry. So what better way to celebrate his work than with an entire track dedicated to the man himself? Although this is only the Whedon Track’s first year at Nine Worlds, they’re expecting it to be one to remember! We’ve got more sessions than you can shake a stake at, from panels and discussions, to singalongs and … well, we don’t want to give away all our surprises! We like to think of people as either loving the Whedonverse, or just not having experienced it yet. So whichever group you belong to, we hope you’ll join us over the weekend for lots of Nine Worlds fun, burdened with glorious purpose!

 

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