[Air-L] [CFP] "Algorithmic Folklore as Transcultural Storytelling" Special Issue, electronic book review

[Gabriele de Seta]

Dear all,

we are looking for submissions (multiple formats) for a special issue of the Electronic Book Review titled:
Algorithmic Folklore as Transcultural Storytelling<https://electronicbookreview.com/cfp/>

To address the need for an in-depth understanding of vernacular culture across platforms and cultures, the electronic book review invites contributions for a forthcoming special Gathering investigating transcultural trends of storytelling within “Algorithmic Folklore”, an emerging phenomenon situated at the intersection of vernacular creative practices and everyday automated systems. The Gathering arises from the shared ambitions of two ongoing research projects: “Algorithmic folklore: The mutual shaping of vernacular creativity and automation (ALGOFOLK)”, led by Gabriele de Seta at the University of Bergen’s Center for Digital Narrative, and “Project StoryMachine: Exploring the implications of recommender based spatial hypertext systems for folklore and the Humanities”, an interdisciplinary collaboration uniting thirteen scholars across six partner institutions in the UK and Germany, co-directed by Claus Atzenbeck (Hochschule Hof), Sam Brooker (London College of Communication), Owen Davies and Ceri Houlbrook (University of Hertfordshire), Sarah Diefenbach (Ludwig-Maximilians Universität München), Astrid Ensslin (Universität Regensburg), Christopher Ohge and Jane Winters (both University of London). Both initiatives examine the cultural practices that are produced by the multi-layered human interactions with automated actors like AI and algorithms, albeit through distinct yet complementary lenses.

We welcome/are calling for:

  *   Scholarly essays on algorithmic folklore, digital myth-making, and  folklore in virtual networked environments (of 6000-8000 words).
  *   Short contributions and philosophical provocations on the aesthetics, ethics, politics, economics and/or epistemologies of algorithmic storytelling (max. 3000 words).
  *   Experimental, multimodal and meta-cognitive creative works including images, remixes, code-poems, and experimental media including scholarly commentary (max. 3000 words). Selected works will be considered for publication in Issue 06 of the digital review<https://thedigitalreview.com/>.
  *   Short project reports documenting new collections, tools and/or methodologies or pedagogical innovations (3000-5000 words).

Please send your abstracts to Sabine.Slowik at ur.de<mailto:Sabine.Slowik at ur.de> and find the Author Guidelines here<https://boap.uib.no/index.php/ebr/about/submissions>. For creative works and images, include a brief abstract describing the work, a link to the work itself, and any other supporting materials as one PDF file.

Deadline for abstract submissions: March 31st, 2026

Other important dates:
Notification of acceptance: April 30th, 2026
Full papers due date: June 30th, 2026
Editorial feedback by: October 31st, 2026
Final Version due date: December 18th, 2026
Prospective publication scheduled for February 2027 and beyond.

Full CfP: https://electronicbookreview.com/cfp/

best,
g