Swancon Thirty Six | Natcon Fifty Program

Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday | Monday

Below is the draft Swancon Thirty Six | Natcon Fifty program for Thursday. While we are making every effort to make sure all details are correct, we cannot guarantee that items won’t change. We also have plenty of space for last minute program ideas, so if the mood strikes and you want to organise something, we’ll help provide you with space to do it.

Contact us any time in the lead-up to the convention, or speak to a committee member once you arrive.

Colour codes: Entertainment | Interactive | Presentation

Cranking up the cliché
with Tom Eitelhuber, Tina Eitelhuber
During this workshop we’ll attempt to conceptualise the most cliché-ridden genre film of all time. Tune your thinking cap to “obvious” and contribute your ideas to what we hope will be the most “by the numbers” film project in the history of hypothetical cinema!

Future Australia: imagining how lives will be lived down under throughout the millennium
with Sean Williams, Simon Brown, Justina Robson, David Cake, Karen McKenna (moderator)
Our panellists try to predict how changing technology, changing climate and population growth, amongst other things, will determine how we and our progeny will see and cope with this changing world. Where this freeform discussion goes may well tell us where we all will go.

Future Imperfect Art Show Launch
Natcon Fifty is hosting Future Imperfect, a semi-professional art show exploring the ways in which people have historically imagined our present, launched by Eric Ripper.

Great Debate: we are a computer simulation

It has been said that as we come closer and closer to creating artificial universes we are unable to distinguish from the real thing, the more likely we are already in one. What are the chances? What are the clues one way or the other. Can we take this idea seriously or is there no other way to take it?

Lost in translation — fan expectations vs cinematic outcomes in the depiction of literary works on screen
with Paul Kidd, Damian Magee, Rod Carey, Robert Hoge (moderator)
What happens to cherished images when the author’s material is used as the basis for art portrayed on a screen — be it big or small? In this panel, we will discuss the reactions of devoted fans to the translation of selected written work to the screen — and then ask where it has been done well, where it has been done poorly and whether we fans have any reasonable expectation of it being right to ask those questions in the first place.

Paranormal romance
with Nicole R Murphy, Amanda Pillar, Sue Bursztynski
It’s one thing to refer to a novel as a romance but it can be another thing entirely when you call it a paranormal romance. It doesn’t have to mean shape shifting manly men and bodice ripped ladies of southern accents. It can mean tough chicks and mean, mean assholes who need putting in their place. Come and explore the paranormal romance from the writer’s side of the fence.

Seeing Green — natural imagery in fantastic fiction
with Glenda Larke, Kaaron Warren, Kate Eltham (moderator)
Trees, storms, sand, water are all important features of science fiction and fantasy, because they speak about the environment, they can direct the politics and they carry a deep sense of symbolism. When they become central to the story, how do authors ensure that those elements don’t take over from the characters and the plot itself, yet still remain a vast presence?

Taking you on the ride: writing adventure fiction
with Bevan McGuiness, Tansy Roberts, Richard Harland, Simon Brown (moderator)
Adventure fiction is often considered a genre but is it more a style? You can write magical fantasy, you can write space opera, but the style in which you write both can be as an adventure. What is the philosophy of the adventure? Why write an adventure tale? And why do writers want to write it as much as readers want to read it?

The future: an anime perspective
What does anime think our future will be like? Come along and find out. Giant robots not guaranteed.

Thursday night chat
with Grant Watson and Swancon Guests
End the first night of Swancon with an hour of special guests, relaxed chat and a look at what’s coming up over the next four days. Multihyphenate Grant Watson hosts, although that isn’t really important — what’s important is that he’s always wanted to use the word multihyphenate in a science fiction convention program blurb. And now he has. See you there.

Welcome to your first convention
with Sarah Parker, Sue Ann Barber, Shay Telfer and Kitty Hemsley

Writer/Editor/Reader relationship
Jonathan Strahan with Ellen Datlow, hosted by Cat Sparks
People go on about the writer/reader relationship, but all too often a third party in what is a triangle of creativity is ignored. Editors, particularly anthology editors, are the bridge between writers and readers. The SF world’s two leading anthologists talk about doing their job and how they bring the writer and the reader together.