Old Email Archive

digest 2005-10-04 #001.txt

litsci-l-digest        Tuesday, October 4 2005        Volume 01 : Number
122



In this issue:

     CFP: SECOND NATURE: Reproduction and the Artificial in Art, Science
and New Media 
     Cognitive Science-Poetics discussion

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Date: Mon, 3 Oct 2005 08:53:44 +0200
From: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Jenny_Sund=E9n?= 
Subject: CFP: SECOND NATURE: Reproduction and the Artificial in Art,
Science and New Media 

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Apologies for cross-posting!


Dear colleagues,

Please forward to interested parties the following Call for Papers.

Many thanks,
Rolf Hughes and Jenny Sund=E9n

__________________

SECOND NATURE:
Reproduction and the Artificial in Art, Science and New Media

Call for papers for a new collection of essays
Deadline for submission of abstracts: 9 January 2006
Response from editors: 6 February 2006
Final drafts due: 24 April 2006

Please mail proposals (as a Word or Adobe PDF attachment) to:
 and 

Or hard copy to:
Dr. Jenny Sund=E9n
Media Technology and Graphic Arts
KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Lindstedtsv=E4gen 7
SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden.
Phone: +46 8 790 60 11

This anthology of essays seeks to explore technologies of reproduction=

in a time when concepts like =91original=92 and =91origin=92 are =
profoundly
unsettled by notions of =91copy=92 and =91reiteration=92. One key aim is
=
to
investigate the many parallels and intersections between digital
reproduction and human reproduction, curiously neglected in most
discussions of reproductive technologies. The anthology will also
investigate our continuing attraction to both innovation and the copy,=

the virus, the sample, and the clone, exploring the dialectic between
design intentionality and randomising systems of chance, and the
challenge these pose to interpretation and evaluation in contemporary
art and design, aesthetic criticism and cultural theory.

Science and technology studies and new media studies each address the
question of how reproductive technologies alter the meaning of concepts=

such as =91origin=92, =91original=92, and =91originality=92 and how the
=
borders
between what we think of as =91authentic=92 and =91fake=92,
=91natural=92 =
and
=91artificial=92, are under constant negotiation and transformation.
Discussions of =91life=92 on one hand, and =91information=92 on the =
other,
converge in the idea of a society reducible to =91code=92 =96 whether =
this
means the code of life (DNA) or the code of information (computer
code). In research on artificial life (A-Life), there are even more
intricate fusions between info tech and biotech. If research in
artificial intelligence (AI) has strived to simulate intelligence in a=

controlled, logical, top-down manner, then A-life is rather a bottom-up=

enterprise about growing and teaching organisms to develop and adapt on=

their own. Simulation and reproduction of various life forms is a
growing trend in areas such as digital literature, new media art, and
computer games. In spite of these interesting convergences, little has=

been said and done in the discursive spaces between digital- and
life-creating reproductive technologies. The anthology=92s focus on
reproduction is therefore timely, bringing together new media studies
with science and technology studies.

The anthology will be structured around three themed sections:

Origins =96 On origin stories of humans, animals, and machines in an
era=

of bio-technological reproduction. This section focuses on the ways in=

which cultural significations of kinship, family, body, sexuality, and=

=91life itself=92 are altered in a society increasingly shaped around =
the
notion that everything can be reduced to code/information. Reproductive=

technologies make possible new parental definitions and practices, and,=

arguably, reconfigure cultural connotations of the maternal. With human=

reproduction increasingly disconnected from institutions to which it
has traditionally been associated (heterosexuality, marriage, the
nuclear family etc.), in what ways do the cultural meanings of these
structures change? What are the implications of changes to the previous=

epistemological certainty of motherhood and the distribution of the
maternal function across several (technological and human) agents? How=

can we understand concepts of selfhood and individuality at a time when=

the human body is increasingly represented as code, and thus capable of=

being deciphered, transformed, extended and manipulated?

Originals =96 On the status of the original in a culture of the copy.
This section focuses on questions of identity, authenticity, aura, and=

reproductive technologies. Walter Benjamin, in his seminal essay =93The=

Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction=94 (1936), claims
that=

what is missing in every (lithographic or photographic) reproduction is=

the authenticity of the original =96 its aura. One reason for this is
that technical reproduction (as opposed to manual reproduction)
releases the copy from the original and thereby from tradition, thus
replacing uniqueness with the possibility of mass-production. New
professional networks and technologies, art and design practices =96 =
such
as algorithmic, generative or =93evolutionary=94 design, artificial
life=

art, emergence, and metacreation (the design of generative and creative=

processes) =96 and disciplinary hybrids =96 such as =93bioart=94 =
=93emergent
design=94, and =93information arts=94 =96 generate new types of
cultural=

(re)production, new metaphors, new possibilities for innovation, new
demands for interdisciplinary border crossings, new hybrid networks,
and new capacities for seeing connections. With technologies of
reproduction increasingly intervening in both works of art and (works
of) bodies, how does this affect our understanding of art, life, and
art-ificial life? What is the status of the =91aura=92 in digital works
=
of
art and reproduction?

Originality =96 On subjectivity and creativity in post-human
collaborations. The cultural convergence of art, science and technology=

means that the concept of originality frames some of the most
controversial questions in research, questions relating to
accountability, authority, intellectual property, oeuvre and intention.=

Any reconfiguration of originality will invariably affect our
understanding of these and related philosophical, economic, aesthetic,=

legislative and political categories. The notion of an impersonal,
autonomous, evolving, actively reproductive machine or artificial
=91intelligence=92 profoundly unsettles assumptions underpinning modern=

concepts of self and originality, as well as established distinctions
between human and non-human. This section focuses on creative practices=

as material processes that make possible new kinds of alignments and
affinities between the creator/s, creative technologies, and the
resulting artifacts. Does human perception and individual creativity
today still remain the core evaluating criteria for an authentic work?=

How do the prevailing metaphors of reproduction affect research in the=

sciences, humanities and interdisciplinary forms of inquiry?

Interdisciplinary contributions are welcomed. Potential contributors
should mail an abstract proposal of 300 words plus a short bio to the
editors by 9 January 2006. Abstracts will be reviewed and a shortlist
of contributors approached by 1 February 2006.

The anthology theme draws upon the Cultures of Reproduction seminar,
chaired by Jenny Sund=E9n, held at the ACSIS (Advanced Cultural Studies=

Institute of Sweden) conference 2005, and on the body of research under=

development by Rolf Hughes and architect Pablo Miranda in the research=

project "Auto-Poeisis and Design: Authorship and Generative
Strategies", funded by the Swedish National Research Council
(Vetenskapsr=E5det) 2005-2007. The anthology will be co-edited by Rolf=

Hughes and Jenny Sund=E9n.

Rolf Hughes is senior researcher at the School of Architecture, Royal
Institute of Technology, Stockholm, for the project Auto-poiesis and
design: authorship and generative strategies. He holds the UK=92s first=

Ph.D. in Creative and Critical Writing (funded by the British Academy)=

from the University of East Anglia and has co-edited two collections of=

interdisciplinary essays: The Book of Models: Essays on Ceremonies,
Metaphor and Performance (Open University, UK: 1998, reprinted 2003)
and Hybrid Thought (Open University, UK: 2003). His research interests=

include interdisciplinary methodologies, practice-based research,
authorship and automated or generative forms of cultural production,
and the challenge of innovation within the culture of the copy. He is
currently co-editing a collection of essays on =93Architecture and
Authorship=94 for the collaborative research project Architecture and =
its
Mythologies with Katja Grillner and Timothy Anstey, and teaching a
course at Konstfack on originality, identity and experience design with=

Ronald Jones, artist and professor of Interdisciplinary Studies,
entitled =93The End of Me: Innovation and Post-Human Creativity=94.

Jenny Sund=E9n is Assistant Professor in Media Technology at the School=

of Computer Science and Communication, Royal Institute of Technology
(KTH) in Stockholm. She received her Ph.D. from The Department of
Communication Studies, Linkoping University. She was a visiting scholar=

at The Department of English, University of California at Berkeley in
1998-1999, and received in 2003 a postdoctoral research grant from
STINT (The Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research=

and Higher Education) to stay at INCITE (Incubator for Critical Inquiry=

into Technology and Ethnography), University of Surrey, UK. She has
published primarily on new media, cultural studies, cyberfeminism,
virtual worlds, online ethnography and digital textuality. She is the
author of =93Material Virtualities: Approaching Online Textual
Embodiment=94 (2003, Peter Lang), as well as a co-author of =93Digital=

Borderlands: Cultural Studies of Identity and Interactivity on the
Internet=94 (2002, Peter Lang).


 
 =


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Date: Tue, 04 Oct 2005 18:45:28 -0400
From: Victoria Alexander 
Subject: Cognitive Science-Poetics discussion

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Victoria Alexander


Victoria N. Alexander, Ph.D.
Dactyl Foundation for the Arts & Humanities
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212 219 2344
www.dactyl.org 

Support the arts! Copy and paste the link below to donate to 
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End of litsci-l-digest V1 #122
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