[ecrea] Collecting, Sorting, Ordering. Practices of Listing in Popular Culture. Oct 27-28

*Collecting, Sorting, Ordering. Practices of Listing in Popular Culture.*

*University of Siegen*

*Conference, 27-28 Oct 2016*

http://popkultur.uni-siegen.de/listing

Lists are known as a medium of order which contributes significantly to 
the ways in which we organise and classify knowledge. In online and 
social media, lists are currently experiencing a remarking 
proliferation. Digital cultures have brought about “new” types of lists, 
which are data intensive, algorithmic and dynamic, but also share with 
significant formal and functional similarities with lists prevalent in 
bureaucratic organizations, popular culture or literature. The ubiquity 
of lists and their proliferating functions in everyday life asks 
researchers to revisit what lists are, both empirically and 
conceptually, to explore what differentiates them from tables, 
catalogues or databases, but also to account for what lists do and what 
we do we with them. The objective of the conference is to approach lists 
from an interdisciplinary perspective as performative, epistemological 
processes and to explore how their minimalist form can enable 
proliferating functionalities.

Three key observations are central to our approach:

  * Lists assemble and create relations: Lists rely on connecting
    previously distinct objects, persons, attributes into new units or
    sets of relations. They enable connectivity between heterogeneous
    elements.
  * Lists sort, order and value: Lists that rely on ordinal data or seek
    to create rankings not only assemble, but also evaluate and valorise
    the assembled elements based on selected criteria of relevance,
    meaning or worth. In popular culture lists operate as condition for
    the possibility of popularity as they order, sort, hierarchize and
    quantify aggregated decisions and taste.
  * Lists contribute to the making of paradigms based on sorting,
    selecting and valuation as well as inclusion and exclusion. The
    narratives afforded by lists exceed the individual qualities and
    capacities of their elements and rely on the making of specifically
    motivated connections between them. In that sense, lists are
    dependent, continuous and in need of completion.

The conference brings together an interdisciplinary range of scholars 
from media studies, sociology, mathematics, philosophy, literature to 
discuss how to approach lists in contemporary (popular) culture both 
empirically and conceptually. We approach lists as performative 
processes of knowledge and value making and as situated in specific 
contexts and debates, which select, sort and transform what we know 
through socio-technical operations. Doing so, lists gain their very own 
aesthetic qualities, which reflect their making, but also create 
inscriptions.

*Schedule*

*Thursday, Oct 27*

13:30 Welcome and introduction

14:00-15:00 Elena Esposito (Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia) - 
Organising without understanding. Lists in divinatory and in digital 
cultures

15:00-16:00 Urs Stäheli (Sociology, University of Hamburg) - Travelling 
by Lists: Listmaking and Logistics in Tourism

16:00-16:30 Coffee and tea

16:30-17:30 Gerd Stumme (Computer Science, University of Kassel) - 
Automated Making of Lists

17:30-18:30 Adrian Mackenzie (Sociology, Lancaster University) - 
Streams, pipelines and trees: living with unending lists

*Friday, Oct 28*

10:00-11:00 Sabine Mainberger (Literature Studies, University of Bonn) - 
“… and so much more”. The potential of lists and some shortcomings of theory

11:00-11:30 Coffee and tea

11:30-12:30 Andrea Mennicken (Accounting, The London School of Economics 
and Political Science) Numbers and Lists: Ratings and Rankings in 
Healthcare and the Correctional Services

12:30-14:00 Lunch

14:00-15:00 Philipp Ullmann (Mathematics, Goethe University Frankfurt) - 
Of Lists and Mathematics – a Digression

15:00-15:30 Coffee and tea

15:30-16:30 Celia Lury (CIM, Warwick University) - How a list becomes a 
series: the making of serial logics

Each session includes a 25-30 min talk followed by discussion

*Location:*

Artur-Woll-Haus (AE) Siegen University, Am Eichenhang 50, 57076 Siegen

*Directions:*

https://www.uni-siegen.de/start/kontakt/anfahrt_und_lageplaene/a_w_haus.html.en?lang=en

*Hosts*

Carolin Gerlitz (University of Siegen, Media Studies)

Markus A. Helmerich (University of Siegen, Mathematics)

Johannes Paßmann (University of Siegen, New German Literature, Media- 
and Cultural Studies)

Matthias Schaffrick (University of Siegen, New German Literature)

*Contact and Registration*

Johannes Paßmann

University of Siegen

Adolf-Reichwein-Straße 2

57068 Siegen

(Johannes.Passmann /at/ uni-siegen.de) <mailto:(Johannes.Passmann /at/ uni-siegen.de)>

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