[ecrea] Call for Participation: Fear and Loathing of the Online Self

*Fear and Loathing of the Online Self--A Savage Journey into the Heart 
of Digital Cultures*


    Call for Participation
    Conference, Rome, May 22-23, 2017

    We would like to invite artists and researchers to submit proposals
    to join this event hosted by  John Cabot University and Università
    degli Studi RomaTre in Rome, and organized in collaboration with the
    Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam.

    The conference aims at exploring the state of the online self by
    raising questions about its status as a focal point of contemporary
    power/networks. Is the online self merely a product of software
    predictability and viral marketing? Is there any space left for
    self-determination? Or should we search elsewhere for new forms
    resistance by changing our political categories and perspectives?
    Which contradictions are at play? How and where can we locate the
    spaces of performativity of the online self?


    Critical political-economic readings of platform capitalism do not
    explain nor grasp new forms of (visual) online subjectivity. There
    is a growing gap between the obsessive quest for measurability, big
    data and algorithmic regimes (such as AI/bots),and critical
    investigations of an emerging variety of compulsive forms taken by
    the online self. We need to fill this gap and bring them back
    together. If a humanities approach of Internet studies nurtured by
    artistic and activist practices aims to survive the ‘big data’
    onslaught from the social sciences, then it is vital to ask what the
    citizen-as-user wants. To portray the population as (innocent or
    guilty) victims of the data monopolies is, politically speaking, a
    dead-end street.

    The cynical condition rules: we know we’re under surveillance, yet
    we continue to click, like, love and share ourselves online as
    usual. We are told by concerned experts and libertarians that our
    privacy "matters" and we want to believe it; yet it silently confers
    a guilty stigma upon another vital need, to engage socially and
    culturally with others. While some preach the offline escape as a
    way out, most of us are so deeply invested in the everyday social
    media life that it is inconceivable for most of us to  leave
    Facebook and the like. And this not only out of desire but
    necessity: networking and self-sharing has become imperative for
    succesfully managing the double binds of the immaterial labour
    economy. Instead, we'd rather deal with peculiar pathologies, such
    as addiction, depression and solitude generated by hyper-connection
    and lack of connections.


Abstracts and proposals are welcome to contribute to the following sections:


1. ONLINE SUBJECTIVITY THEORY

How much free room do we have to design new identities? What aesthetic 
and philosophic paths and patterns does meme distribution hint at? What 
is the role of theory and criticism, if any, in the ever changing yet 
endless production of the latest user affordances, from dating sites, 
Tinder swipes and Snapchat lenses, to Pokemon-Go? Can we still attempt 
to design new modes of subjectivity, or has our role withdrawn to a mere 
Cassandra-like gloom and doom prediction of digital catastrophes, while 
start-ups (read: future monopolies) have all taken over the cool 
business of designing and shaping the online self?

2. BEHIND AND BEYOND SELFIES

It is easy to diagnose the selfie as a symptom of a growing narcissism 
of our daily digital obsessions. But how do we get beyond the 
predictable split between the politically correct assessment of 
empowerment (of young girls) against the nihilist reading of 
self-promotion and despair? Does criticism of today’s photography of the 
everyday life always have to end up giving medical prescriptions and 
recipes of wellbeing? What could a materialist reading of large 
databases and facial recognition techniques (including protection) that 
goes beyond media archaeology (the historical approach) and the 
ever-changing pop gestures involve and say? Can we still talk about the 
liberation of the self in the age of digital self-generation of the images?


3. ARTISTIC PRACTICES OF THE ONLINE SELF

Artists play an important role in the anticipation, and critique, of new 
modes of the self. What role does the artistic imagination play beyond 
the creative industries paradigm? How can artistic and creative avant 
garde practices help disrupt the trite quantitative approach and the 
dogma of the algorithm in defining modes and moods of the onlife self? 
What separates a (properly) artistic imagination and the aesthetic 
imagination of the online curators of selfie-constructed personas and 
are contemporary critical paradigms merely reproducing an understanding 
of online practices that are aligned with the requirements of corporation?

4. POLITICS AND AESTHETICS OF MASK DESIGN

Masks and selfies should not be seen as opposites as they both represent 
different modes (and moods) of being of the self. Masks create spaces of 
performance; they are playful and seductive (or scary) forms of 
self-representation that ultimately do not protect us against the 
computational repression of the security apparatus. What are the lessons 
learned from the Anonymous movement? We should come to a new social 
contract between the individuals, groups and the cybernetic machine. In 
the meanwhile, how can we make sure to protect /us/, and what premises 
are hidden in the numerous crypto-design projects that circulate?


    Confirmed speakers: Wendy Chun, Ana Peraica, Jodi Dean, Marco
    Deseriis, Gabriella Coleman, Daniel de Zeeuw, Rebecca Stein, Vito
    Campanelli, Franco Berardi.

    Editorial Team: Donatella Della Ratta (John Cabot University), Geert
    Lovink (Institute of Network Cultures/HvA), Teresa Numerico
    (Università degli Studi RomaTre), Peter Sarram (John Cabot University).

    /Please send your proposal (max 500 words in word/pdf format), a
    short bio and any other material that could support your idea
    visually (artwork, film links, etc) to
    /(selfieconference /at/ johncabot.edu) / Deadline: March 1, 2017./



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