[ecrea] cfp - Language Game[s]: Poetry, Logic and Artificial Language

CALL FOR PROPOSALS/PAPERS

Language Game[s]: Poetry, Logic and Artificial Language
10am – 6pm, Friday 05 may 2017
Banqueting Hall, Chelsea College of Arts, University of the Arts London, 
SW1P4JU

Keynote Speaker: Ken Hollings

A one-day symposium, Language Game[s] considers the association between 
language and human consciousness and how developments in technology 
might affect this relationship.

Where does meaning lie in language? Philosophical discourses tend to 
assume that language is something produced by human beings. Is 
linguistic meaning supplied by human consciousness, or does it take 
place in the material act of expression (speech/writing)? If meaning in 
language resides within ‘the human’ and is an expression of thinking, 
then what happens when language migrates to machines? Language Game[s] 
proposes to examine the following questions: what is language as a 
primary human technology, and how are both language and us, being 
changed due to the rise of artificial/simulated language systems? In 
short: what is language, when it is no longer made by humans, but by a 
machine?

At present, Artificial Language systems (such as Siri and/or Amazon 
Echo) mimic the forms of human speech, but cannot replicate the 
cognitive processes which lie behind language. As technology develops 
and Artificial Language systems become ever more autonomous, how will 
this affect us? Can a machine produce poetry in anything but name?

We invite speakers from across a range of disciplines to speak about the 
shift from human-led language to language made by machines. This might 
include philosophers, artists, designers, programmers of artificial 
language systems, AI experts, scientists, linguists, ‘other’.

Proposals are invited across the following topics (but by no means 
limited to them):

•How is the materiality of language changing, and do those changes matter?
•What is gained or lost in the transition from embodied speech as we 
have always known it, to ‘coded’ speech
•Is the relationship between language and the ‘human’ being redefined?
•How does Machine-led language (speech/writing) refer to thinking? (the 
Turing Test and beyond)
•What is the role of poetry in reminding us of the relationship between 
human beings and language?
•What questions around the ethics of technology arise as the result of 
the shift towards machine-led languages?
•If language is the ‘interface’ between the individual and the world, 
how is that interface changing (and/or changing us?)
•How have artists, designers, poets, and ‘others’, responded to 
questions surrounding language and technology? What can we learn from them?
•Technical presentation from the AI/AL community who are actively 
engaged in producing speech/writing for computer systems are welcomed 
(aimed at a non-technical audience).
•Presentations on creative work which critiques language as a primary 
human activity are welcomed. These may be presented in paper form, 
and/or as part of the exhibition of works to be presented during the event.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Proposals are invited from across disciplines with a connection to the 
subject area covered by the symposium and related exhibition.

We welcome proposals for traditional presentations, performative 
contributions / variations on the lecture form, technical 
presentations/demonstration and works for exhibition.

Your proposed contribution should be no more than 20 minutes in duration.

Submit your proposal here: 
http://www.arts.ac.uk/chelsea/research/events/language-games-call-out/

The firm deadline for application is 17.00 on March 06 2017.

Language Game[s] is convened by Dr Sheena Calvert and presented by 
Camberwell, Chelsea, Wimbledon Graduate School Public Programme at 
University of the Arts London.


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