[Commlist] Call for papers - Special Issue @ ECHO Journal #6

*_Call for Papers: ECHO 6 – Rethinking AI Interfaces_*

This special issue aims to address the limitations imposed by existing 
approaches to interface design on the current epoch of deep learning 
technology and to explore how insights from musical and artistic 
instrumentality may help unblock further development.

When surveying the highest-adoption commercial and creative deep 
learning tools in 2024 (e.g. ChatGPT, MidJourney, Gemini, Runway), it is 
possible to identify a strong sense of convergence or sameness: an user 
ideates, expresses their idea in linguistic or other symbolic form, and 
a program leverages a small number of possible toolchains 
(PyTorch/Tensorflow, HuggingFace, CUDA, etc…) to iterate upon and 
execute a response. One might call this workflow *a /transcriptive 
/interface: a downstream motion from user (idea) to computer (executor) 
through various stages of symbolic translation*. This type of interface 
tends to yield a specific user experience: a chatbot or chat platform, a 
language prompt, a visual display with a blinking cursor.

*Rethinking the /transcriptive/ approach to interface design is a 
crucial step to accelerate the diversification of AI toolchains, 
processes, and  relationships.* One can look to the arts for many 
alternative interface design paradigms. For example, the field of 
musical instrumentality and instrumental performance has enumerated a 
massive typology of *nonlinear, co-creative relationships *between 
humans, materials, and sounds that stand in stark relief to a “blinking 
cursor” on a chat window. We argue that, by applying insights from these 
alternative interfacial regimes, we can unlock new possibilities for AI 
to become a creative partner, rather than merely a tool for human ideators.

Destabilizing the 'blinking cursor' requires deeper work than a 
translation of its unilateral input-output flow into other forms and 
formats. To paraphrase Caroline Busta and Lil Internet -- in an era in 
which content production is essentially limitless and practically free, 
the scope of art-making and artistic thinking must move to the level of 
the protocol, the systems design, the "urban planning" of the plumbing 
networks of generative mechanics.*Our objective is to open the 
floodgates to speculative redesigns, to theoretical design paradigms, 
and to infrastructural modes that completely upheave the input-output 
relationship (what Luciana Parisi might call the servo-mechanical 
relationship) altogether*. While practical implementations will be 
considered, we will prioritize big, projective, crazy, conceptual work 
within the broader field of HAIID [Human-AI-Interaction-Design].

We invite researchers, musicologists, artists, communication and media 
studies scholars, and technologists to submit their work on reimagining 
interfaces that foster expanded interactions between humans and AI.

*_Themes and Topics_*

Contributions to this special issue may include, but are not limited to, 
the following areas of inquiry:


  * Nonlinear Deep Learning Interfaces: Proposals for interfaces that
    depart from traditional visual, semantic, and linear paradigms,
    enabling new forms of creative expression, exploration, and
    collaboration with AI.
  * Interfacial Regimes in Music and the Arts: Examination of
    interfacial frameworks within music and artistic practices that
    provide alternative models for engaging with deep learning 
technologies.
  * Post-Transcriptive AI: Exploration of new models, toolchains, and
    possibilities for deep learning outside of strictly transcriptive
    functions and relationships.
  * New Musical Paradigms: Visions of music after the development of
    deep learning tools unbound from transcriptive modalities.


*_Submission Guidelines_*

Submissions can be in-depth articles indicatively of 5000-7000 words or 
brief artist statements in any format. Authors are encouraged to use 
digitally-native storytelling, incorporating media-rich materials, 
nonlinear navigation, and interactive data representation tools. 
Contributions should be experimental and push the boundaries of 
traditional academic formats. Potential contributors are invited to 
contact the issue editors ((robertoalonso /at/ mac.com) 
<mailto:(robertoalonso /at/ mac.com)> / (mpoliks /at/ gmail.com) 
<mailto:(mpoliks /at/ gmail.com)>). ECHO welcomes contributions in languages 
other than English.There is no publication fee for accepted papers and 
authors are not required to make any payment for the submission, review, 
or publication of their work.

*_Deadline and Submission_*

*Submission deadline: July 15, 2024.
Please upload your submission 
here:*https://airtable.com/appJQ9K5WIfFqp9dp/paghbOagbfnN8SiLJ/form 
<https://airtable.com/appJQ9K5WIfFqp9dp/paghbOagbfnN8SiLJ/form>

Contributors should upload materials sufficient for peer review (text 
files, images, media, code in standard formats), together with a brief 
description of how they envisage using the platform by July 2024.

Accepted authors will be invited to experiment and build their article 
on the ECHO platform. See previous issues for examples: 
echo.orpheusinstituut.be <http://echo.orpheusinstituut.be/>

*_ECHO_*

ECHO is a new online, open access, peer-reviewed journal that exists to 
share creative work and understanding in the common space at the 
intersection of music, thought and technology. An initiative of the MTT 
(Music, Thought and Technology) research group 
<https://orpheusinstituut.be/nl/projecten/music-thought-and-technology> at 
the Orpheus Institute, Ghent, ECHO welcomes artist-researchers to submit 
contributions for development on its custom platform.

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