[ecrea] CFP: Special issue of Computational Culture on Rhetoric and Computation

CFP: Special Issue of Computational Culture on Rhetoric and Computation

Rhetoric has historically been a discipline concerned with the ways that
spoken and written language shape human activity. Similarly, emerging work
in digital media studies (in areas such as software studies, critical code
studies, and platform studies) seeks to describe the ways that computation
shapes contemporary life. This special issue of Computational Culture on
"Rhetoric and Computation" merges these two modes of inquiry to explore how
together they can help us to understand ways that our communication and
computational activities are now constituted by both human and computer
languages.

Coupling the analysis of rhetoric with computation provokes a number of
questions: How is the rhetorical force of computational objects different
from or similar to that of language, sound, or image? What new modes of
communication open up when we view computation as an expressive medium? How
does computation shape or constrain rhetorical action? What new tropes,
figures, and strategies emerge in computational environments? How do
programmers deploy rhetoric at the level of code and interface? These
questions are not exhaustive, and we welcome papers or computational
projects that pursue these questions and others like them.

Topics or projects might include:

-  Computational artifacts (such as videogames or art installations)
designed to make procedural arguments and model systems or phenomena
-  Analysis of multiple choice tests processed by computers as
rhetorical artifacts, aimed at both human (citizens, students) and
nonhuman (machine) audiences.
-  How computational strategies such as surveillance supercede more
traditional spheres of rhetorical deliberation such as written law
-  The ways in which computational data interpellate individuals and
define citizenship
-  Strategies of the "quantified self" as a way of shaping human behavior
- Rhetorical analysis of computational systems used by governmental,
educational, and political entities
- How computational systems are described for different audiences from
groups of expert programmers to the general public
- The use of software algorithms to simulate and evaluate various
activities, such as writing and conversation
-  Rhetorical strategies deployed by communities of programmers and
designers in marginal comments, online forums or physical workplaces
-  Analysis of computational machines as rhetors (i.e., understanding
the actions of such machines in terms of the tropes, figures, and
strategies they deploy)

300 word abstracts are due November 25, 2013. Abstracts will be reviewed by
the Computational Culture Editorial Board and the special issue editors.
Authors of selected abstracts will be notified by January 31, 2014 and
invited to submit full manuscripts by April 1, 2014. These manuscripts are
subject to outside peer review according to Computational Culture's
policies. The issue will be published Fall 2014.

Please send abstracts and inquiries to Jim Brown and Annette Vee:
(brownjr /at/ wisc.edu)  (andannettevee /at/ gmail.com).


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