[ecrea] Call for papers - Interface Politics International Conference (Barcelona)

The Interface Politics Conference
<http://www.gredits.org/interfacepolitics/en/call-for-papers-eng/> is
about reflecting on the role and influence of interfaces within the
universe of tools from the contemporary production system. How are the
imaginaries related to creativity, politics, labour, economics and
culture configured and created in the context of a universalised system
of interfaces that is based on the promise of being natural,
transparent, simple and accessible? What answers and actions can be
articulated from design practices that aim to question the utopias
arising from a form of communication that is increasingly subject to a
culture of control? How can alliances be established between design, the
field of critical thinking and action, and industrial and institutional
narratives linked to technological theologies?
  This initiative is being presented as a meeting forum for gathering,
discussing and disseminating multiple approaches, experiences and
practices from the fields of design, political philosophy, arts,
activism and communication studies from academic and non-academic
perspectives.


CALL FOR PAPERS

Interface is defined here as a protocolised communication system that is
used to translate dissimilar languages and formats or to connect and
regulate various models, dynamics and scales for the purpose of
generating compatible work and information flows.
Likewise, interfaces can also be described as devices that facilitate
the usability of complex technical information and production systems
when in the hands of operators who are not always professionals. They
may be categorised by function as equipment (hardware) or interactive
visualisation (graphical user interface).

We understand all dispositions, mechanisms, narratives, dynamics or
presumptions as interface policies that are established through the
maintenance and modification of the protocols upon which interfaces operate.

The interpretation of the construction and role of interfaces within the
current narrative of communications has been subject to the core
metaphors which the narrative has been built upon. The liquid
conceptualisation of communication – which is directly linked to the
ongoing establishment of the dynamics generated by capitalism and in
which ideas, subjectivity, goods and capital constitute an energy-based
universe where they are neither created nor destroyed, but transformed,
– has positioned interfaces within the context of an intangible
conception that has been solved by appealing to its ‘transparency’,
‘naturality’ and ‘availability’. Interfaces, thus perceived as necessary
and unquestionable tools for shaping the complexity of a volatile
environment, seem to lack the capacity to generate interpretations that
will question their role as devices responsible for the determinism and
theology that dominate today’s narratives of communication.
Nevertheless, there exists the possibility for interfaces to be
interpreted as a solidification of interests, as assemblage (Deleuze) or
Device (Foucault), as a mirror subject to certain fixations that enables
us to observe the role they have been assigned in order to guarantee the
normalcy of the constitution and evolution of current communications and
‘digital solutions’. Given the mechanicist narrative of progress that
has impregnated the history of interfaces, it also provides windows that
unveil underlying compulsions that are not usually made explicit.

The gradual definition of the morphology of interfaces is a tense
process between the functional needs of industry and the social feedback
triggered by their dissemination; this tension comes to transform the
interfaces themselves, be it by forcing changes or by protecting them
from change.
When viewed from a critical standpoint, interfaces show that the
metaphorical narrative to which they have been ascribed seems to have
been brought about by means of a constant, with regard to the type of
relationship that capitalists have developed with regard to the
environment around them: the control of randomness, the domination of
chaos. Interfaces, both in their manifestation as devices and in their
scientific materiality, have developed a hermeneutical apparatus that
puts itself forward as an attempt to overwhelmingly dominate the
randomness of existence and the natural and social forces that configure
it. The control, recording, visualisation and transmission of statistics
that make preventing ‘chaos’ possible are ultimately the fundamental
cause of literature on interfaces becoming the touchstone for the
current narrative of communications.

Persons wishing to participate in talks/presentations will have to
follow the concept pairings (see below). Said pairings come with
reference tags, which will serve as guidance. Presentations can address
multiple pairings and can cross over between them while proposing
specific fields for action and reflection (design, philosophy,
engineering, activism, software studies, social sciences, etc.).
After selection of the submitted abstracts by the Scientific Committee,
the corresponding tables with their coordinators will be established,
with informative and descriptive titles for the topics of each table.
Activities will then be assigned a table number and a day in the
conference schedule. All this information will be provided to the
speakers at the agreed time.


Concept pairings:

STANDARDISATION vs INNOVATION
How to resolve the demand for innovation in design and artistic fields
with tools that are increasingly standardised?
Related tags: Teaching methods for design, Contradictions, paradoxes,
diagnoses, experiments, solutions.

UTOPIA vs HETEROTOPIA
The narrative of interfaces has been constituted within the utopic
narratives that are characteristic of technologies for information and
the communication of capitalism. Is it possible to conceive and build
heterotopic interfaces that can promote non-hegemonic times and spaces?
Related tags: Disruptive design, hacking design. Interfacial art.
Videogames and otherness. The media’s ‘anachronistic’ archaeology and
genealogy.

TRANSPARENCY vs  OPACITY
Interfaces are presented as transparency models. But are they opaque in
the sense that they hide their procedures? How can interfaces be
designed so that they divulge their own ideology?
Related tags: Algorithms, indexing, data, software studies. Naturality
vs. artificiality. Limits and boundaries of interfaces.

SIMPLICITY vs COMPLEXITY
Interfaces are presented as models of simplicity, ready to be operated
by users who are not necessarily knowledgeable about technical
procedures. Are they, however, promoting simplification of the physical
and social realities they manage?
Related tags: Training, self-teaching in design. Open code vs. buttons
and icons. Usability. User experience analysis.

SOLIDITY vs LIQUIDITY
The communicational narrative of interfaces belongs to a discourse on
liquid culture and economy. How can we understand this discourse amidst
the reality of the physical mass of objects, goods and inventions? With
the ubiquitous physicality of interfaces all around?
Related tags: Materiality. Tangible media. Virtuality and physicality.
Mobility and corporality.

CHAOS vs CONTROL
Interfaces have been established as devices for the domination and
control of randomness, uncertainty and chaos. Are they the manifestation
of machinery for ideological determination?
Related tags: Governance systems and processes. Internet protocols.
Interactions and emergency. Counterwork philosophies.

USER vs  OPERATOR
Do interfaces bring about linguistic and conceptual changes in their
users? Does communication no longer have a ‘target’, but instead users
and agents? Likewise, do users become (in)voluntary operators of
communication businesses and generate co-opted value for the company?
Related tags: Immaterial work. Productivism. Potential agencies.
Cooperative design processes.


FORMAT AND SUBMISSION OF ABSTRACTS

Abstracts of presentations must meet the following requirements:

•    PDF format.
•    Minimum length of 400 words. May be accompanied with a minimal
bibliography in an enclosed document.
•    Language: Catalan and/or Spanish. An English version is compulsory.
•    The concept pairing(s) to which the proposed presentation belongs
must be indicated.
•    Tags or keywords are limited to a maximum of 5.

A CV must also be enclosed:

•    PDF format.
•    Language: Catalan, Spanish or English.
•    350 words maximum.
•    Must include the person’s institutional, professional and other
affiliations.
•    Email address.
•    Links to papers, works, etc. (the extent of this information is in
addition to the 350 words of the CV)
•    Photograph.

Abstracts and CVs should be emailed to: (callforpapers /at/ gredits.org)
<mailto:(callforpapers /at/ gredits.org)>

For inquiries please contact: (congres /at/ gredits.org)
<mailto:(congres /at/ gredits.org)>


KEY DATES

20 JAN 2016 – Abstract submission deadline
10 FEB 2016 – Deadline for the assessment results of the abstracts
20 APR 2016 – Submission of presentations for publication

Those applications that are accepted will be published in the format of
an ISBN-Assigned book, in print and digital format (PDF open-access
under CC license) edited by GREDITS / Bau.


ORGANIZERS

This conference is a collaborative initiative from three institutions:

•    GREDITS (Design and Social Transformation Research Group) (from
Bau, Design College of Barcelona), which seeks to promote new
perspectives, reflections and practices within the field of design and
creation.
•    IMAGIT/BCN: European consortium for multidisciplinary research
funded by the EU’s Creative Europe programme, of which HANGAR
(Production and Research Centre for Visual Arts in Barcelona) is a
member. The aim of the Barcelona programme is to produce practical
research into the current situation with regard to the underlying
aesthetics, mechanics and policies of interfaces.
•    The MEDIACCIONS/DIGITAL CULTURE Research Group from the Open
University of Catalonia (UOC).


  The conference is also supported by the following research groups:

•    GRE KONEKTO, from the University of Vic / Central University of
Catalonia.
•    Research Group of Culture and Audiovisual, from School of
Comunication and International Relations Blanquerna from Ramon Llull
University.



+ info: http://www.gredits.org/interfacepolitics/






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