[ecrea] CFP: Automating the Everyday

*Automating the Everyday*
A symposium hosted by the QUT Digital Media Research Centre
http://qut.edu.au/research/dmrc | @qutdmrc
8-9 December 2016
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

*Call for Papers*
Along with related concepts and trends like artificial intelligence 
(AI), the algorithmic turn, and big data, automation is central to 
contemporary discourses of and debates about digital transformation. The 
entanglement of digital media technologies with material culture, the 
workplace, and the domestic sphere means our everyday lives are coming 
into contact with automation as well.

But what do we mean when we say ‘automation’ - does it encompass 
algorithms, sensor networks, artificial intelligence, advanced 
manufacture, and interoperability? What histories and pre-histories of 
automation and everyday life might we need to take account of? How are 
past robotic imaginaries shaping the present—in science and technology 
and in science fiction alike? Does the current preoccupation with 
automation signal the endurance of these earlier imaginaries, does it 
mark a moment of disruption, or does it simply coincide with an 
industrial pivot on behalf of Silicon Valley toward these areas of 
innovation, and an accompanying wave of hype? When does the appearance 
of automation work to elide or obscure various forms of manual, 
affective and immaterial labour?

In this two-day symposium, we invite theoretical and empirical papers 
that engage with these and other questions, particularly as they 
intersect with the experience and politics of digital media technologies 
with everyday life, work and consumption.

Themes and topics that might be covered include:

- Automation and the home (e.g., the Internet of Things)
- Automation and work (e.g., mechanisation vs automation, microtasking, 
microsurveillance, and time management)
- Automation and locative media, wayfinding and transport
- Automation and AI in service and consumption, (Siri, customer service 
chatbots, ‘automated’ checkout, drone deliveries)
- Sex, romance and robotics
- Automated content curation and communication in digital and social media
- Health, fitness and assisted living

*Submission process and key dates*
Please submit paper proposals to (autoeveryday /at/ gmail.com) 
<mailto:(autoeveryday /at/ gmail.com)> by 30 June 2016. Proposals should 
include an abstract of 250–400 words along with a brief bio of no more 
than 100 words. Presenters will be notified of acceptance by 15 July 
2016. Draft papers (3000–4000 words) of accepted presentations are to be 
submitted by 18 November 2016 for sharing and discussion among symposium 
participants.

Following the symposium, presenters will be invited to submit 
full-length papers to be considered for publication as part of a themed 
collection. We are approaching major international cultural and media 
studies journals with a proposal for a special issue on the symposium theme.

*Organisers*
Prof. Jean Burgess (QUT Digital Media Research Centre)
Dr Peta Mitchell (QUT Digital Media Research Centre)
Dr Tim Highfield (QUT Digital Media Research Centre)



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