[Commlist] cfp Banal Devices: everyday technology in globalized technocultures

Digital Research in the Humanities and Arts (DRHA) 2024
BANAL DEVICES: EVERYDAY TECHNOLOGY IN GLOBALIZED TECHNOCULTURES
University of Music and Theatre Munich, 8-10 September 2024

What systems and devices are relevant in people’s everyday lives, beyond 
the globalized dreams and universalising narratives professed by big 
tech and state bodies in the Global North? This question will be the 
starting point for DRHA 2024.

In critical scholarship and art, engagement with technologisation 
oftentimes occurs in response to hypes around state-of-the-art 
innovations. These hypes are in turn generated by tech corporations and 
government bodies. Thus, there is a tendency for critical practices in 
technology to focus on the spectacle of the new and extraordinary, while 
disregarding the lasting and far-going impact of what we might call the 
realm of the “technologically banal”. As a result, these practices 
become complicit in the propagation of the very “myth of progress” that 
underpins the techno-sphere they intend to critique.

In Syria, ChatGPT is hardly ever used, and quotidian debates on 
technology are shaped by challenges in basic electricity provision. In 
Ukraine, high-tech weapons don't play the role that most contemporary 
conferences and exhibitions on the topic suggest ("Panic! The autonomous 
combat robots are coming!"). Instead, commonplace mobile phone cameras 
and toy drones are highly relevant on the battlefield. At media art 
exhibitions and technology conferences, one encounters countless 
artworks and discussions about Big Data, AI, interactions with microbes 
and virtual reality. Yet, highly relevant technologies in the realm of 
the seemingly ordinary, like washing machines, insect repellents and 
water purifiers, are rarely discussed.

DRHA 2024 will investigate the role of the seemingly banal, commonplace 
and boring in- and outside the world of high-technology.

VENUE
The main conference venue will be the Reaktorhalle at Luisenstrasse 37a, 
the former Institute of Technical Physics, a listed Bauhaus building 
located in the Munich Museum District, designed in 1957 by Joseph von 
Wiedemann and Franz Hart.

ORGANISERS
Banal Devices is convened by Prof. Dr. Dani Ploeger, and hosted by the 
Chair of Performance and Technology at the University of Music and 
Theatre Munich. The conference will be accompanied by an exhibition of 
artworks curated by Dr. Elena Papadaki (curator and researcher, 
councillor at the Royal Society of Arts).

KEYNOTE CONTRIBUTORS
Alex Murray-Leslie (co-founder of Chicks on Speed; Professor of Digital 
Performance, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim)
John Zerzan (author of Future Primitive (1994), Twilight of the Machine 
(2008) and Why Hope? The stand against civilization (2015))

DRHA: DIGITAL RESEARCH IN THE HUMANITIES AND ARTS
Since 1996, Digital Research in the Humanities and Arts (previously 
named Digital Resources for the Humanities) has organized gatherings 
across Europe to examine the technologization of cultural activity, 
resources and heritage. Through its annual conference, the organisation 
provides intellectual and physical space for cross-disciplinary exchange 
and collaboration between artists and humanities scholars, often leading 
to new research networks and publications.
https://drha.tech/

CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS
Call for papers
We are inviting proposals from scholars and artists who are keen to join 
a shared exploration of the conference theme. Please submit a 250-750 
abstract for a 15-minute presentation that articulates a critical 
position in relation to the theme, connected to your areas of interest 
and expertise.

Call for artworks
In parallel with the conference, a group exhibition will be presented at 
the conference venue, curated by Dr. Elena Papadaki (curator and 
researcher, councillor at the Royal Society of Arts). We are inviting 
proposals for screen-based artworks and performances that engage with 
the everyday and the banal in technologised culture. Please submit a 
description of max. 2 pages, including images and/or viewing/listening 
links.

Please submit your proposals to (DRHA2024Munich /at/ gmail.com) by May 1st 
2024. Notifications of acceptance will be sent by June 15th. For 
questions about the conference and the process, please contact 
(dani.ploeger /at/ hmtm.de)


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