[Commlist] Call for Papers: Digital Epistemologies: Rethinking Knowledge the Age of Digital and Synthetic Media | Exploratory workshop in memory of Jonas Ingvarsson (1966–2025)

/Call for Papers/

/*Digital Epistemologies: Rethinking Knowledge the Age of Digital and 
Synthetic Media*/

Exploratory workshop in memory of Jonas Ingvarsson (1966–2025)//

Linnaeus University Centre for Intermedial and Multimodal Studies (IMS)

Linnaeus Media Observatory (LiMO)

Linnaeus university, Växjö, Sweden

22 October 2025

/Concept: An epistemology for the age of digital (synthetic) media/

Digital technology not only has significantly transformed the way we 
work, communicate, and socialize; it also transforms the way we make 
sense of the world. Yet what does knowledge mean in the age of social 
media, virtual realities, and generative AI?

In his book /Towards a Digital Epistemology: Aesthetics and Modes of 
Thought in Early Modernity and the Present Age/(2021 
<https://www.researchgate.net/publication/347241899_Digital_Epistemology_An_Introduction>), 
Jonas Ingvarsson argues that digital epistemology extends beyond the 
present and is not limited to media based solely on binary code. 
Instead, it encompasses distinct modes of thinking, organizing, 
perceiving, and interpreting the world. This opens different 
trajectories for further exploration:

• *Shift from causality to relationships:* Instead of linear, 
cause-and-effect logic, digital epistemology focuses on associative, 
performative, and recursive connections between elements.

• *Emphasis on materiality and interface:* Paradoxically, digital media 
enters a material and performative relationship with its creators and 
users building on tactile, visual and spatial through digitization and 
presence across platforms.

• *Juxtaposition of pertinence versus provenance:* Digital epistemology 
favours the principle of pertinence (grouping by relevance or 
association) over the principle of provenance (grouping by origin or 
authorship).

• *Recursive historiography*: Digital epistemology allows 
for non-linear, layered readings of history, where older media forms 
(like emblems or cabinets of curiosity) are reinterpreted through new 
forms of digital representation.

*• **Invention over interpretation:***Ingvarsson argues that digital 
epistemology encourages heuristics (invention) rather than hermeneutics 
(interpretation). It’s about /creating/ new knowledge 
configurations rather than uncovering fixed meanings.

• *Congeniality with early modern modes of knowledge 
organization:* Digital culture shares, according to Ingvarsson, distinct 
traits with early modern forms of organizing and representing knowledge, 
such as cabinets of curiosity, emblem books (image, motto and text 
resembling memes) or ekphrasis and energeia (rhetorics evoking strong 
emotional imageries). Thus, these historical forms share with digital 
media a non-linear, multimodal, and experiential approach to knowledge.

//

/What we look for /

Inspired by the creative, exploratory, and innovative thinking of our 
colleague of Jonas Ingvarsson, who sadly passed away earlier this year, 
we convene a workshop in his memory to explore these dimensions further. 
We invite to personal reflections on the life and academic work of Jonas 
Ingvarsson. We also invite scholars from the humanities, social and 
computer science as well as practitioners in art and media production to 
explore the concept of a digital epistemology further. How can 
Ingvarsson’s proposed concept of digital epistemology help us 
understanding media transformations in the public sphere and the role of 
media and information in a digitized society today?

Ideally, papers (in the format of 20-minute presentations) should engage 
with Ingvarsson’s characteristics of digital epistemology in various 
areas of the contemporary media landscape and its societal impact as 
above, for instance, but not limited to

•Media, truth claims and knowledge communication

•Memefication

•Synthetic synchroneity in the (re)presentations of knowledge – the end 
of linear search

•Posthuman communicative networks

•Encountering ‘digital humans’: avatars, digital clones, partners, 
digital resurrection

•Cultural, social and political consequences of generative and virtual 
(synthetic) media

•Non-linear relations between past, present and future

•Originality and co-creation in the age of digital reproduction

•Or any other contribution fit for discussion

Please send your submissions (title, 250-350 word abstract, five 
keywords, 2-3 lines of bio) _no later than 22 September_to 
(beate.schirrmacher /at/ lnu.se) <mailto:(beate.schirrmacher /at/ lnu.se)> and 
(andreas.onnerfors /at/ lnu.se) <mailto:(andreas.onnerfors /at/ lnu.se)>

NB! This event is unfortunately self-sponsored and cannot offer 
reimbursements.

We envisage to publish a selection of papers in an edited volume or 
special issue and will convene a virtual text seminar later this autumn 
(2025) or in early spring (2026).


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