[ecrea] Call for participation: International PhD workshop and conference

Call for participation: International PhD workshop and conference,
organised by Digital Aesthetics Research Centre/Centre for Digital Urban
Living, Aarhus University, in partnership with the transmediale festival
for art and digital culture, and Universität der Künste, Berlin.

November 16-18, 2011
Vilém Flusser Archive, Universität der Künste, Berlin.

"transmediale 2012 postulates that incompatible beings drive the logic
of contemporary cultural production. in/compatible beings are understood
as aesthetic things and processes that do not necessarily connect on the
terms we are used to. The festival wants to raise the question of what
happens when such incompatible beings are brought to the fore rather
than hidden away in the dark underbelly of digital culture?"

In the context of developing a platform for knowledge exchange, and
research across the arts and sciences, transmediale and Aarhus
University have established a partnership to foster new forms of
collaborative peer-review and knowledge dissemination. The first project
will be a PhD workshop and conference departing from the theme of the
25th transmediale festival upcoming in early 2012: in/compatible. This
theme adresses unresolved tensions in-between different technologies,
their cultures of production and use, as well as the tensions between
different approaches to contemporary media culture.

“The simultaneous monumental failure and global ubiquity of technology
seems to move us beyond the polarity of utopia and dystopia. Instead we
are entering the blurred environments of the unadapted, monstrous and
‘uncorporated’. These increasingly unclear tension-states between open
and closed, military and civilian, idealistic and commercial, are giving
rise to a new kind of ‘techno-cultural uneasy’. The in/compatible in
this context is a singular moment where it becomes evident that certain
technologies or models of thought are not possible to use in
combination. Artists, practitioners and thinkers engage this imperfect
nature of technology. They give it a cultural shape, developing a
critical reflexivity that responds to the ever-changing social and
economical terrains of the networked world.�
(From Open Call for Works, transmediale 2012: in/compatible. Read the
full thematic call...)

The aim of the in/compatible.research PhD workshop and conference is to
explore the compatibility and incompatibility of various objects,
processes and systems. For DARC, the workshop is a continuation of
research in interface criticism and the role of artistic practices and
aesthetic theory within interface culture. One of the assumptions is
that critical insights and new possibilities derive from the various
incompatibilities of interfaces (including those between humans and
machines, as well as within humans and machines). For transmediale, the
workshop represents a beta project of its new “resource for transmedial
culture,� which is a framework for transmediale related events happening
before and after the festival. The resource is a new distributed working
methodology of the festival based on continuous knowledge development
and community involvement throughout the year; thus the workshop is both
an independent event and a research-based exploration of the forthcoming
theme of transmediale.

We are looking for proposals from PhD researchers to take part in this
international workshop and conference to explore the forthcoming theme
of transmediale: in/compatible.

A total of 15 PhD international researchers will be selected and asked
to participate: firstly initiating a discussion process in a blog, and
then in the PhD workshop held at the Universität der Künste, Vilém
Flusser Archive in Berlin, Nov. 16-18. The outcome of the process will
be published in a transmediale thematic publication and presented as
part of the programme of the festival in 2012. In the selection of
participants, we are looking to address the theme of in/compatibility in
terms of the diversity of research traditions and disciplines
represented, including practice-based research. Across the same days as
the PhD workshops, an international research conference will be held to
create a platform of exchange between scholars, researchers and artists
exploring the in/compatible topic.


We are looking for contributions that broadly align to the following
headings:

INCOMPATIBLE INTERFACES
Various socio-technical systems communicate with each other in networks,
but how do they distribute sense perception and relations of power and
control, and not least what are the aesthetic and critical responses to
these distributions (such as glitch, sousveillance or FLOSS)?

INCOMPATIBLE METHODS
There are ever more competing ways of understanding and addressing
knowledge production, so what is the role of emergent practice, artistic
research methods and more traditional research methods across the arts
and sciences (such as media archaeology, speculative realism and
aesthetic theories)?

INCOMPATIBLE MARKETS
In the collapsing distinctions of production and consumption, and with
new models of socialisation and exchange, what are the alternative
economies and business models that emerge (in the context of the
marketisation of research, creativity and sociality)?


Applications will be reviewed by a panel comprised of representatives
from Aarhus University and transmediale. The workshop is free, but
participants will need to cover their own travel and accommodation
expenses. For fundraising purposes, letters of support can be issued
upon request. 5 ECTS credits are offered for full participation. Some
places will be reserved for students coming from the organizing
institutions.

We are seeking proposals consisting of a biography (500 characters), a
statement on current research/description of PhD project (1000
characters), and an abstract for a paper presentation (1500 characters).


>  Upload proposals via our ONLINE FORM
http://www.transmediale.de/content/registration-form-incompatibleresearch

Deadline: Aug. 15
Acceptance: Sept. 15

Links:http://darc.imv.au.dk/?p=2423
http://www.transmediale.de/beyond/tm-resource


Organised by:
Digital Aesthetics Research Centre, Aarhus University, DK
(http://darc.imv.au.dk/)
Centre for Digital Urban Living, Aarhus University, DK
(http://www.digitalurbanliving.dk/)
transmediale festival for art and digital culture, Berlin, DE
(http://www.transmediale.de/)


Hosted by:
Universität der Künste, Berlin, DE (http://www.udk-berlin.de)



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