Calling all synthetic biologists, bioartists, biodesigners, amateur biotechnologists and biohackers. Science Gallery is seeking proposals for projects for our upcoming flagship exhibition GROW YOUR OWN…

GROW YOUR OWN… is a curated, open call exhibition tackling provocative questions raised by synthetic biology. Curated by Paul Freemont (Imperial College), Anthony Dunne (Royal College of Art), Cathal Garvey, Daisy Ginsberg, and Michael John Gorman (Science Gallery), GROW YOUR OWN… offers audiences a participative experience to explore the possibilities and potential implications of synthetic biology, through an exhibition, events and workshops.

Deadline for applications is midnight, Sunday May 26th, 2013. Full details and the online submission form can be found at: http://sciencegallery.com/growyourown

We are interested in works that offer a participative and interactive visitor experience for a broad age range of visitors, especially those aged 15-25. We seek projects that inform, intrigue, provoke dialogue and engage audiences about an unfamiliar, complex and far-reaching topic, move the public conversation about synthetic biology forward.

Tackling the sweeping discussion of synthetic biology that tends to focus on a biotech future of personalised medicine and cells that pump out fuel, GROW YOUR OWN… will explore the ambiguous issues raised by ‘designing’ biology too.

We are interested in receiving proposals on a wide variety of topics including:

• Broad themes such as living versus non-living, human culture versus nature, design versus evolution, the intentional design of nature
• Research areas in synthetic biology such as health, energy, environment, biocomputing, materials and agriculture or new/unusual themes that have not entered the debate yet
• Current research and challenges within synthetic biology
• The hype spectrum that swings from potential world saving utopia to global bio catastrophe
• Different processes and approaches with synthetic biology research, such as understanding and modeling living things and their processes at a molecular level, modification of existing organisms such as bacteria, the building of synthetic organisms that can carry out specific actions, the construction of novel organisms from the bottom up
• The potential impact of synthetic biology on everyday life, how it might look and feel
• Social and ethical concerns of synthetic biology such as bioterror, biosecurity, the dual-use dilemma, questions around the creation of synthetic life, governance, intellectual property and ownership, bioerror and intentional environmental release
• DIY biology
• Participatory experiments and workshops

GROW YOUR OWN… will run at Science Gallery from October 2013 to January 2014.

The open call for projects closes at 12 midnight on May 26th 2013. Full details: http://sciencegallery.com/growyourown

Conference Title: The Posthuman: Differences, Embodiments, Performativity

CALL FOR PAPERS

September 11th – 14th 2013, University of Roma 3, Rome, Italy

The University of Roma 3, the University Erlangen-Nürnberg, the
University of the Aegean and Dublin City University are pleased to
announce that

Prof. Kevin Warwick from the University of Reading
(http://www.kevinwarwick.com/)

will be the keynote speaker at the conference “The Posthuman”.

The specific focus of the Conference “The Posthuman: Differences,
Embodiments, and Performativity” will be the posthuman, both in its
genealogies, as well as its theoretical, artistic and materialistic
differences and possibilities. In order to guarantee a systematic
treatment of the topic, we will particularly focus on the following
themes:

1. The Posthuman; 2. Philosophical Issues concerning the Posthuman; 3.
New Media Art, Graphic Arts and Comics, Design, Bioarts, Body Art,
Performance and the Posthuman; 4. Ethics, Bioethics, and the Moral
Status of the Posthuman; 5. Emerging Technologies, Posthuman
Informatics and the Posthuman; 6. Materialism and Posthuman Existence;
7. Posthuman Education

The detailed CFP is available here: http://rome.beyondhumanism.eu/

It is the 5th conference of the Beyond Humanism Conference Series
which is being organized by the Beyond Humanism Network:
http://beyondhumanism.eu/?page_id=177

Associated to the Beyond Humanism Network is the Beyond Humanism Book
Series. Authors interested in publishing a monograph or an essay
collection on a related topic might be interested in the following
information:
http://www.peterlang.com/index.cfm?cid=367&event=cmp.ccc.seitenstruktur.detailseiten&seitentyp=series&pk=19458

Academic Committee of the conference “The Posthuman”:

Francesca Brezzi, Roma III
Francesca Ferrando, Roma III
Donal O’Mathuna, Dublin City University
Evi Sampanikou, University of the Aegean

Stefan Lorenz Sorgner, University of Erlangen-Nuernberg

SUBMISSIONS & DEADLINES

We invite abstracts of up to 500 words, to be sent in MS Word and Pdf format
to: posthuman.conference@gmail.com

Files should be named and submitted in the following manner:
Submission: First Name Last name.docx (or .doc) / .pdf
Example: “Submission: MaryAndy.docx”

Abstracts should be received by May 15th 2013.
Acceptance notifications will be sent out by June 15th.
All those accepted will receive information on the venue(s), local
attractions, accommodations, restaurants, and planned receptions and
events for participants.
*Presentations should be no longer than 20 minutes. Each presentation
will be given 10 additional minutes for questions and discussions with
the audience, for a total of 30 minutes.

FEES & REGISTRATION

A registration fee of €50 (65USD) will apply to all participants.

Yours sincerely
Stefan Lorenz Sorgner (www.sorgner.de)

Director and co-founder of the Beyond Humanism Network beyondhumanism.eu

Quantum at the heart of an atom
A team of researchers at UNSW have achieved a quantum breakthrough, turning the nucleus of an atom into a qubit or quantum bit – the building blocks of super powerful quantum computers of the future.

 

Art and Science – Hybrid Art and Interdisciplinary Research 2014

Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design

The beginning of the 21st century is characterized by an overwhelming awareness of scientific and technological issues. The field of art that interacts with the practices of science and its technologies is commonly referred to as Art&Science. During the past decades, the hybrid field of art & research has become more or less established, with iconic works, established institutions and documented histories. The interrelation between music, art, natural and computer sciences can be seen in new media art, biotechnological or telecommunication art and other contemporary artistic practices that have an experimental character.

An international conference “Art & Science – Hybrid Art and Interdisciplinary Research” and related exhibition takes place in 2014, organized by the Graduate School of Culture Studies and Arts (GSCSA) and the Estonian Academy of Arts (EAA). The main goal is to nurture synergetic cooperation of art and science and to present a multiplicity of practices in different research fields by doctoral students, internationally renowned researchers and practitioners, and the emerging ideas regarding convergence and confluence of different disciplines.

The organisers are thus delighted to announce a public call for inter- or transdisciplinary works, topics and research to enrich the cultural landscape, as well as to highlight thought-provoking questions. The exhibition takes place from 30th of May to 24th of August 2014 in Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design (ETDM, www.etdm.ee/en/).

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

Thresholds 42: Human prompts us to consider the past and present changing notion of ‘the human’ with regards to its physical, virtual, and psychological habitat.
In the last decade innovations within cognitive imaging, computer interfaces, communication technologies, surrogate natures, sensory mediators, and global tracking have reshaped our understanding of the Self. This shift can be seen, on one hand, as a revolution of sensibilities while, on the other hand, still pushing towards an enlightenment-based, rationalist perspective of the human as a neurobiological mechanism.   No matter which way this ‘human’ is being reshaped, does it not also reshape ‘the humanities’ as well as our understanding of ‘humanity’? Have we indeed formed new gateways of artistic and architectural possibility or have we forced ourselves into a deterministic and mechanistic view of both occupants and design? Humans are different than machines, after all, but how has the human/machine duality been rethought in our current age? How does art, architecture and film envision, critique, or challenge this ‘new human’?
http://thresholds.mit.edu/thresholds42call.pdf
Due: April 30 2013

SymbioticA’s Agency in Movement Symposium

Friday 21st June 2013 9am-5pm
The University of Western Australia G06 Moot Court
Free registration (RSVP essential to christopher.cobilis@uwa.edu.au)
The Agency in Movement symposium employs a variety of disciplines to explore the complex relations between movement and vitality.
Motion is observed by attaching a frame of reference to a “body” and measuring its change in position relative to another reference frame. Therefore, movement is relative, means ever changing and is perceived as visceral and “alive”. The Symposium will include invited speakers from diverse disciplines (art, performance, biology, biophysics, biomechanics, and philosophy) who will explore and interrogate the conceptual and technical relations between life (biological or artificial), movement and perceptions of “vitality”, with the hope that some interesting meeting points and/or negations will emerge.
The symposium stems from an Australian Research Council project exploring the use of skeletal muscle tissue which is grown, stimulated and activated in a techno-scientific surrogate “body”. This moving twitching (semi) living material evokes, makes unease, and asks, in sensorial and theoretical means about issues of aliveness and agency. The project is concerned with onto-ethico-epistemological (Barad 2010) questions about life and the affect created through the phenomenon of movement.
Speakers include: Monika Bakke, Andrew Pelling, Elizabeth Stephens, Jonas Rubenson, Stuart Hodgetts, Chris Salter, Jennifer Johung, Oron Catts, Miranda Grounds and Ionat Zurr
http://www.symbiotica.uwa.edu.au/activities/symposiums

re-new 2013

CALL FOR PROPOSALS

The Big Picture – the confluence of art, science and technology

Conference Chair: Gunalan Nadarajan, University of Michigan

Festival Senior Curator: Edward A. Shanken, University of Memphis

Copenhagen, Denmark

October 29-November 1, 2013

Proposals due: June 15, 2013

Visit the re-new website [http://www.re-new.org] and facebook page [https://www.facebook.com/pages/Re-new-digital-arts-festival-conference/162474673811981?fref=ts]

Contact email: info@re-new.org

Since 2007 re-new has presented electronic and digital artworks that explore and challenge technology and artistic practice, while fostering exchange between academics and artists. In addition to its internationally recognized media arts festivals, re-new has organized leading conferences in the field, including CMMR 2008 and 2009 and IMAC 2011 and 2012. These events have received over 2000 artwork submissions and 800 academic submissions, and reached a total audience of 12.000.

Beginning in 2013 re-new will join the media arts festival with its own academic platform. Our goal is to stimulate critical dialog, collaboration and networking between leading scholars, technologists and artists. re-new 2013 will make possible hybrid presentation formats where the confluence of art, science and technology is discussed in its full complexity.

TOPICS FOR SUBMISSION

Scholars, technologists and artists are invited to submit high-quality proposals outlining original research and/or artworks that contribute to this rapidly advancing field. Appropriate topics include but are not limited to:

– performing arts technology

– technology-mediated art performance

– technological/digital art installations

– slow media

– wearables / e-textiles

– (neuro) physiological data, biofeedback and art

– affective computing and art

– cognitive technologies and art

– neuroaesthetics

– adaptive technologies and art

– artificial creativity/intelligence and art

– augmented/virtual/hybrid reality and art

– immersive technologies and art

– ubiquitous/pervasive/context-aware technologies and art

– physical computing and tangible interaction

– liveness in a mediatized culture

– participatory art

– new interfaces for artistic expression

– gestural/multimodal/haptic/mobile interfaces and art

– embodiment and art

– media ecology

– networking and social media

– sustainability

– surveillance and privacy

– aesthetic computing and computational aesthetics

– big data

– visualization and sonification

– nanotechnology

– mobility

PAPERS

Papers must present original material and will be assessed on their contribution to the field.

SUBMISSION PROCEDURE – PAPERS

Initial submission format: 400 word abstracts with supporting media files are due on June 15, 2013. Abstracts must be uploaded to the easychair conference management system [https://www.easychair.org/account/signin.cgi?conf=rn2013]

Final papers may be 4 or 8 pages long in Springer LNCS format. All papers will undergo the same review and publication process once past the initial round of abstract selection. The length should match the contribution. Authors may propose the presentation format that they feel best suits their contribution (short or long talk, demo, interactive exhibit, or both talk and demo/exhibit). re-new remains committed to the principle followed in previous re-new conferences – that all submissions are valued equally.

At least one author of each accepted abstract submission must register for the conference before the registration deadline in order for the final paper version to be published in the conference proceedings. The camera-ready deadline for the full paper is October 1, 2013. Please contact conf@re-new.org with questions about paper submissions.

ARTWORKS

Artworks may include objects, installations, performances, networked media, urban screens, socially engaged projects and other public interventions. Submissions will be assessed on their own merits and their relevance to the conference theme.

SUBMISSION PROCEDURE – ARTWORKS

Submissions must be uploaded to the easychair conference management system by 15 June, 2013 (https://www.easychair.org/account/signin.cgi?conf=rn2013]

Artists whose artworks are selected will not be required to register for the event, but may be asked to give a presentation about their work. Professional video documentation of all activities and artworks will be undertaken by re-new and published in our web archive. Artists may freely use this material for their own purposes.

STUDIOS

re-new also invites proposals for studios to be held in multiple tracks on Monday, October 28, 2013.

SUBMISSION PROCEDURE – STUDIOS

Proposals must be uploaded to the easychair conference management system by 15 June, 2013 [https://www.easychair.org/account/signin.cgi?conf=rn2013]

Studios are likely to focus on hands-on activities that offer new approaches and unexpected experiences to conference attendees, combining the arts with emerging technologies. They will be open to anyone who has registered for the conference, and each Studio will accommodate around 10-15 participants. Additional fees might be required for equipment, if needed for a particular workshop.

Each Studio will be represented by a 4-page extended abstract that will be included in the Proceedings and published together with the other accepted submissions. Organizers are also encouraged to arrange for later publications of a studio’s creative output, such as participation in the Leonardo Electronic Almanac series mentioned below.

Studios should encourage new and enriching perspectives in the field of art and technology. Through the studios, organizers can share their work with other professionals, engage in co-creation and gain feedback to broaden their research experience. Studio topics could include for example, the exploration of new tools or techniques, creative approaches to merging technology with the arts, artistic or research-oriented topics, etc., or could take the form of technical experiments or creative sessions. We look forward to creative and original studios that will open attendees’ minds to fresh and innovative experiences in the field!

PUBLICATION DETAILS

All articles and artworks will be published in electronic format on completion of the event in re-new 2013 proceedings (ISSN 2245-7801).

An external panel will select the best academic and artistic works from the proceedings for a second editing and peer-reviewing process, which will result in a subsequent publication in the Leonardo Electronic Almanac series (LEA). Additional publication possibilities are being explored.

The abstracts will be available to registered delegates online before the event and an electronic copy will be presented to delegates at the event.

All artworks, academic presentations, panel discussions and studios will be video documented and made available at re-new’s online public access database.

IMPORTANT DATES

Proposal submissions due: June 15, 2013

Decisions on proposals: August 15, 2013

Camera-ready copy due: October 1, 2013

re-new 2013: October 29, November 1, 2013

ORGANIZATION

Conference Chair:

Gunalan Nadarajan, University of Michigan

Festival Senior Curator:

Edward A. Shanken, Memphis University

Local Steering Committee:

Lars Graugaard – re-new digital arts forum

Dan Overholt – Aalborg University Copenhagen

Emmanuel G. Blanchard – Aalborg University Copenhagen

Jamie Allen – Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design

Anna Vallgårda – The IT University of Copenhagen

Stahl Stenslie – Aalborg University

Arthur Steijn – The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Design

Rune Glerup – Athelas

Advisory Committee:

Lanfranco Aceti – Leonardo Electronic Almanac

Robert Rowe – NYU Steinhardt

Jaroslaw Kapuscinski – Stanford University

Atau Tanaka – Goldsmith’s College, London University

Claudia Gianetti – Edith-Russ-Haus für Medienkunst

Alexander Eichhorn – McGill University

Lucas Evers – Waag Society

Pavel Smetana – CIANT

Paul Thomas – University of New South Wales

Christopher Salter – Hexagram Concordia Institute

Reviewing Committee:

Reviewers are announced at the re-new website [http://re-new.org/cal/reviewers/]

 

Registration

Registration will open on June 15, 2013 and is done through the re-new website [http://re-new.org/cal/registration/]

Subscribe to our newsletter [mailto:info@re-new.org] and you will be notified as soon as we open for registration, receive information on keynotes and similar.

REGISTRATION FEES

Early Bird, until October 1:

DKK1.875 (app. EUR250, USD350) for presenters

DKK1.500 (app. EUR200, USD280) for students

Full fee:

DKK2.250 (app. EUR300, USD420) for presenters

DKK1.875 (app. EUR250, USD350) for students

Day pass:

DKK1.125 (app. EUR150, USD210) for presenters

DKK750 (app. EUR100, USD140) for students

re-new 2013 call for proposals – Copenhagen (Denmark) Oct 29-Nov 1 2013

supported by the Danish Composers’ Society and Amager Øst Lokaludvalg