Arts, Humanities, and Complex Networks
— 4th Leonardo satellite symposium at NetSci2013

taking place in Copenhagen at DTU – Technical University of Denmark,
on Tuesday, June 4, 2013.

Submission:
For submission instructions please go to:
http://artshumanities.netsci2013.net/

Deadline for submission: March 31, 2013.
Notifications of acceptance will be sent out by April 8, 2013.

Abstract:
The overall mission of the symposium is to bring together pioneer work in
the overlap of arts, humanities, network research, data science, and
information design. The 2013 symposium will leverage interaction between
those areas by means of keynotes, a number of contributions, and a
high-profile panel discussion.

In our call, we are looking for a diversity of research contributions
revolving around networks in culture, networks in art, networks in the
humanities, art about networks, and research in network visualization.
Focussing on these five pillars that have crystallized out of our previous
meetings, the 2013 symposium strives to make further impact in the arts,
humanities, and natural sciences.

Running parallel to the NetSci2013 conference, the symposium provides a
unique opportunity to mingle with leading researchers in complex network
science, potentially sparking fruitful collaborations.

As in previous years, selected papers will be published in print, both in a
Special Section of Leonardo Journal MIT-Press and in a dedicated Leonardo
eBook MIT-Press.
Cf. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007S0UA9Q

Best regards,
The AHCN2013 organizers,
Maximilian Schich*, Roger Malina**, and Isabel Meirelles***
artshumanities.netsci@gmail.com<mailto:artshumanities.netsci@gmail.com>

*   Associate Professor, ATEC, The University of Texas at Dallas, USA
** Executive Editor at Leonardo Publications, France/USA
*** Associate Professor, Dept. of Art + Design, Northeastern University, USA

[spectre 2013 Subtle Technologies Call for Submissions on

Immortality

In 2013, Subtle Technologies will be holding its 16th Annual Festival in

Toronto.

Our symposium, performances, workshops, screenings, exhibitions and

networking sessions provide a forum to explore ideas and pose questions

at the intersection of art, science and technology. Subtle Technologies

is known internationally for presenting artists and scientists whose

work is at the leading edge of their respective disciplines and creating

a space for dialogue that will lead to future discussions and

collaborations.

Our 2013 festival takes place on June 8th and 9th at various venues

throughout Toronto. In 2013 we will be exploring the theme of

Immortality. Through history, concepts of immortality have had an

important place in virtually all spiritual and philosophical traditions.

As we have with past festival themes, we will be exploring this year’s

theme from a broad perspective bridging art, science and society. We

encourage and welcome submissions that explore ideas of immortality that

arise from outside the Western framework. There are a number of areas

related to immortality that we would like to probe during this year’s

festival.

The average life expectancy continues to climb in many parts of the

world and there are those who believe we can and should push this

threshold ever higher. While many see physical life extension as the

route to immortality, there are others who believe immortality can be

achieved by merely preserving an individual’s consciousness, through

either biological or digital means. If consciousness could be digitally

represented, could a person “live” forever in a virtual world? We want

to look at the science behind life extension as well as the numerous

philosophical, ethical, practical and social questions that arise. These

sciences include the realms of cyborgs, life extension through

pharmacological means, cryogenic preservation and ideas surrounding the

collection of an individual’s connectome – the complete mapping and

re-creation of a brain’s electrical structure.

There are many online sites that act as digital memorials of deceased

individuals. Facebook, for example, has created a special setting for

memorializing deceased Facebook users, while protecting sensitive

information to prevent identity fraud. People continue to send messages

as if the deceased was still alive. What role does our online digital

identity play in immortalizing us? How can we envision avatars in

online worlds such as Second Life bringing us closer to a form of

immortality?

Scientists now have the knowledge to design new lifeforms through

techniques in synthetic biology. What questions arise, now that

creating life (once believed to be the role of immortal beings) is in

the hands of modern science?

It has been said that creating art immortalizes the artist. While many

paintings, drawings, musical scores and works of literature have lasted

through centuries, how will the digital artist be remembered as

technology advances and digital platforms change? We see the question of

preservation as an important topic in our discussion of immortality. If

we can’t achieve individual immortality, how do we achieve it

collectively? We would like to look at projects by artists and

scientists that seek to archive art, history, society and experiences

through constructing time capsules, objects, techniques and technologies

that withstand the destructive powers of time and the environment.

Immortality can also be explored through abstract ideas of time and

modern physics. There are a number of contemporary physicists who

theorize that time as we experience it is an illusion. If so, how do we

define immortality with these new understandings of time since extending

our time on earth is seen as a key component of immortality? Alternative

concepts of time can be found not only in contemporary physics but also

in ancient cultures and traditions outside of the euro-centric

perspectives of science. Some theories of modern cosmology and physics

present us with the idea that we may be living in a world that is not

“real” but merely a simulation. How do we frame these theories in terms

of immortality?

At our 2013 festival we hope to examine the science behind the above

questions as well as artists’ interpretations and responses to notions

of immortality.

Possible areas to be explored in this year’s Festival from either an

artistic or scientific approach include:

*    Art and Immortality

*    Avatars

*    Bioethics

*    Bioart

*    Consciousness

*    Cryonics

*    Digital Immortality

*    Genomics

*    Life Extension

*    Longevity Science

*    Mind Uploading

*    Nanotechnology

*    Neuroscience

*    Pharmacology

*    Philosophy

*    Physics

*    Rejuvenation

*    Robotics

*    Science and Society

*    Singularity

*    Spiritual Immortality

*    Synthetic Biology

*    Transhumanism

*    Virtual Worlds

These topics are only suggested ones for inclusion in the festival.

Other relevant enquiries within the realm of art, science and technology

that explore our theme of immortality are welcome.

To have your submission considered for either the symposium, poster

session, exhibition, screenings or workshop, please complete the online

submission form here

http://subtletechnologies.com/call-for-submissions/

—

Jim Ruxton

Director of Programs

Subtle Technologies Festival

jim@subtletechnologies.com

www.subtletechnologies.com

Twitter: @SubtleTech

SLSA 2013 (“Postnatural?”), October 3-6, 2013. University of Notre Dame

http://www.litsciarts.org/index.html
Panel: “Fluxus and the Intersections of Art and Science”

Organizers:
James (Jim) McManus. Emeritus Professor, California State University, Chico
JMcManus@csuchico.edu
Roger Rothman. Associate Professor, Bucknell University
roger.rothman@bucknell.edu
Fifty years ago, in 1963, George Maciunas released his Fluxus Manifesto
into the world. For him, Fluxus had the potential to “purge the world of
bourgeois sickness [and] promote a revolutionary flood and tide in art.”
What followed Maciunas’ declaration were acts of poetry, performance and
object making–almost all of which aimed to integrate art into life in ways
that were informed by the Dadaists and Surrealists before them. One of the
most interesting ways in which Fluxus artists integrated art and life
involved the incorporation of science and technology. For this year’s
conference of the SLSA, we propose a series of linked panels exploring the
scientific and technological aspects of Fluxus. Maciunas, for example, was
deeply interested in technologies of learning, and artists like Nam June
Paik and Joe Jones made work that deployed electronics and motorized
components. In addition to papers on Fluxus itself, we welcome
contributions that consider the influence of Fluxus on other artists who
engage science and technology in their work. Papers that extend the
boundaries of Fluxus are also welcome, including (but not limited to) those
address projects such as E.A.T., the LACMA “Art and Technology” program,
and the 1970 World’s Fair in Osaka.
Send proposals (150-250 words) to both Jim McManus and Roger Rothman:
JMcManus@csuchico.edu; roger.rothman@bucknell.edu
SLSA requires that organizers submitted their panels by April 15, so
proposals must arrive by March 15.
___________________________________

Deadline: Dec 17, 2012

Call for Papers

Submission Deadline: December 17, 2012, 5 p.m.

Historiographies of New Media

The Chicago Art Journal, the annual publication of the University of
Chicago Department of Art History, is seeking submissions of original
work by graduate students and faculty. The 2012-2013 edition asks how
new media have affected not only the production of art, but also the
production of knowledge about art. What is at stake in approaching art
history through the concept of new media?

Particularly in the post WWII period, the term “new media” has been
applied to a range of formats—from photography, to video, to the
Internet—that have revolutionized the modes of transmission and
reproduction of “old” media of art. The concept of new media seems to
promise a mass media address, yet artists have often emphasized the
limits of circulation—for instance, in closed-circuit television, or
in zines that were produced via Xerox processes and yet distributed to
small networks. Such a dialectical relation escapes media theory’s
emphasis on mass distribution and gestures instead toward sites of
friction between the imaginative and material aspects of new media,
which the discipline of art history may be particularly well-equipped
to explore.

Furthermore, the formation and performance of art history has been
contingent upon pivotal introductions of reproductive media, from the
double-slide lecture to the publication of photographs in books, from
the use of facsimiles in the classroom to broadcasts of “art on
television.” In turning with fresh eyes to the idea of new media, we
consider art history’s rhetorics of description and display. How might
we effectively attend to the aesthetic and pedagogical aspects of new
media in the wake of communications theory and concepts such as
interactivity?

Just as recent scholarship has addressed the nuances of “pre-modern”
and modern notions of mediality—including forms of mechanical
reproducibility and audiovisual displays emergent in the Middle
Ages—so might we aim to reframe more contemporary art historical
categories of “lateness” such as the post-medium condition.

We are especially interested in papers that diverge from the
well-known chronologies of Euro-American technological developments.

Topics might include but are not limited to:
– the performance and circulation of art history through facsimiles,
photographs, slide projections
– responses and counter-responses to new media technologies within art
criticism, critical theory, and film theory
– historical modes of mechanical reproduction, such as imprinting
coins, technologies of the book, and seals
– transfers and transformations among media
– media as reference for other media
– the materiality of new media, and material processes
– new media and abstraction
– painting after the advent of network theory
– the aesthetics of television
– queer aesthetics and new media
– analog and digital in art and art history
– historiographies of “video art,” including the role of projection
– the wider implications of artists’ practices in Xerox, zines,
artists’ books, flip books, and holograms
– the dialectics of art transmitted through media and art as media
– new media’s relevance for reframing art historical cycles and
geographies of innovation

Submissions:
Papers must follow The Chicago Manual of Style and should not exceed
5000 words. Each submission should include an abstract of
approximately 500 words. Both Word documents and PDFs are acceptable.

All contributors should include their name, address, telephone number,
and email address.

Authors are responsible for securing image reproduction rights and
associated fees.

Please send submissions to the graduate student editor Solveig Nelson
at UChicagoArtJournal@gmail.com by December 17, 2012, 5 p.m.

Deadline: Dec 17, 2012

Call for Papers

Submission Deadline: December 17, 2012, 5 p.m.

Historiographies of New Media

The Chicago Art Journal, the annual publication of the University of
Chicago Department of Art History, is seeking submissions of original
work by graduate students and faculty. The 2012-2013 edition asks how
new media have affected not only the production of art, but also the
production of knowledge about art. What is at stake in approaching art
history through the concept of new media?

Particularly in the post WWII period, the term “new media” has been
applied to a range of formats—from photography, to video, to the
Internet—that have revolutionized the modes of transmission and
reproduction of “old” media of art. The concept of new media seems to
promise a mass media address, yet artists have often emphasized the
limits of circulation—for instance, in closed-circuit television, or
in zines that were produced via Xerox processes and yet distributed to
small networks. Such a dialectical relation escapes media theory’s
emphasis on mass distribution and gestures instead toward sites of
friction between the imaginative and material aspects of new media,
which the discipline of art history may be particularly well-equipped
to explore.

Furthermore, the formation and performance of art history has been
contingent upon pivotal introductions of reproductive media, from the
double-slide lecture to the publication of photographs in books, from
the use of facsimiles in the classroom to broadcasts of “art on
television.” In turning with fresh eyes to the idea of new media, we
consider art history’s rhetorics of description and display. How might
we effectively attend to the aesthetic and pedagogical aspects of new
media in the wake of communications theory and concepts such as
interactivity?

Just as recent scholarship has addressed the nuances of “pre-modern”
and modern notions of mediality—including forms of mechanical
reproducibility and audiovisual displays emergent in the Middle
Ages—so might we aim to reframe more contemporary art historical
categories of “lateness” such as the post-medium condition.

We are especially interested in papers that diverge from the
well-known chronologies of Euro-American technological developments.

Topics might include but are not limited to:
– the performance and circulation of art history through facsimiles,
photographs, slide projections
– responses and counter-responses to new media technologies within art
criticism, critical theory, and film theory
– historical modes of mechanical reproduction, such as imprinting
coins, technologies of the book, and seals
– transfers and transformations among media
– media as reference for other media
– the materiality of new media, and material processes
– new media and abstraction
– painting after the advent of network theory
– the aesthetics of television
– queer aesthetics and new media
– analog and digital in art and art history
– historiographies of “video art,” including the role of projection
– the wider implications of artists’ practices in Xerox, zines,
artists’ books, flip books, and holograms
– the dialectics of art transmitted through media and art as media
– new media’s relevance for reframing art historical cycles and
geographies of innovation

Submissions:
Papers must follow The Chicago Manual of Style and should not exceed
5000 words. Each submission should include an abstract of
approximately 500 words. Both Word documents and PDFs are acceptable.

All contributors should include their name, address, telephone number,
and email address.

Authors are responsible for securing image reproduction rights and
associated fees.

Please send submissions to the graduate student editor Solveig Nelson
at UChicagoArtJournal@gmail.com by December 17, 2012, 5 p.m.

Location: Portal – Valvazorjeva 40, Maribor, Slovenia
Conference participants include recognised experts in the field of contemporary art and new technologies, famous artists and philosophers. The conference will place special emphasis on the presentation of new strategies in contemporary technological art and education in the field, as well as practical presentations.

DAY 1: Technological Matter and the New State of the Living
Friday, November 16 (2.00 p.m. – 8.00 p.m.)
Featuring Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr.

DAY 2: The Technological Unconscious as a Medium
Saturday, November 17 (2.00 p.m. – 8.00 p.m.)
Featuring Guy Ben-Ary and Kirsten Hudson.

Textobjectext: Writing the posthumanities: Exploring the potentialities of writing practice after the material turn
Wednesday 28 November 2012
Centre for Creative Arts, La Trobe University Melbourne Australia
Keynote addresses from Assoc. Prof. Barbara Bolt (VCA, University of Melbourne) & Oron Catts (Director, SymbioticA)
http://textobjectext.wordpress.com/

Call for Participants: SymbioticA Biotech for Artists Workshop

BiofiliA -Base for Biological Arts at Future Art Base, Aalto University, Finland
28th January-1st February, 2013
Saturday 2nd February, official inauguration of Aalto BiofiliA wet biology laboratory
Deadline for applications- Friday 26th November 2012

BiofiliA, Base for Biological Arts, Aalto University, Finland, in collaboration with SymbioticA, The University of Western Australia is organizing an intensive five day workshop for artists and other interested people. After the workshop the opening of the new laboratory and biological arts programme will be celebrated.

The workshop will be led by SymbioticA’s Director//Aalto visiting Professor Oron Catts and BiofiliA’s scientific collaborator Marika Hellman.

This is a hands-on workshop where the tools of modern biology are demonstrated through artistic engagement, which in turn gives voice to the broader philosophical and ethical exploration into the extent of human intervention with other living things. It involves exploration of biological technologies and issues stemming from their use; it serves as a theoretical and practical introduction to the creation of biological art and is aimed at mentoring artists in issues of biotechnology and the life sciences.

The workshop will cover hands-on engagement with some of the fundamental tool of modern biology in order to be able to carry out and critique manipulation of living systems from an informed practical perspective. The practical components include DNA extraction and fingerprinting, genetic engineering, animal tissue culture and basic tissue engineering techniques
bit.ly/S0cMbz

In Medi Terraneum 2012

International Festival of Simultaneous Video Art
29, 30 November and 1 December

OPEN CALL FOR PROJECTS

This Call for Projects is held within the framework of the third annual In Medi Terraneum International Fes- tival of Simultaneous Video Art, which will be held in Argentina, Uruguay, Spain, Italy and Greece on 29 and 30 November and 1 December 2012.

A total of 5 works will be selected, representing each of the participating countries in 2012 and they will be on exhibit throughout the three day festival. On the closing day, a VJ and DJ session will be held in Intermediae Matadero-Madrid which may include fragments of said artworks comprising a hybrid piece. This session will be broadcast via live streaming at the venues in Uruguay, Argentina, Italy and Greece.

Submitted works should include at least one of the following theme areas:

1. Including errors within the creative process. Success oriented environments tend not to provide a necessary space for error as part of the process of learning and discovering one’s own limits. Automatically equating errors with failure probably lies at the root of many fears that arise upon beginning any work with relatively uncontrollable variables, such as all artistic work, which also greatly exposes creators to outside judgement. Our aim is to reclaim the value of errors, admitting them and incorporating them into our work naturally, as a necessary part of all processes of improvement.

2. Creation based on collaborative practices and collective intelligences. All intellectual, scientific, artistic and technical work is fed by prior references, codes and knowledge which in one way or another are available to be reinterpreted, reused and remixed, as a starting point for the creation of something new. Nothing is created out of an absolute vacuum, not even a work that is considered brilliant and unique. It’s not about trying to eliminate the concept of originality but rather, giving back to society through the work we make, in return for the knowledge it has offered us.

Participants must be citizens or residents of any of the organizing countries (Argentina, Uruguay, Spain, Italy, Greece), with no age limit.

Please check complete guideline in the website www.inmediterraneum.com

For additional clarification, questions or suggestions, we suggest you contact:

Argentina: Federico Allocco f.allocco@inmediterraneum.com
Uruguay: Martina Capó m.capo@inmediterraneum.com
Spain: Maura Sánchez maura@inmediterraneum.com
Italy: Fabrizio Silvestre f.silvestre@inmediterraneum.com
Greece: Elena Lamprou e.lamprou@inmediterraneum.com

EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST

Underbelly Arts Lab and Festival 2013: Large-Scale Works
Underbelly Arts is currently seeking expressions of interest for larger-scale new works and developmental projects that require longer lead times for the 2013 Lab and Festival. This is a new initiative that will run alongside their general 2013 artist call out, scheduled to open in early 2013.
http://underbellyarts.com.au/2011/underbelly-arts-lab-and-festival-2013-expression-of-interest-large-scale-works/
Due:5pm Monday October 22, 2012

LEAF: DEVELOPING CLOUD CURRICULA IN ART AND SCIENCE 2012
The Leonardo Education and Art Forum (LEAF) Art Science Cloud Curricula workshops will generate and build an internationally recognized art and science cloud curriculum course outline. The workshops outcome will be a curriculum that is expected to become a benchmark of what we see as quintessentially important to engage in the world of research at the core of Art/Science. This workshop is established in collaboration with the Science, Engineering, Art and Design (SEAD) curriculum white paper and STEAM. The proposed workshops will be able to define and construct an actual sample curriculum that will be placed on an art/science cloud wiki. The workshops will happen in real-time with invited collaborators at two significant events in 2012: The Re-New Interactive Media Arts Conference (19-24 November 2012) and MutaMorphosis: Tribute to Uncertainty (CIANT) (6-8 December 2012). Find out more