Media Art History 2011 – Rewire

Fourth International Conference on the Histories of Media Art, Science and Technology

Liverpool, 28th September – 1st October 2011

Call For Papers now open – Deadline Monday, January 31st 2011

http://www.mediaarthistory.org

Host: FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology), Liverpool

In collaboration with academic partners: Liverpool John Moores University, CRUMB at the University of Sunderland, the Universities of the West of Scotland and Lancaster, and the Database of Virtual Art at the Dept. for Image Science.

Following the success of Media Art History 05 Re:fresh in Banff, Media Art History 07 Re:place in Berlin and Media Art History 09 Re:live in Melbourne, Media Art History 11 Rewire will host three days of keynotes, panels and poster sessions.

Media Art History 2011 – Rewire will increase the voltage and ignite key debates within the internationally distributed network of histories, which takes account of the questions surrounding documentation and methodologies, materiality, and agency. Rewire aims to up the current to illuminate the British contribution to media art, and by looking at our industrial heritage and contribution to the history of computing technologies themselves, we will open the discussion to how these contributions are manifested internationally. Considering the International scope of the histories of media art, science and technology, Rewire is also listed as part of the “McLuhan in Europe” programme, and will take place concurrently with The Asia Triennial in Manchester and Abandon Normal Devices, the North West’s festival of new cinema and digital culture which returns to Liverpool in September 2011. The reviewers especially welcome proposals for presentations that resonate thematically with these events.

We are looking for original research on:

* The relations between art, science, technology and industry, both historically and now

* New paradigms and alternative discourses for media art and media art history, such as, for example, craft, design, social media, or cybernetics

* Local histories and practices of media art, including (but not limited to) Britain

* Colonial experiences and non-Western histories of media art, science and technology

* Media art history in relation to the biological, biomedical and ecological sciences

* Relations between the histories of media art and those of computing and new technologies

* Writing art history in a technologised and scientific culture, including the documentation of media art and how it is changed in a technologised and scientific culture

* How the field of science and technology studies (STS) can offer useful models for new paradigms for art history

General papers will be accepted. The conference will be delivered in a range of formats, from panel discussions to Pecha Kucha sessions and video poster presentations, as well as a small number of invited speakers. The programme will include competitively selected, peer-reviewed individual papers, panel presentations, and poster sessions, as well as a small number of invited speakers. Keynote Lectures, by internationally renowned, outstanding theoreticians and artists, will deliberate on the central themes of the conference and will include the Roy Stringer Memorial Lecture, held annually by FACT in memory of Roy Stringer, an early pioneer of digital media, champion of multimedia industries in the North West and Liverpool, and former Chair of the Board at FACT. The conference will also include dedicated forum sessions for participants to engage in more open-ended discussion and debate on relevant issues and questions.

For the full Call for Papers, and to submit an abstract, please visit: http://www.mediaarthistory.org/rewire

Chaired by Professor Mike Stubbs, Director of FACT, the panels at Rewire will be led by co-chairs – Paul Brown (Sussex, Deakin), Dr. Sarah Cook (CRUMB), Colin Davies (LJMU), Dr. Charlie Gere (Lancaster), Prof. Andy Miah (UWS), Prof. Ed Shanken (UvA) – on areas of their own expertise, and submissions will be juried by the co-chairs together with Rewire’s International Advisory Committee of leading academics, artists and industry professionals.

International Advisory Committee:

Steven BALL, Tatiana BAZZICHELLI, Stuart COMER, Sean CUBITT, Dieter DANIELS, Sara DIAMOND, Vince DZIEKAN, Charles ESCHE, Sarah FISHER, Jean GAGNON, Graham HARWOOD, Erkki HUHTAMO, Nick LAMBERT, Debbi LANDER, Tapio MAKELA, Chris MEIGH-ANDREWS, Frieder NAKE, Taylor NUTTALL, Steve PARTRIDGE, Christiane PAUL, Ned ROSSITER, Paul SERMON, Jinsuk SUH, Brett STALBAUM, Julian STALLABRASS, Atau TANAKA, Andrea ZAPP