[spectre] Final Call: Futuresonic Conference - The Social

[Drew Hemment]

REMINDER: CALLS FOR SUBMISSIONS

18th December 2007, 5pm - Conference deadline



CONFERENCE THEME & CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
THE SOCIAL - ONLINE, MOBILE AND UNPLUGGED SOCIAL NETWORKING

Futuresonic 2008
Urban Festival of Art, Music & Ideas
1-4 May, Manchester, UK

The Futuresonic international conference and the Social Technologies  
Summit invite proposals for talks, presentations, workshops and  
session themes. Submissions of innovative formats for social  
interaction are encouraged.

The conference theme is The Social - Online, Mobile and Unplugged  
Social Networking.

Deadline for conference submissions -- 5pm 18th December 2007

http://www.futuresonic.com/submissions-conference

See also -- A GBP 5000 commission plus many other opportunities are  
available
in the Futuresonic 2008 Art, Music & EVNTS calls for submissions.

http://www.futuresonic.com/getinvolved


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THE CONFERENCE
Thurs 1 and Fri 2 May, plus linked events throughout the festival  
weekend

Futuresonic brings 500 opinion formers, futurologists, artists,  
technologists and scientists from the digital culture, music and art  
communities to Manchester for five days of seminars, workshops and  
events, with the internationally-acclaimed Futuresonic conference  
focused on Thursday 1 and Friday 2 May.

The Futuresonic conference has prefigured new trends and is a place  
where important international discussions take place.

Open and participatory sessions will be combined with keynotes and  
panel discussions, promising a fun and engaging number of days.

Alongside key people from the Social Software firmament will be  
Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software movement, plus leading  
figures representing different viewpoints on the Social theme,  
plugged and unplugged. Visit and explore a range of social spaces,  
including online worlds, software environments, and the contemporary  
city.

http://www.futuresonic.com/submissions-conference


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CONFERENCE THEME
THE SOCIAL - ONLINE, MOBILE AND UNPLUGGED SOCIAL NETWORKING

40 years after people took to the streets of Paris in 1968 calling  
for society to be abolished, join us as we go in search of the social  
today.

Submissions are invited that explore the new social spaces and the  
social implications of technologies for the many different kinds of  
people who make, use and are affected by them. Presentations might  
look at the implications of specific technologies, or address broader  
themes.

Today we can occupy many different social spaces at once. Social  
software, online worlds, and the internet itself create an extension  
of social space, and new ways for people to find the stuff that  
interests them, link up with others, and share. Computers have become  
social interfaces for sharing digital media and collaborating to  
build online communities and folksonomies.

The conference will explore how we can rethink different social  
spaces, remake cities, or intervene in the forces, inequities and  
inequalities that shape society. In all parts of the globe people are  
seeking to open up or hold onto places to meet and communicate  
freely, online and offline. In India we see emergent kinds of  
community media, in South Korea new social uses of the mobile  
internet, and in Brazil the spread of 'cultural hotspots'.

Some technologies are more social than others. Social technologies  
are bottom up and many-to-many instead of one-to-one or one-to-many.  
They can include technologies created and maintained by social  
networks, such as communities of developers and users working  
collaboratively with open source tools.

But at the same time we see how electronic communication can isolate  
us, as more and more people drown in a deluge of email that generates  
stress, even reducing IQ. Additionally, 'online communities' are  
based upon an artificial equivalence between 'users' which obscures  
power relationships and issues of ownership.

The conference will bring together leading figures to broaden the  
debate on the Social today, and propose and explore a critical  
understanding of social technologies.

The theme of Futuresonic 2008's Art strand is Social Networking  
Unplugged. It will be "unplugged" in a number of ways. There will be  
artworks involving offline (or unplugged) collaborative social  
experience and face to face social interaction. Other projects will  
look at who is excluded and left out of the loop of Web 2.0, and so  
"unplugged" in another way. Also there is the sense of pulling out  
the plug in order to take the new social spaces apart, see how they  
work, and put them together in new ways.

Web 2.0...
I take part
you take part
he takes part
we take part
you all take part
they profit.
(Slogan from Paris '68, remixed)

Digital culture burns bright with a vision of being not in isolation  
but in groups, placing the relations between people first. Beyond the  
hype lies ever greater isolation and conformity. Join us as we go in  
search of the social.

http://www.futuresonic.com/submissions-conference


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FINAL CALL FOR CONFERENCE SUBMISSIONS

Futuresonic now invites submissions to the Futuresonic conference and  
the Social Technologies Summit.

Proposals for talks, presentations and workshops plus also session  
themes are invited. Submissions of innovative formats for social  
interaction are encouraged.

Deadline for conference submissions -- 5pm 18th December 2007

For details on submitting to the conference visit
http://www.futuresonic.com/submissions-conference


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BOOKING INFORMATION

-- If you want to meet the creative thinkers, artists, programmers,  
digital media experts, scientists, industry specialists, hardware and  
software developers, marketers, political thinkers and activists

-- If you want to find out about new technologies and their impact on  
tomorrow's society

-- If you are looking for new and exciting ways to create, do  
business and interact

Then sign up early to the Futuresonic conference and the Social  
Technologies Summit.

A Delegate Registration Form can be downloaded from  
www.futuresonic.com/tickets/register.zip or by visiting  
www.futuresonic.com/tickets

Alternatively, email Your Name, Address and Contact Details to  
ideas2008 at futuresonic.com to receive full conference details and  
priority booking options.

CONFERENCE PASS

Early Bird Delegate Pass
GBP 60 (must be bought by February 1 2008)
Advance Delegate Pass
GBP 100
Delegate Pass (on the door)
GBP 150
Students/Concessions
GBP 30

Further discounts available for group bookings, for further details  
contact: ideas2008 at futuresonic.com

A limited number of pay-what-you-can Day Passes will be available on  
each day of the conference, for further details contact:  
ideas2008 at futuresonic.com

The Conference Pass includes access to all key festival events.


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FUTURESONIC 2008

Futuresonic has 4 strands: Art, Music, Ideas and EVNTS. Currently in  
its 12th year, the festival occupies the orbits of both music and  
digital culture.

A focus in recent years has been presenting artworks in unexpected  
city spaces, and on social art and social technologies.

Futuresonic now invites artists, thinkers and makers to get social  
and present new types of collaborative social experience at  
Futuresonic 2008.

The Futuresonic festival theme is Social Networking Unplugged.

Join us as we go in search of the social today.

http://www.futuresonic.com

Futuresonic is supported by Arts Council England North West and
presented in association with Imagination at Lancaster.