[spectre] CALL for proposals: TECHNO-ECOLOGIES Exhibition and
Conference
rasa at rixc.lv
rasa at rixc.lv
Fri Aug 19 17:32:01 CEST 2011
Hello, on Spectre list!
please see below info and call for our forthcoming art+communication
festival, which will take place in Riga, November 3-6, 2011,
the theme of this year's RIXC festival is: TECHNO-ECOLOGIES
we welcome proposals for both - conference (deadline November 26) and
exhibition (deadline November 15)
looking forward seeing you in Riga soon,
with best regards,
Rasa
RIXC.LV
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CALL for TECHNO-ECOLOGIES Exhibition and Conference proposals
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TECHNO-ECOLOGIES
Inhabiting the deep technological spheres of everyday life
Techno-Ecologies is the theme of this year's Art+Communication
festival, the 13th edition of which will take place in Riga from
November 3 – 6, 2011, featuring conference (November 4–5) and
exhibition (November 4–December 11) as well as broad programme of
performances, screenings, public lectures and workshops in Riga and
Liepaja, Latvia.
* Conceptual framework
Everyday life has become so intimately interwoven with complex
technological ecologies that we can no longer consider technology as
the alienating other. A careful consideration of the relationships
between the natural and the artificial is required. The idea that we
'inhabit' technological ecologies emphasises our connectedness to our
environment (material, natural, technological) and our dependence on
the resources available there (material, energetic, biological,
cultural). Mastering these conditions is vital to our survival on this
planet.
Techno-Ecologies builds upon the concerns of Felix Guattari (the
French philosopher and co-conspirator of Gilles Deleuze) about the
lack of an integrated perspective on the dramatic techno-scientific
transformations the Earth has undergone in recent times. Guattari
urges to take three crucially important 'ecological registers' into
account: the environment, social relations, and human subjectivity.
Techno-Ecologies will develop a discussion between artists, theorists,
designers, environmental scientists, technologists, responsible
entrepreneurs and activists to develop this perspective. Diversity,
social and ecological sustainability, and a much deeper understanding
of technology as an extension of our desires are the building blocks
that we want to bring together to build a perspective that can help us
chart less hazardous routes into the future than the ones currently
travelled.
-----> The Techno-Ecologies concept for Art+Communication 2011
festival and exhibition is developed by Eric Kluitenberg.
See full concept text at the festival website: http://rixc.lv/11
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* Exhibition CALL:
Artists who think that their work fits Techno-Ecologies theme (above)
should send a brief description of the work plus short biography (and
other relevant information) to e-mail:
<rixc (at) rixc.lv> and / or <rasa (at) rixc.lv> (Rasa Smite)
The DEADLINE for exhibition proposals: September 15, 2011
The exhibition will take place in Riga, from November 4 – December 11,
2011 in KIM? / RIXC Gallery, Contemporary Arts Center venue at Spikeri
(http://www.kim.lv).
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* Conference CALL:
In relation to the theme proposed above, for the Techno-Ecologies
conference we welcome proposals by by both – academic researchers and
artists, as well as scientists, technology researchers, sociologists,
philosophers, architects, designers, futurists, and other lateral
thinkers, who are engaged with the issues of social and ecological
sustainability, and are interested in a deeper understanding of
technology.
Please send your short abstract (ca. 200 words) and bio (ca. 60 words)
to e-mail: <rixc (at) rixc.lv> and / or <rasa (at) rixc.lv> (Rasa Smite)
The DEADLINE for conference abstracts: October 1, 2011
The conference is 2-day international academic event that takes place
in Riga, November 4 - 5, 2011 (at RIXC Media Space), co-organized by
RIXC and MPLab (Art Research Lab) of Liepaja University.
The conference papers and thematically related articles after the
conference will be published in the next issue (No. 11) of Acoustic
Space, peer-reviewed journal for transdisciplinary research on art,
science, technology and society.
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* Preliminary programme:
November 3, 2011 – Opening of the Art+Communication festival and the
exhibition.
November 4 – 5, 2011 – 2-day conference.
November 4 – December 11, 2011 – Techno-Ecologies exhibition open for public.
November 7 – 13, 2011 – follow-up events: iWeek workshops and public
lectures in Liepaja.
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* Organisers:
The festival and the exhibition is organized by RIXC, The Center for
New Media Culture
http://rixc.lv
The exhibition is co-curated by Raitis Smits, Rasa Smite and Eric Kluitenberg.
The international academic conference is organized by RIXC in
collaboration with MPLab (Art Research Lab) of Liepaja University
http://mplab.lv
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* Concept:
TECHNO-ECOLOGIES
Inhabiting the deep technological spheres of everyday life
Technology can no longer be understood as an alterity (otherness) that
stands in opposition to biological and social relationships. Going
about our regular practices of everyday living we inhabit complex
technological spheres of life that require a different, a more
'ecological' understanding of our relationship to technology. In
analogy to the 'deep ecology' movement, philosopher David Rottenberg
recently suggested that the notion of 'deep technology' relates user
and context in an ecological, symbiotic way [1]. Similarly, the idea
of 'inhabiting' technological ecologies emphasises our connectedness
to our environment (material, natural, technological) and our
dependence on the resources available in that environment (material,
energetic, biological, cultural). Mastering these conditions, which
necessarily transcend the personal experience, is vital to our
survival on this planet.
The concept of technological ecologies as spheres of life invites a
more careful consideration of the relationships between the natural
and the artificial - or even the collapse of the boundaries between
them - in favour of looking at such techno-ecologies as complex
assemblages, comparable to how for instance philosopher Bruno Latour
treats them. Our perspective should, however, not be limited to these
technological 'actors'. In The Three Ecologies (1989) Felix Guattari
expresses his worries about the intense techno-scientific
transformations the Earth is undergoing. Guattari observes an
ecological disequilibrium generated by these transformations, which
leads to a general reduction of human and social relationships and
the sustainability of the living environment.
According to Guattari it is the relationship between subjectivity and
its exteriority - be it social, animal, vegetable or cosmic - that is
compromised, in a sort of general movement of 'implosion'. He warns
against a merely partial realisation of the severity of these changes
and inadequate responses that may come from a purely technocratic
perspective. It is the ways of living on this planet that are in
question, according to Guattari, in the context of the acceleration of
techno-scientific mutations and exponential demographic growth. Only
an 'ethico-political' articulation 'between' the three ecological
registers that he identifies - the environment, social relations, and
human subjectivity - would be able to clarify these questions.
The paradox is that these techno scientific transformations are both
the source of the current ecological disequilibrium, and even so the
only realistic means to address and potentially resolve the problems
they create. Somehow, however, we cannot seem to make them work.
Siegfried Zielinski has pointed out that one important fallacy to
overcome is to view the course of technological development as
'progress', or to consider our current state of technological
sophistication as the best possible and necessary outcome of a
predictable historical trajectory. In his 'Variantology' project
Zielinski makes a radical break with any idea of technological
progress or determinism [2]. The Variantological approach emphasises
that at any point technological development (and human development
along with it) is contingent (it can go anywhere). Variantology does
not look for 'master media' or 'imperative vanishing points'. Instead
it seeks out the moments of greatest possible diversity and
individual variation. It operates in carefully chosen periods of
particularly intensive and necessary work on the media,# across
different cultural and physical geographies - exploring the 'deep time
relationships of the arts, sciences and technologies'.
Finally, an exploration of inhabitable technological ecologies needs
to take into account the phantasmatic dimension of technological
apparatuses and systems. Such a more psychographic understanding of
the depth of technology aims to uncover hidden, or not immediately
visible or discernible psychological layers attached to the
technological apparatuses - perhaps we might refer to this as a
'technological unconscious' - that underpin human experience and our
subjective ties with technological environments. It considers
technology not only as an extension of the body but also as an
extension of our deepest desires. It explores the void between the
'real' and that what is mediated by systems of language, media, and
technology. It acknowledges the existence of a 'third body' (Klaus
Theweleit) [3] that inserts itself between us and the (technological)
objects. This third body only emerges in our interaction with these
objects, but it is neither held by us nor by the objects alone.
Beyond questions of finite resources and obvious forms of pollution
and environmental degradation, attempts to develop sustainable
relationships with technology and our living environment should take
into account far more complex layerings of the way we inhabit our
current technological ecologies. Such a deeply informed ethical and
philosophical perspective is indispensable if we hope to find less
hazardous routes into the future.
Notes:
1 - www.wired.com/wired/archive/3.10/rothenberg.if.html
2 - http://entropie.digital.udk-berlin.de/wiki/Variantology
3 -
www.debalie.nl/player/balieplayerpopper.jsp?movieid=93125&videofragmentsid=ank2
Eric Kluitenberg, Amsterdam, June 6, 2011
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