<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div><span></span></div><div><div><br></div><br><div>
<font color="#669c35" style="font-size: 14px;"><b><font face="Verdana">Karen Lancel <br></font></b></font><div id="AppleMailSignature"><font color="#669c35"><b><span style="font-size: 14px;"><font face="Verdana">Studio Lancel/Maat </font></span><br></b><br><b><a href="http://www.lancelmaat.nl">www.lancelmaat.nl</a><br>Address: Oostersekade 2, 1011LH Amsterdam NL<br>Studio address: Oude schans 15k, 1011KR Amsterdam NL<br>M: 0031(0)624873424 / 0031(0)628536885<br><br>PhD candidate <br>Technical University of Delft | Participatory Systems Initiative</b></font></div>
</div>
<div class="AppleOriginalContents" style="direction: ltr;"><br><blockquote type="cite"><div>On 23 Jan 2020, at 13:13, Hanns Holger Rutz <<a href="mailto:contact@sciss.de">contact@sciss.de</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div><div>**ALMAT - Algorithms that Matter**<br class="">**Symposium on Algorithmic Agency in Artistic Practice**<br class=""><br class="">6–7 July 2020, Graz Austria<br class=""><br class="">**Extended submission deadline: 16 February 2020**<br class=""><br class=""><a href="https://almat.iem.at/symposium.html">https://almat.iem.at/symposium.html</a><br class=""><br class="">Please feel free to distribute this call to your networks.<br class=""><br class="">Artists and scientists have worked with digital computers for over<br class="">seventy years, and algorithmic practices exist for a lot longer. But in<br class="">recent years, increased computing power and decreased costs and<br class="">miniaturisation of machines have created a new quantity and quality of<br class="">everyday exposure, economic and political criticality, and with it a<br class="">wave of public attention and discourse. As artists-researchers, how do<br class="">we incorporate this new situation into our practices, and more<br class="">importantly, how does this changed situation retroact on our<br class="">understanding of the role of digital art, sound art and artistic<br class="">practice itself?<br class=""><br class="">Rather than understanding algorithms as existing and transparent tools,<br class="">the ALMAT Symposium is interested in their genealogical, processual<br class="">aspects and their transformative potential. We seek critical approaches<br class="">that avoid both mystification and commodification, that aim at opening<br class="">the black box of "wonder" that is often presented to the public when<br class="">utilising algorithms.<br class=""><br class="">The foundation for the symposium is given by the eponymous project ALMAT<br class="">– Algorithms that Matter. ALMAT is an artistic research project by<br class="">Hanns Holger Rutz and David Pirrò funded by the Austrian Science Fund<br class="">(FWF AR 403-GBL) and hosted by the Institute of Electronic Music and<br class="">Acoustics (IEM) at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz.<br class=""><br class="">ALMAT 2020 will take place (06–07 July) adjoining the 8th Conference on<br class="">Computation, Communication, Aesthetics & X – xCoAx (08–10 July). xCoAx<br class="">is an exploration of the intersection where computational tools and<br class="">media meet art and culture, in the form of a multi-disciplinary enquiry<br class="">on aesthetics, computation, communication and the elusive X factor that<br class="">connects them all. xCoAx has issued a separate call for participation –<br class=""><a href="http://www.xcoax.org">http://www.xcoax.org</a> – and reduced combi-tickets are<br class="">available for xCoAx + ALMAT.<br class=""><br class="">**Call for Contributions**<br class=""><br class="">The ALMAT Symposium calls for artistic research contributions in the<br class="">following two categories:<br class=""><br class="">1. Contributions exploring the symposium's theme and the questions<br class=""> arising from it. This may include:<br class=""> - What are the material qualities specific of algorithms and<br class=""> algorithmic practices? How does the algorithmic become malleable<br class=""> as material?<br class=""> - Are there particular affordances of the algorithmic?<br class=""> - How does algorithmic agency unfold, how can it be observed,<br class=""> formulated, or communicated? Which alternatives to traditional<br class=""> concepts such as control/controller could be formulated?<br class=""> - How does the reconfigurative "intrinsic" or "speculative"<br class=""> movement of algorithms extend to or retroact on the artist or<br class=""> recipient, how does it shape their interactions?<br class=""> - How can artistic experimentation with algorithms be communicated<br class=""> to an audience, how may it help sensitise and empower people to<br class=""> take ownership of the algorithmic?<br class=""> - Which are the thresholds of heteronomy/autonomy, what makes an<br class=""> algorithmic practice become generative?<br class=""> - What are philosophical, technological, aesthetic or artistic<br class=""> consequences of acknowledging the agency of algorithms?<br class=""><br class="">2. Contributions that explicitly refer to the research, the<br class=""> experiences and the case studies of the ALMAT research<br class=""> project. Contributions may be commentary, continuation, critique<br class=""> or, more in general, a response to one or more aesthetic and<br class=""> theoretic manifestations and artefacts reflected in the project's<br class=""> documentation. The project's (ongoing) documentation is an online<br class=""> hypertext starting at the Continuous Exposition:<br class=""> <a href="https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/381565/381566">https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/381565/381566</a> . In<br class=""> particular, we identified a number of works that are<br class=""> good candidates for responses, as they will be visible or audible<br class=""> during the symposium (see submission page).<br class=""><br class="">For more information and details of contribution formats and<br class="">application process, please refer to:<br class=""><a href="https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/381565/698006">https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/381565/698006</a><br class=""><br class="">Contact: For any questions, please write to <<a href="mailto:almat@iem.at">almat@iem.at</a>>.<br class="">______________________________________________<br class="">SPECTRE list for media culture in Deep Europe<br class="">Info, archive and help:<br class=""><a href="http://post.in-mind.de/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/spectre">http://post.in-mind.de/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/spectre</a><br class=""></div></div></blockquote></div><br></div></body></html>