[spectre] CONVERSATION : ENACTING NEW SYNERGIES IN ARTS AND SCIENCES

[oliver grau]

CONVERSATION : ENACTING NEW SYNERGIES IN ARTS AND SCIENCES

3rd SLS European Conference, Paris  --  Wed. June 23rd  to  Sat. 26th,
2004.

Following on from Brussels (2000) and Aarhus
(2002), the 3rd SLS European conference will be
held at the Cité Universitaire, Paris, from June
23rd to 26th 2004. It is hosted by Université
Paris 8.


THEME
The conference theme, Conversation : Enacting
New Synergies in Arts and Sciences, will address
a series of topics designed to promote intensive
exchanges between scholars from a wide variety
of countries working in very different
disciplines, both in the humanities and in
science.

In order to stimulate on-going productive
conversation between participants, the work of
the conference will be organized into a number
of streams. Each stream will occupy more than
one workshop and may employ a variety of
formats, including "invited symposia" with more
extended presentations and respondents,
round-table discussions, and the traditional 3-
or 4-paper format. Links between streams will
further be suggested.

Among the various concerns of members of the SLS
community, the following topics have already
been suggested. They are provisionally listed in
alphabetical order, although possible crossovers
from one stream to another will be immediately
apparent.

- Biotechnology.

- Between 2 cultures: medicine and literature;
chemistry and literature, etc. This stream aims
at promoting a thematic interest which has
always been part of SLS in the U.S.A. but which
was perhaps under-represented in previous SLS
Europe conferences.

- Complexity in art and science.

- Exemplary readings, based on a particular work
or a limited corpus and focusing on more
theoretical concerns (Duchamp, OULIPO, ,
Wittgenstein, Gilles Châtelet Š).

- Forgotten ancestors of significance to the
interdisciplinary field of literature, art and
science (Poincaré, Whitehead, I. A. Richards,
Bachelard ...).

- Thought experiments.

- Performative science.

- Rhetoric of science.

- Standardization.

- Translating between disciplines:
interdisciplinary borrowings; the migration of
models from one discipline to another ...).

- Visualization technologies.

- Understanding social/technical life.

- ...

The list is open to further suggestions. To this
end, we have created the notion of emerging
streams awaiting proposals for workshops on any
subject relevant to the SLS community, provided
that submissions are interdisciplinary in their
approach and multinational in their participants.


CONFERENCE LANGUAGES
- English will be the main language of the conference.
- Certain workshops may be organized in French.
- Initiatives for English/French workshops will be particularly welcomed.
- Two of the four plenary sessions will be in
French, with simultaneous translation being
supplied for these sessions only.


KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
There will be four plenary sessions, each with
one keynote speaker. Two will be in English, two
in French. It is hoped to organize one or two of
the plenary sessions off-site, in relevant Paris
institutions.


REGISTRATION FEE
This is in the process of being finalized and
will be kept as low as possible. It will in no
circumstances exceed 200 Euros (inclusive of
lunch, coffee breaks and métro tickets for
transport to the Cité Universitaire and any
off-site plenary sessions, as well as abstracts
and the usual conference materials).


WEBSITE
The conference website will be on-line as soon as possible.


ACCOMMODATION
A list of hotels with guaranteed prices, close
to the conference site in southern Paris, will
be given on the website. Efforts are being made
to find low-cost accommodation for graduate
students. It is also hoped to establish a
network of students willing to lend them a room.
Information will be posted as soon as possible.


SUBMISSIONS
As soon as the website is running, it will be
possible to submit abstracts of 200 words
directly.
Meanwhile, submissions are welcomed at the
following e-mail address: slsparis04 at aol.com

In the interests of constituting
transdisciplinary panels converging on shared
interests, participants are encouraged to ensure
that their abstracts clearly formulate the
intellectual objective they will be pursuing.

They are also invited to indicate the stream(s)
into which they believe their paper might best
fit. They may furthermore suggest additional
panels in which they might like to participate.

If you are interested in helping to organize any
of the streams listed above, please let the
conference organizers know as soon as possible.


ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
SLS Paris 2004 is co-organized by Yves Abrioux
(Université Paris 3), Noëlle Batt (Université
Paris 8) and Mathieu Duplay (Université Lille 3).

The organizing committee also includes: Sylvain
Dambrine (Université Paris 8), Christine
Maillard (Université Strasbourg 2), Alexis de
Saint-Ours (Université Paris 8).

The international program committee further
includes: Mette Bryld (Syddansk University,
Denmark), May Chehab (University of Cyprus),
Florian Dombois (Germany/Switzerland), Mark
Freed (Central Michigan University, U.S.A.), Jay
Labinger (California Institute of Technology,
U.S.A.), Nina Lykke (Linköping University,
Sweden), Randi Marcussen (University of Aarhus,
Denmark), Finn Olesen (University of Aarhus,
Denmark), Susan Squier (Penn State University,
U.S.A.).


INQUIRIES AND INFORMATION
Please do not hesitate to use the e-mail address
given above for inquiries on any matters
relating to the conference.