Open Call for the conference »Non-machines: Playground of Perspectives«
On 21 and 22 July 2023, the conference »Non-machines: Playground of Perspectives« will take place at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar. Interested parties from the fields of art, literature, philosophy and design, as well as activists and changemakers, are invited to participate in the open call. Contributions can be submitted until 10 May.
Humans invented computing machines to use them as tools for their own purposes. However, these tools have developed to such an extent that what was considered unimaginable not so long ago is now commonplace: texts are generated by computers and machines create new machines.
The conference »Non-machines: Playground of Perspectives« at the Faculty of Art and Design at Bauhaus-Universität Weimar aims to provide an impetus to critically examine this situation and to take a new look at the relationships between machines and »non-machines«. By »non-machines« we mean human and non-human actors or tools that are not yet integrated into a machine network, such as a creature evolving freely in nature or a human being that is not connected to digital networks.
The conference invites us to rethink the relationship between machines and non-machines by shifting our perspective away from a view of the relationship between machines and non-machines as competing powers, towards a more equal and non-competing relationship between all entities.
As part of the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) project Toolkit of Care (TOC), the conference aims to explore how innovative - especially digital - technologies enable new relationships between artists and their technological tools. How can and should machines and non-machines relate to each other? How can new methods and tools help us to experience the environment (differently)? How can or should we care for and with machines and non-machines? Does thinking about our relationship with tools reveal ways of thinking more generally across boundaries of difference? Conference topics include:
- Interactive strategies in interdisciplinary art projects
- The role of maker tools for artists
- Gender and identity in performative arts
- Alternative spaces and collective problem solving
- Merged realities in hybrid human-machine discourses
- Cultural strategies in policy making
- Care in the context of hybrid human-machine environments
The Open Call is open to artists, writers, philosophers, designers, activists and changemakers. Please submit an abstract of your presentation proposal and CV to o-o[at]o-o.lt. The deadline is 10 May 2023.
For more information on registration and funding for travel and accommodation, please visit www.non-machines.eu.
Save the Date:
Conference »Non-machines: Playground of Perspectives«
21 and 22 July 2023
Bauhaus-Universität Weimar
The framework of this conference is developed by the Professorship of Media Environments (Prof. Ursula Damm) with the support of the Professorship of Urban Studies and Social Research (Prof. Dr. Frank Eckardt). The conference is organised by the Institutio Media in cooperation with the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar in the framework of the Action Toolkit of Care of the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST).
About Toolkit of Care (TOC):
TOC is an international project led by an interdisciplinary group of creative practitioners, academics, researchers and arts organisations who specialise in creative technologies and have come together to form a »critical network of care«.
The network aims to share collective expertise that is used in creative ways to develop knowledge and methods of care. The main objective is to produce a well-formulated and integrated TOOLKIT OF CARE, including articles, prototypes, audio-visual documentation, technical manuals, theoretical analysis and data. It will serve as a model for successful knowledge sharing across different geographical regions and social groups.
If you have any questions, please contact Mindaugas Gapševičius, Artistic Associate at the Professorship »Medial Environments«, by e-mail mindaugas.gapsevicius[at]uni-weimar.de.
