Of interest perhaps.
------ Forwarded Message
From: Iwan Morus <[log in to unmask]>
Organization: Faculty of Humanities, Q.U.B.
Reply-To: "H-NET List on the History of Science, Medicine, and
Technology"<[log in to unmask]>
Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2001 10:34:45 +0100
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: CFP: Transforming Spaces
Date sent: Fri, 7 Sep 2001 07:43:12 -0700
From: Mikael Hard <[log in to unmask]>
TRANSFORMING SPACES:
THE TOPOLOGICAL TURN IN TECHNOLOGY STUDIES
- an international conference to be held in Darmstadt, Germany, March
22-24, 2002
This conference will problematize the spatial character of the
relationship between technology and human beings. It addresses two
interrelated questions: To what extent do machines and media organize
society three-dimensionally - thus ordering the spaces in which
modern life takes place? And, conversely, to what extent do material
and communicative structures open up new mental and physical spaces -
thus transforming the boundaries of daily life? To denote our
explicit concern with spatiality we propose the mathematical term
"topology."
The days are gone, when "technology" meant only the material means
used by rational human seeking goals in accordance with principles of
maximum efficiency and economic return. Today, scholars in the
interdisciplinary field of "technology studies" emphasize the
symbolic and discursive character of our artifact-saturated universe,
as well as the machine's subtle perpetuation of social inequalities
and political conditions. These scholars have begun to discuss
technology as a medium, as a human-created "ambience" that
infiltrates interpersonal relations and permeates society. Focusing
on the spatial dimension of materials and media, this conference
intends to shape developments in the field.
Technology has become a kind of second nature in modern life. For
instance, cell telephones, computers, and the internet enable us to
become more independent of physical location. The death of distance
has been declared. Simultaneously, however, they have influenced
mobility and cognitive patterns, as well as re-drawn the boundaries
between the private and public spheres. By bringing out the spatial
character of modern technology, the conference takes seriously its
"topological" nature - both on a physical and discursive level. And,
by focusing on urban structures, simulation techniques, and
visualizing media in daily life, it intends to investigate the
spatial character of technology in various settings and from various
theoretical points of view.
Technologies, we argue, are far more than passive physical presences.
They mediate between human beings, they bridge physical distance, and
they contribute to the transformation of individual identities. They
allow people to interact at new places, they open up new mental
spaces, and they help us to visualize new arenas for action. The
spatial character of the human-made world is not limited to computers
and other information technologies. Machines and media also impose on
the world a certain multi-dimensional "order of things." In urban
settings especially, buildings, streets, and lighting systems make up
a set of material "dispositives" that strongly define what "degrees
of freedom" citizens may enjoy.
The conference will be divided into four sections, each consisting of
one 45-minute plenary speech and two parallel paper sessions, each of
which will include four presentations. There will be 20 minutes
scheduled for the oral presentation of each paper, followed by 15
minutes discussion. To guarantee insightful introductions to the
various topics, four internationally outstanding plenary speakers
have already accepted the invitation; cf. program below.
One-page abstracts for papers, accompanied by a one-page CV, may be
sent to Professor Mikael H=E5rd, Department of History, Technical
University Darmstadt, Schloss, DE-64283 Darmstadt, Germany,
[log in to unmask], before Nov. 1, 2001.
PROGRAM
Section 1:
Coping with Urban Places: Physical Structures and Daily Life in the Modern=
City
Plenary speaker 1:
Thomas J. Misa, Illinois Institute of Technology: Creating the
Vertical City: Skyscrapers as Socio-technical Milieus
Section 2:
Coping with the Dimensions: Visual Technologies and the Re-Ordering of Spa=
ces
Plenary speaker 2:
David Gugerli, Eidgen=F6ssische Technische Hochschule Zurich:
Visualizing the Human Body
Section 3:
Virtual Entertainment, the Arts, and Emerging Lifestyles
Plenary speaker 3:
Lev Manovich, University of California at San Diego: Image-Space: a
Case Study in Post-Media Aesthetics
Section 4:
The Spatial Dimension of Human - Non-human Interaction
Plenary speaker 4:
Kevin Hetherington, Lancaster University: Relationality, Topology and
the Disposal of Space
This conference is organized by the post-graduate school "Technology
and Society" at the University of Technology Darmstadt
(http://www.ifs.tu-darmstadt.de/gradkoll/index.html) with financial
support from the German Research Council.
Dr. Mikael H=E5rd
Professor of the History of Technology
Department of History
Technical University Darmstadt
Schloss
DE-64283 Darmstadt
Germany
[log in to unmask]
Tel. +49-61 51-16 30 97, -16 67 22 (Sec'y), -66 27 36 (home)
Fax. +49-61 51-16 39 92
homepage: http://www.ifs.tu-darmstadt.de/geschichte/index.html
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