Dear Josephine, dear Matt,
Thank you very much for your interest in the Refresh conference, which in
fact wasn't part of this February discussion (more the hopes for an additional
meta-database).
But I can calm you down, as I was addressed directly and I can answer Matt's
question and inform you about the procedure.
To begin with the correction: I was not talking about academia, but about
science, speaking of methods. The conference's subheading is "International
Conference on the HistorIES of Media Art, Science and Technology". With
Histories we try to open a think and discussion tank for the pluralities of
the approaches, backgrounds and interests within a collective process.
This concept was developed last year in a brainstorming conference with 14
participants from 12 countries. Right now we finalized the selection of the
speakers of the Call that appealed ca. 450 applicants. The selection team
consisted of the chairs and the program committee, 21 people in total from
almost all continents and the most different backgrounds. As you can think,
this was a lot of work and a lot of communication - the maximum effort we
could bring up. Our Advisory Board and Honorary Board (30 persons in total)
are published. The main idea is not to establish a new canon, but to uncover
the plurality and quality of the research in our field.
Best wishes,
Oliver
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