All:
I'm forwarding this announcement to the list as a follow-up to a post from
Victor Margolin some weeks (or months) ago. This proposed session at SHOT
deals with the afterlife of technologies, something I believe Victor was
hoping to see design researchers tackle.
***
From: Dolly Jørgensen <[log in to unmask]>
I would like to propose a session titled "Afterlife of Technologies" for
the SHOT 2008 meeting in Lisbon, October 11-14. The theme for the
conference is "SHOT@50: Looking Beyond" and this session hopes to
examine a potential avenue for future technology research. As we know,
scholars in the history of technology have studied the production and
development of technology, as well as the users of technology - but
little has been written about technologies /after/ their usefulness to
the first consumer has faded. This session hopes to open up a window on
what happens to technological artifacts after that point, their
"afterlife." Some potential questions for the session are:
- When/how are technological artifacts moved to a new locale or economic
setting in order to retain usefulness? For example, the relocation of
"outdated" equipment from industrialized countries to developing ones.
- Can technological artifacts be transferred into another context and
take on new roles/meanings/functions? I can't help thinking of railroad
cars reused as diners and CDs used as car art hanging from the mirror!
- Does a secondary or tertiary user group come into the mix? This might
be collectors, junk dealers, museum visitors, etc.
My own paper in the session will be an examination of the controversy
over turning obsolete offshore oil platforms into artificial coral reefs.
If you're working on something along these lines and would be interested
in presenting a paper, please email me at [log in to unmask]
<mailto:[log in to unmask]>. The session proposal is due in
mid-March, but send me an email indicating your interest as soon as
possible.
The official CFP is at http://shotnews.net/?p=401 and details about the
conference are at http://shotlisbon2008.com/
Dolly Jørgensen
NTNU Department of Interdisciplinary Studies of Culture
Visiting Scholar 2007-2008
Norsk telefon: 46 66 36 79
University of Virginia History Dept
US phone: 434-326-4196
Email: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Website: http://dolly.jorgensenweb.net <http://dolly.jorgensenweb.net/>
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***
Carma R. Gorman, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, History of Art and Design
School of Art and Design
Allyn Building 113, mail code 4301
Southern Illinois University Carbondale
1100 S. Normal Ave.
Carbondale, IL 62901
United States of America
voicemail: 618-453-8634
fax: 618-453-7710
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