RE:TRACE 2017: Call for Papers
 
The 7th International Conference on the Histories of Media Art, Science
and Technology titled RE:TRACE focuses on an evaluation of the status of
the meta-discipline MediaArtHistories today.
 
More than a decade after the first conference founded the field now
recognized worldwide as a significant historical inquiry at the
intersection of art, science, and technology, Media Art Histories is now
firmly established as a dynamic area of study guided by changing media
and research priorities, drawing a growing community of scholars,
artists and artist-researchers.
 
Immersed in both contemporary and historiographical aspects of the
digital world, we explore the most immediate socio-cultural questions of
our time: from body futures, information society, and media
(r)evolutions, to environmental interference, financial virtualization,
and surveillance. And we do so through a fractal lens of inter- and
trans-disciplinarity, bridging art history, media studies, neuroscience,
psychology, sociology, and beyond. MediaArtHistories is a field whose
theory, methods, and objects of study interweave with and overlay other
disciplines.
 
The organizing committee invites researchers of different areas,
disciplines and practices to submit individual papers, posters and full
panels with new and original research preferably in the following
themes:
 
•              MediaArtHistories – historiographies and futures of an
ever-emerging field
•              Institutional histories of Media Art
•              Media Art & Politics (surveillance, climate,
visualizations, etc.)
•              Collecting media art / Media Art market
•              Archiving, preserving and representing Media Art
•              Re-Use of cultural heritage data, including education,
learning and research
•              Methodologies and research tools for MediaArtHistories
with a focus on Digital Humanities
•              International and local histories and practices of media
art
•              (Post-)Colonial experiences and non-Western histories of
media art, science and technology
•              Paradigm shift – Digital vs. Post-Digital Theory
•              Alternative histories for Media Art in relation to newly
evolving or unexpected fields.
•              Models and perspectives of research fields adapted across
traditional disciplinary lines.
•              New symbolic architecture of digital super companies
(Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, FB, Google)
 
 
The conference program will include competitively selected,
peer-reviewed individual papers, panel presentations and posters, as
well as a small number of invited speakers. Presentations will be
delivered in a range of formats, from panel discussions to a poster
session. We particularly encourage submissions by researchers from
international contexts outside of Europe and North America.
 
Keynote lectures by internationally renowned, outstanding leaders in the
field, will deliberate on the central themes of the conference series,
its histories and futures.
 
Submission Deadline: March 26, 2017
Notification of acceptance will be announced by April 30, 2017.
 
Individual proposals for papers should consist of a max. 250-word
abstract with title.
Proposals for full panels should consist of a max. 500-word abstract
outlining the panel and individual topics of confirmed speakers.
Submission language is English. Submitters should upload a short bio
file (Word), no longer than ½ page per person. The short bios will be
used on the conference website together with your abstracts.
 
Initiated by the Media Art Histories Board (Steering Committee):
Prof. Dr. Sean CUBITT (Deputy Head of Department & PhD Tutor / Media and
Communications / Goldsmiths University of London / UK); Univ.-Prof. Dr.
habil. Dr.h.c. Oliver GRAU, MAE (Head of Dept & Chair Professor in Image
Science / Danube University / AT); Dr. Linda Dalrymple HENDERSON (David
Bruton, Jr. Centennial Professor in Art History / History / University of Texas at Austin / US); Dr. Andreas BROECKMANN
(Leuphana Arts Program, Leuphana University of Lüneburg, GER); Prof. Dr.
Erkki HUHTAMO (Departments of Design Media Arts, and Film, Television,
and Digital Media / University of California Los Angeles / US); Prof.
Dr. Douglas KAHN (Professor of Media and Innovation / National Institute
of Experimental Arts (NIEA) / University of New South Wales, Sydney /
AU); Prof. Dr. Machiko KUSAHARA (School of Letters, Arts and Sciences /
Waseda University / Tokyo, Japan); Prof. Dr. Tim LENOIR (Kimberly J.
Jenkins Chair for New Technologies in Society / Duke University / US);
Prof. Dr. Gunalan NADARAJAN (Dean / Stamps School of Art & Design /
University of Michigan / US); Prof. Dr. Paul THOMAS (Director / Fine
Arts at College of Fine Art / University of New South Wales /AU)
 
MAH Honorary Board: Martin KEMP, Jasia REICHARDT, Itsuo SAKANE, Peter
WEIBEL, Douglas DAVIS †, Rudolf ARNHEIM †
 
Conference dates: November 30 – December 02, 2017, Krems (World Cultural
Heritage) & Vienna, hosted by DANUBE UNIVERSITY

Venues:
Danube University / Located 70km from Vienna in the UNESCO World
Heritage Wachau region, Danube University is the only public university
in Europe specializing in advanced continuing education by offering
low-residency degree programs for working professionals and life-long
learners. Located at both a modern university campus and in the Göttweig
Monastery, the Dept. for Image Science is an internationally unique
institution for research and innovative teaching with an international
faculty, at this point 120 scholars from various nations and
disciplines. The innovative approach of the Department for Image Science
with the close connection to practice has developed the Archive of
Digital Art and founded in 2006 the low-residency
MediaArtHistories-Advanced, MA answering the need for international,
post-graduate studies.
Vienna / The vibrant capital of the Republic of Austria in Central
Europe meeting international travel standards with safe and exciting
surroundings that embrace culture both old and new. Planning for Vienna
is being organized with partner institutions and colleagues. Fast and
frequent public transportation between Vienna and Krems allows for a
blending of two locations into one venue, distributing separate days in
each venue. 


Links:
Re:Trace call for papers – www.mediaarthistory.org/retrace
MediaArtHistories-Advanced, MA – www.mediacultures.net/mah
Archive of Digital Art – www.digitalartarchive.at