[BADco. "Responsibility for Things Seen", 2011, photo: Dinko Rupčić] Symposium: Actionable Image: Agency of Image, Performance of Body, Apparatus of Spectating :: March 16-17, 2012 ::  Zagreb, Croatia :: Call for Participation - Deadline: February 10, 2012.

This symposium and its topic are a continuation of BADco.’s artistic interest to relate performance and image. More concretely, it was motivated by our most recent work Responsibility for Things Seen that was presented in 2011 within the Croatian participation at the Biennale di Venezia. The work required us, in the absence of performers in the six-months exhibition, to pursue the idea of ‘theater by other means’ and to custom develop a database video system that unfolds a particular nexus of body, image and technology. Continue reading

Second Nature: Origins and Originality in Art, Science, and New Media, Rolf Hughes, Jenny Sundén (eds.), Axl Books:

With the practices of art, science and technology increasingly converging, the concepts of origins and originality raise some of the most pressing questions in contemporary research, including issues of agency and accountability, hybridity and identity, intellectual property and oeuvre, intention and authority. These, and a constellation of related philosophical, economic, aesthetic, legislative and political concerns, are today subject to rapid reconfiguration due to the current pace of technological and theoretical change. Second Nature accordingly brings into a productive, interdisciplinary dialogue scholars working at the intersections of art, science and technology. Continue reading

Giselle Beiguelman, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil from The Politics of Digital Culture on Vimeo.

Related: Interaction and Agency in Real Time Systems by Jo-Anne Green (presented at Soft Borders, Sao Paulo, 2010).

#TrainingYRHuman by ecoarttech: A participatory Twitter-based artwork about the agency of animals who live with human-animals. While new scientific research has illuminated animals’ behaviors, their ethical attitudes, modes of cognition, and psychological awareness, our everyday experiences can also tell us a lot about our companion species if we listen carefully — about their diverse personalities and creative problem-solving and the ways they invent to express themselves and meet their needs in desires in a human-dominated world.

The #TrainingYRHuman participatory physical installation will début in beta form at the Animal Influence media art exhibition at Emily Carr University of Art + Design’s Intersections Digital Studios, November 2011. Thank you to University of Rochester for support of this project. More info >>

The Nonhuman Turn in 21st Century Studies :: May 3-5, 2012 :: Center for 21st Century Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee :: Call for Papers - Deadline: December 19, 2011.

Invited speakers include Jane Bennett, Ian Bogost, Bill Brown, Wendy Chun, Mark Hansen, Erin Manning, Brian Massumi, and Tim Morton.

This conference takes up the “nonhuman turn” that has been emerging in the arts, humanities, and social sciences over the past few decades. Intensifying in the 21st century, this nonhuman turn can be traced to a variety of different intellectual and theoretical developments from the last decades of the 20th century: Continue reading

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Tweeting the Revolution: Agency, Collective Action, and the Negotiation of Risk in a Networked Age — a talk by Beth Coleman (MIT) :: October 18, 2011; 12:30 pm :: Berkman Center, Harvard University, 23 Everett Street, Second floor, Cambridge, MA + webcast live :: RSVP required.

This paper looks at the impact of social media platforms on collective action. In particular, it focuses on spheres of activism where personal risk (bodily or otherwise) is the condition of participation. For this analysis, I discuss interviews conducted with Egyptian activists around the events of Tahrir Square. Issues of copresence, witness, and visibility are central to my discussion. This talk is based on a research paper developed with my coauthor Dr. Mike Ananny. Continue reading

Manfred Mohr: 1964–2011, Réflexions sur une esthétique programmée :: until October 15, 2011 :: bitforms gallery nyc, 529 West 20th Street, New York City.

It was May 11, 1971 when the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris opened the influential exhibition “Computer Graphics - Une Esthétique Programmée”. A solo exhibition by Manfred Mohr, it featured the first display in a museum of works entirely calculated and drawn by a digital (rather than analog) computer. Revolutionary for its time, these drawings were more than mere curiosities—they signaled a new era of image creation, setting in motion a trajectory of modernism and information aesthetics. Continue reading

Powers of the Hoard: Artistry and Agency in a World of Vibrant Matter by Jane Bennett :: September 13, 2011; 6:30 pm :: Theresa Lang Community and Student Center, Arnhold Hall, 55 West 13th Street, 2nd floor, New York City.

How can objects sometimes be vibrant things with an effective presence independent of the words, images, and feelings they may provoke in humans? This question is posed by Political theorist Jane Bennett delivers the inaugural lecture as the Vera List Center for Art and Politics embarks on a two-year exploration of “Thingness,” the nature of matter. In the face of virtual realities, social media and disembodied existences, the center’s programs will focus on the material conditions of our lives. Continue reading

ISEA Istanbul presents Site Specifics: Mobile Media Art and the Contexts of Place — Chair Per­son: Chris­tiane Paul; Pre­sen­ters: Tanya Toft, Jack Toolin, Teri Rueb :: Sep­tem­ber 19, 2011; 9:00 - 10:30 am :: Sa­banci Cen­ter Room 4, Sa­banci Cen­ter, Lev­ent.

The panel dis­cusses cat­e­gories of loca­tive, site-spe­cific media art and their im­pact on un­der­stand­ing the con­text of place. Mo­bile com­put­ing po­ten­tially en­ables var­i­ous forms of so­cial in­ter­ac­tion and has to be con­sid­ered in re­la­tion to con­cepts of em­bod­i­ment, the cre­ation of mean­ing, as well as in­di­vid­ual au­ton­omy and agency. Continue reading