You are invited to apply for a place in the 2012 Session of the Johannesburg Workshop in Theory and Criticism (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa). The 2012 Session, Futures of Nature, is part of a drive within the humanities to reframe the disciplines and critical theory in light of the environmental emergency that is said to endanger most species on the planet, including our own.

We will reflect on some of the major challenges relating to the contemporary conditions and the long-term sustainability of life on Earth. Ours is an age characterized by the indelible imprint of human activity on the Earth’s climate, its geology and its conditions – a process which may lead to the planet’s becoming inhospitable to human life. It is also an era that blurs the distinction between human history and culture and the Earth’s natural history and material composition. Continue reading

Cynetart 2012 Award :: November 15-21, 2012 :: Festspielhaus Hellerau, Karl-Liebknecht-Strasse 56, Dresden, Saxony 01109, Germany :: Call for Entries — Deadline: March 31.

Cynetart is an international festival for computer based art in Dresden. The 16th Edition of the festival will present an exhibition of the winning projects and selected competition entries, first-class performances and a programme with live sets of international electronic musicians and VJs at the Festspielhaus Hellerau and other selected spots in Dresden.

The competition is open to artists, designers and scientists who dedicate themselves in their artistic and reflective discussion in particular interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approaches. Continue reading

Moments. A History of Performance in 10 Acts :: March 8 - April 29, 2012 :: Opening: March 17; 4:00 pm :: ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Lorenzstrasse 19, 76135 Karlsruhe, Germany. Continue reading

[WikiLeak - Kaupthing Claims, 2011, Rules Series. Gouache Wall Painting. Dimensions variable.] Short Big Drama – Angela Bulloch :: January 21 - April 9, 2012 :: Opening: January 20; 7:00 - 9:00 pm :: Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Witte de Withstraat 50, 3012 BR Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

Short Big Drama highlights the theatricality of the artist’s practice. This comprehensive exhibition presents a wide selection of existing works together with specially commissioned new pieces. The spotlight falls on three types of works — monumental wall paintings, colorful Pixel Box installations and interactive Drawing Machines. Continue reading

The Ends of Audience: Interdisciplinary Workshop :: May 30-31, 2012 :: Queen Mary University of London :: Call for Proposals - Deadline: January 31; Midnight GMT.

People in audiences act: they talk, clap, heckle, sigh, inhale, exhale, rustle, twitch, tweet, dance, flirt, laugh, whisper, shuffle, cough… in doing so, they interact. There is a structure and dynamic to these responses which is central to the experience of being in a live audience. This workshop aims to bring together researchers and professionals with interests in performance, interaction and technology who are working on understanding, instrumenting or experimenting with these dynamics, and the shifting ends of audience that they reveal. 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

3rd Leonardo Satellite Symposium: Arts, Humanities, and Complex Networks @ NetSci2012 :: June 19, 2012 :: Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois :: Call for Proposals - Deadline: March 16, 2012.

We are pleased to announce the third Leonardo satellite symposium at NetSci2012 on Arts, Humanities, and Complex Networks. The aim of the symposium is to foster cross-disciplinary research on complex systems within or with the help of arts and humanities.

The symposium will highlight arts and humanities as an interesting source of data, where the combined experience of arts, humanities research, and natural science makes a huge difference in overcoming the limitations of artificially segregated communities of practice. Continue reading

shut up and listen! 2011: Near West - Interdisciplinary Festival for Music and Sound Art featuring contemporary music and art practices from Israel, Palestine and neighbouring Arab countries :: December 8 and 10, 2011 :: Echoraum, Sechshauser Str. 66, 1150 Vienna.

shut up and listen! (SUAL) 2011 provides a stage for artists from the so-called ‘Near East’, some of whom found a second (maybe temporary) home in Austria or other European countries. The festival’s title Near West implies a change of perspective regarding the – sometimes utopian - proximity to the ‘Fortress Europe’. Continue reading

So What Again Is HASTAC? Post #HASTAC2011 Reflections on a Network Founded on a Theory That’s a Practice by Cathy Davidson, originally posted on HASTAC:

We have just finished two and a half glorious days at the University of Michigan. Soon we at HASTAC Central will write a formal thank you blog to all the incredible planners, organizers, and participants of our fifth HASTAC Conference, Digital Scholarly Communications, sponsored by the University of Michigan Institute for the Humanities, the Mellon Foundation, and the Kidder Residency in the Arts, and led by two of our HASTAC Steering Committee members, Danny Herwitz and Julie Thompson Klein. And many others. Incredible event.Incredible people.

Now some overview thinking, not just about the #hastac2011 but about what it all means at this point in HASTAC’s history: Continue reading

The Live Art Almanac Volume 3: An international publication of writing on and around Live Art :: Call for Recommendations and Submissions — Deadline: January 31, 2012.

The Live Art Almanac Volume 3 will draw together all kinds of writing about and around Live Art, and aims to be both a useful resource and a great read for artists, writers, students and others interested in the field of interdisciplinary, performance-based art.

The Live Art Almanac Volume 3 is a not-for-profit publication, produced and published by the Live Art Development Agency (London, UK) in partnership with Live Art UK, Performance Space 122 (New York, USA), Performance Space (Sydney, Australia), La Pocha Nostra (San Francisco, USA), and Maska (Ljubljana, Slovenia). Continue reading