[spectre] Fwd: "ALIEN TALK" THE BARBER SHOP SUMMER SCHOOL OPEN CALL! >> deadline 21 June

[Margarida Mendes]

*           Call for entry!*

*Deadline: 21**st** June*


*Alien Talk*
*A** Summer School **at The Barber Shop*

*11 – 17 August 2015*


*In the peak of summer, The Barber Shop invites you to an intensive
programme dedicated to science fiction.*

*As postmodernity’s horizon of reflection is replaced by the refracted
cyclopic faith in extreme technologisation, only fictions reign as concrete
realities. In the haunting era of climate change, the physical world is
transformed by the conception of new psychemocracies. Meanwhile the
messianic hope for the nation state is dissolved, just as the paternalistic
guidance over the human project becomes dystopian.*

*This programme will debate the importance of science fiction as a creative
mode of self-reinvention, exploring the overlap between 'pataphysics,
techno-utopianism, and performance.*

*Reconsidering the relation between subjects and objects in this scenario,
can we see science fiction’s relevance as a reaction to the contemporary
political climate of widespread austerity, or does it play other roles? How
do humour and atheism intervene in the critique of Artificial Intelligence?
Which ontologies will define the cognitive sensoriality of the future?*

*To explore these issues, The Barber Shop invites researchers, writers and
artists to lead a series of lectures and group debates over a week period.
The programme also includes a sound performance, a film night, purge
exercises and a collective audio walk. The sessions will take place daily
from 11**th** to 17**th** August, as the afternoon heat fades.*


*With presentations by:*
Gabriel Abrantes
Teresa Botelho
Francesca Daistoiévski
Godofredo Pereira
Jorge Martins Rosa
João Seixas
Von Calhau!
Emily Wardill



*Description of the lectures:*

‘*Pataphysics in the post media era (or how Jarry was an unknown precursor
to Guattari)*
by *Godofredo Pereira*
This seminar will discuss Alfred Jarry’s ‘pataphysics together with Raymond
Roussel’s “procédé”, to argue how they constitute a theory of celibatory
machines, thus preceding Guattari’s later development of the notion of
*abstract
machine*. In doing so, the presentation will push ‘pataphysics beyond its
strict literary and artistic context, framing it instead as a principle to
think what a political practice in a post-media era might be. In this sense
the use of ‘pataphysics will be differentiated from recent explorations of
accelerationism and, more importantly, related to anthropological theories
of cannibalism, fetishism, cargo cult and transculturation. Considering the
necessity to develop an appropriation of the technosphere as a domain of
political singularisation, ‘pataphysics –as the science of abduction or
imaginary solutions- will be seen as critical to the re-imagination of
constituent political processes.

*It's All in your Heads: Technologies of Memory as Representations of the
Cyborg*
by* Jorge Martins Rosa*
Although the concept of cyborg, in its critically-oriented form established
by Donna Haraway, cannot be isolated from Shannon's Theory of Information,
the stereotype of its visual representation – particularly in blockbuster
movies -- is still that of a hybrid between human and machine n which the
connection or extension is made through the «hard» bodily dimension. In
this presentation we will have the opportunity to explore other kinds of
connections, purely mental, that arise from the idea of memory as
information, i.e., a recollection of data that can be uploaded, downloaded,
stored, and retrieved. With a few passing references to the evolution of
Science Fiction as a genre, we will however focus on that very same
blockbuster cinema in order to deconstruct the stereotype in its own
territory.

*The Universe is God Enough*
by *João Seixas*
Hard Science Fiction writer Hal Clement once said that his stories didn’t
need villains, for the Universe was villain enough. Indeed, from Tom
Godwin’s seminal short-story “The Cold Equations” to the modern Gothic
Space Operas by Alastair Reynolds or Peter F. Hamilton, the Universe has
been inimical to Man’s aspirations, dreams and desires. And, moreover,
Science Fiction’s Universe has been, mainly, a godless place. But also a
place where Humanity transcends itself, through Science. Science Fiction’s
critical stance towards god and religion, and strong defence of scientific
thinking, has long anticipated the post-9/11 “new atheism” of thinkers like
Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins or the late lamented
Christopher Hitchens. The aim of this presentation is to show - with the
help of some relevant texts from SF’s canon and the latest developments on
Cosmology - how Science Fiction, as the perfect bridge between popular
entertainment, scientific knowledge and technical development, can be used
to probe the boundaries of our conception of being human in a Universe
where god has no more gaps to hide in.

*Indigenous Potty Humor and Sarcastic AI - **The social function of joking
relationships from the stateless societies of the Amazon river Basin to the
artificial intelligence in sci-fi*
by *Gabriel Abrantes*
I want to talk about 'Joking Relationships' in stateless indigenous
communities of the Amazon. I will discuss a variety of recorded Joking
Relationships in various indigenous groups and how this institutionalised
form of transgression functions as a conflict diffuser. Following this I
want to ask the question of weather we can consider the humorous robots
that have populated popular sci-fi, such as the sarcastic AI in
'Interstellar', C3PO in Star Wars, and Ultron in the Avengers II 'Age of
Ultron' to have a 'joking relationship' with the human characters. Can we
imagine AI to be funny, can they understand humour, can we get a machine to
laugh?

*Dark Windows and Brittle Circumferences*
by *Emily Wardill*
A visual lecture looking at the images that make us feel afraid by being
there and by being indifferent. Focussing on psychological horrors and
thrillers to think about what leaves us hanging - how much fear can be
encapsulated in an image and how much can be done with thwarted
expectations.

*Transcending the Body: Techno-utopianism in the Twenty-first Century*
*by **Teresa Botelho*
In the nineteenth and early twentieth century the technological imaginary
shaped a vast corpus of literary utopian visions of a better world,
equating progress with practical achievements brought about by advancing
efficiency in production and in communication and transportation systems
thought to establish new conditions that would improve humanity’s choices,
freeing citizens not only from poverty, hard and repetitive labor, but also
from major sources of individual and collective unhappiness. This session
will discuss how, in contrast, techno-utopias of the twenty first century
shadowed by Singularity Theory, which has been described as the
quintessential myth of contemporary techno culture, have significantly
shifted attention to the body, proposing trans-human and post-human futures
marked by the transcendence of the organic–machine divide. It will focus on
literary and visual articulations of these themes that scrutinize the
construction of selfhood of both technologically mediated humans and
non-human sentient entities.

*+ audio walk* by* Francesca Daistoiévski*

It is in the in endless fissures of liminal spaces, where the most
recondite weaving among perception, imagination and reality, are
hidden. Fiction-no-fiction spoken sound walk for exiting the city.

*+ purge exercise and musical performance *by* Von Calhau!*

Rapid non workshop - Translation of dual vocalizations into electric
movements of expansion and contraction translated into acoustic elements of
dual vocalizations - Tauto-rombudage.

+ *Parallel events* announced by early August.


~


*Keywords*
Science Fiction, 'Pataphysics, Espionage, Atheism, Humour, Performance,
Horror, Techno-utopianism, Artificial Intelligence

*Location *The Barber Shop (Casa dos Amigos do Minho, Rua do Bemformoso
244, Lisboa.)

*Fee *160 Euros. (Includes welcome dinner and shared housing for foreign
applicants)

*Material for application*
portfolio + statement of interest / description of research focus (half
page) + CV.
All applications should be sent by email to: *thebarbershop.lisbon at gmail.com
<thebarbershop.lisbon at gmail.com>*

*Deadline: 21**st** June*
Invited applicants will be announced before the end of June by email

~


apply now :) <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06Qm-Z5OsHw>

*More info:*

www.thisisthebarbershop.blogspot.com

https://www.facebook.com/events/447724942054078/
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