[spectre] REMINDER - CALL for Research/PhD Workshop 2016

[Geoff Cox]

REMINDER - CALL for Research/PhD Workshop 2016
Deadline 15 August 2016
https://transmediale.de/content/registration-form-machine-research


MACHINE RESEARCH ­ Research/PhD Workshop 2016
24-26 October 2016, Brussels

Organised by:
APRJA, A Peer-Reviewed Journal About_
Participatory IT Research Centre, Aarhus University (Geoff Cox & Christian
Ulrik Andersen)
transmediale / art & digital culture (Kristoffer Gansing & Daphne Dragona)
Constant (An Mertens, Michael Murtaugh & Femke Snelting)
For the workshop, we will be joined by other invited guests (including
Adrian MacKenzie)


The research/Phd workshop MACHINE RESEARCH contributes to the transmediale
festival programme for 2017. Participants participate in closed seminars
and talks in Brussels, the generation of online and offline publications,
and public presentations at the festival in Berlin. The 2017 transmediale
festival focuses on the elusive character of media and technological
change and how it is articulated in the contemporary moment of messy
ecologies of the human and non human. It explores perspectives of the
nonhuman that suggests a situation where the primacy of human civilization
is put into a critical perspective by machine driven ecologies, ontologies
and epistemologies of thinking and acting.

The workshop aims to engage research and artistic practice that takes into
account the new materialist conditions implied by nonhuman
techno-ecologies including new ontologies of learning and intelligence
(such as algorithmic learning), socio-economic organisation (such as
blockchain), population management and tracking (such as datafied
borders), autonomous or semi-autonomous systems (such as bots or drones)
and other post-anthropocentric reconsiderations of agency, materiality and
autonomy. 

MACHINE RESEARCH is also inspired by the ongoing work of Constant
association for arts and media (http://www.constantvzw.org). In the
workshop we will explore how research and writing is machine-like and will
build on Constant¹s work with networked (design) tools, Free, Libre and
Open Source graphics, and experimental open/hybrid publishing. Michael
Murtaugh, An Mertens and Femke Snelting (researchers at Constant) will
propose a collaborative writing infrastructure and publishing platform as
well as several machine writing experiments. Sarah Garcin, a designer who
develops platforms for live-editing and collaborative comments, will take
care of transforming the outcomes of the workshop into a printed newspaper
using html2print. Additional inputs will come from Kristoffer Gansing
(Artistic Director, transmediale), Daphne Dragona (Conference curator,
transmediale), Christian Ulrik Andersen, Geoff Cox (Associate Professors,
Aarhus University) as well as other invited guests (including Adrian
MacKenzie).

IMPORTANT DATES
Deadline, 15 August 2016
Notification of acceptance, 05 September  2016
Online activity, from 30 September 2016
Workshop in Brussels, 24-26 October 2016
Final submission of full paper to APRJA.net, 01 December 2016

VENUE
*WTC25* - 25th floor of the Brussels World Trade Center near the North
station, Koning Albert II-laan 28-30.

WORKSHOP DETAILS
The workshop itself will unfold over 3 days in Brussels, in 3 parts.
1. In the first part, participants will present their papers and receive
verbal feedback, building on the preliminary work online.
2. After presentations and as a consequence of feedback, participants will
be asked to reduce their texts from 2000 to approx. 1000 words for
publication. We will write with Free, Libre and Open Source software for
collaborative real-time editing, installed on a local server.
3. We then enter into a practical investigation of online/offline
publishing, using tools such as html2print to investigate the dynamic
crossovers between writing, design and print.

At the end of the workshop, we will produce a pdf publication that will be
printed for distribution at the festival, alongside a further public
presentation in 2017 at transmediale in Berlin. In addition, participants
will be invited to contribute longer academic papers (of 4000 words) to
the associated open access online journal APRJA (http://www.aprja.net).

The workshop aims to provide a forum for emerging researchers to enter
into speculation, critique, exchange and dialogue about their research
topic. The primary focus is on the participants¹ individual research
projects, as well fostering networking, knowledge exchange and widening
dissemination. Although the workshop is primarily aimed at international
PhD researchers, it is also open to researchers such as artists and
programmers who are pursuing research outside an academic context. The
workshop is free but we cannot cover travel or other costs and these are
expected to be met by participants or their institutions.

WORKLOAD & CREDITS
Expected workloads include the production of a short text prior to the
workshop, presentation of research, response and dialogue with other
participants, the production of contents for a ³Peer-Reviewed Newspaper²,
and the production of a lengthier research article invited for submission
to A Peer Reviewed Journal About_. PhD students can be awarded 5 ECTS for
their full participation.

The workshop includes online publication and commenting, presentations and
group discussion, practical workshops in writing, design and publishing,
public presentations and print. No particular technical skills (beyond
general media literacy) are required.

SUBMISSION
We are seeking proposals consisting of a biography (500 characters), a
statement on current research/description of PhD project (1000
characters), and a short description of how this research relates to the
workshop theme (500 characters).

Deadline, 15 August 2016
Notification of acceptance, 05 September 2016

Submissions will be possible using an online form.
https://transmediale.de/content/registration-form-machine-research

SUPPORTED BY 
The Graduate School & Participatory IT research centre, Faculty of Arts,
Aarhus University, transmediale and Constant.

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