From andreas.broeckmann at leuphana.de  Tue Dec  2 18:38:57 2025
From: andreas.broeckmann at leuphana.de (Andreas Broeckmann LEU)
Date: Tue, 2 Dec 2025 18:38:57 +0100
Subject: [spectre] CFP: The Most Important of All Ages [Childhood in Soviet
 Cinema] (Paris, 4-6 May 25)
Message-ID: <645ff0f0-859e-491e-af4e-7d3b978cdb07@leuphana.de>

From: Stanislas de Courville
Date: Dec 1, 2025
Subject: CFP: The Most Important of All Ages (Paris, 4-6 May 25)

Paris, INHA, May 4–06, 2026
Deadline: Jan 18, 2026

The Most Important of All Ages. Children, Childhood(s) and Childlikeness 
in Soviet Cinema.

“Save the starving children!!!” the title card of the opening episode of 
Dziga Vertov’s Kino-Pravda urges the spectator just before the images of 
street children looking desperately for food are displayed on screen. 
The fact that this first episode of the “film-truth” by the Soviet 
director, released in the birth-year of the USSR, took as its key 
subject the tragic fate of children, perfectly symbolizes the 
fundamental link between the new political regime and childhood: the 
most important of all ages, one could say, paraphrasing the famous quote 
from Lenin about the Seventh Art. The attention that the new socialist 
power paid to children, whose living conditions during the civil war 
caused a huge number of deaths and abandonment, is indeed immediate and 
lasting in the young country. This country presents itself as the 
“country for children,” built for them and shortly by them: the 
revolutionaries of those days were not certain that they would see their 
work finished during their lifetime, therefore it is tomorrow’s 
generation that will enjoy it when they complete its edification.
     The attention that the new power paid to childhood would be 
strongly reflected in cinema, whose educational value would be 
officially claimed during the very first days following the Bolshevik 
Revolution (Leyda, 1960: 121). The alliance wanted between art of the 
masses and the education of youth (including its ideological 
indoctrination) would, throughout Soviet history, be channeled through 
the desire to produce films dedicated to children. Such films would come 
to constitute a unique genre—with sometimes porous boundaries (Arkus et 
al., 2002: 100)—of “children’s cinema” (detskoe kino), which would at 
certain times draw on huge resources and generate great success, and 
which would also be expressed by the production of a more specifically 
school film (škol’nyj fil’m) (Arkus, 2010; Serov, 2023).
     Far from being limited to these latter two categories, the 
attachment of Soviet culture to childhood and its universe is so 
frequently expressed in current film production that Evgeny Margolit 
(2000), the author of several seminal studies on this subject, was able 
to speak of the child as “the symbol that most fully expresses the 
essence of Soviet cinema”. He has stressed how the child’s appearance or 
disappearance on screen narrates the political history of the country 
and its tragic events. As Margolit (2000) has astutely summarized, this 
symbol of the child shifts from a new world in the silent films of the 
1920s – a world in complete rupture with the past which is overturned or 
erased – , to the end of history in the carnivalesque world—the “eternal 
festival of labour”—of the mid-1930s: a joyful image of the country thus 
stands in complete opposition with a reality even more violent than that 
shown by Vertov in 1922. The symbol of the child becomes less important 
with the climax of the Stalin cult, when the place of the worshipped 
child is taken by the idolized figure of the leader; it is subsequently 
renewed in the shape of a “martyr” of the war that had shaken the 
country and its people (Hicks, 2016). At the same time, the figure of 
Stalin turned from “father” to “brother”.
     Finally, during the Thaw the childhood theme changes significantly 
in its cinematic representation, offering a rich variety of characters 
alongside the equally abundant portrayals of adolescents and young 
adults. Filmmakers lent an unprecedented maturity to the child figure, 
partly due to the absence of fathers, who had perished during the war or 
fallen victim to the country’s criminal history, as well as a newly 
found joyfulness in the innocence of play that stands in sharp contrast 
with the solemn rigidity of the mythologized children of Stalinist 
propaganda, acting only for the benefit of the collective. If, as this 
brief historical summary shows, the highly symbolic significance of the 
child figure made it such a central point, or even the “essence” of 
Soviet cinema, then it calls for a return to the child-figure, with 
renewed and sustained attention to the shifts and continuities in order 
to map further its historical, ideological, mythopoetic, poetic and 
philosophical metamorphosis within the Soviet cinematographic space.
     Beyond single figures of children, the child as symbol could even 
be expressed “independent of the age” of the protagonists, Margolit 
(2000) argued, revealing a “childlike principle” which inhabits Soviet 
film characters. Therefore, we should not reduce our field of 
investigation to the numerous child characters, such as Misha, Dunyasha, 
and Tom (Red Imps, 1923), Yasha and Galya (The House in the Snowdrifts, 
1928), Mustapha and Kolka (Road to Life, 1931), Nastenka and Katya (Once 
There Was a Girl, 1944), Seryozha (1960), Vika and Roman (The Girl and 
the Echo, 1964), Ivan and Marichka (Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, 
1965), Seit (Jamilya, 1969), Lena and Dima (Scarecrow, 1984), etc., but, 
on the contrary, to apprehend such a “childlike principle” in the 
multiplicity and heterogeneity of its expressions, as long as it is 
theoretically justified. Finally, the investigation focuses on the 
representation of childhood itself: its characteristics, its cultural 
plurality, its beginnings and ends, its memory, its nostalgia, etc., as 
well as on the historical bias that influences its conception and limits 
its perception.
     Among the themes that the contributors are invited to explore, 
without any limitation in their scholarly approaches (historical, 
aesthetic, cultural, etc.) and the genres studied (feature films, 
documentaries, children’s films, educational films, animated films, TV 
shows, etc.), the following examples may form focal points:
•    Figures and representations of childhood, children’s itineraries: 
specific case studies, of fictional or real child characters portrayed 
on screen, of the staging and acting of children and their history; 
archetypes such as the pioneers (pionery) or the komsomols 
(komsomol’tsy), the martyr (of Revolution or war), or orphans and 
homeless children (besprizorniki), whose appearance spans the entire 
history of Soviet cinema from Kino-Pravda (1922) or Mr West… (1924) to, 
at least, Freeze – Die – Come to Life (1990), including films such as 
The Destiny of a Man (1959) or Dead Man’s Letters (1986).
•    Childhood memories and children’s visions: the staging of the 
memory of early years of childhood; the contribution of memory to 
filmmaking at its different stages (script, shooting, etc.); the 
manifestation of personal memory within images, or, on the contrary, its 
dissimulation; the cinematographic forms of childlike perception (child 
gaze).
•    Russian cultural imperialism and childhood(s): representation and 
obliteration (or rendering invisible) of children from other ethnicities 
than Russian in Soviet films; manipulation of representations (and a 
comparative perspective with Soviet visual culture, where appropriate) 
(e.g. Red Imps [1923], Circus [1936]), or on the contrary the 
affirmation of a cultural identity (My Name is Kozha, 1964; The Sky of 
Our Childhood, 1966); pluralities of childhood (telescoping, fusion or 
conflict in childhood of different cultures, such as Russian, Jewish, 
Ukrainian, Georgian, Latvian, Kyrgyz); Soviet education across the 
“Sixth part of the world” (e.g. Alone [1931], The First Teacher [1965]).
•    The symbolism of childhood: symbolic and allegorical dimensions of 
the subject of childhood; political aims or subtexts; variations of the 
“childlike principle” and links with the historical trajectory of the 
country; the embodiment of values or entities (utopia, people, future, 
goodness, etc.); the status of mother/father/daughter/son, links and 
symbolic variations; generational conflicts; the 
“feminine”/“masculine”/“childlike” poles (Margolit), and their dialectic.
•    Childhood in history, history in childhood: the child’s position in 
or out of the communist utopia. The constant emphasis on his role for 
the future tends to deny the child any carefree moments in his (filmic) 
existence, a dimension considered characteristic of this period of life. 
Could the child exist outside of the task the ideology attributed to 
him/her? Or is s/he led to struggle against this task to retrieve 
his/her innocence? (e.g. Sandu in Man Follows the Sun by Mikhail Kalik 
[1962], Kostya Inochkin in Welcome, or No Trespassing by Elem Klimov 
[1964]).
•    Childhood in war: the impossible place of childhood in the war, its 
negation through conflict, its shaping through violence; the trauma 
during and after the war, etc. (e.g. Red Imps [1923], The House in the 
Snowdrifts [1928], Chapaev [1934], Once There Was a Girl [1944], The 
Taras Family [1945], Ivan’s Childhood [1962], Wounded Game [1977], Come 
and See [1985], The Commissar [1967, 1987]).
•    The child and death: the death of a child as greatest injustice; 
the impossibility to build the future on sacrifice (or tears) of 
children; the reproduction of violence (living in death). From 
Polikushka (1922) and Battleship Potemkin (1925), or from Cross and 
Mauser (1925) and The White Eagle (1928), to I Want the Floor (1976), 
Come and See (1985) or Among Grey Stones (1983), not forgetting Road to 
Life (1931), Torn Boots (1933), Bezhin Meadow (1935-1937), Alexander 
Nevsky (1938), The Rainbow (1944), Triumph Over Violence (1965) and 
others, the death of a child is a haunting theme in Soviet cinema.
•    “As strong as death”: giving birth and coming into the world 
(pregnancy, childbirth, the plan for a child, rejection of the unborn 
child, etc.); the symbolism of reproduction (e.g. Katka’s Reinette 
Apples [1926], Bed and Sofa [1927], Salt for Svanetia [1930], Seryozha 
[1960], The Story of Asya Klyachina [1967], The Commissar [1967, 1987]).
•    Cinema and the great literary (re)constructions of childhood: 
Tarkovsky and The Life of Arseniev by Ivan Bunin; My Childhood by Gorky, 
and Socialist Realism; but also Childhood by Tolstoy, Kotik Letaev by 
Bely, The Diary of a Communist Schoolboy by Ognyov, Story of My Dovecote 
by Babel, The Noise of Time by Mandelstam, Before Sunrise by Zoshchenko, 
etc., and their possible or certain echoes in films; comparative 
approaches between cinema and literature to the symbolism of childhood 
(both in pre-Soviet literary sources and in Soviet literature), 
influence of Russian and Soviet literary myths of childhood: Tolstoy’s 
aristocratic childhood, Gorky’s proletarian one.
•    History and physiognomy of children’s film: creation and 
development of children’s film in the USSR; history of its productions 
and institutions (Soyuzdetfil’m); characteristics of children’s films; 
images of childhood promoted; figures in the history of this cinema 
(Margarita Barskaya).

Organizing Committee:
Stanislas de Courville and Eugénie Zvonkine

Scientific Committee:
Birgit Beumers (University of Passau), Stanislas de Courville 
(University Paris 8), Catherine Géry (INALCO), Julian Graffy (University 
College London), Macha Ovtchinnikova (University of Strasbourg), Valérie 
Pozner (CNRS), Irina Tcherneva (CNRS), Eugénie Zvonkine (University Paris 8)

Submission guidelines:
Proposals for presentations, in the form of abstracts (maximum 300 
words), written in English or French, must be submitted to 
stanislasdecourville at gmail.com before January 18, 2026, and accompanied 
by brief bio-bibliographies from the author(s). Presentations may be 
given in French or English. Applicants will be notified of the 
Scientific Committee’s decision during the month of February.

-

French version of the CFP:
https://www.estca.univ-paris8.fr/le-plus-important-de-tous-les-ages-enfants-enfances-et-enfantin-dans-le-cinema-sovietique/

-

Bibliography:
ARKUS Ljubov’ (2010), “Priključenija beloj vorony: Èvoljucija ‘škol’nogo 
fil’ma’ v sovetskom kino,” Seans, 2 June. 
https://seance.ru/articles/whitecrow/
ARKUS Ljubov’, VASIL’EVA Inna and MARGOLIT Evgenij (2002), “Detskoe kino 
v SSSR” in Novejšaja istorija otečestvennogo kino. kino i kontekst, vol. 
4, 1986-1988, Saint Petersburg, Seans, pp. 98-105.
BELJAEVA Galina and MIXAJLIN Vadim (2020), Skrytyj učebnyj plan: 
antropologija sovetskogo škol’nogo kino načala 1930‑x — serediny 1960‑x 
godov, Moscow, NLO.
BEUMERS Birgit (2009), “The Younger Generation and Children” and 
“Children’s Films and Cartoons, 1974-79” in A History of Russian Cinema, 
London, New York, Bloomsbury, pp. 133-36 and 177-81.
BEUMERS Birgit, GÉRY Catherine and ZVONKINE Eugénie (eds.) (2025), 
Sexuality, Nudity and the Body in Soviet Cinema, Abingdon, New York, 
Routledge.
BEUMERS Birgit, IZVOLOV Nikolai, MILOSERDOVA Natalia and RIABICHKOVA 
Natalia (eds.) (2009), “Margarita Barskaia and the emergence of Soviet’s 
children cinema,” Studies in Russian and Soviet Cinema, vol. 3, n° 2, 
pp. 229-62.
BEUMERS Birgit and ZVONKINE Eugénie (eds.) (2019), Ruptures and 
Continuities in Soviet/Russian Cinema. Styles, Characters and Genres 
Before and After the Collapse of the USSR, Abingdon, New York, Routledge.
CONDEE Nancy and PADUNOV Vladimir (1986), “Children at War: Films by 
Gubenko, Evtushenko and Bykov,” Framework, 1986, vol. 30-31, pp. 16-34.
EFIRD Robert (2022), Ivan’s childhood, Bristol, Intellect, 2022.
GERY Catherine (2016), “La famille, lieu de trahison (parcours 
littéraire et cinématographique en Russie et en URSS)” in Kinofabula. 
Essais sur la littérature et le cinéma russes, Paris, Presses de 
l’INALCO, pp. 165-191.
HICKS Jeremy (2016), “Soiuzdetfilm: The Birth of Soviet Children’s Film 
and the Child Actor” in Birgit Beumers (ed.), A Companion to Russian 
Cinema, Hoboken (NJ), Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 117-136.
KABAKOVA Galina (2014), “Les contes vus par le cinéma soviétique (années 
1930-1950),” ILCEA, 2014, n° 20, “Le conte : d’un art à l’autre. 
Adaptations et devenir des contes populaires en Europe centrale et 
orientale (XIXe-XXIe siècles).” https://journals.openedition.org/ilcea/2536
KELLY Catriona (2007), “At the Movies” in Children’s World. Growing up 
in Russia, 1890-1991, New Haven, London, Yale University Press, pp. 474-479.
LEYDA Jay (1960), Kino. A History of the Russian and Soviet Film, 
Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1960, 1973, 1983.
MARGOLIT Evgenij (2000), “Le pays des enfants : le fantôme de la 
liberté” in Bernard Eisenschitz (ed.), Gels et Dégels. Une autre 
histoire du cinéma soviétique. 1926-1968, Milan, Paris, Mazzotta, Centre 
Georges Pompidou, pp. 53-63 (see also “Prizrak svobody: strana detej,” 
Iskusstvo kino, 2002, n° 8. 
http://old.kinoart.ru/archive/2002/08/n8-article14)
MILOSERDOVA Natal’ja (2019), Barskaja, Saint Petersburg, Seans.
NUSINOVA Natal’ja (2000), “‘Maintenant, tu es des nôtres’” in Bernard 
Eisenschitz (ed.), Gels et Dégels. Une autre histoire du cinéma 
soviétique. 1926-1968, Milan, Paris, Mazzotta, Centre Georges Pompidou, 
pp. 47-52 (see also “‘Teper’ ty naša.’ Rebënok v sovetskom kino 20-30-x 
godov”, Iskusstvo kino, 2003, n° 12. 
http://old.kinoart.ru/archive/2003/12/n12-article12)
NUSINOVA Natal’ja (2013), “L’enfance soviétique : souvenir ou mythologie 
?”, Revue russe, n° 41, “Que reste-t-il de l’Union soviétique dans la 
Russie d’aujourd’hui ?”, pp. 75-83.
OLENINA Ana Hedberg (2019), “The junctures of child psychology and 
Soviet avant-garde film: representations, influences, applications” in 
Olga Voronina (ed.), A Companion to Soviet Children’s Literature and 
Film, Leyde, Brill, pp. 72-98.
PROKHOROV Alexander (2007), “Arresting development: a brief history of 
Soviet cinema for children and adolescents” in Marina Balina and Larissa 
Rudova (eds.), Russian Children’s Literature and Culture, New York, 
Routledge, pp. 129-52.
PROKHOROV Alexander (2007), “The adolescent and the child in the cinema 
of the Thaw”, Studies in Russian and Soviet Cinema, vol. 1, n° 2, pp. 
115-29.
PROKHOROV Alexander (2011), “Children’s films” in Birgit Beumers (ed.), 
Directory of World Cinema: Russia, Bristol, Chicago, Intellect, pp. 242-45.
RUDOVA Larissa (2019), “Embracing eccentricity: Золушка and the 
avant-garde imagination” in Olga Voronina (ed.), A Companion to Soviet 
Children’s Literature and Film, Leyde, Brill, pp. 417-39.
SEROV Lena (2023), “The Development of Educational Cinema for Schools in 
the Soviet Union in the 1930s. From the Cinefication of Schools to the 
Film Lesson,” Research in Film and History, July, n° 5, “Educational 
Film Practices.” 
https://film-history.org/issues/text/educational-cinema-schools
SHPOLBERG Masha (2016), “Baba Yaga sur l’écran soviétique”, Revue 
Sciences/Lettres, n° 4, “Baba Yaga en chair et en os. Des contes slaves 
aux incarnations contemporaines.” 
https://journals.openedition.org/rsl/1007?lang=en#ftn5
TSIKOUNAS Myriam (1992), Les Origines du cinéma soviétique. Un regard 
neuf, Paris, Cerf, pp. 98-99.
WOLL Josephine (2000), Real Images. Soviet Cinemas and the Thaw, London, 
New York, I.B. Tauris, pp. 112-17.

Reference / Quellennachweis:
CFP: The Most Important of All Ages (Paris, 4-6 May 25). In: 
ArtHist.net, Dec 1, 2025. <https://arthist.net/archive/51255>.

From a.ludovico at neural.it  Wed Dec  3 16:36:47 2025
From: a.ludovico at neural.it (Alessandro Ludovico)
Date: Wed, 3 Dec 2025 15:36:47 +0000
Subject: [spectre] Reorientations - Neural 77
Message-ID: <1A600F03-4867-4693-A3C0-8B0F0466B63C@neural.it>

“Reorientations” (Neural #77) is still available! <https://neural.it/2025/10/neural-77-reorientations-extra-the-artists-postcard-herethis-place-a-listening-exercise-by-jana-winderen/>
Only subscribers will get the artists’ intervention:
here:this place, a listening exercise by Jana Winderen, an artist’s postcard <https://neural.it/2025/10/neural-77-extra-the-artists-postcard-here-this-place-a-listening-exercise-by-jana-winderen/>
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Neural #77, “Reorientations”

Centrefold: REVIEW, embodying hostile language. 
interviews:
. panGenerator
. Charles Stankievech
. Mélia Roger
. Adelin Schweitzer
articles:
. Geofónie, Listening to the Earth
. Sonic Reorientations: Listening in a Time of Ecological Collapse

reports:
. Art Must Be Artificial: Perspectives of AI in the Visual Arts
. The Vinyl Factory: Reverb
. Electric Dreams: Art and Technology Before the Internet

news:
. Anthofluid, to become is to be infiltrated, malleably fluid.
. Strategies for an Auction, the voice to bid.
. 564 Tracks (Not a Love Song is Usually a Love Song), predicting a different audio past.
. exclusive disjunctions#2; Whispering of the Wind (wish), listen to your disappearing voice.
. Interference Spores 2.0, organic complex communication.
. Network Maintenance, collective machine care.
. Viral Infection, information shaping organic production.
. Cellular Performances, cellular automata audiovisual set.
. Zijlijn / Linea Lateralis, actively experiencing marine biophony.
. Coral Sonic Resilience, symbiotic mediation.
. Oilwell, climate disaster for meditation.
. Emerald Black Latency, the technological latency of the green screen.
. I/Another, don’t think, just move.
. SCAN, extending microwave perception.
. Ideal behaviour, pleasing the hiring AI

books/dvds:
. Anthony Stagliano/ Disobedient Aesthetics- Surveillance, Bodies, Control (Rhetoric and Digitality)/ University Alabama Press
. Cornelia Sollfrank und Felix Stalder/Contemporaneity in Embodied Data Practices/Sternberg Press
. edited by Daniele Salerno and Ann Rigney/Archiving Activism in the Digital Age/Institute of Network Cultures
. edited by Kate Donovan/Swamps & Stars, A Series on Planetary Listening/Planetary Listening
. edited by Kyle Booten & Katy Ilonka Gero/Ensemble Park (A Journal of Human+Computer Writing)/ensemblepark.com
. Edited by Riccardo Badano, Tomas Percival, Susan Schuppli/Militant Media: CRA #2/Spector Books
. edited by Sepp Eckenhaussen, Senka Milutinović, and Carolina Valente Pinto/Screentime Airtime Facetime- Practicing Hybridity in the Cultural Field/ Institute of Network Cultures
. edited by Tony Buck, Racha Gharbieh, Mazen Kerbaj, Magda Mayas und Ute Wassermann/Graphème, a publication for experimental musical scores (Volume 4) /smallest functional unit
. Marcelo Velasco, Ignacio Nieto/The Art-Science Symbiosis/Springer
. Marina Hassapopoulou/Interactive Cinema, The Ambiguous Ethics of Media Participation/University of Minnesota Press
. Marco De Mutiis, Matteo Bittanti/The Photographer’s Guide to Los Santos/Mimesis International
. RYBN.ORG/ALGOFFSHORE, The Art of Automating Tax Evasion/Set Margins’
. Darko Fritz/Digital Art in Croatia 1968 – 1984/Technical Museum Nikola Tesla
. edited by Pita Arreola, Corinna Gardner, Melanie Lenz/Digital Art (Victoria and Albert Museum)- 1960s–. Now/Thames and Hudson Ltd / V&A
. edited by Michelle Cotton/Radical Software- Women, Art & Computing 1960–1991/Mudam Luxembourg – Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Kunsthalle Wien and Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther und Franz König
 music reviews:
. Gavin Vanaelst : Takeaway Loops : Edições CN
. Alessandro Bosetti with Neue Vocalsolisten : Portraits de Voix : Kohlhaas
. John Tilbury, Keith Rowe, Kjell Bjørgeengen : Flicker, Scratch & Ivory : true blanking
. Erika Angell : The Obsession With Her Voice : Constellation
. Vittorio Guindani : Materia Breve : 901 Editions
. Érick d’Orion & Martin Tétreault : Cisterciennes : No Type
. Rubbish Music : Fatbergs : Persistence of Sound
. Zeno van den Broek, HIIIT, Gagi Petrovic & Machines : Relatum : MFR Contemporary Series
. Orgone Percussion Ensemble : Perspectives in percussions for the XXI century I : FibrrRecords
. Laszlo Umbreit, Sirah Foighel Brutmann & Eitan Efrat : Là – Futura Resistenza
. Murcof : Twin Color (vol. I) : InFiné
. Victoria Keddie : Pshal, P’shaw : raster
. Pietro Grossi (Sergio Armaroli) : OSTN : Gruenrekorder
. Yoko Ono / The Great Learning Orchestra : Selected Recordings From Grapefruit : Karlrecords
. Stefan Goldmann : Expanse : Macro
. Midori Hirano & CoH : Sudden Fruit : Mind Travels Series
. Marc Baron + Eric La Casa : Contrefaçons : Swarming
. Pinkcourtesyphone : Arise in Sinking Feelings : Room40
. Ilia Belorukov : NRD DRM TWO 2022-2024 : Crónica
. Davide Luciani & Jorge Quintela : The Right Half : Stray Signals


Neural magazine - http://neural.it/
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From paul at paul-brown.com  Sat Dec  6 20:15:39 2025
From: paul at paul-brown.com (Paul Brown)
Date: Sun, 7 Dec 2025 06:15:39 +1100
Subject: [spectre] =?utf-8?q?=5BNEW-MEDIA-CURATING=5D_=5BCAS=5D_AGM_=26_Ex?=
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R E M I N D E R

The Computer Arts Society 2025 programme concludes

AGM & Exhibition Opening – Computational Constructs
Speaker:  Sean Clark;  Moderator:  Nick Lambert
17:00 GMT, Wednesday, 10 December 2025, Annual General Meeting
18:00 GMT, Artists Talk and Opening Reception
Other time zones here:  https://www.timeanddate.com <https://www.timeanddate.com/> 

This hybrid event will be held In-Person and via Zoom.  Booking link below.
BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT
25 Copthall Avenue, London, EC2R 7BP, UK
Directions here: https://www.bcs.org/about-us/our-london-office-and-event-venue/

Computer Arts Society (CAS) Chair Sean Clark discusses his latest body of artwork - Computational Constructs. In this talk to launch an exhibition of his work at BCS Moorgate, he presents the motivations behind his work, and introduces the concept of a “reconstructavist” aesthetic and how he uses systems concepts to inspire how he works. As well as the 20 prints on display, Sean will present a multi-user mobile phone version of Computational Constructs, together with early experiments in generating sound, not just images, with his generative systems. 

Sean Clark is an independent artist and curator based in Leicestershire, UK. He has a PhD in Computational Art from De Montfort University and, as well as being Chair of CAS, runs the Computer Arts Archive CIC. He is a Fellow of the BCS Chartered Institute for IT.

The presentation will be preceded by the CAS AGM and followed by a reception and an opportunity to view the exhibition.  The event will be recorded and uploaded to the CAS YouTube Channel.

This hybrid event is in-person and via Zoom, open to the public and free to attend, but you must reserve your place here: https://ComputerArtsSociety101225.eventbrite.co.uk <https://computerartssociety101225.eventbrite.co.uk/>.

If you wish to attend the AGM, please turn up before 17:00.  If you only wish to attend the talk and reception, please turn up between 17:50 and 18:00.

___________________________________

Our next meeting will be our Annual Jasia Reichardt Lecture by William Latham with moderator and discussant Bronaċ Ferran on Wednesday, 21 January 2026.  Hybrid:  in-person and Zoom.

You can see our future programme here: https://computer-arts-society.com/events/index.html


From mail at garyhall.info  Mon Dec  8 13:29:25 2025
From: mail at garyhall.info (Gary Hall)
Date: Mon, 8 Dec 2025 12:29:25 +0000
Subject: [spectre] New Issue of Culture Machine: Aesthetics of Biomachines
In-Reply-To: <CY8PR17MB640655A8EBF142816DEBF27E96A7A@CY8PR17MB6406.namprd17.prod.outlook.com>
References: <CY8PR17MB640655A8EBF142816DEBF27E96A7A@CY8PR17MB6406.namprd17.prod.outlook.com>
Message-ID: <4b92dd1b-86d5-4f86-b7ea-f51de0594fbb@garyhall.info>

//

*/Culture Machine/*is pleased to announce /Vol 24 The Aesthetics of 
Biomachines/,

guest-edited by Johan Lau Munkholm, Naja Grundtmann, Kristin Veel and 
Kathrin Maurer, from Copenhagen University and the University of 
Southern Denmark

Link: https://culturemachine.net/archives/aesthetics-of-biomachines/

*From the Guest-Editor’s Introduction:*

This special issue of /Culture Machine/ on biomachines seeks to expand 
our understanding of the current state of the interactions between the 
biological and the machinic through an aesthetic lens. The notion of 
‘aesthetics’ as regards biomachines invokes multiple instigations of the 
term. We employ it to refer to 1) the study of sensory knowledge, as 
defined in the work of Baumgarten, and 2) the philosophical branch that 
studies art and its interpretation. Ascribing aesthetic properties to 
biomachines allows us to home in on the particulars of the 
techno-sensory experiences at work in their contemporary configurations. 
The articles in this issue describe the constitution and implication of 
the meeting between the biological and the machinic in differing ways. 
While some contributors identify in the encounter composite forms that 
confuse the distinction between biology and machine, others focus on how 
computational mediation encloses biological processes for instrumental 
reasons while (intentionally or not) producing new forms of knowledge 
and affective entanglements. In other contributions, the transformative 
potentials that emerge in the meeting between humans and machines are 
assessed according to the power relations they construct, reproduce or 
challenge. It is common to all the contributions, however, that the 
terms and the constitution of relationality of /bios /and machine are a 
basic topic of enquiry that opens multiple affiliated questions and 
problems that sharpen our critical sense of our developing technological 
reality. Equally common to the contributions is a fundamental concern 
with aesthetics. In employing aesthetics as an approach or a practice 
that gives room to notions of the machinic outside its immediate 
instrumental context, the issue offers studies of biomachines that allow 
us to appreciate our new technological realities.

Contents

Artificial Touch in Contemporary Art and Culture 
<https://culturemachine.net/?p=8483>
*Mette-Marie Zacher Sørensen & Lea Laura N. Michelsen*

Of Grafts, Interferences and Haploids: Speculative Reproduction and 
Biomachinic Time in Naomi Mitchison’s /Memoirs of a Spacewoman/ 
<https://culturemachine.net/?p=8504>
*Henriette Steiner & Kristin Veel*

AI Uncanny: Posthuman Entanglement and Biomachine Ethics in /The Trouble 
with Being Born/ <https://culturemachine.net/?p=8509>
*Annie Ring*

Contagious Life: Clones, Deadbots, Digital Twins 
<https://culturemachine.net/?p=8517>
*Caroline Bassett*

More Than an Optimisation Problem: AI Incommensurability as 
Companionable Aesthetics <https://culturemachine.net/?p=8522>
*Nicole De Brabandere*

Bio-AI: The Aesthetics and Ethics of Data Animism 
<https://culturemachine.net/?p=8527>
*Joanna Zylinska*

Pierre Huyghe’s Art, Bio-Machines, and the Question of Life 
<https://culturemachine.net/?p=8532>
*Kathrin Maurer*

Encountering the Biomachinic Planet <https://culturemachine.net/?p=8537>
*Thomas Storey*




-- 
Gary Hall
Professor of Media
Centre for Postdigital Cultures, Coventry University

Director of Open Humanities Press:http://www.openhumanitiespress.org 
Blog:http://garyhall.squarespace.com/journal/

Latest:

Book: Masked Media: What It Means to Be Human in the Age of Artificial Creative Intelligence:http://www.openhumanitiespress.org/books/titles/masked-media/

Journal issue: Ecologies of Dissemination issue of PARSE Journal #21 - Summer 2025, edited by Eva Weinmayr and Femke Snelting:https://parsejournal.com/journal/#ecologies-of-dissemination. (I'm one of the contributors to this experimental issue which emphasizes collective over individual authorship.)

Video: 'Liquidate AI Art', Computer Arts Society:https://www.bcs.org/events-calendar/2025/october/webinar-liquidate-ai-art

Talk: 'The Independent Intellectual vs Posting Zero and the Dead Internet':http://garyhall.squarespace.com/journal/2025/12/2/the-independent-intellectual-vs-posting-zero-and-the-dead-in.html




















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From mail at garyhall.info  Mon Dec  8 15:27:25 2025
From: mail at garyhall.info (Gary Hall)
Date: Mon, 8 Dec 2025 14:27:25 +0000
Subject: [spectre] Realist Magic: Objects, Ontology, Causality (2nd edition,
 with a new Preface) by Timothy Morton
Message-ID: <2ac1aeef-3d4e-40c3-ae30-42e79732b614@garyhall.info>

As we edge toward 2026, if we were to track back over some of the books 
Open Humanities Press has published in 2025, we would begin with October's

Realist Magic: Objects, Ontology, Causality (2nd edition, with a new 
Preface) by Timothy Morton.

Like all Open Humanities Press books, Realist Magic is available open 
access (= it can be downloaded for free):

https://www.openhumanitiespress.org/books/titles/realist-magic-2nd-ed/


Book description

Object-oriented ontology offers a startlingly fresh way to think about 
causality that takes into account developments in physics since 1900. 
Causality, argues Object Oriented Ontology (OOO), is aesthetic. In this 
book, Timothy Morton explores what it means to say that a thing has come 
into being, that it is persisting, and that it has ended. Drawing from 
examples in physics, biology, ecology, art, literature and music, Morton 
demonstrates the counterintuitive yet elegant explanatory power of OOO 
for thinking causality.

With a new Preface by Timothy Morton.


Author Bio

Morton is the author of the libretto Time, Time, Time (opera by Jennifer 
Walshe, 2019), and of numerous artworks including We Are the Asteroid 
(with Justin Guariglia, 2019); Come Fast from the Dark (with Andrew 
Melchior, 2024); and This Huge Sunlit Abyss From The Future Right There 
Next To You (with Björk, 2015). In 2018 Morton co-wrote and appeared 
with Jeff Bridges in Living in the Future’s Past, directed by Susan 
Kucera. Morton is Rita Shea Guffey Chair of English at Rice University.

Morton has written Hell: in Search of a Christian Ecology (Columbia, 
2024), All Art Is Ecological (Penguin, 2021), Spacecraft (Bloomsbury, 
2021), Being Ecological (Penguin, 2018), Humankind: Solidarity with 
Nonhuman People (Verso, 2017), Dark Ecology: For a Logic of Future 
Coexistence (Columbia, 2016), Nothing: Three Inquiries in Buddhism 
(Chicago, 2015), Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology after the End of 
the World (Minnesota, 2013), Realist Magic: Objects, Ontology, Causality 
(Open Humanities Press, 2013), The Ecological Thought (Harvard, 2010), 
Ecology without Nature (Harvard, 2007), 8 other books and 300+ essays on 
philosophy, ecology, literature, music, art, architecture, design and food.


Series

The book is published as part of the New Metaphysics series: 
https://www.openhumanitiespress.org/books/series/new-metaphysics/


Series Design

The New Metaphysics series design is by Katherine Gillieson with cover 
illustrations by Tammy Lu.


-- 
Gary Hall
Professor of Media
Centre for Postdigital Cultures, Coventry University

Director of Open Humanities Press: http://www.openhumanitiespress.org
Blog: http://garyhall.squarespace.com/journal/

Latest:

Book: Masked Media: What It Means to Be Human in the Age of Artificial Creative Intelligence: http://www.openhumanitiespress.org/books/titles/masked-media/

Video: 'Liquidate AI Art', Computer Arts Society: https://www.bcs.org/events-calendar/2025/october/webinar-liquidate-ai-art

Talk: 'The Independent Intellectual vs Posting Zero and the Dead Internet': http://garyhall.squarespace.com/journal/2025/12/2/the-independent-intellectual-vs-posting-zero-and-the-dead-in.html






















From ab at mikro.in-berlin.de  Wed Dec 10 08:53:45 2025
From: ab at mikro.in-berlin.de (Andreas Broeckmann)
Date: Wed, 10 Dec 2025 08:53:45 +0100
Subject: [spectre] Fwd: EastUnBloc: Net Art Gallery Surfing Session December
 11, 2025, 7 pm onsite at ngbK Berlin, and online
In-Reply-To: <CAMjwTo9OX5jhOe4+P_7bBfH3n5Eqq9OdDwuZaFtxcg7c==YVyQ@mail.gmail.com>
References: <CAMjwTo9OX5jhOe4+P_7bBfH3n5Eqq9OdDwuZaFtxcg7c==YVyQ@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <9a5afecf-1c54-4437-884b-18a3dd2075fc@mikro.in-berlin.de>

Betreff: <nettime> EastUnBloc: Net Art Gallery Surfing Session December 
11, 2025, 7 pm onsite at ngbK and online
Datum: Sat, 6 Dec 2025 06:40:35 +0100
Von: Nat Gravenor via nettime-l <nettime-l at lists.nettime.org>
Kopie (CC): Nat Gravenor <natgravenor at gmail.com>

EastUnBloc: Net Art Gallery Surfing Session

Curator Sakrowski and artist Igor Štromajer browse and chat about net 
art activities on the web. Live at nGbK and online.

Thu, 11.12.25, 7.00 pm Type: Language: English Location: nGbK Address:
Karl-Liebknecht-Straße 11, 10178 Berlin, 1st floor Admission: free

https://www.ngbk.de

on site and online at:  https://www.panke.gallery/streaming/

Igor Štromajer, intima.org – „the Pavarotti of HTML“ (Libération) –
researches tactical emotional actions, intimate guerrilla, and traumatic
low-tech communication strategies. He has shown his work at more than 
two hundred fifty exhibitions in more than sixty countries 
(transmediale, ISEA, EMAF, SIGGRAPH, Ars Electronica Futurelab, V2_, 
IMPAKT, CYNETART, Manifesta, FILE, Stuttgarter Filmwinter, Hamburg 
Kunsthalle, ARCO, Microwave, Banff Centre and many more) and received a 
number of awards (in Frankfurt, Moscow, Hamburg, Dresden, Belfort, 
Madrid, Maribor, Podgorica).
His projects form part of the permanent collections of several art
institutions, among them Le Centre national d’art et de Culture Georges
Pompidou – Musée national d’art moderne in Paris, the Museo Nacional 
Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid, Computerfinearts – net and media 
art collection in New York, and Maribor Art Gallery in Slovenia. As a 
guest artist he lectures at universities and contemporary art institutes.

Sakrowski holds a master‘s degree in art history and works as a curator 
in Berlin. From 1999 – 2003 he curated and organized exhibitions and 
lectures on net art as part of the netart-datenbank.org project. From 
2007 to 2009 he worked as a researcher on the Netzpioniere 1.0 research 
project at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute Media.Art.Research in Linz. 
Since 2007, under the name CuratingYouTube.net, he has been working 
intensively with the web.video phenomena and, with gridr.org (2012), he 
provides an online tool specially designed for this purpose. In 2014/15 
he worked for the transmediale festival 2015 capture all as curator. 
Since October 2016, he has managed and curated the panke.gallery in 
Berlin-Wedding. He is a founding member (2019) of the Center for Net 
Art. In 2022 he opened with the Center for Net Art and panke.gallery the 
project space /rosa. In 2021 he developed the web platform openAR (2021) 
for the presentation and curation of web-based augmented reality objects.

Event program of the exhibition EastUnBloc:
https://ngbk.de/en/programm/programm/eastunbloc

From mail at garyhall.info  Thu Dec 11 15:53:19 2025
From: mail at garyhall.info (Gary Hall)
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2025 14:53:19 +0000
Subject: [spectre] Ecocide and Inscription vol. 1: Black Ops. Petrolepathy,
 Escaped Slaves, Cinemacide - new open access book
Message-ID: <b9f4fd2d-9cce-487e-8b65-ab7fac174dba@garyhall.info>

Open Humanities Press is delighted to announce the publication of Tom 
Cohen's Ecocide and Inscription vol. 1: Black Ops. Petrolepathy, Escaped 
Slaves, Cinemacide – A Tele-mnemonics for the After-Times.

Available open access and in colour print from:

https://www.openhumanitiespress.org/books/titles/black-ops/

Book description

Examining works by Faulkner, Morrison, and Hitchcock among others, Tom 
Cohen traces a “hyper-blackness” that exceeds racial binaries and links 
to the viscous materiality of oil. He argues that this blackness before 
face or figuration offers a way to rupture the “Anthropocene” spell and 
its attendant anaesthesias. By tracking inscriptions that melt back into 
a prefigural domain, Cohen outlines a literary structure of climate 
change itself, one that undoes conventional notions of meaning, 
reference, and human exceptionalism. This daring work proposes new 
tele-mnemonic models for reading in the “After-times” – an era when 
tipping points have passed and cascade effects accelerate, 
unacknowledged. Blending literary analysis, philosophy, and 
environmental thought, it charts a path beyond mourning or denial toward 
a radical reconfiguration of thought itself in the face of planetary 
mutation that does not promise a good outcome (indeed, the “promise” is 
jettisoned). Taken as a contribution to Nethercene reading expeditions 
as a subset of Irreversibilities – a perspective that is 
transgenerational and temporally fluid, in radical transition, and 
inter-speciesist – Cohen tracks where liquefied figures of inscription 
direct our anthropomorphic fables and remain to confront as we leave the 
“Anthropocene Talk” bubble as a distraction. These “inhumanist” scans 
return to the interventionist prospect of reading technics at the point 
of the rise of LLM “A.I.” modes – seeing a direct line from the cave 
paintings and proto-writing through cinema, the algorithmic take over of 
the screen, mutations of literacies toward vidioscapes, and looming 
accelerations of the climate vortex.

     With Black Ops, Tom Cohen enters the war over the visibility or 
occlusion of oil amidst the fossil-fueled crackup of the Holocene, the 
Earth-system configuration that allowed for what was called 
civilization. That crackup, Cohen incisively argues, entangles with 
received modes of sense-making. Cohen tracks how select literary, 
cinematic, and photographic artifacts screen yet undercut legacy 
semantic orders, exposing signifying technics for 
on-the-climate-charnel-ground reengineering. Detailing hermeneutic, 
mnemonic, and political tipping points that put the human in the 
rearview mirror (species split, anyone?), Ecocide and Inscription 1, 
Black Ops orients readers toward the catastrophic now of climate chaos, 
about which Cohen’s disconcertingly safe wager is that the only way out 
is an interminable, yet all-too-terminant, way through.
     Robert Savino Oventile, author of Impossible Reading: Idolatry and 
Diversity in Literature and coauthor (with Sandy Florian) of Sophia 
Lethe Talks Doxodox Down

Author Bio

Tom Cohen is Emeritus Professor of English and co-director of the 
Institute on Critical Climate Change at the University at Albany. He is 
the author of Anti-Mimesis From Plato to Hitchcock (Cambridge 1994), 
Ideology and Inscription: Cultural Studies after Benjamin, De Man, and 
Bahktin (Cambridge 1998), and Hitchcock’s Cryptonymies, vols. 1 & 2 
(UMinn 2005). His most recent titles, co-authored with Claire Colebrook 
and J. Hillis Miller, are Theory and the Disappearing Future (Routledge 
2011), and its companion volume, Twilight of the Anthropocene Idols (OHP 
2016). He is also the editor of Derrida and the Humanities (Cambridge 
2003) and co-editor of Material Events: Paul de Man and the Afterlife of 
Theory (UMinn 2001).

Series

The book is published as part of the CCC2 Irreversibility series, edited 
by Tom Cohen and Claire 
Colebrook:https://www.openhumanitiespress.org/books/series/ccc2-irreversibility 


Sigi, Gary, David, Joanna

-- 
Gary Hall
Professor of Media
Centre for Postdigital Cultures, Coventry University

Director of Open Humanities Press: http://www.openhumanitiespress.org
Blog: http://garyhall.squarespace.com/journal/

Latest:

Book: Masked Media: What It Means to Be Human in the Age of Artificial Creative Intelligence: http://www.openhumanitiespress.org/books/titles/masked-media/

Video: 'Liquidate AI Art', Computer Arts Society: https://www.bcs.org/events-calendar/2025/october/webinar-liquidate-ai-art

Talk: 'The Independent Intellectual vs Posting Zero and the Dead Internet': http://garyhall.squarespace.com/journal/2025/12/2/the-independent-intellectual-vs-posting-zero-and-the-dead-in.html






















From paul at paul-brown.com  Sat Dec 13 04:08:53 2025
From: paul at paul-brown.com (Paul Brown)
Date: Sat, 13 Dec 2025 14:08:53 +1100
Subject: [spectre] [CAS] Annual Jasia Reichardt Lecture 2026: William Latham
 on Evolutionary Art, AI, Interaction and Immersive Organic Worlds
Message-ID: <3A462F1B-15A4-4256-9E54-27D0296D1E60@paul-brown.com>

The Computer Arts Society 2026 programme launches

CAS Annual Jasia Reichardt Lecture 2026
Evolutionary Art, AI, Interaction and Immersive Organic Worlds

Speaker:  William Latham;  Moderator:  Bronaċ Ferran
18:00 GMT, Wednesday, 21 January 2026
Other time zones here:  https://www.timeanddate.com <https://www.timeanddate.com/> 

This hybrid event will be held In-Person and via Zoom.  Booking link below.
BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT
25 Copthall Avenue, London, EC2R 7BP, UK
Directions here: https://www.bcs.org/about-us/our-london-office-and-event-venue/

William Latham will cover the history of his work. He will start with his early work as a student in the 1980s at the Royal College of Art where he developed his FormSynth hand-drawn evolutionary systems through to his later Mutator and FormGrow software developed at the IBM UK Scientific Centre in Winchester from 1987 to ’93, where he began his long-term collaboration with mathematician Stephen Todd. Together, they produced many of the images for which he is best known today using Mutator to create strange organic forms from an alternative evolution. He went on to work in VR, creating immersive organic worlds influenced by his ten years working in Rave Music and Games. His most recent work in collaboration with Google DeepMind entitled Evolution and Foundation AI uses AI to drive and steer the evolutionary process replacing the human selector with the computer. He will share insights and anecdotes from the journey so far and the people who have influenced him and address the challenges of harnessing evolutionary and AI processes for his creative goals.   

William Latham is a pioneering UK digital artist well known for his evolutionary art created at IBM in the late eighties. After twelve years as a Creative Director in Rave Music and Computer Games, he became a Professor at Goldsmiths (University of London). His art is in the Centre Pompidou, the Henry Moore Institute, the V&A Museum and many other collections. His VR and generative work have been shown widely internationally, in recent years particularly in Germany and China. Currently, William and his long-standing collaborator, Stephen Todd are working with Google DeepMind to use AI to drive and steer the evolution of their organic art.  This work was shown for the first time in the Evolution and Foundational AI exhibition in London in late 2025, sponsored by Google DeepMind.  William is a co-founder with Prof Frederic Fol Leymarie of The Creative Machine Exhibition, now touring China.

https://www.evolutionandfoundation.com/

Dr Bronaċ Ferran is a London-based curator and writer. In 2012 she curated the first bringing together of William Latham’s print and digital works in an exhibition entitled Poetry, Language, Code, at Cambridge School of Art. She has written exhibition catalogue essays recently for several leading institutions internationally, including CAS, LACMA, the Mayor Gallery, MAC-USP in São Paulo, TATE and Victoria Miro. She is also a contributor to Right Click Save and Studio International magazine.

The presentation will be followed by a reception and an opportunity to view the current CAS exhibitions.  The event will be recorded and uploaded to the CAS YouTube Channel.

This hybrid event is In-Person and via Zoom.  It is open to the public and is free, but you must book your place here: https://ComputerArtsSociety210126.eventbrite.co.uk <https://computerartssociety210126.eventbrite.co.uk/>
___________________________________

Our next meeting will be Manna: Epigenetics, Conflict and Intergenerational Trauma and other works featuring Anna Dumitriu in discussion with Cécile Bourne-Farrell and Professor Rachel Kerr, on Wednesday, 18 February 2026.  In-Person and Zoom.

You can see our future programme here: https://computer-arts-society.com/events/index.html


From oliver.grau at mediaarthistories.org  Sun Dec 14 19:48:29 2025
From: oliver.grau at mediaarthistories.org (oliver.grau at mediaarthistories.org)
Date: Sun, 14 Dec 2025 19:48:29 +0100
Subject: [spectre] Call: Summit on New Media Art Archiving - ISEA Dubai 2026
References: <062201dc6d29$6f1228a0$4d3679e0$@mediaarthistories.org>  
Message-ID: <06d401dc6d2a$3d48afa0$b7da0ee0$@mediaarthistories.org>

6th Summit on New Media Art Archiving - ISEA Dubai 2026

 

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION 

Accepting: Papers, Panels, Short Archive Presentations and Round Table
Discussions

https://www.isea-symposium-archives.org/6th-summit-on-new-media-art-archivin
g/

 

  Deadline: January 15, 2026  

 

The Summit on New Media Archiving is a gathering of scholars, art
practitioners, academics, archivists, curators, and technicians who are
interested in critical issues related to media art histories. Through the
exchange of knowledge, this summit hopes to facilitate the documentation,
preservation, and dissemination of information related to both physical and
online archiving of electronic and emerging art. 

As digital and electronic arts continue to evolve, preserving artworks and
archiving information requires rethinking traditional archival methods. It
is necessary to continually adapt to new technologies, methodologies and
practices. This summit serves as an important international platform for
discussing the theoretical and practical challenges of new media art
archiving.

 

 

HISTORY 

The Summit on New Media Art Archiving emerged from two roundtable
discussions held first at ISEA2018 in Durban, South Africa then at ISEA2019
in Gwangju, South Korea. These discussions served as a foundation for
expanding connections amongst new media art institutions and archivists.
Consequently, the First Summit on New Media Art Archiving took place
virtually at ISEA2020 in Montreal during COVID, followed by subsequent
Summits at ISEA2022 in Barcelona, ISEA2023 in Paris and ISEA2024 in
Brisbane, culminating in the 5th Summit hosted at ISEA2025 in Seoul. Also,
in February 2025, a workshop was held at ZKM in Germany which focused on
connecting new media archives around the world. This year the 6th Summit on
New Media Art Archiving will be held in conjunction with ISEA2026 in Dubai
during the week of 10-19 April 2026 (most likely the first 2 days - TBD).

 

INTERNATIONAL PARTNERS 

The Summit on New Media Art Archiving is an international, collaborative
initiative involving the following archive partners: ISEA Symposium
Archives, Archive of Digital Art (ADA), ZKM Archives, ACM SIGGRAPH History
Archive, Electronic Language International Festival (FILE) Archives,
MEMODUCT Posthuman Archive, Ars Electronica and a number of research
institutions that focus on new media archiving. This dedicated group aims to
connect new media art (and related) archives around the globe and enhance
the archiving and preservation efforts of new media art.

 

UAE LOCAL PARTNERS 

The Summit team is very interested in working with local partners who work
with new media art and archiving.  New media art archiving in the UAE is a
growing field with universities and art institutions focusing on the digital
preservation of artifacts and also making previously inaccessible
collections available online.

 

TOPICS

*	New directions in online new media art archiving
*	The challenges of physical new media art archives
*	New technologies for archiving
*	Interdisciplinary and cultural exchange of information
*	The Summit is accepting: 
*	paper presentations (short and long)
*	panel discussions (4-5 participants)
*	short archive presentations (5 minutes each)
*	roundtable discussions (propose a topic)

 

FORMAT

Accepted submissions are encouraged to attend the Summit in person. If you
are unable to attend, you may deliver your talk in-person via Zoom remotely.
Panels and papers may have speakers both in-person and remote.  Remote
attendees should be able to engage with the speakers by asking questions and
contributing to roundtable discussions.

 

SUBMISSION 

The Summit on New Media Art Archiving will be accepting submissions soon via
EasyChair. The link to EasyChair will be posted ASAP - check back:
https://www.isea-symposium-archives.org/6th-summit-on-new-media-art-archivin
g/

 

 

Prof. aD Dr. habil. Dr. hc Oliver Grau, MAE

European ARCHIVE OF DIGITAL ART (ADA) www.archive-digitalart.eu
<http://www.archive-digitalart.eu> 

International Society for MediaArtHistories www.mediaarthistories.org
<http://www.mediaarthistories.org> 

 

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From andreas.broeckmann at leuphana.de  Mon Dec 15 08:35:30 2025
From: andreas.broeckmann at leuphana.de (Andreas Broeckmann LEU)
Date: Mon, 15 Dec 2025 08:35:30 +0100
Subject: [spectre] CFP: Second Methodology Seminar for Art History in
 Ukraine (Lviv/online, Mar-Oct 26)
Message-ID: <a2de2760-eb0a-48d0-88e1-9ece78d1aa9e@leuphana.de>

From: Oleksandra Osadcha
Date: Dec 11, 2025
Subject: CFP: Second Methodology Seminar for Art History in Ukraine 
(Lviv/online, Mar-Oct 26)

Max Weber Foundation’s Research Centre Ukraine, Lviv/online
Deadline: Jan 18, 2026

The Methodology Seminars for Art History in Ukraine is a two-year 
scholarly initiative dedicated to rethinking the foundations and future 
directions of art history in Ukraine. The Seminars serve as a platform 
for early-career researchers from Ukraine and international scholars to 
collaborate on critical and practice-oriented reflection on art 
historical methodology. It aims to foster deeper awareness of how 
knowledge is produced, transmitted, and situated – and to explore how 
disciplinary practices might be reconfigured in response to both local 
contexts and global shifts within the humanities.

The second edition, Art History in the Expanded Field, will be dedicated 
to rethinking the established hierarchies and universalities in the 
field and discussing the multivocal, horizontal, and situated 
approaches. Departing from the critical need to overcome the domination 
of homogenizing discourse within the discipline and its epistemological 
implications, we invite the participants to explore together the 
possibilities of art history beyond the established universal rankings, 
categories, or binaries, discovering neglected and unobvious 
decentralised connections and entangled developments.

Structure and time frame:
March-June:
The second edition of The Methodology Seminars  will bring together 10 
early-career scholars working in art history or related fields. The 
initial phase of the second Seminar will take place online from March to 
June 2026. During this period, participants will work together in eight 
biweekly webinars focused on theoretical readings curated by the 
organising team, while concurrently developing their individual research 
projects.
In-between the webinars, there will be 3 theoretical sessions, delivered 
by experts, introducing the main concept and ideas to be further 
explored by the readings.

June-July: In June and July, each participant will receive personalised 
feedback on their work during a one-on-one session with an invited 
international senior expert.

Septemer-October:
The second Seminar will conclude with a week-long residency in Lviv at 
the Research Centre Ukraine — Max Weber Foundation (September 28-October 
2, 2026), where participants will present their work-in-progress 
research, showing its development throughout the Seminar. The 
presentations should clearly demonstrate how they employ the theoretical 
and methodological tools explored during the webinars.

We invite research proposals from Ukrainian and international scholars 
that resonate with a conceptual framework of the seminar and involve 
research on Ukrainian art from a transcultural perspective, aimed at 
exploring the complexity of artistic practices and phenomena beyond the 
national paradigm of art history.

Eligible are students with a master’s degree as well as doctoral and 
postdoctoral researchers in art history and related fields from Ukraine 
and abroad. The working language of the seminars is English. The 
participants of the first edition of The Methodology Seminars are 
eligible to apply.

Possible (but non-exclusive) areas of research:
-regional, transregional, transcultural connections and elective 
affinities in art history
-non-diachronic art history
-paradoxical identities and challenges of national art history narratives
- opacity and invisibility in art history
-cultural transfer beyond center-periphery, invention-imitation dichotomies
-entangled objects and object biographies
  -hybridity, mutation,  and symbiotic life of images
-circulation of images within the networked digital environment - 
shifting dichotomy of art/non-art

Application:
To apply, candidates must submit:
- a CV (PDF)
- a motivation letter (PDF, max. 2 pages)
- a short research proposal (PDF, max. 2 pages)

Applications must be submitted via the following platform: 
https://recruitment.biblhertz.it. Applications are accepted until 
January 18, 2026.
Results of the selection process will be communicated by mid-January.

For more information, please see here. For any inquiries please contact: 
methodologyseminar at gmail.com.

Terms of participation:
Each selected participant will receive an honorarium of 500 EUR, awarded 
upon successful completion of the seminar. Travel, accommodation, and 
per diem expenses for the on-site portion of the program will be fully 
covered. Participation in all the webinars is mandatory. Every other 
week, an assigned moderator from the group will gather written feedback 
of one or two pages from participants and prepare a concise summary and 
questions about the assigned readings. Webinar topics will be biweekly 
in the late afternoon, each lasting two hours. The final schedule will 
be shaped in consultation with the selected participants. We ask all 
applicants to ensure their full commitment to the program and active 
contribution to the group’s collective work.

Throughout both the online and in-person components of the Methodology 
Seminars for Art History in Ukraine, participants will be supported by 
international experts, whose names will be announced at a later date.

The academy is funded by the Connecting Art Histories initiative of the 
Getty Foundation, Los Angeles, supported by the Research Centre Ukraine 
– Max Weber Foundation, Lviv, and the Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck 
Institute for Art History, Rome, and organized by Kateryna Filyuk PhD, 
Lesia Kulchynska PhD, and Oleksandra Osadch PhD.


Reference / Quellennachweis:
CFP: Second Methodology Seminar for Art History in Ukraine (Lviv/online, 
Mar-Oct 26). In: ArtHist.net, Dec 11, 2025. 
<https://arthist.net/archive/51318>.

From andreas.broeckmann at leuphana.de  Mon Dec 15 08:36:28 2025
From: andreas.broeckmann at leuphana.de (Andreas Broeckmann LEU)
Date: Mon, 15 Dec 2025 08:36:28 +0100
Subject: [spectre] CFP: Avant-garde Art out of the Borderlands (Vienna,
 1-2 Oct 26)
Message-ID: <b963f37b-1fd0-46e6-add2-c58439c66b97@leuphana.de>

From: Ana-Maria Milcic
Date: Dec 11, 2025
Subject: CFP: Avant-garde Art out of the Borderlands (Vienna, 1-2 Oct 26)

Institute for Habsburg and Balkan Studies, Austrian Academy of Sciences, 
Vienna, Austria, Oct 1–02, 2026
Deadline: Feb 8, 2026

"Sitting on the Fence: Avant-garde Art out of the Borderlands", 
Institute for Habsburg and Balkan Studies, Austrian Academy of Sciences, 
Vienna, October 1-2, 2026.

This symposium explores the relationship between avant-garde art and the 
notion of the borderland, focusing primarily on the period from the turn 
of the twentieth century to the Second World War, while also considering 
its continuation after 1945 in what is sometimes termed the 
neo-avant-garde. While the borderland is understood here in the 
geographical sense of a territory surrounding the line separating two 
countries, the symposium also welcomes proposals that approach the 
borderland as a more conceptual space: a dynamic, shifting, and 
negotiated zone between two self-differentiating entities, whether 
political, cultural, or ideological. Borderlands can thus serve as 
spaces of encounter, mixing, possibility, hybridity, and conflict, not 
only in terms of how communities and individuals relate to themselves 
and to one another, but also as a conceptual framework through which 
knowledge production and dialectical tensions may be examined.

The title, Sitting on the Fence, points directly to moments of artistic, 
discursive, or historiographical uncertainty, doubt, ambiguity, mixture, 
conflict, inconclusiveness, impasse, friction, and epistemic 
indeterminacy. The symposium seeks to explore the avant-garde in such 
moments, asking how art from borderlands either fails to register the 
complexity of these spaces or actively engages with their tensions. It 
examines how art from borderland contexts denies, overlooks, registers, 
responds to, manifests, navigates, expresses, embodies, illustrates, 
reveals, or indeed generates moments of indecisiveness, ambiguity, 
hybridity, fluidity, conflict, or friction, whether between communities, 
narratives, identities, or political imaginaries. The symposium 
therefore treats the failure of art to represent such phenomena as 
equally important to examine as its capacity to render them visible.

We welcome 300-word proposals for individual papers, accompanied by 
150-word biographies. In preparing your abstract, you might consider:

- how different methodological or theoretical frameworks (from 
decolonial studies and feminist theory to psychoanalysis, phenomenology, 
or network theory) can expand our understanding of borderlands;
- underrepresented or marginalised geographical regions, especially 
those removed from major metropolitan centres typically foregrounded in 
narratives of the avant-garde;
- the possibility of reframing modernity from peripheral, liminal, or 
otherwise bordered vantage points, and how such perspectives challenge 
centre-periphery hierarchies;
- the potential of borderlands to disrupt or consolidate the 
nation-state matrix as a referential point;
- the mobility of artists, objects, and ideas across contested or fluid 
borders, and the implications of such movement for cultural translation 
and artistic identity;
- the role of borderland archives, local institutions, or non-canonical 
actors in constructing alternative art-historical narratives or 
producing counter-modernities.

Please submit abstracts and biographies by February 8, 2026 to 
Ana-Maria.Milcic at oeaw.ac.at with "Sitting on the Fence" in the email 
subject line.


Reference / Quellennachweis:
CFP: Avant-garde Art out of the Borderlands (Vienna, 1-2 Oct 26). In: 
ArtHist.net, Dec 11, 2025. <https://arthist.net/archive/51323>.

From mail at garyhall.info  Tue Dec 16 13:09:38 2025
From: mail at garyhall.info (Gary Hall)
Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2025 12:09:38 +0000
Subject: [spectre] Decentring Ethics: AI Art as Method - open access book
 from OHP
Message-ID: <c3cee189-1b75-4aad-9239-79b76babe807@garyhall.info>

Continuing to look back over some of the books Open Humanities Press has 
published in 2025, September saw the publication of Decentring Ethics: 
AI Art as Method, edited by Vanessa Bartlett, Jasmin Pfefferkorn and 
Emilie K. Sunde

Like all Open Humanities Press books, Decentring Ethics is available 
open access (= it can be downloaded for free):

https://www.openhumanitiespress.org/books/titles/decentring-ethics/


Book description

Artists and cultural institutions are a vital force in the construction 
of a relational, collectively held ethics of human-machine assemblages. 
Technological change always out-paces ethical governance, producing an 
uncertain zone between what machines can do, and what is upheld as 
ethical by diverse publics. Working in ways that are often speculative 
and provocative, artists trace ethical tensions as they are emerging in 
public consciousness.

AI ethics developed by big tech has been critiqued for its 
performativity and lack of equity. Working in the gaps left unfilled by 
recent developments in national and international policy, this volume 
explores artists’ and curators’ radical visions for who or what requires 
ethical protection. This volume pushes past regulatory obligations and 
towards ethics as a way of being in the world.

The book advances a decentred approach to ethics. It draws on 
non-Western, ecocritical and feminist worldviews, and acknowledges the 
more-than-human as an agent with the capacity to act. We position AI art 
as ‘method’ – a process of working with, or in response to, the 
contemporary computational era. This expands the normative definition of 
AI art as art created with relative autonomy by computers. AI art as 
method frames ethics as situated, embodied and improvisational, whereby 
artists work with emergent ethical questions while challenging the more 
conservative frameworks of the cultural institutions they operate 
within. While AI art often utilises the materiality or software of 
machine learning, this is not a pre-requisite for AI art as method.

The book contains commissioned essays, in conversation pieces and 
artistic interventions, compiled by Vanessa Bartlett, Jasmin Pfefferkorn 
and Emilie K Sunde. It includes contributions by: Dani Admiss; Aarati 
Akkapeddi; Nora Al-Badri; Vanessa Bartlett; Gabby Bush; Sean Cubitt; 
Xanthe Dobbie; Solange Glasser, Ben Loveridge, Margaret Osborne, Lucy 
Sparrow, and Ryan Kelly; Libby Heaney; Helen Knowles; Jeannie Marie 
Paterson; Jasmin Pfefferkorn; Off Site Project; Iyad Rahwan; Kamya 
Ramachandran; Tyne Daile Sumner, Emilie K. Sunde; Amanda Wasielewski and 
others.

The volume extends the work of AAIDE (Vanessa Bartlett, Gabby Bush, 
Jasmin Pfefferkorn, Tyne Sumner and Emilie K Sunde), based at The Centre 
for AI and Digital Ethics, University of Melbourne (2021-2024).


Editor Bios

Emilie K. Sunde is a PhD candidate in the School of Culture and 
Communication at The University of Melbourne. Her dissertation is a 
conceptual thesis photography theory, computation, and AI-images. She is 
currently developing a project that draws on an eco-critical approach to 
the latent spaces of Generative AI models, to develop a shared language 
of latent space between STEM and HASS disciplines. She is also the 
co-founder and director of the research group CODED AESTHETICS.

Vanessa Bartlett is a curator and interdisciplinary research leader. 
Drawing on her own lived experiences, she explores how medical and 
technical systems shape equity, ethics and social justice, particularly 
for disabled and chronically ill folk. Her curated exhibitions exploring 
the psychosocial impacts of digital cultures have been seen at 
international arts spaces such as FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative 
Technology), UNSW Galleries and Furtherfield and have featured in The 
Guardian, Creative Review and BBC Radio 4. She has edited two books for 
award-winning academic publisher Liverpool University Press, the most 
recent of which was co-edited with Professor Henrietta Bowden Jones, one 
of the UK’s most high-profile neuroscience researchers. She leads 
several collaborative creative practice projects including AAIDE: The 
Art, AI and Digital Ethics research collective at The Centre for AI and 
Digital Ethics University of Melbourne; and Stomach Ache, which explores 
the gap between emerging microbiome science and lived experiences of 
digestive dysfunction through curatorial methods. She was Mckenzie 
Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Culture and Communication 
(2020-2023), and is currently a Research Fellow in the Faculty of Law, 
at University of Melbourne.

Jasmin Pfefferkorn is a Melbourne Postdoctoral Fellow in Culture and 
Communication at The University of Melbourne. She is currently 
researching the impact of generative technologies on museums’ practice. 
Her research is at the intersection of critical AI and museum studies, 
with an emphasis on the relation between technics and culture in 
emerging socio-cultural milieus. She also has expertise in affect 
theory, assemblage systems theory, media studies, aesthetic theory, and 
visual culture. Jasmin is the author of the monograph Museums as 
Assemblage (Routledge, 2023). She is also the co-founder and director of 
the research group CODED AESTHETICS, which takes an experimental 
approach to exploring human-machine entanglement in sensing and 
sense-making.


Series

The book is published as part of the DATA Browser series, edited by 
Geoff Cox and Joasia Krysa: 
https://www.openhumanitiespress.org/books/series/data-browser/

-- 
Gary Hall
Professor of Media
Centre for Postdigital Cultures, Coventry University

Director of Open Humanities Press: http://www.openhumanitiespress.org
Blog: http://garyhall.squarespace.com/journal/

Latest:

Book: Masked Media: What It Means to Be Human in the Age of Artificial Creative Intelligence: http://www.openhumanitiespress.org/books/titles/masked-media/

Journal issue: Ecologies of Dissemination issue of PARSE Journal #21 - Summer 2025, edited by Eva Weinmayr and Femke Snelting: https://parsejournal.com/journal/#ecologies-of-dissemination. (I'm one of the contributors to this experimental issue which emphasizes collective over individual authorship.)

Video: 'Liquidate AI Art', Computer Arts Society: https://www.bcs.org/events-calendar/2025/october/webinar-liquidate-ai-art

Talk: 'The Independent Intellectual vs Posting Zero and the Dead Internet': http://garyhall.squarespace.com/journal/2025/12/2/the-independent-intellectual-vs-posting-zero-and-the-dead-in.html






















From mail at garyhall.info  Thu Dec 18 13:52:47 2025
From: mail at garyhall.info (Gary Hall)
Date: Thu, 18 Dec 2025 12:52:47 +0000
Subject: [spectre] Barbarian Currents: Half a Century of Brazilian Media
 Arts: open-access book
Message-ID: <41dfb271-d53b-4883-9c0f-571bab4de62a@garyhall.info>

Continuing the round-up of books published by Open Humanities Press in 
2025...


June brought the publication of /Barbarian Currents: Half a Century of 
Brazilian Media Arts/, edited by Gabriel Menotti and German Alfonso Nunez

Like all Open Humanities Press books, /Barbarian Currents /is available 
open access (= it can be downloaded for free):

https://www.openhumanitiespress.org/books/titles/barbarian-currents/

*Book description*

Contemporary art and media art do not exist in separate worlds. In 20th 
century Brazil, technology was a key element of artistic imagination. 
Oswald de Andrade, the father of Brazilian ‘cannibal’ modernism, 
envisioned the Americas as a cradle of a new society populated by 
/technicised barbarians/. The country’s post-war avant-gardes embraced 
computers and electronic media as transformative forces, capable of 
realising the promise of a nation in search of its modern identity. 
/Barbarian Currents/ explores this history through a sociological lens, 
examining the many intriguing circumstances that have shaped the new 
forms of cultural and artistic expression.

This pioneering anthology brings together the voices of artists, critics 
and curators who played a pivotal role in the emergence of technological 
arts in post-war Brazil. The documents, most of which have been 
translated into English for the first time, remind us that ‘alternative’ 
art histories are simply the flipside of dominant narratives. They 
encourage us to look beyond the lens of Western exceptionalism and 
reframe our understanding of cultural histories worldwide.

//

*Endorsements*

**

/Barbarian Currents/rigorously illuminates the way in which Brazil’s 
relationship with technological progress, modernism and utopia shaped a 
distinctive trajectory for its media arts. The book offers readers 
unprecedented insight into how Brazil’s media art scene evolved both 
within and against the global art world. This is an essential resource 
for understanding the special character of technological art in the 
Global South.

//

/José-Carlos Mariátegui/, Founder – Director of Alta Tecnología Andina, Lima

This unique book fills an essential gap in media art studies. Compiling 
an extensive directory of Brazilian artistic production, it 
reconstructs, through the perspectives of its leading actors, an 
important history marked by creative experiments between art and 
industry post-World War II.

//

/Professor Giselle Beiguelman/, University of São Paulo FAU-USP

**

*Editor Bios*

**

Gabriel Menotti is Associate Professor and chair of the Screen Cultures 
and Curatorial Studies graduate program at Queen’s University, Ontario. 
He also works as an independent curator in the field of media practices. 
His most recent books are /Practices of Projection: Histories and 
Technologies/ (2020, co-edited with Virginia Crisp) and /Movie Circuits: 
Curatorial Approaches to Cinema Technology/ (2019).

German Alfonso Nunez is a postdoctoral fellow and lecturer in the 
Department of Multimedia, Media and Communication at the State 
University of Campinas (Unicamp). His work focuses on the Brazilian 
artistic field of the post-World War II era. Recently, he worked as a 
researcher at the Museum of Modern Art of São Paulo, where he organised 
and edited the commemorative book for the Museum’s 75th anniversary.

*Series*

The book is published as part of the MEDIA : ART : WRITE : NOW series 
edited by Joanna Zylinska: 
http://www.openhumanitiespress.org/books/series/media-art-write-now/ 
<http://www.openhumanitiespress.org/books/series/media-art-write-now/>


-- 
Gary Hall
Professor of Media
Centre for Postdigital Cultures, Coventry University

Director of Open Humanities Press:http://www.openhumanitiespress.org 
Blog:http://garyhall.squarespace.com/journal/

Latest:

Book: Masked Media: What It Means to Be Human in the Age of Artificial Creative Intelligence:http://www.openhumanitiespress.org/books/titles/masked-media/

Journal issue: Ecologies of Dissemination issue of PARSE Journal #21 - Summer 2025, edited by Eva Weinmayr and Femke Snelting:https://parsejournal.com/journal/#ecologies-of-dissemination. (I'm one of the contributors to this experimental issue which emphasizes collective over individual authorship.)

Video: 'Liquidate AI Art', Computer Arts Society:https://www.bcs.org/events-calendar/2025/october/webinar-liquidate-ai-art

Talk: 'The Independent Intellectual vs Posting Zero and the Dead Internet':http://garyhall.squarespace.com/journal/2025/12/2/the-independent-intellectual-vs-posting-zero-and-the-dead-in.html




















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From info at schoolofma.org  Thu Dec 18 14:59:28 2025
From: info at schoolofma.org (Rachel Uwa)
Date: Thu, 18 Dec 2025 14:59:28 +0100
Subject: [spectre] New media art program and scholarship deadline 22.
 December
Message-ID: <CAByjt49CcFKy_RPw=Sxo9s8WWaqHG8MQNXGKvc0FsNVKhvKRbw@mail.gmail.com>

Dear new media art and activist peeps,

apologies for crossposting!

We're trying to create alternative education opportunities for the
political moment we're living in and we've made a new program brochure for
our upcoming 14-week evening
new media art and activism program taking place at School of Machines in
Berlin. We would be super grateful  if you can help us spread the word to
your communities if it's
relevant to your location or if you know Berliners you can share it with!*
Link is here:* https://bit.ly/afterhours2026

We're running two courses:
*Creative Coding & Electronic Mischief*
led by contemporary artist and activist Grayson Earle focuses on media
making, electronics and creative misuses of technology for art and activism.

*Homegrown Tools & Self-Hosted Infrastructures*
led by media artist and educator Sarah Grant focuses on developing your own
digital tools - from self-hosted servers, networks and AI systems
to custom scripts and alternative infrastructure.

*Additionally, we're giving out two scholarships, one for each of the
courses, deadline to apply is 22. December. *
Thanks for helping us spread the word if you're able!

Happy Holidays! <3

Warmly,
Rachel

*Creative Director | School of Machines, Making & Make-Believe
<http://schoolofma.org/>*
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From mm at automatist.org  Thu Dec 18 18:26:30 2025
From: mm at automatist.org (Michael Murtaugh)
Date: Thu, 18 Dec 2025 18:26:30 +0100
Subject: [spectre] Applications open for Experimental Publishing Master 2026
Message-ID: <e9c6dc21-80e9-4cf1-b1cf-d6574f0fc58e@automatist.org>

Dear spectre subscribers...

Sorry for cross posting, please circulate!!!

✨💾 Apply to XPUB! 🖥️✨

XPUB is a two-year master in Experimental Publishing at the Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam (NL)
focused on the acts of making things public and creating publics in the age of post-digital networks.

Application deadlines:
- February 27, 2026 (final deadline NON-EU, priority EU and Dutch)
- May 8, 2026 (final deadline EU and Dutch)

Open days:
- Saturday February 7, 2026 | 10:00 – 15:00 hrs
- Saturday March 28, 2026 | 10:00 – 14:00 hrs

https://xpub.nl

An animated flowchart style diagram showing nodes connected by arrows. 
Highlighted paths includes texts such as: When do bots improvise video 
games with zine festivals, and why do notebooks print minor stories at 
print workshops.
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From info at metazoa.org  Sat Dec 20 20:38:23 2025
From: info at metazoa.org (metazoa.org)
Date: Sat, 20 Dec 2025 20:38:23 +0100
Subject: [spectre] Fwd: CURRENT SCREENSAVER: Anna Kraher /ROAD TO FUTURES
 PAST/
In-Reply-To: <7006f827-a72e-41f6-a362-1a6ff9974d98@metazoa.org>
References: <7006f827-a72e-41f6-a362-1a6ff9974d98@metazoa.org>
Message-ID: <f529ebcb-8f92-47ba-8549-a2fa8ca65125@metazoa.org>

Dear Spectres!

/~ Transition from the old “white capitalist patriarchy” to informatics 
of domination: completed migration. Successful deployment. User adoption 
stabilized. The next technological disruption inevitable./

/~ Cyborgs. Feminisms. Political Interventions. Flattened by technical 
cultures. Operationalized into data relations. Relations become vectors. 
Vectors become predictions.
/
Forty years ago Donna Haraway published her seminal essay A Manifesto 
for Cyborgs. Alongside the now-iconic figure of the cyborg, the essay 
introduced the concept of informatics of domination. A way of 
understanding how, in the information age, power is exercised through 
science and technology. Haraway urges us to look not only at 
technological tools, but also at the myths, promises, and imaginaries 
that surround them. „Indeed, myth and tool mutually constitute each 
other“ (Haraway, 1985).

more at https://screensaver.gallery/anna-kraher-road-to-futures-past

-- 
Save Your Screen!
Get ScreenSaverGallery https://screensaver.gallery/get
Follow ScreenSaverGallery on Fediverse 
<https://tldr.nettime.org/@screensavergallery>, Telegram 
<https://t.me/screensavergallery>, Instagram 
<https://www.instagram.com/screensavergallery/>, GitHub 
<https://github.com/ScreenSaverGallery>, RSS 
<https://sleep.screensaver.gallery/feed/>, Newsletter 
<https://listmonk.screensaver.gallery/subscription/form>
🌸 Sponsor https://opencollective.com/screensavergallery, 
https://screensaver.gallery/donate, 
https://github.com/sponsors/ScreenSaverGallery
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From mail at garyhall.info  Mon Dec 22 14:42:34 2025
From: mail at garyhall.info (Gary Hall)
Date: Mon, 22 Dec 2025 14:42:34 +0100
Subject: [spectre] Publishing Activism within/without a Toxic University:
 open access booklet
Message-ID: <481596da-b47c-4d0d-837c-cba55fb58b91@garyhall.info>



Continuing the look back over the  books published by Open Humanities 
Press in 2025...


May saw the publication in Open Humanities Press' Combinatorial Books: 
Gathering Flowers series, which is edited by Janneke Adema, Simon Bowie, 
Gary Hall and Rebekka Kiesewetter, of:

/Publishing Activism within/without a Toxic University/

edited by the Radical Open Access Collective

https://www.openhumanitiespress.org/books/titles/publishing-activism-within-without-a-toxic-university/

Co-published by Post Office Press (POP) 
(https://hcommons.org/members/pop/) and Open Humanities Press, this 
experimental booklet brings together reflections from Radical Open 
Access (https://radicaloa.postdigitalcultures.org/) members on 
publishing activism and its relationship to the neoliberal university. 
Created as a side project to the Radical Open Access III: From Openness 
to Social Justice Activism conference 
(https://radicaloa.postdigitalcultures.org/conferences/radicaloa3/), it 
explores how publishing can respond to the ongoing crisis in higher 
education. The authors ask: How can we – as scholars, publishers and 
activists – engage with a university in perpetual crisis? How can we 
practice publishing activism within/without a toxic institution?

Inspired by the cadavre exquis technique of the Surrealists, the booklet 
adapts and (ab)uses this method to foster collaborative, responsive 
writing. It shows how multiple, potentially conflicting voices can 
coalesce around a shared crisis and move activist strategies forward in 
new ways.

It draws from three key ROAC titles published under open licenses: The 
Undercommons (Minor Compositions: https://www.minorcompositions.info/), 
Luescher, Klemenčič, and Jowi’s Student Politics in Africa (African 
Minds: 
https://www.africanminds.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/9781928331223_txt.pdf), 
and Conio’s (ed.) Occupy: A People Yet to Come (Open Humanities Press: 
https://openhumanitiespress.org/books/download/Conio_2015_Occupy-A-People-Yet-To-Come.pdf). 
These works, reflecting on protest, activism and student politics, 
served as a starting point for examining higher education through the 
lens of social justice publishing activism. The first text in the 
booklet directly responds to these books, initiating a chain of 
responses, each written within ten days. Contributors extended the 
preceding response, engaging with the booklet’s theme and, optionally, 
the ROAC back-catalogue. Designed by Alex Trencianska, Mia Dawson, and 
Lisha Wang, the booklet was 'unfolded' during the 3rd Radical Open 
Access Conference.

Editor Bio

Formed in 2015, the Radical Open Access Collective is a community of 
scholar-led, not-for-profit presses, journals and other open access 
projects. Now consisting of more than 80 members, we promote a 
progressive vision for open publishing in the humanities and social 
sciences. What we have in common is an understanding of open access as 
being characterised by a spirit of ongoing creative experimentation. We 
also share a willingness to subject some of our most established 
scholarly communication practices to creative critique, together with 
the institutions that sustain them (the university, the library, the 
publishing house, and so on). The collective thus offers a radical 
‘alternative’ to the conservative versions of open access that are 
currently being put forward by commercially-oriented presses, funders, 
and policy makers.

Like all Open Humanities Press titles, /Publishing Activism 
within/without a Toxic University/ is available open access (and can be 
downloaded for free):

https://www.openhumanitiespress.org/books/titles/publishing-activism-within-without-a-toxic-university/


-- 
Gary Hall
Professor of Media
Centre for Postdigital Cultures, Coventry University

Director of Open Humanities Press:http://www.openhumanitiespress.org 
Blog:http://garyhall.squarespace.com/journal/

Latest:

Book: Masked Media: What It Means to Be Human in the Age of Artificial Creative Intelligence:http://www.openhumanitiespress.org/books/titles/masked-media/

Journal issue: Ecologies of Dissemination issue of PARSE Journal #21 - Summer 2025, edited by Eva Weinmayr and Femke Snelting:https://parsejournal.com/journal/#ecologies-of-dissemination. (I'm one of the contributors to this experimental issue which emphasizes collective over individual authorship.)

Video: 'Liquidate AI Art', Computer Arts Society:https://www.bcs.org/events-calendar/2025/october/webinar-liquidate-ai-art

Talk: 'The Independent Intellectual vs Posting Zero and the Dead Internet':http://garyhall.squarespace.com/journal/2025/12/2/the-independent-intellectual-vs-posting-zero-and-the-dead-in.html




















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From andreas.broeckmann at leuphana.de  Tue Dec 30 11:05:51 2025
From: andreas.broeckmann at leuphana.de (Andreas Broeckmann LEU)
Date: Tue, 30 Dec 2025 11:05:51 +0100
Subject: [spectre] FWD: CFP: Art,
 Science & Technology of Afro-Atlantic Triangle (B. Horizonte, 25-27 May 26)
Message-ID: <1a37e216-27ad-4fb2-a6a9-ecda29e39ed4@leuphana.de>

From: Tatiane De Oliveira Elias
Date: Dec 17, 2025
Subject: CFP: Art, Science & Technology of Afro-Atlantic Triangle (B. 
Horizonte, 25-27 May 26)

Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil, May 25–27, 2026
Deadline: Feb 3, 2026

This working group addresses the intersections between art, science, and 
technology of the Afro-Atlantic Triangle, exploring the importance of 
the African diaspora. In science, technology, and the visual arts, Black 
personalities have played roles of great importance in the construction 
of historical memory and collective identity. These personalities, for 
many centuries, were made invisible due to the colonial historical past. 
Challenging dominant narratives and serving as centers of activism, this 
WG seeks to examine the multifaceted nature of these artists and their 
contributions to the ongoing struggle for social change and diversity. 
We invite proposals that explore (but are not limited to): historical 
narratives and counter-narratives, transcontinental cultural relations, 
artist migration, artworks, curation, and exhibition strategies; works 
that question canonical readings of (Western) art history, as well as 
collecting practices and archive organization are also welcome. Examples 
of questions to be raised are: How can practices be reinvented in a new 
context? How do artists negotiate their migrant identity in new geographies?

To submit your proposal, it is mandatory that the author, or at least 
one of the authors, be a master’s or Ph.D. student or have a master’s or 
Ph.D. degree. Furthermore, the abstracts (up to 150 words) must be sent 
in the template made available on the Congress website in BLIND
REVIEW (i.e., without the identification of the author(s) in the 
document, to enable its evaluation by the WG coordinators) in the 
assessment by 3 February 2026, in .doc or .docx file format, through the 
link: 
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScTyfv-4m1bJK2u7V0sHjcRZNPCp-RO870A8q2OUuZ8foAAOA/viewform


Reference / Quellennachweis:
CFP: Art, Science & Technology of Afro-Atlantic Triangle (B. Horizonte, 
25-27 May 26). In: ArtHist.net, Dec 17, 2025. 
<https://arthist.net/archive/51349>.

From jcm at ata.org.pe  Wed Dec 31 10:51:08 2025
From: jcm at ata.org.pe (Jose-Carlos Mariategui)
Date: Wed, 31 Dec 2025 04:51:08 -0500
Subject: [spectre] THINKING IS A HYBRID GARDEN - First Major Retrospective
 of Francesco Mariotti
Message-ID: <C67E1292-F08D-406C-8EAC-1E465A0B7036@ata.org.pe>

THINKING IS A HYBRID GARDEN. THE MARIOTTI – LUY ARCHIVE (1964–2024)
JOINT EXHIBITION AT THE MUSEO DE ARTE DE LIMA - MALI AND THE MUSEO DE ARTE CONTEMPORÁNEO  MAC LIMA 

CURATED BY MIGUEL A. LOPEZ AND JOSE-CARLOS MARIATEGUI

On view: November 29, 2025, to April 26, 2026, at MALI and MAC Lima

In 1968, at just 25 years old, Francesco Mariotti and Klaus Geldmacher presented one of the first interactive light and sound installations in history at Documenta 4 in Kassel—a monumental cube equipped with 9,000 light bulbs, 1,000 fluorescent lamps, multiple speakers, and a giant fan that transformed the Orangerie into a 24-hour forum for immersive experiences and collective debate. A year later, representing Switzerland at the X São Paulo Biennial (1969), he unveiled The Circular Movement of Light, a penetrable multisensory temple that simulated a full 24-hour cycle in just 60 minutes through programmed sequences of light, scent, temperature, and sound—anticipating by decades the immersive environments we now take for granted. At the Locarno VideoArt Festival, Mariotti developed his groundbreaking technosculptures—hybrid creatures that fused technology with Amazonian mythologies and computer-generated poetry, prefiguring contemporary conversations around generative AI, algorithmic creativity, and expanded authorship.

THINKING IS A HYBRID GARDEN is the first major retrospective dedicated to the work of Francesco Mariotti (Bern, Switzerland, 1943) and his partner María Luy (Puerto Maldonado, Peru, 1950). The curatorial project, led by Miguel A. López and José-Carlos Mariátegui, is grounded in the concept of the hybrid, a central idea in the work of both artists. Mariotti conceives hybridity as a mode of coexistence between opposites—nature and technology, art and science, the organic and the synthetic—a practice of resistance and transformation that takes on renewed significance in today’s context, where artificial intelligence is reshaping the relationships between humanity, environment, and creation.

Unfolding across four galleries and 1,200 m2 at MALI and MAC Lima, the exhibition offers an extensive journey through the Mariotti – Luy Archive, currently on long-term loan to MALI.  The exhibition traces a six-decade trajectory from Mariotti's early experiments in Hamburg and his participation in the countercultural movements of the 1960s, through the radical collective experiences of Contacta Festival (1971–72) and E.P.S. Huayco (1980–81) in Peru, to his iconic technosculptures of the 1980s and 90s—including Rana (1987), a zoomorphic sculpture that recites computer-generated poetry, and Gran Guacamayo Precolombino (1992), which responds to visitors by reciting texts in twelve indigenous languages. The show also includes Mariotti's ongoing Hybrid Gardens series—installations combining recycled plastics, PET bottles, and LED lights to construct habitats that are simultaneously natural and artificial—and his Firefly Memorial project (2017–present), honouring environmental defenders assassinated for protecting their territories.

A comprehensive publication accompanying the exhibition will be presented in the coming weeks. The volume offers an extensive overview of the Mariotti – Luy Archive alongside original scholarly contributions along with documentary materials. In addition to Lopez and Mariátegui, the publication features contributions by Giuliana Vidarte, Emilia Curatola, Almendra Otta, Mijail Mitrovic, and Gustavo Buntinx.

THINKING IS A HYBRID GARDEN invites us to reconsider the relationships between art, technology, and society, proposing new forms of coexistence between nature and machine, and between memory and collective creation. The exhibition aims to open a space for reflection and future possibilities, where artistic experimentation becomes a tool for imagining new ways of inhabiting the world and fostering more sensitive, collaborative, and sustainable connections.

The project has been supported by Pro Helvetia. 

For more information: https://mali.pe/es/exhibition/el-pensamiento-es-un-jardin-hibrido-el-archivo-mariotti-luy-1964-2024/ 

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