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Human Futures: Art in an Age of Uncertainty

Human Futures: Art in an Age of Uncertainty

website: http://humanfutures.wordpress.com

30 October 2008 Symposium & Book Launch 10.00-5.00pm

Location: FACT, Liverpool, UK (which is also the location of Picturehouse Cinema Liverpool)

The world around us is changing. What will make the first century of the millennium different to the last? What will we love, how will we live, what will keep us awake at night?

Join artists, scientists, ethicists, futurologists as they explore questions, ideas and propositions that explore our changing environment and the challenges humanity faces in the future.

This conference brings together contributors from FACT’s Human Futures: Art in an Age of Uncertainty edited by Andy Miah which features work by George J Annas, Fiona Raby & Anthony Dunne, Norman M Klein and William Sims Bainbridge and Oron Catts.

An updated schedule of the symposium will be added soon, but for more information contact gabrielle.jenks@fact.co.uk

To order the book contact shop@fact.co.uk

Tickets £25.00/20.00 (members and concessions)

Tickets available from 0871 704 2063 or www.picturehouses.co.uk (Liverpool, FACT)

ISEA 2009

ISEA 2009

Originally uploaded by andymiah

I've recently become involved with ISEA 2009 as a Steering Committee member and Programme Theme Chair for 'Posthumanism: New Technologies and Creative Strategies'. here's a sneak preview at what I'll be looking for with Co-Chair Mike Stubbs of FACT and our panel team:

"Posthumanism operates at the interface of transhumanism and cyborgology, drawing attention to the convergent spaces of biology and artifice. Its manifestation through a range of biopolitical events, along with the aesthetic staging of bioethical encounters ruptures the polarized views of bioconservatism and technoprogressivism, provoking a series of conflicts that demand multi-layered conceptual apparatus to unravel. The sensory habitus of posthuman prostheses initiates the re-staging of design principles to anticipate the demand for new sensory experiences, technologies, services. This theme explores and expands our understanding of how innovative hardware and technologies are constituted by new art and design forms and how modes of sensory experience alter aesthetic encounters. For example, what kind of experience is generated through imaginations of posthumanity in different art and design forms? What do viewers expect from artists in terms of adopting posthuman technologies and modes of sensory delivery? How do we prepare and critically engage new generations of artists, designers and consumers through these technologies?"

The Review Panel for this theme consists of the following experts:

•    Jeffrey N. Babcock, Executive Director, International Center for the Arts, San Francisco State University, USA •    Oron Catts, Director, SymbioticA, University of Western Australia •    Alison Clifford, Lecturer in New Media & Digital Art, University of the West of Scotland, UK •    Heather Corcoran, Curator in New Media, Foundation for Art and Creative Technology (FACT), Liverpool, UK •    Gina Czarnecki, Independent Artist, Liverpool, UK. •    Anthony Dunne, Royal College of Art, London, UK •    Ernest Edmonds, Professor of Computation and Creative Media, University of Technology, Sydney. •    Jens Hauser, Institute for Media Studies, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany •    Michelle Kasprzak, Scottish Arts Council, Scotland, UK •    Debbi Lander, Regional Creative Programme for the North West, London 2012 Olympics. •    Fiona Raby, Royal College of Art, London, UK •    Emma Rich, Loughborough University, England, UK •    Laura Sillars, Head of Programme, FACT, Liverpool. •    Nicola Triscott, The Arts Catalyst, London, UK.

Philosophy and Human Enhancement (Brussels, 8-10 May, 2008)

I'll be speaking here on the 10th May: Programme provisoire Preliminary program Enhancement – aspects éthiques et philosophiques de la médecine d’amélioration

Jeudi 8 mai

19h30            Accueil des participants 19h45            Conférence inaugurale Cocktail dînatoire

Vendredi 9 mai

Session I : Enhancement et Science-Fiction 9h00-9h50        Jérôme Goffette                Modifier les humains : anthropotechnie (Maître de Conférence, Université Lyon I)    versus médecine 9h50-10h40    Sylvie Allouche                Aspects éthiques et philosophiques de (Lectrice, Collège Eötvös de Budapest)      la médecine d'amélioration dans la science-fiction 10h40-11h        Pause Café

11h00-11h40         Gérard Klein                La Science-Fiction, une littérature                (Edition Robert Laffont)            prothétique

Session II Enhancement and other topics 11h40-12h30    Gilbert    Hottois                        ? (Professeur, Université libre de Bruxelles)

12h30-14h00        Lunch

14h00-14h50        Marie-Geneviève Pinsart                    ? (Chargé de cours, Université libre de Bruxelles) 14h50-15h40        Bernard Baertschi            Devenir un être humain accompli. Idéal (Maître d’enseignement et de recherche,       ou cauchemar ? Université de Genève)

15h40-16h00        Pause Café

16h00-16h40        Kermisch Céline                 Enhancement et perception des risques (Aspirant FNRS, Université libre de Bruxelles) 16h40-17h30        Pascal Nouvel                Un aiguillon philosophique à la conquête (Professeur, Université Montpellier III)     des records : les amphétamines 17h30-18h20        Jean-Yves Goffi                Soigner, augmenter : une frontière floue ? (Professeur, Université Pierre Mendès)

Samedi 10 mai

Session III : Enhancement and sport. Chair : Pierre Daled.

10h-10h50        Alexandre Mauron            Homo faber sui: quelques questions (Professeur à l’Université de Genève)           d'éthique démiurgique 10h50-11h40        Patrick Laure                Ethique des conduites dopantes (Université Paris XI-Orsay) 11h40-12h30        Quéval Isabelle                Le corps rationnel du sport de haut (Maître de Conférence,             niveau: ambivalences du  dépassement de     Université René Descartes-Paris V)    soi

12h30-14h00        Lunch

14h00-14h50         Claudio Tamburrini             What´s wrong with genetic inequality? (Chercheur, Université de Göteborg) 14h50-15h40        Andy Miah                 Human enhancement in performative (Reader, University of the West of Scotland)                    cultures

LESS REMOTE: The Futures of Space Exploration: an Arts & Humanities Symposium

Invited lecture in Sept:LESS REMOTEThe Futures of Space Exploration: an Arts & Humanities Symposium

30 September - 1 October 2008 2008 International Astronautical Congress, SEC, Glasgow, Scotland

Abstract Submission Deadline: 11 March 2008 (approx. 300 words and short bio)

For further information, please go to: http://www.lessremote.org

or contact: Flis Holland E-mail: info@lessremote.org +44 (0)114 242 3244

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LESS REMOTE The Futures of Space Exploration: an Arts & Humanities Symposium

An international symposium to run parallel to the 2008 International Astronautical Congress (IAC).

This symposium will offer a forum in which specialists from many disciplines will be invited to consider the future of space exploration in the context of our current understanding of social, economic and technological imperatives. One of the aims of the symposium is to foster a dialogue and exchange between the cultural and space communities.

Speakers from the arts & humanities and space science & engineering communities will present keynote lectures on space exploration and its possible futures. Papers are also invited from the broad constituency of interest among artists, cultural analysts and historians that has examined the wider implications of the scientific exploration of space for the better part of a century.

(For more information on the 2008 IAC, please visit www.iac2008.co.uk)

Practitioners, scholars and postgraduates in any relevant discipline are invited to submit abstracts that explore the following strands:

Cultures and Space Highlighting the multiplicity of cosmologies that currently hold sway in the world, and considering the consequences of a tacit consensus on the range of opportunities for future space exploration.

The Introspective Urge Focusing on humankind’s image of itself as a determinant of space technology, and the impact of a changing self-image – for example as a consequence of ubiquitous global communications - on future space science.

Leaving a Trace Technical and ethical debate on the impact we have already had on the local solar system, and how our views will affect the possible future of space science and engineering.

Living Space Consideration of the continuity between the needs of humans on earth and the possible demands of spacefarers in remote and often hostile environments.

Organised by Flis Holland and The Arts Catalyst, in association with Leonardo, OLATS and the University of Plymouth. Co-sponsored by IAA Commission VI.

Advisory Committee: Flis Holland (Chair), Nicola Triscott & Rob La Frenais (The Arts Catalyst), Annick Bureaud (Leonardo / OLATS), Stephen Dick (IAA Commission VI), Roger Malina (IAA Commission VI), Michael Punt (Leonardo), Sundar Sarukkai (Centre for Philosophy, Indian National Institute of Advanced Studies)

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

An abstract (300 words max) and a short bio (200 words max) must be submitted by 11 March 2008, via email to abstracts@lessremote.org

A poster session will also take place during the symposium. Please indicate on your application if a poster presentation is acceptable.

Submissions accepted and presented at the conference will be published in the IAC conference proceedings.

Ethical Futures

The RSA event last week was a whirlwind through so many different technologcical futures that tying everything together was quite a challenge. We roved from Web 2.0 to artificially intelligent robot soldiers in a matter of hours.

Human Futures @ FACT

It's perplexing how i can be invited all over the world to speak about this subject and, on my own doorstep, not a peep. There's a moral here somewhere, and it's a good one. Anyway, visit Human Futures @ FACT, then get down to London next week for Ethical Futures @ RSA where I am speaking to the title 'Justifying Human Enhancement: The Accumulation of Biocultural Capital [straight after which I'm taking a motorcycle taxi to make my train. life is complicated]

Theory, Culture & Society, Japan

The TCS conference is just about to begin its final plenary, which includes an author of personal interest to me, N. Katherine Hayles. Her book, Becoming Posthuman, has been a central reference point for my own ideas on posthumanism over the last few years. It's also relevant for my forthcoming, co-authored book 'The Medicalization of Cyberspace'. This is my first TCS conference and it's been a rich mix of ideas and presentations. It's also a good excuse to visit Tokyo for the first time, where we've already had a typhoon and an earthquake!

Our Sporting Future (21-23 March, 2007)

Next month, I jet across to Brisbane to give a keynote by the title:  New Media Futures: The Challenge from Posthumanity.

The emerging technologies of new media are changing the way people work, enjoy leisure and communicate. This paper will explore the challenge raised from the convergence of technology platforms and scope the scene for what lies ahead for sports involvement. The paper identifies two crucial trends in development, the process towards ‘immersion’ (bringing audiences closer to the arena) and ‘abstraction’ (bringing athletes closer to simulated arenas) and discusses the collapse of bodies and technology as distinct categories, which raises prospects of the posthuman performer in competition. The discussion considers what tomorrow’s people will expect from the mediatisation of sports and explores some of the implications this has for the organisation of society and the role of technology within it. While dominant cultural narratives portray such futures as inhuman or dehuman, I argue that these transformations offer rich variation to contemporary life by appealing to imaginative ways of communication and embodiment.

I will also take part in a debate about the role of science in the contribution of winning medals.  It looks to be an exciting event and it's nearly 7 years since I've been to Australia. I just wish I was there for longer!

The Hastings Center (6-7 December, 2006)

Project meeting where I spoke about the ethics of genetic testing and selecting for enhancement. This work develops ideas that have arisen from a number of recent projects, including the paper I wrote with Emma Rich and my Master degree dissertation in Medical Law. The title of this presentation was 'Is Genetic Selection for Sport a Good idea?'

A link to the presentation powerpoint.

Centre for Olympic Studies and Research, Loughborough University (1 Dec, 2006)

Research seminar for the Center for Olympic Studies Research: 'Human Enhancement Technologies and the Bio-Politico-Ethics of Sport'

Over the last 5 years, the world has encountered considerable developments in human enhancement technologies. Yet, beyond their techical successes and failures, stem-cells, genetics, nanotech, and information technologies have all featured in the everyday sociologies of the future that abound within media and scholarly texts. The world of sport has encountered a wide range of these applications and the positioning of sports medicine in relation to experimental medical technologies invites rich and complex speculations on the development of performance in elite sport. In this paper, I discuss the role of bio(ethics) in cultural studies and its bearing on the human enhancement debate by drawing on Zylinska (2005). Within the UK, the most recent instantiation of this debate is through the public inquiry into Human Enhancement Technologies in Sport (Science and Technology Select Committee, 2006), the first evidence session of which heard from former 100m Olympic chamption Linford Christie. I discuss the political positioning of sports insitutions in relation to these technologies and how they reflect a broader bio-politico-ethical stance against human enhancement (Garnier, 2006; WADA, 2006).  Moreover, I suggest that this positioning is broadly indicative of a fundamental tension within the world of medicine over its legitimate role, and the ends of a commercial model for  human modification. These circumstances limit the possibility of open debate about the relevance and merit of anti-doping programmes and weaken the credibility of sport's judicial ethos, the latter of which is highlighted by responses from athletes to Linford Christie's involvement with the public inquiry. Finally, I conclude that these characteristics of sport's political economy inhibit nations from developing technoprogressive approaches to the human enhancement debate. References

Garnier, A. (2006). An Open Letter to Those Promoting Medical Supervision of Doping. Lausanne, Switzerland, World Anti-Doping Agency.

Science and Technology Select Committee (2006, March 1). New Inquiry: Human Enhancement Technologies in Sport. Select Committee for Science and Technology, British Government.

World Anti-Doping Agency (2005). The Stockholm Declaration [on Gene Doping], World Anti-Doping Agency.

Zylinska, J. (2005). The Ethics of Cultural Studies. London, Continuum.

Beijing Olympic Narratives and Counter Narratives

Last weekend, Beatriz and I were in Philadelphia, having been invited to contribute to the second meeting of the project developed by Monroe Price and Daniel Dayan exploring the Beijing Olympics. This was another excellent meeting with some great presentations and discussions. It was also my first time in Philadelphia and I really warmed to the place. We were located in the city centre on Chestnut Street, which is a great location, especially for shopping and cultural activity.

In the meeting, our contribution was to discuss the role of new and alternative media platforms at an Olympic Games, which develops our research from the last four Olympics. Beijing looks like an exciting and intriguing case study in this respect.

British Council Cafe Scientifique (20 November, 2006)

Yesterday, I spoke for the British Council Cafe Scientifique which used a video conference system to link up with Jordan and Palestine. The focus of our conversations was human enhancement technologies in sport and we had extensive discussions about how to deal with the problem of doping. Students, teachers and journalists took part in the debate and linking up with two different places was quite straightforward. Clips of the discussion should be posted on the BC website shortly.

Royal College of Art (October, 2006)

Last week, I went down to the RCA to give a talk I titled 'Posthuman Designs'. The programme on Design Interactions led by Anthony Dunne is just fascinating, engaging students with ways of imagining the future as a mechanism through which to promote public engagement about technology. Some of the work taking place there is superb and with everyone squeezed into a seminar room earnestly taking notes and thinking about how to transform concepts into artefacts, it's a really inspiring place. I hope to be down there again soon.

University of Glasgow, Physiological Society (4 October, 2006)

Last week, I gave a presentation at the invitation of Dr Yannis Pitsiladis, whom I have got to know quite well over the last few years. It was a pleasure to come and give another lecture to science students in GU. I've given so many classes here in the Postgrad school,I was left feeling a little nostalgic! Title of paper: Posthuman Enhancement Technologies in Sport

International Performance in Sport Conference (Newcastle, 26 Sept, 2006)

I've already written a few things about this meeting. It was great to see a number of friends again at this meeting and it was particularly interesting to hear concerns from within the medical community over the conflict of interests they face when treating athletes. My paper was titled 'Gene Doping: The Politics and Ethics of Enhancement'