Futuresonic Conference (1-2 May, 2008, Manchester, UK)

Futuresonic Conference 1-2 May 2008 with supporting events 30 April & 3 May

Online, Mobile and Unplugged Social Networking explored by leading figures developing the next generation of social software alongside Richard Stallman founder of the Free Software movement and Gerd Leonhard on the future of music, plus keynotes, critical debates, demos, experiences and open sessions on mobile social software, freeing space in the augmented city, the future of music, how game design can revolutionise social software, OpenID and who is keeping an eye on the kids. Register before 1 February and save £90 on a Delegate Pass.

http://www.futuresonic.com/

ORLAN at Goldsmiths (5 February, 208)

ORLAN at Goldsmiths Tuesday 5 February 2008 6.15pm THE THEATRE Department of Drama

The Department of Drama's Performance Research Forum and the Digital Studios' (Department of Computing) Thursday Club are delighted to co-host this special event, aTALK by one of the most original and provocative woman artists working today in what she calls CARNAL ART.

"Unlike 'Body Art', from which I set it apart, Carnal Art does not desire pain as a means of redemption, or to attain purification. Carnal Art does not wish to achieve a final 'plastic' result, but rather seeks to modify the body, and engage in public debate=E2=80=A6=E2=80=A6=E2=80=A6Carnal Ar= t is not against cosmetic surgery but, rather against the conventions carried by it and their subsequent inscription, within female flesh in particular, but also male. Carnal Art is feminist, that is necessary. It is interested not onl= y in cosmetic surgery, but also advanced techniques in medicine and biology that question the status of the body and the ethical questions posed by them" ORLAN

All welcome. Entrance free. Latecomers will not be admitted.

To book this event, call 020 7919 7422

<http://www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/drama/orlan.php>

sk-interfaces (Liverpool, FACT, Feb 2008)

New exhibition and conference starting the FACT programme. Looks good!

"Designer hymens, a composite coat made of blended skin cultures by legendary French artist ORLAN, a brain infused with glowing moss and non-animal ‘leather’ growing in the galleries, FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology) presents a ground-breaking UK exhibition exploring the idea of skin as a place where art, science, philosophy and social culture meet.

sk-interfaces opens 01 February until 31 March 2008.

Curated by Jens Hauser, sk-interfaces launches FACT’s Human Futures programme in Liverpool’s year as European Capital of Culture and as an interdisciplinary exhibition will feature works from 15 international artists, including 2007’s Golden Nica winners at Ars Electronica.

“What used to be understood as a surface that represents the limit of the self and between the inside and the outside can today be seen as an unstable border. sk-interfaces is ideally placed within the cultural programme of Liverpool 08: Artists are exploring trans-species relationships, xenotransplantation, satellite bodies, endogene design, telepresence, permeable architecture and the ever pushed limits of art itself,” says curator Jens Hauser.

Formerly known for her surgery-performances in which she refigured her face and created new images referring to non-Western cultures, ORLAN presents her new work Harlequin Coat, a patchwork life-size mantle, which contains fusing in vitro skin cells from various cultures and species. This prototype of a biotechnological coat is made to symbolise cultural cross breeding.

The Tissue Culture and Art Project’s Victimless Leather investigates the possibility of producing ‘leather’ without killing an animal. Three miniature stitch-less garments are tissue-cultured live in the gallery. Artists Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr are behind the award-winning lab project SymbioticA (Golden Nica in Hybrid Art 2007 Prix Ars Electronica), the Australian–based research facility dedicated to artistic enquiry.

French duo Art Orienté objet has created biopsied, cultured, hybridized and tattooed skin made from their own epidermis and pig derma to create living biotechnological self-portraits. Marion Laval-Jeantet and Benoît Mangin’s work is intended to be grafted onto collectors themselves so they can physically wear and absorb an artists’ piece.

American artist Julia Reodica’s hymNext Designer Hymen Series confronts the values of purity and gender roles using the artist’s own vaginal tissue and animal muscle cells to create designer hymens. The sculptures pose as products to be marketed and are intended as objects of novelty for ‘re-virginisation’ thus addressing the issue of how different cultures value female virginity and the associated pressures.

Zbigniew Oksiuta from Poland will come to Liverpool to create a new version of his project Breeding Spaces in which a large 3D sphere of gelatin is grown in situ. The artist proposes the possibilities of designing biological spatial structures that can serve as a new kind of habitat and presents a new form of spatial coexistence between man and nature.

sk-interfaces will also feature further commissioned and existing projects from international artists such as Eduardo Kac, Jun Takita, Wim Delvoye, Olivier Goulet, Zane Berzina and Neal White among others.

Mike Stubbs, Director and CEO of FACT says, “FACT opens its 08 programme committed to pushing at the boundaries of how and what creative technologies and art can be. Touching on some of the biggest issues of our day FACT invites debate and conversation around life sciences and our changing relationships with our bodies and technology"." 

Knowledge Politics and Converging Technologies (May 6-7 2008. Brussels, Belgium)

Knowledge politics delineates the field of activities designed and Implemented for the purpose of monitoring, regulating or even controlling the Production and application of new knowledge gained through science and technology. Such activities are not new but have gained importance in the course of the 1990s with the rise of biotechnology and life sciences more generally. In view of its promise to enhance human performance through even greater interventions in the body, mind, and environment, converging technologies promises to become another virulent field of knowledge politics. Knowledge politics with respect to converging technologies is evidently One of those fields that is difficult to engage in - even as a researcher - without becoming enthralled in normative argumentation. The argument in favour of knowledge politics is that contemporary (and future) knowledge is intrinsically different from knowledge of earlier times because it will enable us to manipulate not only the human and built environment but also ourselves and fellow human beings. Therefore, new knowledge entails a potential for physical and social engineering that can be neither dismissed nor relayed to ad-hoc regulatory procedures, but rather calls for the development of new processes and tools. Those arguing against knowledge politics point to the latter's inextricable tendency towards the policing of science and research, thus threatening to arrest progress, discovery and learning. At the symbolic level, knowledge politics represents the modern version of an existentialist quest for the meaning of life. As a social fact, it represents the contemporary edition of the conflict about the role, extent and scope of social regulation.

The aim of this workshop is twofold: to reflect on the meaning and Implications of knowledge politics in general; and to draw out theoretical Conclusions about how knowledge politics in the field of life sciences and converging Technologies can be expected to impact on science and research, on the one hand, and on democratic deliberative institutional practices, on the other hand. Some of the thematic areas to be explored are:

• Forms of governance and regulation for converging technologies (principles of governance; regulatory frameworks; deliberative processes) • Social and political contexts of knowledge politics (social, economic and political conditions; anticipatory governance; scope of influence; ethical considerations) • Science, industry and political interfaces (knowledge transfer; public-private ventures; economic infrastructure) • Practicing knowledge politics (risk assessment of converging technologies; the role of expert committees; engaging civil society; democratizing science)

Theoretical papers and papers based on empirical research are welcome From academics working in the field and practitioners from civil society, industry and public policy. Comparisons of knowledge policies and politics across scientific fields or countries are encouraged.

Submission Details: Abstracts should be at least 500 words in length and Be submitted by the 25th January, 2008 electronically at info@converging-technologies.org. Authors should indicate their name(s) and the title of their paper and include a short biographical note (75 words) with coordinates (institutional affiliation, telephone, fax, and e-mail). Full papers (at least 6,000 words in length) of selected participants will be due by the 15th April, 2008. Publication of the conference proceedings is foreseen. Financial assistance for travel expenditures will be available in select cases.