Dear people,
I am sending you the call for contributions for this year's DRHA
conference, hosted by the University of Music and Theatre Munich
(Hochschule für Musik und Theater München), BANAL DEVICES: everyday
technology in globalized technocultures. I hope some of you will be up
for a trip to Munich in September! The conference starts right after Ars
Electronica, which takes place only a few hours away.
With warm wishes,
Dani Ploeger
Digital Research in the Humanities and Arts (DRHA) 2024
BANAL DEVICES: EVERYDAY TECHNOLOGY IN GLOBALIZED TECHNOCULTURES
University of Music and Theatre Munich, 8-10 September 2024
What systems and devices are relevant in people’s everyday lives, beyond
the globalized dreams and universalising narratives professed by big
tech and state bodies in the Global North? This question will be the
starting point for DRHA 2024.
In critical scholarship and art, engagement with technologisation
oftentimes occurs in response to hypes around state-of-the-art
innovations. These hypes are in turn generated by tech corporations and
government bodies. Thus, there is a tendency for critical practices in
technology to focus on the spectacle of the new and extraordinary, while
disregarding the lasting and far-going impact of what we might call the
realm of the “technologically banal”. As a result, these practices
become complicit in the propagation of the very “myth of progress” that
underpins the techno-sphere they intend to critique.
In Syria, ChatGPT is hardly ever used, and quotidian debates on
technology are shaped by challenges in basic electricity provision. In
Ukraine, high-tech weapons don't play the role that most contemporary
conferences and exhibitions on the topic suggest ("Panic! The autonomous
combat robots are coming!"). Instead, commonplace mobile phone cameras
and toy drones are highly relevant on the battlefield. At media art
exhibitions and technology conferences, one encounters countless
artworks and discussions about Big Data, AI, interactions with microbes
and virtual reality. Yet, highly relevant technologies in the realm of
the seemingly ordinary, like washing machines, insect repellents and
water purifiers, are rarely discussed.
DRHA 2024 will investigate the role of the seemingly banal, commonplace
and boring in- and outside the world of high-technology.
VENUE
The main conference venue will be the Reaktorhalle at Luisenstrasse 37a,
the former Institute of Technical Physics, a listed Bauhaus building
located in the Munich Museum District, designed in 1957 by Joseph von
Wiedemann and Franz Hart.
ORGANISERS
Banal Devices is convened by Prof. Dr. Dani Ploeger, and hosted by the
Professorship for Performance and Technology at the University of Music
and Theatre Munich. The conference will be accompanied by an exhibition
of artworks curated by Dr. Elena Papadaki (curator and researcher,
councillor at the Royal Society of Arts).
KEYNOTE CONTRIBUTORS
Alex Murray-Leslie (co-founder of Chicks on Speed; Professor of Digital
Performance, Norwegian University of Science and Technology)
John Zerzan (author of Future Primitive (1994), Twilight of the Machine
(2008) and Why Hope? The stand against civilization (2015))
DRHA: DIGITAL RESEARCH IN THE HUMANITIES AND ARTS
Since 1996, Digital Research in the Humanities and Arts (previously
named Digital Resources for the Humanities) has organized gatherings
across Europe to examine the technologization of cultural activity,
resources and heritage. Through its annual conference, the organisation
provides intellectual and physical space for cross-disciplinary exchange
and collaboration between artists and humanities scholars, often leading
to new research networks and publications.
https://drha.tech/
CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS
Call for papers
We are inviting proposals from scholars and artists who are keen to join
a shared exploration of the conference theme. Please submit a 250-750
abstract for a 15-minute presentation that articulates a critical
position in relation to the theme, connected to your areas of interest
and expertise.
Call for artworks
In parallel with the conference, a group exhibition will be presented at
the conference venue, curated by Dr. Elena Papadaki (curator and
researcher, councillor at the Royal Society of Arts). We are inviting
proposals for screen-based artworks and performances that engage with
the everyday and the banal in technologised culture. Please submit a
description of max. 2 pages, including images and/or viewing/listening
links.
Please submit your proposals to [email protected] by May 1st
2024. Notifications of acceptance will be sent by June 15th. For
questions about the conference and the process, please contact
[email protected]
--
Prof. Dr. Dani Ploeger
Professor für Performance und Technologie, Hochschule für Musik und
Theater München
Professor of Performance and Technology, University of Music and Theatre
Munich
Website: www.daniploeger.org
Book: https://www.triarchypress.net/deserted.html
Current research:
Rojava Center for Democratic Technologies: https://t.me/rojavatech
(Telegram channel)
Disobedient Devices: https://www.disobedientdevices.org/
Destructive Circuits: http://destructive-circuits.v2.nl/
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