Author: Jesse Peterson Page 2 of 7

Higher Seminar: Patricia MacCormack on Occult Ahuman Pedagogy: Death to the Anthropocene by Witchcraft

On March 24, 2023

During the second half of March 2023, The Eco- and Bioart Lab, Queer Death Studies Network and Tema G (the unit of Gender Studies) at Linköping University (LiU) have a pleasure to host our guest and visiting researcher Prof. Patricia MacCormack (Anglia Ruskin University, UK).

We are thrilled to hold several local, hybrid and online events, where you can tune in and engage with the work of Prof. MacCormack. One of these events is the Tema Genus Higher Seminar taking place on 29th March 2023 at 13:15-15:00 CEST.

Occult Ahuman Pedagogy: Death to the Anthropocene by Witchcraft
with Prof. Patricia MacCormack (Anglia Ruskin University, UK)

If you wish to attend remotely, please register at http://bit.ly/3ZRCurg or follow this QR:

Bio:
Patricia MacCormack is Professor of Continental Philosophy at Anglia Ruskin University Cambridge. She has published extensively on philosophy, feminism, queer and monster theory, animal abolitionist activism, ethics, art and horror cinema. She is the author of Cinesexuality (Routledge 2008) and Posthuman Ethics (Routledge 2012) and the editor of The Animal Catalyst (Bloomsbury 2014), Deleuze and the Animal (EUP 2017), Deleuze and the Schizoanalysis of Cinema (Continuum 2008) and Ecosophical Aesthetics (Bloomsbury 2018). Her new book is The Ahuman Manifesto: Activisms for the End of the Anthropocene. She is currently a Leverhulme Research Fellow researching death activism.

And link on FB event: https://fb.me/e/2IjjWtGQW

Webinar: “dialogues – probing the future of creative technology,” March 28

By Jesse Peterson

On March 22, 2023

In Webinars

The Creative-Ai (AI and the Artistic Imaginary – WASP-HS, https://www.kth.se/hct/mid/research/cmt/projects/ai-and-the-artistic-imaginary-1.1100143) and MUSAiC (https://musaiclab.wordpress.com) project teams at KTH kindly welcome you to the next seminar in our series “dialogues: probing the future of creative technology” on Friday 28 March, 17-18h (CEST).

This seminar (held on zoom, https://kth-se.zoom.us/j/63477441422) features two artists exploring technology in the context of their work. We start with presentations by both guests followed by a discussion between each other and then the audience.

IMPORTANT: If you wish to join, please send your name (zoom handle) to associate professor Bobby Lee Townsend Sturm JR (KTH) so that you will be admitted.

Guests: Paola Torres Núñez del Prado (PE/SE) and Laura Devendorf (USA)

Paola will talk us through some of her works and performances, focusing on the presence of code, textile, multisensorial experiences, and how her interest in patterns led her to experiment with Artificial Intelligence, all framed within a critical approach to these same technologies and their social impact. She will go through some of the ideas proposed in the Neokhipukamayoq Manifesto regarding the possible development of technologies that are not created in opposition to nature: how would these be if parting from Andean/Indigenous philosophies, and placed within a syncretic, hybrid framework?

Paola Torres Núñez del Prado (PE/SE) is an artist and researcher of transdisciplinarity, working with textile assemblages and embroideries, painting, sound, text, digital media, interactive art, A.I. and video.
She explores the boundaries and connections in between tactility, the visual and audio, related to the human voice, to nature, and to synthetic ones whose listening is often considered less harmonious, such as machine or digital noises. Her work is complex: she explores the limits of the senses, examining the concepts of interpretation, translation, and misrepresentation, to reflect on mediated sensorial experiences while questioning the cultural hegemony within the history of Technology and the Arts.

She is the recipient of the Stockholms stads kulturstipendium 2022 and of the Honorary Mention in the Prix Ars Electronica 2021. She has also has been awarded the Artists + Machine Intelligence Grant from Google Arts and Culture and Google AI in 2020 and was the winner of the “Local Media: Amazon Ecoregion: contest of Vivo Arte.mov in Brazil, 2013. Her works are in collections of the Swedish Public Art Agency and Malmo City Museum.

Laura Devendorf will present a speculation rooted in her experience weaving electronics and developing software for weaving electronics. Laura will introduce the basics of woven structure in terms of its mechanical properties as well as methods by which it is designed and manipulated. Laura will also present some of the exciting opportunities for design and interaction when we consider weaving as a method of electronics production: such as the ability for textile structures to unravel, mended, and to be continually modified. Each of these underlying discussions will frame a provocation about alternative ways we might build, use, and unbuild our electronic products.

Laura Devendorf, assistant professor of information science with the ATLAS Institute, is an artist and technologist working predominantly in human-computer interaction and design research. She designs and develops systems that embody alternative visions for human-machine relations within creative practice. Her recent work focuses on smart textiles—a project that interweaves the production of computational design tools with cultural reflections on gendered forms of labor and visions for how wearable technology could shape how we perceive lived environments. Laura directs the Unstable Design Lab. She earned bachelors’ degrees in studio art and computer science from the University of California Santa Barbara before earning her PhD at UC Berkeley School of Information. She has worked in the fields of sustainable fashion, design and engineering. Her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, has been featured on National Public Radio, and has received multiple best paper awards at top conferences in the field of human-computer interaction.

Apply for Summer School: The Intersectional Posthumanities w/ Rosi Braidotti (Utrecht)

By Jesse Peterson

On March 20, 2023

In Call for applications, Courses, summer school

As longstanding collaborators of Rosi Braidotti’s Posthuman Summer School, we have with The Posthumanities Hub the pleasure to advertise this summer’s upcoming version of “The Intersectional Posthumanities,” Utrecht Summer School Course by Prof. Rosi Braidotti, from August 21 to 25, 2023.

Competition for registration is high so you are advised to apply early, as places are allocated on a first come, first served basis.

Deadline for applications: June 1, 2023

Course fee for students: €750 Course fee for non-students: €1000

For full details about the course and how to apply, please see below:

Posthuman-summer-school-2023-flyer Download

The Ai Music Generation Challenge 2023: “Artificial Music Traditions”

By Jesse Peterson

On March 15, 2023

In Call for applications, KTH, posthumanist performativity

Associate Professor, Bob Sturm from KTH is putting on The Ai Music Generation Challenge 2023, which focuses on “Artificial Music Traditions”: https://github.com/boblsturm/aimusicgenerationchallenge2023

Unlike the previous three editions (2020, 2021, 2022), the 2023 challenge is focused on generating an artificial music tradition rather than generating a particular form of existing traditional music.

What is the challenge?

Use any kind of artificial intelligence (one system or many different systems) in any way to generate an artificial music tradition. This could entail symbolic music, audio recordings, lyrics, dances, imagery, costumes, myths, instruments, ephemera, websites, ethnomusicological or anthropological studies, and so on. To make this more concrete some possibilities could be:

Instrumental music from an imaginary country
Teetotaler songs of a Nordic community
Music to accompany royal visits to medieval garderobes
Alien music practices resulting from the discovery and “decoding” of the record on Voyager 1

Particular inspirations for the 2023 challenge include:

How?

By SEPTEMBER 4, register your intent to participate by notifying the organizer.
Start generating documentary evidence of your artificial music tradition.
Write a document describing your team and technical process, as well as reflecting on issues surrounding cultural appropriation in the submitted work, and clarity regarding its use of data and its intentions.
By DECEMBER 8, email the organizer:

a link to download the documentary evidence of your artificial music tradition.
your document (pdf).

Evaluation

One can see this challenge as a call for work to be considered for a future festival. The judges are “curators”, who are looking to create a compelling program of “music traditions” generated entirely by, or with the assistance of, artificial intelligence. This future festival aims to delve deep into theoretical and practical questions of the application of artificial intelligence to culture, raising awareness of the many issues and dilemmas involved, from the economic and political to the technological and (post)humanistic. The curators seek to programme works showcasing a diversity of approaches and outcomes, and are especially interested in multi-layered work crossing material boundaries, all the while using artificial intelligence in some way or another. The curators are not necessarily looking for finished or complete work, but instead work that has a clear connection to the theme of the festival, showing evidence of deep reflection on the associated issues, and that can contribute to engaging and productive discussion.

The curators retain the right to not programme submitted work for a variety of reasons, including a lack of transparency, a lack of consideration of the use of data from existing cultures, and so on.

Postdoc Position in Interactive AI for Interdisciplinary Artistic Practices

By Jesse Peterson

On March 13, 2023

In Call for applications, JOBS

Assistant Professor, Kıvanç Tatar (Chalmers), and colleagues are looking for candidates for the position, Postdoc in Interactive AI for Interdisciplinary Artistic Practices at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden. The deadline for applications is May 1st, 2023.

Description for the Position (provided by Dr. Tatar)

We are excited to share this position as a part of a new research group that I am initiating within my WASP-HS project. The focus of this Post-doctoral Fellowship is researching and understanding interactivity in the applications of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence in interdisciplinary art and technology practices. The position responsibilities include research and development of novel interactive systems using machine learning and artificial intelligence for artistic applications such as live performances, artwork installations, tools for artistic practices etc. The research methodologies cover exciting approaches such as research through design, soma design, and post-phenomenology. The research perspective takes a multidisciplinary position to pursue discussions in aesthetics, ethics, and societal aspects of Artificial Intelligence. The candidate is expected to work closely with the current research group members while actively engaging with the development and establishment of the new research group.

We encourage candidates with a background in interdisciplinary Art and Technology topics, such as machine learning, artificial intelligence, evolutionary computation, computational creativity, co-creativity and augmented creativity with machines, embodied performance with technology, robotics, bio-art, music technology, sound synthesis, live coding, new interfaces for musical expression, musical performance, musical improvisation, virtual reality, augmented/extended reality, music-dance practices, cognitive science, cognitive and psychological computational models, human-computer interaction, soma-design, somaesthetics, etc.

This postdoc position is a full-time temporary employment for three years, and the expected start date is September 1st, 2023.

We are looking forward to receiving your applications. The full details of this position and the link to the application portal can be found at the official call.