Call for Papers -- REFRESH!

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CALL FOR PAPERS
REFRESH! FIRST INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON
THE HISTORIES OF MEDIA ART, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Banff New Media Institute, Canada, September 28 - October 3, 2005
http://www.mediaarthistory.org Deadline: Dec. 1st 2004
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"The technology of the modern media has produced new possibilities of inter=
action… What is needed is a wider view encompassing the coming
rewards in the context of the treasures left us by the past experiences, po=
ssessions, and insights."
(Rudolf Arnheim, Summer 2000)

Recognizing the increasing significance of media art for our culture, this =
Conference (Evening of Sept. 28th, Sept. 29th, 30th, October 1st) on the Hi=
stories of Media Art will discuss for the first time the history of media a=
rt within the interdisciplinary and intercultural contexts of the histories=
of art. Leonardo/ISAST, Banff New Media Institute the Database for Virtua=
l Art and UNESCO DigiArts are collaborating to produce the first internatio=
nal art history conference covering art and new media, art and technology, =
art-science interaction, and the history of media as pertinent to contempor=
ary art.

Held at The Banff Centre, featuring lectures by invited and selected speake=
rs, the latter being chosen by an international jury from a call for papers=
, the main event will be followed by a two-day summit meeting (October 2-3,=
2005) for in-depth dialogues and international project initiation (proposa=
ls welcome).

For more information on the conference, please visit: www.MediaArtHisto=
ry.org

Papers are invited from scholars and postgraduates in any relevant discipli=
ne, particularly art history and new media, art and technology, the interac=
tion of art and science, and media history, are encouraged to submit for th=
e following sessions: (Please address your proposals to the sessions with =
the Priority A to C)

I. MediaArtHistories: Times and Landscapes I and II
I. After photography, film, video, and the little known media art history =
of the 1960s-80s, today media artists are active in a wide range of digital=
areas (including interactive, genetic, telematic and nano art). The Media =
Art History Project offers a basis for attempting an evolutionary history o=
f the audiovisual media, from the Laterna Magica to the Panorama, Phantasma=
goria, Film, and the Virtual Art of recent decades. This panel tries to cla=
rify, if and how varieties of Media Art have been splitting up during the l=
ast decades. It examines also how far back Media Art reaches as a historica=
l category within the history of Art, Science and Technology.

2. Although there has been important scholarship on intersections between a=
rt and technology, there is no comprehensive technological history of art (=
as there are feminist and Marxist histories of art, for example.) Canonica=
l histories of art fail to sufficiently address the inter-relatedness of de=
velopments in science, technology, and art. What similarities and differen=
ces, continuities and discontinuities, can be mapped onto artistic uses of =
technology and the role of artists in shaping technology throughout the his=
tory of art? This panel seeks to take account of extant literature on this=
history in order to establish foundations for further research and to gain=
perspective on its place with respect to larger historiographical concerns.

II. Methodologies
This session tries to give a critical overview of which methods art history=
has been using during the past to approach media art. Papers regarding med=
ia archaeological, anthropological, narrative and observer oriented approac=
hes are welcome. Equally encouraged are proposals on iconological, semiotic=
and cyberfeministic methods.

III. Art as Research / Artists as Inventors
Do "innovations" and "inventions" in the field of art differ from those in =
the field of technology and science? Do artists still contribute anything "=
new" to those fields of research - and did they ever in history? Which inve=
ntions changed the arts as well as technology and the media? These question=
s will be discussed in a frame from the 19th century until today, special f=
oci of interest are:
- modernism and the birth of media technology 1840 - 1880
- the utopia of merging art and technology in the 1920s and 1960s
- the crisis of the "new" vs. digital media art innovations since the 1980s

IV. Image Science and 'Representation': From a Cognitive Point of View
Although much recent scholarship in the Humanities and Social Sciences has =
been "body-minded," this research has yet to grapple with a major problem f=
amiliar to contemporary cognitive scientists and neuroscientists. How do we=
reconcile a top-down, functional view of cognition with a view of human be=
ings as elements of a culturally shaped biological world? Current scientifi=
c investigations into autopoiesis, emotion, symbolization, mind-body relati=
ons, consciousness, "mental representations", visual and perceptual systems=
Sopen up fresh ways of not only figuring the self but of approaching histo=
rical as well as elusive electronic media –again or anew–from the deeper =
vantage of an embodied and distributed brain. Papers that struggle concrete=
ly to relate and integrate aspects of the brain basis of cognition with any=
number of pattern-making media are solicited to stimulate debate.

V. Collaborative Practice/ Networking (history)
In a network people are working together, they share resources and knowledg=
e with each other - and they compete with each other. This process has sped=
up enormously within a few decades and has reached a new quality/dimension=
. It is the computer who had and has a forming influence on this change - f=
rom the Mainframes of the 50s and 60s to the PCs of the 70s and the growing=
popularity of the Internet during the 90s of the past century. The dataflo=
w created new economies and new forms of human communication - and last but=
not least the so-called globalization.

VI. Pop/Mass/Society
The dividing lines between art products and consumer products have been dis=
appearing more and more since the Pop Art of the 1960s. The distinction bet=
ween artist and recipient has also become blurred. Most recently, the digit=
alization of our society has sped up this process enormously. In principle,=
more and more artworks are no longer bound to a specific place and can be =
further developed relatively freely. The cut-and-paste principle has become=
an essential characteristic of contemporary culture production. The spread=
of access to the computer and the internet gives more people the possibili=
ty to participate in this production. The panel examines concrete forms, as=
for example computer games, determining the cultural context and what cons=
equences they could have for the understanding of art in the 21st century.

VII a. Collecting, preserving and archiving the media arts
Collections grow because of different influences such as art dealers, the a=
rt
market, curators and currents in the international contemporary art scene.
What are the conditions necessary for a wider consideration of media art
works and of new media in these collections?

VII b. Database/New Scientific Tools
Accessing and browsing the immense amount of data produced by individuals, =
institutions, and archives has become a key question to our information soc=
iety. In which way can new scientific tools of structuring and visualizing =
data provide new contexts and enhance our understanding of semantics?

VIII. Cross-Culture - Global Art
Issues of cultural difference will be included throughout Refresh! However=
, the panels in Cross-Culture–Global Art provide an opportunity to examine=
cross-cultural influences, the global and the local. Through these sessio=
ns we hope to construct the histories, influences and parallels to new medi=
a art and even the definitions of what constitutes new media from varied cu=
ltural perspectives. For example, how what are the impacts of narrative st=
ructures from Aboriginal and other oral cultures on the analysis and practi=
ce of new media? How do notions of identity shift across cultures historic=
ally, how are these embedded and transformed by new media practice? What p=
hilosophical perspectives can ground our understandings of new media aesthe=
tics? How does globalization and the construction of global contexts such =
as festivals and biennials effect local new media practices? We encourage p=
apers from diverse cultural perspectives and methodologies.

IX. What can the History of New Media Learn from History of Science/Science=
Studies?
As in the case of artists working in traditional media who have engaged sci=
ence and technology, new media artists must be situated contextually in the=
"cultural field" (Kate Hayles) in which they have worked or are working. =
Science and technology have been an important part of that cultural field i=
n the twentieth century, and the history of science and science studies-alo=
ng with the field of literature and science–offer important lessons for ar=
t historians writing the history of new media art. This session invites pa=
pers from art historians and scholars in science-related disciplines which =
explore methodological and theoretical issues as well as those that put int=
erdisciplinary approaches into practice in studying new media art.

X. Rejuvenate: Film, sound and music in media arts history
During an earlier period of new media arts discourse, time-based media were=
often considered to be "old media." While this conceit has been tempered, =
we still need to consider the sophistication and provocation of film, sound=
and music from the perspective of media arts history. This session invites=
papers, which examine the return of old media, thick in their natural habi=
tat of the discourses, practices and institutions of the arts, entertainmen=
t,
science, everyday life, wherever they existed.

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–
Please send a 200 word proposal and a very brief curriculum vitae by
December 1st, 2004
via e-mail to: [email protected].
Full papers (5000 to 7000 word long) must be received via e-mail
by July 1st., 2005. Details about their format will be sent separately
to the participants. All Papers will be considered for publication.
Registration information soon: www.banffcentre.ca/bnmi/
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www.MediaArtHistory.org


SUPPORTED BY: LEONARDO, BANFF NMI, DATABASE OF VIRTUAL ART,
GERMAN RESEARCH FOUNDATION, UNESCO DIGIARTS, VILLA VIGONI, INTEL



HONORARY BOARD
Rudolf ARNHEIM; Frank POPPER; Jasia REICHARDT; Itsuo SAKANE, Walter ZANINI

ADVISORY BOARD
Andreas BROECKMANN, Berlin; Paul BROWN, London; Karin BRUNS, Linz; Annick B=
UREAUD, Paris; Dieter DANIELS, Leipzig; Diana DOMINGUES, Caxias do Sul; Fel=
ice FRANKEL, Boston; Jean GAGNON, Montreal; Thomas GUNNING, Chicago; Linda =
D. HENDERSON, Austin; Manrai HSU, Taipei; Erkki HUHTAMO, Los Angeles; Ang=
el KALENBERG, Montevideo; Ryszard KLUSZCZYNSKI, Lodz; Machiko KUSAHARA, Tok=
yo; W.J.T. MITCHELL, Chicago; Gunalan NADARAJAN, Singapore; Eduard SHANKEN,=
Durham; Barbara STAFFORD, Chicago; Christiane PAUL, New York; Louise POISS=
ANT, Montreal; Jeffrey SHAW, Sydney; Tereza WAGNER, Paris; Peter WEIBEL, Ka=
rlsruhe; Steven WILSON, San Francisco.

BANFF
Sara DIAMOND, Director of Research and Artistic Director of BNMI (Local Cha=
ir)
Susan KENNARD, Executive Producer of BNMI (Organisation)
www.banffcentre.ca/bnmi/

LEONARDO
Annick BUREAUD, Director Leonardo Pioneers and
Pathbreakers Art History Project, Leonardo/OLATS
www.olats.org

PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE
Chair: Roger F MALINA, Chair Leonardo/ISAST
www.leonardo.info

CONFERENCE DIRECTOR & ORGANISATION
Oliver GRAU, Director Immersive Art & Database of Virtual Art
Humboldt University Berlin
http://virtualart.hu-berlin.de