Call for Papers: MutaMorphosis: Challenging Arts and Sciences

MUTAMORPHOSIS

First Call for Abstracts: Deadline 31st of January 2007
MutaMorphosis: Challenging Arts and Sciences, International
Conference, Prague

International Conference organised by CIANT as part of the ENTER
festival in the framework of the Leonardo 40th anniversary
celebrations. The festival will feature also the first retrospective
exhibition of Frank J. Malina.

8th - 10th of November 2007, Prague , Czech Republic

Conference website: http://www.mutamorphosis.org

The conference will explore the major mutations that are affecting the
future of our world. We invite papers from artists,
scientists and researchers on the evolution of living beings and the
societies they constitute, and on modes of knowledge, expression and
communication of humans, animals and other forms of life.

'MutaMorphosis' seeks a multiplicity of perspectives as well as a
qualified and diverse group of conference participants. The
conference will concentrate on the growing interest – within the
worlds of the arts, sciences and technologies – in EXTREME AND
HOSTILE ENVIRONMENTS. These environments appear as symptomatic
indicators of the mutations that are taking place; they are potential
vectors that make possible an awareness of the different problems at
the origin of the disturbances that threaten the ensemble of the
Earth's eco-systems.

We invite practitioners in the arts, sciences, engineering and
humanities to submit abstracts that explore the limits and extremes
within the following streams of interest:

1. LIVING BEINGS

How do the arts and sciences deal with new ideas about strategies of
life in extreme conditions?

Keywords: adaptation, artificial life, bioart, biotechnology, cell,
cloning, control, emergence, ethics, evolution, extremophilia, hybrid,
limit, organization, performativity, self-organization, strategy,
survival, symbiogenesis, symbiosis, tissue, transformation,
transgression, transplantation, unpredictability.

2. SPACE

How do the arts and sciences face radical scales and extreme environments?

Keywords: Antarctica, astrophysics, colonisation, climate, dark
matter, dark energy, deserts, deteritorialization, ethics, exobiology,
exploration, geotagging, globalization, map, macro, micro, nano,
singularity, outer space, speed, territory, underwater, vacuum.

3. COGNITION

How do the arts and sciences address evolving ideas about cognition in
extreme environments?

Keywords: collective intelligence, complexity, connectivity, decision,
deficiency, distributed, ethics, intelligence, dysfunction, emotion,
efficiency, information, instrument, handicap, manipulation, memory,
mobility, networked, pathology, perception, sensorial, simulation,
system, therapy, visualization, web 2.0.

All submitted abstracts will be peer reviewed by an international
advisory panel. Submissions accepted and presented at the conference
will be published in the conference proceedings.

500-word abstracts required by 31st of January 2007 via email to
[email protected]

Please include URL of web site where your work is documented.

Join us in Prague 8th - 10th of November 2007.

Conference Steering Committee: Alban Asselin, Louis Bec, Annick
Bureaud, Don Foresta, Denisa Kera, Roger F. Malina (co-chair:
[email protected]), Louise Poissant, Pavel Sedlak (co-chair:
[email protected] ), Pavel Smetana

Organiser: CIANT - International Centre for Art and New Technologies
in Prague ( www.ciant.cz, CZ)

Co-organisers: Leonardo (www.leonardo.info , USA; www.olats.org, FR) ,
Hexagram (www.hexagram.org , CAN), Pepinieres europeenes pour jeunes
artistes (www.art4eu.net , FR)

Partners: Centre for Global Studies at Charles University (
http://cgs.flu.cas.cz, CZ), CYPRES Arts Sciences Technologies Cultures
(www.cypres-artech.org , FR), Czech Academy of Sciences - Week of
Science and Technology (www.avcr.cz/tydenvedy , CZ), French Institute
in Prague ( www.ifp.cz, CZ), MARCEL ( www.mmmarcel.org, GB) , UQAM
(www.uqam.ca , CAN)