From alex at slab.org Sat Jul 12 09:44:35 2014 From: alex at slab.org (alex) Date: Sat, 12 Jul 2014 08:44:35 +0100 Subject: ::fibreculture:: Short comments invited by editors of a forthcoming book on Algorithmic Music Message-ID: >From Alex McLean and Roger Dean Dear Colleagues, We are happy to share the news that we have had our proposal for the Oxford Handbook on Algorithmic Music accepted. Before we start approaching authors to contribute chapters, we are keen to canvas opinions within our communities that may diverge from or complement our present ideas. The purpose of this mail is to invite such comments, preferably by 25th July 2014, when we will move to the next stage. First, a couple of motivational quotes: ?? computers will be able to write better poems than we can. So we must now add to logopoeia, phanopeia and melopoeia: algorhythmia.? ?The job of poetry is not to get syntax back in the corral but to follow its wild journey into the unchained?. Charles Bernstein Recalculating (2013, pp. 6, 86, Kindle Edition). ?.. at the same time that narratives of use are converted by technology into algorithmic structures, these structures are themselves put to use within the ongoing activities of inhabitants, and through the stories of this use they are reincorporated into the field of effective action within which all life is lived.? Tim Ingold, Being Alive (20, pp. 62, 2011) Perhaps the above gets across our interest in how algorithms extend our creative reach, and also the cultural processes which bring them back into the human realm. We are particularly interested to receive your thoughts on the conceptual arena in which algorithmic music operates (see general issues below); and any specific suggestions you might have on individual topics that merit coverage (see preliminary sectional organisation below) and which you think we may not have considered. In line with policy of this book series, this is not intended as a call for people to propose themselves as contributors; rather it is a call for ideas that may help us to make the book as far-reaching and useful in its coverage as we can. Nevertheless, if you suggest a topic, please feel free to suggest potential authors. Please email us directly, or if you prefer, open up a broader public discussion on the present forum, which we would be happy to follow. GENERAL ISSUES. The concept of algorithm which we propose to use will have a wide range, though the majority of the book will focus on computational algorithms. Put simply, it may range between a dictionary definition of an algorithm and of a heuristic. It will take a historical perspective, respect the arithmetic origins, and discuss both analogue and digital processes. Just as provocation points we abstract these two terms from the Apple dictionary: Algorithm: a process or set of rules to be followed in calculations or other problem-solving operations, especially by a computer. Heuristic: (a means of) enabling a person to discover or learn something for themselves. We plan to open the book with a chapter with working title ?Algorithmic art: Algorithmic Music?, providing historical and cross-arts background and perspective (from Gertrude Stein and George Brecht, to Stockhausen, Xenakis and live coding). After this there will be about 25 in depth chapters focusing largely on algorithmic music and computational approaches, and many shorter contributions by those reflecting on their own algorithmic music practice. The book will include some emphasis on computational creativity, and relationships with perception, cognition and cognitive modeling, as well as cultural issues, critical theory, and practical detail of how algorithmic music is made. It will explore algorithmic work in terms of generative processes and outcomes that are fixed or variable, and notated and executed via a range of media including physical objects; movement; image; word; sound; mathematics/statistics; and of course programming languages. SECTIONAL ORGANISATION The working titles for book sections are ?Grounding algorithmic music?, ?What can Algorithms in Music do??, ?Purposes of Algorithms for the Music Maker?, and ?Algorithmic culture?. Our idea is to provide a firm basis for notions of algorithms in music, then shift focus from the algorithm, to the musician, and to the place of algorithms in culture. In addition we will interleave ?Perspectives on Practice? chapters, which will provide the opportunity for selected practitioners to reflect upon their own work. Appendices will include a substantial discography. Thanks very much for your attention, and we look forward to any comments you may have on the above. Best wishes from Roger and Alex -- http://yaxu.org/ From difusion at medialab-prado.es Tue Jul 15 18:32:29 2014 From: difusion at medialab-prado.es (=?UTF-8?B?TWVkaWFsYWItUHJhZG8gQ29tdW5pY2FjacOzbg==?=) Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2014 18:32:29 +0200 Subject: ::fibreculture:: CFP: Citizen innovation projects in Ibero-America Message-ID: <53C5579D.9070100@medialab-prado.es> Open call for citizen innovation projects in Ibero-America *International collaborative workshop in Veracruz (Mexico)* Deadline: August 17, 2014 The Secretar?a General Iberoamericana (SEGIB), through the initiative Ciudadan?a 2.0 and the Coordinaci?n de Estrategia Digital Nacional of the Oficina de la Presidencia de la Rep?blica (M?xico) opens this call for projects related to citizen innovation for their development and prototyping in the Laboratorio Iberoamericano de Innovaci?n Ciudadana which takes place from November 24 to December 5, 2014 in the city of Veracruz, M?xico, within the frame of the XXIV Ibero-American Summits of Heads of State and Governments. For this reason, an open call has gone out for all thyose interested in presenting a proposal for citizen innovation projects that apply to the Ibero-America, of which 10 will be selected for their development in a collaborative workshop in Veracruz. Selected projects announced: September 8, 2014 Open call for collaborators: September 8 ? October 5, 2014 More information: http://medialab-prado.es/article/labicproyectos -- Nerea Garc?a Garmendia Comunicaci?n y contenidos Web en Medialab-Prado Plaza de las Letras Calle Alameda, 15. 28014 Madrid T. 912 191 157 nerea at medialab-prado.es http://www.facebook.com/MedialabPradoMadrid Twitter: @medialabprado // /Este correo y sus documentos adjuntos pueden contener informaci?n confidencial y/o privilegiada que s?lo podr? ser utilizada por su destinatario para el fin del cual es objeto el presente correo. 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URL: From mathieu.oneil at anu.edu.au Thu Jul 17 04:24:11 2014 From: mathieu.oneil at anu.edu.au (Mathieu ONeil) Date: Thu, 17 Jul 2014 02:24:11 +0000 Subject: ::fibreculture:: CFP for Special Issue on Feminism and (Un)Hacking In-Reply-To: <6A43F6D2-4569-457B-BDA3-8DD09F7577A6@vt.edu> References: <6A43F6D2-4569-457B-BDA3-8DD09F7577A6@vt.edu> Message-ID: <1405563851107.25125@anu.edu.au> Journal of Peer Production (JoPP) CFP for Special Issue on Feminism and (Un)Hacking Editors: Shaowen Bardzell (Indiana University), Lilly Nguyen (University of California - Irvine), Sophie Toupin (McGill University) There has been a recent growth in interest in feminist approaches to practices like hacking, tinkering, geeking and making. What started off as an interest in furthering representations of women in the technical fields of computer science and engineering, often along the lines of liberal feminism, has now grown into social, cultural, and political analyses of gendered modes of social reproduction, expertise, and work, among others. Practices of hacking, tinkering, geeking, and making have been criticized for their overtly masculinist approaches, often anchored in the Euro-American techno-centers of Silicon Valley and Cambridge that have created a culture of entrepreneurial heroism and a certain understanding of technopolitical liberation, or around the German Chaos Computer Club (CCC). With this special issue of the Journal of Peer Production, we hope to delve more deeply into these critiques to imagine new forms of feminist technical praxis that redefine these practices and/or open up new ones. How can we problematize hacking, tinkering, geeking and making through feminist theories and epistemologies? How do these practices, in fact, change when we begin to consider them through a feminist prism? Can we envision new horizons of practice and possibility through a feminist critique? In this call, we understand feminist perspectives to be pluralistic, including intersectional, trans, genderqueer, and race-sensitive viewpoints that are committed to the central principles of feminism--agency, fulfillment, empowerment, diversity, and social justice. We refer to the term hacking with a full understanding of its histories and limitations. That said, we use it provisionally to provoke, stimulate, and reimagine new possibilities for technical feminist practice. Hacking, as a form of subjectivity and a mode of techno-political engagement, has recently emerged as a site of intense debate, being equally lauded as a political ethos of freedom and slandered as an elitist form of expertise. These fervid economic and political ideals have been challenged and at times come under attack because they not only displace women and genderqueer within these technological communities but, more importantly, because they displace gendered forms of reflection and engagement. Drawing on a growing community of feminist scholarship and practices, we hope to build on this momentum to invite submissions that reconceptualize the relationship between feminism and hacking. We aim to highlight feminist hackers, makers and geeks not only as new communities of experts, but as new modes of engagement and novel theoretical developments. In turn, with this special issue, we hope to challenge both concepts of feminism and hacking to ask several questions. How can feminist approaches to hacking open up new possibilities for technopolitics? Historically, hacking discourses center on political and labor aesthetics of creation, disruption, and transgression. How can feminist theories of political economy push technopolitical imaginaries towards alternate ideals of reproduction, care, and maintenance? Conversely, we also ask how notions of hacking can open up new possibilities for feminist epistemologies and modes of engagement? We seek scholarly articles and commentaries that address any of the following themes and beyond. We are also interested in portraits, understood broadly, of feminist hackers, makers and geeks that help us better understand feminist hacker, maker and geek culture. We also solicit experimental formats such as photo essays or other media that address the special issue themes. ? What is distinctive about feminist hacking or hackers? How does feminist hacking practices help create a distinct feminist hacking culture? ? Why are feminist hacking practices emerging? Which constellation of factors help the emergence of such practices? ? What do we know about the feminist hacker spectrum? i.e. what are the differences among feminist hacking practices and how can we make sense of these distinctions? ? What tensions in hacking and/or in hacker practices and culture(s) come to the fore when feminist, anti-patriarchal, anti-racist, anti-capitalist and/or anti-oppression perspectives are taken? ? What does feminist hacker ethic(s) entail? ? What kind of social imaginaries are emerging with feminist hacking and hackers? ? What kinds of hacking are taking place beyond the Euro-American tradition? Submission abstracts of 300-500 words due by September 8, 2014, and should be sent to femhack at peerproduction.net. All peer reviewed papers will be reviewed according to Journal of Peer Production guidelines; see http://peerproduction.net/peer-review/process/? Full papers and materials (peer reviewed? papers around 8,000 words; testimonies, self-portraits and experimental formats up to 4,000 words) are due by January 31st, 2015 for review. From p.shea at qub.ac.uk Mon Jul 21 18:40:19 2014 From: p.shea at qub.ac.uk (Pip Shea) Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2014 17:40:19 +0100 Subject: ::fibreculture:: =?windows-1252?q?REMINDER_CFP=8BIssue_24_Fibrecu?= =?windows-1252?q?lture_Journal=3A_Entanglements=3A_activism_and_technolog?= =?windows-1252?q?y?= Message-ID: CFP?Issue 24 Fibreculture Journal: Entanglements: activism and technology http://fibreculturejournal.org/cfp-entanglements/ Please note that for this issue, initial submissions should be abstracts only. Issue Editors: Pip Shea, Tanya Notley and Jean Burgess Abstract deadline: August 20 2014 (no late abstracts will be accepted) Article deadline: November 3 2014 Publication aimed for: February 2015 This themed issue explores the entanglements that arise due to frictions between the philosophies embedded within technologies and the philosophies embedded within activism. Straightforward solutions are rarely on offer as the bringing together of different philosophies requires the negotiation of acceptance, compromise, or submission (Tsing 2004). This friction can be disruptive, productive, or both, and it may contribute discord or harmony. In this special issue, we seek submissions that respond to the idea that frictions between technologies and activists may ultimately enhance the ability of activists to take more control of their projects, create new ethical spaces and subvert technologies, just as it may also result in tension, conflict and hostility. By dwelling in between and within these frictions and entanglements ? through strategic and tactical media discourses as well as the very concept of an activist politics within technology ? this special issue will elucidate the context-specific nature, constraints and possibilities of the digital environments that are co-habited by activists from proximate fields including social movements, human rights, ecological and green movements, international development, community arts and cultural development. Past issues of the Fibreculture Journal have examined activist philosophies from angles such as social justice and networked organisational forms, communication rights and net neutrality debates, and the push back against precarious new media labour. Our issue extends this work by revealing the conflicting debates that surround activist philosophies of technology. Submissions are sought that engage specifically with the ethics, rationales and methods adopted by activists to justify selecting, building, using, promoting or rejecting specific technologies. We also encourage work that considers the ways in which these negotiations speak to broader mythologies and tensions embedded within digital culture ? between openness and control; political consistency and popular appeal; appropriateness, usability and availability. We invite responses to these provocations from activists, practitioners and academics. Critiques, case studies, and multimedia proposals will be considered for inclusion. Submissions should explore both constraints and possibilities caused by activism and its digital technology entanglements through the following themes: Alternative technology versus appropriate technology Pragmatism and technology choice The philosophies and practices of hacking technologies Activist cultures and the proprietary web Digital privacy and security breaches and errors Uncovering and exposing technology vulnerabilities Technology and e-waste The philosophies of long/short term impact Authenticity and evidence Initial submissions should comprise 300 word abstracts and 60 word biographies, emailed to p.shea at qub.ac.uk and t.notley at uws.edu.au References: Tsing, A. 2005 Friction: An Ethnography of Global Connection. Princeton: Princeton University Press. All contributors and editors must read the guidelines at: http://fibreculturejournal.org/policy-and-style/ before working with the Fibreculture Journal Email correspondence for this issue: p.shea at qub.ac.uk The Fibreculture Journal (http://fibreculturejournal.org/) is a peer reviewed international journal, associated with Open Humanities Press (http://openhumanitiespress.org/), that explores critical and speculative interventions in the debate and discussions concerning information and communication technologies and their policy frameworks, network cultures and their informational logic, new media forms and their deployment, and the possibilities of socio-technical invention and sustainability. /. Pip Shea, PhD School of Creative Arts Queen's University Belfast Sonic Arts Research Centre 4 Cloreen Park Belfast County Antrim BT9 5HN -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From andrew.murphie at gmail.com Mon Jul 28 06:01:05 2014 From: andrew.murphie at gmail.com (Andrew Murphie) Date: Mon, 28 Jul 2014 14:01:05 +1000 Subject: ::fibreculture:: New Fibreculture Journal CFP Message-ID: Dear Fibreculturalists, There is a new CFP for the Fibreculture Journal. You can find it here. It is fairly general. It has very tight deadlines. We will publish this year. http://fibreculturejournal.org/cfp-contemporaryissuesevents/ with kind regards, Andrew -- "A traveller, who has lost his way, should not ask, Where am I? What he really wants to know is, Where are the other places" - Alfred North Whitehead Andrew Murphie - Associate Professor School of the Arts and Media, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, 2052 Editor - The Fibreculture Journal http://fibreculturejournal.org/> web: http://www.andrewmurphie.org/ tlf:612 93855548 fax:612 93856812 room 311H, Robert Webster Building -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... 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