Call for Participants: 3rd "<Interrupted = “Cyfem and Queer>”, Berlin

Call for Participants for 3rd "<Interrupted = “Cyfem and Queer>” in Berlin

Saturday, August 10, 2019 | aquarium & OHM | Berlin

http://interrupted.creamcake.de/

Deadline: July 20th, 2019

Attention: artists, writers, activists, coders, scholars, analysts. Berlin’s Creamcake is looking for academic, professional and creative visionaries to join their 3rd "<Interrupted = “Cyfem and Queer>” symposium, taking place on August 10 at aquarium and OHM and exploring the contemporary reality of data, surveillance and automation. Applications are open to those looking at the body from the outside, considering not only its surrounding structures, limitations and systems of control but also the possibilities for optimization and emancipation through technology. Curated by Creamcake and Gala Rexer, this third and last episode aims to critically engage with and build upon the previous cyber- and technofeminist-focussed symposia, which discussed the status quo of past and present cyberfeminist thought, practices and politics before concentrating on the biotechnological and political management of bodies, sex and gender through a cyber/technofeminist lens.

The 3rd "<Interrupted = “Cyfem and Queer>” symposium takes a deep dive into the way technologies and software applications operate, process, establish, cross or contest boundaries. Modern surveillance has become an intrinsic part of our daily lives, often either without our knowledge or in a way that is beyond our control. Embedded in neoliberal capitalism, these surveillance regimes reinforce racialized, (settler) colonial, gendered and sexualized forms of social construction and control, identifying, naming, and controlling citizens, bodies and the greater population. In contemplating new and utopian ways of what pioneer cyberfeminist Donna Haraway calls, “living and dying well together on terra”, we are facing the difficult task of protecting ourselves from being subsumed by data and surveillance. It’s with this in mind that we ask: what does a queer, cyberfeminist and digital community look like in the 21st century, and how can we reclaim the knowledge produced by surveillance technologies in order to form new collectivities and response-abilities?

We are seeking academic papers, practice-based reflections; presentation, panel and workshop ideas; and art and music performance contributions related but not limited to:

The history of surveillance practices and technologies: how can studying the past contribute to contextualizing the present?

What are the social consequences of mass surveillance, classification, algorithmic takeovers and cybernetic control, and how does it affect the way we act as individuals, citizens, and populations?

How are categories, such as race, gender, or class, being (re)produced through systems of surveillance?

Who is considered a legitimate subject, who is rejected as “dirty data”, and who produces “dirty data” in turn as a way of resisting?

How do surveillance regimes use biometric data collection, facial-recognition technologies, full-body scanners etc. to manipulate, monitor and spy on the movements and behaviors of a population?

What new terrains and spaces (such as borderlands, environmental zones of toxicity or the dark net) are established, observed or visualized through surveillance technologies?

Changes in data visualization through processes of filtering, decryption or pattern recognition: how can data produced and transmitted by machines be perceived by human and non-human bodies, and vice versa?

What are possible strategies of resistance, subversion and queering in a contemporary moment obsessed with constant online-communication and self-tracking?

How do we facilitate our own surveillance of one another? Stalking, communication and optimization as learned social behaviors from our daily use of interactive computer-mediated technologies, like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and beyond.

How to apply via form:

Summarize your practice (200 words max. in English or German)

What do you wish to explore during the 3rd "<Interrupted = “Cyfem and Queer>”? (200 words max. in English or German)

What tools or support do you need to present your work?

Provide us with a short bio (required) and supporting documentation (optional) of your work (200 words max. in English or German)

Tell us your contact details, location and gender pronouns.

We encourage women, queer, trans and gender non-conforming people, and people of color to apply. We welcome applications from emerging artists and researchers.

Deadline: July 20th, 2019

Accepted applicants will be invited to present their project or research on August 10 at OHM and aquarium in Berlin. We will endeavour to cover food and accommodation as much as possible and will contribute with a budget to your travel expenses. Resources for travel are limited but we are also open to connecting online.

If you have any questions, please contact: interrupted @ creamcake.de.

The project is made possible with the support of the Senate Department for Culture and Europe, and in cooperation with the Gunda Werner Institute in the Heinrich Böll Foundation e.V.