Research Workshop
29 – 30 Jan 2020
transmediale festival, Berlin

Presentations at transmediale
31 Jan – 2 Feb 2020, Berlin

How do we think about networks under post-digital conditions? What does this imply for research?

The next transmediale festival, End to End (E2E), aims to deal with the pervasiveness of networks and their limits. It refers to Robert Filliou's The Eternal Network, pointing to the interconnectedness of everyday-life actions across an emerging global world at that time. This is a good reminder that network cultures exist beyond the technical reality of network culture as we now know it despite our primary identification of networks with social media and planetary computation. By drawing on the legacies of critical and autonomous network cultures, transmediale 2020 aims to make the limits of Internet-based networks visible but also highlight alternatives. Is there a conceivable counter-power to networks? Which alternative technological models and cultural narratives are needed to construct the principles of end-to-end communication anew? How might the critique of networks extend to non-western contexts and reflect the limits in a global perspective?

The once canonical model of centralized, decentralized and distributed networks is in need of differentiation and more detail today. This means broadening the discussion of networks to other ecologies that would include non-human elements such as animals, energy, clouds, climate, and so on. Moreover, despite this everlasting debate over networks and their potential to rethink eco-socio-technical structures, relatively little of this network thinking has permeated the artworld or research cultures. In this workshop we would like to explore this line of thinking and ask what it means to research networks, and moreover to think beyond the organizational logic of the academy to other forms of organizing knowledge production and distribution. What are the limits of research networks and what would an end-to-end principle of research look like? Might the workshop (if not festival) examine its form in light of this?

Organized by
– APRJA_, A Peer-Reviewed Journal About_
– Aarhus University, Digital Aesthetics Research Center
– transmediale – festival for art and digital culture
– Centre for the Study of the Networked Image, London South Bank University
– Global Emergent Media (GEM) Lab, Concordia University

Workshop Venues
transmediale festival, Berlin

Workshop Details
– Prior to the workshop participants are asked to produce a 2,000 word position paper, and respond online to other participants.
– The workshop itself will unfold over two days, with presentations, discussions, and practical exercises.
– As a consequence of peer feedback, participants will be asked to reduce their texts from 2,000 words towards a shorter public presentation in a dedicated panel at the festival.
– In addition, participants will be invited to contribute longer academic papers (of 4,000 words) to the associated peer-reviewed open access online journal APRJA_.

The workshop aims to provide a forum for emerging researchers to enter into speculation, critique, exchange, and dialogue about their research topic. The primary focus is on the participants’ individual research projects, as well as fostering networks, knowledge exchange and widening dissemination. Although it is primarily aimed at international PhD researchers, the workshop is also open to artists, curators, and programmers who are pursuing research outside an academic context.

The workshop is free but we cannot cover travel or other costs, which are expected to be met by participants or their institutions.

Workload and Credits
Expected workloads include the production of a short text prior to the workshop; online response to the works of fellow participants; the presentation of research, response and dialog with other participants; the creation of content for public presentation; and the writing of a lengthier research article invited for submission to APRJA_.
PhD students can be awarded 5 ECTS for their full participation.

Submission
We are seeking proposals consisting of a biography (500 characters), a statement on current research/description of PhD project (1,000 characters), and a short description of how this research relates to the workshop theme (500 characters).
Deadline: 30 Sept 2019

Important Dates
- Deadline for abstracts: 30 Sept 2019
- Notification of acceptance: 11 Oct 2019
- Submission of draft paper (2000 words): 11 Nov 2018
- Online activity: 11 Nov 2019 – 11 Dec 2019
- Workshop at transmediale festival, Berlin: 28 – 30 Jan 2020
- Presentations at transmediale festival: 31 Jan – 2 Feb 2020
- Final submission of full paper to APRJA_: 31 Mar 2020
- Publication of APRJA_: Summer 2020

Supported by
The Graduate School, Faculty of Arts, Aarhus University; Centre for the Study of the Networked Image, London South Bank University; Global Emergent Media (GEM) Lab, Concordia University, Montréal; and transmediale.