[spsp-members] Call for Conributions: Technologies in a Multilingual World

[Alfred Nordmann]

The fourth issue of Technology and Language has now appeared, and with 
it a new call for contributions that appeals especially to the 
philosophy of technology. Individual papers and the whole issue are 
freely available:

https://soctech.spbstu.ru/en/issue/4/

Guest-edited by Olga Shipunova, "Technology and the Media Environment of 
the Information Society"  highlights the influence of multimedia 
instruments on the education system and the cognitive sphere of the 
e-culture consumer. In particular, there is a focus on the role of 
marketing and communicative technologies in the public sphere which are 
directed to formatting mass consciousness and manipulating behavior. 
Papers also deal with technologies for creating a professional image, 
nonverbal methods of designing consciousness, the stereotyping of 
individuals and social groups behaviors. (Among the contributed papers, 
one concerns the Technology of Geofuturology.)

New Call for Contributions:

Technologies in a Multilingual World (Deadline July 5, 2022): 
Technological creativity has been described as active adaptation to the 
world. What if this world is a multilingual world - an environment in 
which we are surrounded by a multiplicity of languages and codes, more 
than anyone can produce or understand but which have to be navigated 
nonetheless? Aside from all the „natural languages“ such as the many 
variants of spoken, written, or signed English and all the pidgins and 
local dialects, these include the language of the ticketing-machine as 
well as the language of powerpoint, the language of traffic signs as 
well as technologically enhanced communication means known as 
augmentative and alternative communication. With the help of technology, 
we are building a tower of Babel. If it doesn‘t crash down and disperse 
us, this is due to technology again. The cacophony of languages is at 
the same time a well-structured environment.

 From a socio-linguistic point of view, multilingualism appears to be 
categorically different from bilingualism. If the latter refers to the 
personal ability of rendering the same meaning in different languages, 
multilingualism stands for an encounter with languages that provide 
affordances, create recognizable spaces for action, effect the 
participation in collective routines. The transformation of cookbooks 
and user manuals might be an example of this.

 From the point of view of language teaching and cultural studies, we 
always learn more than one language at once as students bring their 
languages to the classroom and the classroom itself is full of software 
and hardware, technologies and techniques. One doesn't even need to hear 
any sounds in order to appreciate multilingual urban life in silent 
movies like "Man with a Movie Camera" or "Berlin - Symphony of a City." 
Technology enables new forms of sociality just as much as it underwrites 
the cultural hegemony of global capitalism.

 From the point of view of the philosophy of technology, one can ask 
whether technologies mitigate or aggravate the challenge of 
multilingualism. Many technologies have been devised to offer 
translations. Some of these, like the use of human interpreters, rely on 
the representation of meaning, others, like algorithmically based 
electronic systems, exploit pattern recognition. All such technologies 
introduce a new layer of language, produce new linguistic habits, dampen 
the expressiveness of communication, and need to be learned in their own 
right. (Editors: Larissa Aronin, Daria Bylieva, and Alfred Nordmann)

Beyond this special topic, Technology and Language invites 
interdisciplinary explorations at the interface of technology and 
language - contributed papers in English or Russian are welcome at any 
time. Other open calls:

Technology as Language - Understanding Action in a Technical Condition 
(expressions of interest until Nov 20, 2021): The philosophy of 
technology and language meets theories of action. Actions are understood 
in reference to reasons and causes which are formed in a social setting. 
The hermeneutics of action takes on a further dimension, however, when 
technical agency and technological activity are brought into play. Of 
particular interest are the symbols and tools of labor as knowledge is 
translated into action. Another focus is on technology and semiosis or 
the technical generation of the signs and sign systems that structure 
and constrain action – especially interesting and problematic in the age 
of self-learning technical systems. (Guest editor: Alexander Nesterow)

Robot Constructions (Deadline January 10, 2022): The word "robot" is a 
Czech invention. As the word traveled to English speaking areas and from 
there to other languages and cultures, did the robot on this journey 
become something else? For robots and AI, more generally, we want to 
explore how they are imagined, defined, described, comprehended, 
constructed or even misunderstood  before and after they become a 
technological reality – how they are constituted in language, how 
cosmopolitan or intercultural they are. We are hoping for contributions 
from linguistics, philosophy, cultural and gender studies, history of 
technology, STS, and literature. (Guest editor: CHENG Lin)

Instructions (Deadline April 4, 2022): Do technical processes unfold as 
instructed in that they execute a program or in that their parts perform 
prescribed motions? But what is a program anyhow, be it a computer 
program or the program of a musical concert or a wedding - or is the 
notion of ‚instruction‘ too narrow here? Can the blueprint for a device 
be compared to the notation of a choreography? Inversely, do 
technologies instruct the behavior of users in that they establish a 
script which users need to follow? - And what is instruction in the 
first place: Does the case, for example, of language instruction follow 
a technical paradigm as well? (Guest editors: Jens Geisse and Marcel 
Siegler)

Queries, suggestions, and submissions can be addressed to 
soctech at spbstu.ru or to Daria Bylieva (bylieva_ds at spbstu.ru) and Alfred 
Nordmann (nordmann at phil.tu-darmstadt.de).

-- 
Alfred Nordmann
* Professor am Institut für Philosophie, TU Darmstadt
Karolinenplatz 5, 64289 Darmstadt, Germany (mailing address)
Glockenbau im Schloss S3|15 201 (physical address)
* Adjunct Professor of Philosophy, University of South Carolina, USA
* Guest Professor Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University
* Book series www.routledge.com/series/TECHNO
* Journal Technology and Language www.soctech.spbstu.ru/en/
* Yearbook Jahrbuch Technikphilosophie www.jtphil.nomos.de
* IANUS-Verein für friedensorientierte Technikgestaltung www.ianus-peacelab.de
* www.lehre-interdisziplinaer.tu-darmstadt.de/nag
Homepage www.philosophie.tu-darmstadt.de/nordmann
--