[spsp-members] CfP Technology and Language - The Language and Poetics of Machines

[Alfred Nordmann]

Another issue of "Technology and Language" has appeared, and with it a 
new call for contributions that appeals to interests in philosophy of 
technology, cultural and literary studies,  (art) history, and engineering.

https://soctech.spbstu.ru/en/issue/16/
www.philosophie.tu-darmstadt.de/T_and_L

Guest-edited by Anna Kotomina and Colin Milburn, the most recent issue 
is dedicated to “Speculative Technologies” with a special section on 
Franz Kafka's "The Penal Colony": Around the world, museums and archives 
contain an impressive number of models, drawings, and descriptions of 
technical devices that have never existed except on paper. Contemporary 
science centers like the Futurium in Berlin present a range of 
technologies as „endless possibilities for thinking about the future.“ 
This first of two collections of papers features utopian paper 
architecture from post-revolutionary Russia, transformative encounters 
with the Futurium, the use of fuzzy objects or AI-generated images in 
design processes, the long history of AI visions, and the fusion of 
woven materials and digital coding in the tradition of textiles as 
texts. More papers on this range of topics will be accepted for issue 
6:1 (deadline January 10, 2025). On the occasion of the 100th 
anniversary of Franz Kafka‘s death, six essays on „The Penal Colony“ 
highlight different aspects – technical, theatrical, political, 
experimental, and moral – of Kafka’s speculative technology.

New Call for Contributions: „The Language and Poetics of Machines“ 
(Deadline: June 5, 2025) — The intelligibility of mechanical processes 
lends a peculiar expressive power to the machine. This became explicit 
in the late 19th century when engineering scientists like Franz Reuleaux 
or Carl Bach articulated a compositional grammar of mechanical elements. 
To construct a machine became a way of expressing an idea and promoting 
cultural development, thus implicated in labor and gender relations and 
questions of power. According to Ernst Kapp, humans understand 
themselves in and through the language of machines. We welcome papers 
from the point of view of philosophy, culural and literary studies, 
(art) history, or engineering - expanding the discussion to machine 
theories in western, islamic, and chinese contexts, moving beyond the 
constructions of mechanical engineers to organic or cellular machinery 
and the mechanics of digital language processing. Since the 
intelligibility of the language of machines also affords subversive and 
reflective approaches in literature and art, the poetics of machines in 
the works of  Lars Gustafsson, Jean Tinguely, or Rube Goldberg should 
also be considered. — Selected texts from this special issue may be 
invited for subsequent inclusion in a special issue of the Chinese 
journal Academia Ethica.  (guest editors: DENG Pan and Kevin Liggieri)

Other open calls (shortened):

“Translation - Theory and Technology” (inquire ) —A mechanical device 
delivers faithful translations of rotary motion into the vertical back 
and forth of a beam - and vice versa. Ludwig Wittgenstein analogized 
translation to the ways in which a musical performance can be mapped 
onto the grooves of a gramophone record as well as a score - no 
interpretation involved. And if only the data set is big enough, new 
computer applications for translating between natural languages require 
nothing but the discovery of correlations in the occurrence of words in 
phrases - again, no interpretation involved. To be sure, there are other 
conceptions which highlight gains and losses, proximity and distance, 
inventiveness and transformation in the process of translation. If one 
thinks of translation as a kind of transport from the one bank of a 
river to the other side, this would be akin to the work of engineers who 
transport knowledge of functional regularities in biological systems 
into the sphere of human devices. And if one thinks of the techniques 
and collaborative arrangements for rendering old meanings in new 
settings, one will appreciate how new works and new ideas are created. — 
Considered for its linguistic as well as technical dimensions, the art 
of translation will be of interest not only to philosophers, linguists, 
and literary scholars, but also to cultural studies, biomimetics, 
mathematics and engineering. (guest editors: Andrea Breard and Marco 
Tamborini)

#mediaopera. Recomposing Agency (deadline: Dec 15, 2024), guest editor: 
Cheryce von Xylander. The word „opus“ refers to a technically or 
artfully produced work. The plural form „opera“ refers to an art-form 
that draws together many artists and technicians - musicians, singers, 
dancers, architects and builders of the space, costume and light 
designers, and then writer(s) and composer(s), conductor(s) and 
stage-director(s) who bring all this together. Not only the cinema has 
been transformed by video which is now routinely incorporated in opera 
stagings and, most recently, spawned a whole new genre of „mediaoperas“ 
- such as „Einstein and Margarita,“ „Theremin’s Last Secret,“ or „Pink 
Mouse“ by Iraida Yusupova. Akin to the medieval and renaissance 
Cathedral, modern opera and cinema enable assembly — and the 
„Gesamtkunstwerk“ finally constellated is arguably never completed. — We 
invite contributions from history, art theory, media studies, data 
science, sociology, philosophy, and related fields to consider more 
generally the configuration of aesthesis in social space: How are 
technical media and sensory modalities organised in spectacular 
art-forms which herald the historical changes they exemplify?

For the June 2025 issue of Technology and Language there is once again a 
general call for contributed papers (deadline March 15, 2025). All 
papers at the intersection of technology and language will be considered 
for any and all issues, of course. This is a chance also to submit small 
groups of papers, e.g., from workshops, conferences, summer schools, 
research projects. This issue can exhibit a great variety of themes: on 
the language of things, on human and machine voice, on resonance, on 
technology and tragedy – or comedy or farce. And much more.

Beyond these calls for special topics, any submitted paper and 
interdisciplinary exploration at the interface of technology and 
language is always welcome. The next deadline for submitted papers in 
English or Russian is January 10, 2025.

“Technology and Language” is a quarterly journal: international, peer 
reviewed, Scopus listed, online, open access, academic (no fees). 
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 em. Institut für Philosophie, TU Darmstadt
Residenzschloss 1, 64283 Darmstadt, Germany (mailing address)
Glockenbau im Schloss S3|15 206 (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
Homepage www.philosophie.tu-darmstadt.de/nordmann
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