CfP: Phenomenological Approaches to Media, Technology and Communication

Conditions of Mediation: Phenomenological Approaches to Media, Technology and Communication

2013 International Communication Association (ICA) Preconference

ICA Theory, Philosophy and Critique Division

17 June 2013, Birkbeck, University of London

Paper proposals are invited from a very wide range of perspectives, including but not limited to media history, media archaeology, audience studies, political theory, metaphysics, software studies, science and technology studies, digital aesthetics, cultural geography and urban studies. Though all proposals should relate in some way to phenomenological thinking, this should be interpreted broadly, ranging from core thinkers such as Husserl, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty and Sartre to those with looser affiliations to phenomenology per se, for example Arendt, Bergson, Bourdieu, Deleuze, Garfinkel, Ingold, Latour, Whitehead and Harman.

Confirmed keynote speakers:

• Dr David Berry, Swansea University
• Professor Nick Couldry, Goldsmiths, University of London
• Professor Graham Harman, American University of Cairo
• Professor Lisa Parks, UC Santa Barbara
• Professor Paddy Scannell, University of Michigan

Please send an abstract (max 200 words) of your paper to both Scott Rodgers (s.rodgers@bbk.ac.uk) and Tim Markham (t.markham@bbk.ac.uk) by 20 November 2012. Authors will be informed regarding acceptance / rejection for the preconference no later than 20 December 2012.

Philosophy & Technology first issue

Table of contents of the first issue coming out in March (articles already available online):

Philosophy & Technology

• Harmonising Physis and Techne: The Mediating Role of Philosophy
  • Luciano Floridi

• Imaging Technology and the Philosophy of Causality
  • George Darby and Jon Williamson
• Web of Data and Web of Entities: Identity and Reference in Interlinked Data in the Semantic Web
  • Paolo Bouquet, Heiko Stoermer and Massimiliano Vignolo
• Dirty Hands, Speculative Minds, and Smart Machines
  • Diane P. Michelfelder
• Bootstrapping Normativity
  • Graham White
• Action Schemes: Questions and Suggestions
  • Evan Selinger, Jesús Aguilar and Kyle Powys Whyte
• Why Theories of Causality Need Production: an Information Transmission Account
  • Phyllis McKay Illari
• Husserl’s Galileo Needed a Telescope!
  • Don Ihde
• Should Probabilistic Design Replace Safety Factors?
  • Neelke Doorn and Sven Ove Hansson
• The Here and Now: Theory, Technology, and Actuality
  • Albert Borgmann
• Acknowledging Substances: Looking at the Hidden Side of the Material World
  • Hans Peter Hahn and Jens Soentgen

Eine Auseinandersetzung mit Heidegger

Søren Riis is one of those few people out there who have also been intrigued with the Heidegger-Latour relationship (see his paper (Riis, S. (2008). “The Symmetry between Bruno Latour and Martin Heidegger: The Technique of Turning a Police Officer into a Speed Bump.” Social Studies of Science 38(2): 285-301.) This time he has come out with a book on Heidegger and technology, though it does sound like there is also a Latourian twist to it.

Riis, Søren (2011) Zur Neubestimmung der Technik: Eine Auseinandersetzung mit Martin Heidegger, Francke Verlag, Tübingen

Contrary to Heidegger, Riis advances a number of contentious arguments, which goes to show that biotechnology may indeed hold the “saving power” of modernity, complex modern machines are kinds of artworks, and ancient craftsmanship may be as dangerous as modern technology. Turning Heidegger’s arguments against himself, Riis demonstrates how Heidegger’s thinking in his principal work ”Being and Time” lays the foundation for a radical attack on human existence, which concerns ancient as well as modern technology.

In making the different arguments, emphasis is given to Heidegger’s hermeneutic tricks and techniques, which Heidegger utilizes in order to make his own thinking seem more coherent.

Hat tip OOP.

Towards Speculative Realism

Graham Harman’s new book of old essays and lectures has just been published under the title Towards Speculative Realism: Essays and Lectures, by Zero Books. Its publication is a proper ANTHEM event, in the sense that this book deals with both actor-network theory and Heidegger, as well as Harman’s own attempt to build on both, through his object-oriented philosophy. Here are the contents:

1. Phenomenology and the Theory of Equipment (1997)
2. Alphonso Lingis on the Imperatives in Things (1997)
3. The Theory of Objects in Heidegger and Whitehead (1997)
4. A Fresh Look at Zuhandenheit (1999)
5. Bruno Latour, King of Networks (1999)
6. Object-Oriented Philosophy (1999)
7. The Revival of Metaphysics in Continental Philosophy (2002)
8. Physical Nature and the Paradox of Qualities (2006)
9. Space, Time, and Essence: An Object-Oriented Approach (2008)
10. The Assemblage Theory of Society (2008)
11. Objects, Matter, Sleep, and Death (2009)

Philosophy & Technology

The philosophy of technology has a new home: the freshly launched Philosophy & Technology journal. Check out the editorial board: it has quite a few post-phenomenologists  and some STS people, a few of whom have dealt with the ANT-phenomenology relation that is an interest on this blog.

The journal aims to publish the best research produced in all areas where philosophy and technology meet. It welcomes high-quality submissions, regardless of the tradition, school of thought or disciplinary background from which they derive. (…)

The range of coverage is very broad and interdisciplinary. It includes classic problems in philosophy of technology and original approaches to them, theories of technology, methods and concepts in technology, as well as theoretical topics and topics dealing with practical problems concerning the nature, the development and the implications of technologies. Particular attention is paid to new areas of philosophical interest – such as nanotechnologies, medical, genetic and biotechnologies, neurotechnologies, information and communication technologies, AI and robotics, or the philosophy of engineering – and the philosophical discussion of issues such as environmental risks, globalization, security, or biological enhancements. The journal encourages submissions on the applications of philosophy of technology to other disciplines, such as computer science, cognitive science, jurisprudence, social studies of science, and the social sciences.

Phenomenological and post-ANT objects

Another intriguing event laid on by CRESC is the forthcoming Materialising the Subject: phenomenological and post-ANT objects in the social sciences conference at Manchester Museum on 26-27 February 2009. This is very much along the phenomenology-ANT axis that we are interested in here at ANTHEM. The key themes and respective speakers are:

1. After Networks: spatio-temporal analytics – Robert Oppenheim, Matt Candei, Harvey Molotch;
2. ‘Not Networks Per Se, but Distributed Enactments’ – Martin Holbraad, Monika Buscher, Susanne Kuechler, Soumhya Venkatesan;
3. Is Phenomenology really an albatross? – Don Ihde, Michael Jackson, Nigel Thrift;
4. Skilled Practice: cognition as human-artefact-human orientation system – Christina Toren, Tim Ingold, Morten Pedersen;
5. Does it make any Sense to Say that Objects Have Agency? – John Law, Penny Harvey, Albena Yaneva.

Click here for a detailed description of the rationale, here for the programme, and here to register.

4S/EASST: Actor Network Theory meets (Post) Phenomenology

The draft programme for the 2008 4S/EASST Conference in Rotterdam is now available from the 4S website [1MB PDF]. There are just too many interesting talks here for us to be able to even begin to list them, so we will stick with highlighting just the one session that is most closely in line with the ANTHEM theme: Session 1.3.16 “Actor Network Theory meets (Post)Phenomenology,” between 13:30-15:30 on 21 August 2008 in Room T3-31. Session organisers: Jack Post and Peter-Paul Verbeek. The talks:

• “I have never been Modern – nor has Postphenomenology been so,” by Don Ihde, State University of New York at Stony Brook
• “Posthuman Perceptions: on hybrids and human-technology relations,” by Peter-Paul Verbeek, University of Twente