<nettime-ann> The Fibreculture Journal--CFP--Creative Robotics

Call for Papers March 2014 (please circulate):

Creative Robotics:
Rethinking HumanâMachine Configurations.

Issue Editors: Petra Gemeinboeck, Jill Bennett and Elena Cox.

abstract deadline: April 25, 2014 article deadline: July 31, 2014 publication aimed for: November, 2014

http://fibreculturejournal.org/ http://fibreculturejournal.org/cfp_creative_robotics/

Please note that for this issue, initial submissions should be abstracts only
all contributors and editors must read the guidelines at; http://fibreculturejournal.org/policy-and-style/
before working with the Fibreculture Journal
email correspondence for this issue: petra@unsw.edu.au

âIf one thinks of a classic âupstairs/downstairsâ scenario, it is no longer clear where the robots will be lodgingâ (Turkle, 2010)

We are on the verge of a robotic revolution, a revolution that has long been foreshadowed by science fiction such as Karel CÌapekâs play R.U.R. (Rossumâs Universal Robots) in 1920 and Isaac Asimovâs first collection of stories I, Robot in 1950. Today, robots are infiltrating our everyday lives, in the form of complex toys, household appliances, and assistants in therapy, eldercare and education. Billions of dollars are being spent every year to turn machines into co-inhabitants, co-workers, assistants, carers, and entertainers. Together with autonomous, self-driving cars and Amazonâs delivery drones, robots promise to radically change our lives in the very near future.

Looked at from this perspective, one could view this ârobotic revolutionâ as simply a matter of investment and technological advancement, in the service of societyâs needs. But the next phase in the ongoing humanâmachine coevolution brings with it an abundance of pressing questions to explore. Fast growing robotics areas such as Social Robotics and HumanâRobot Interaction enlist the expertise of researchers in psychology, biology, cognitive science and social science to contribute their views to dilemmas such as how social robots should look, or how they can interact ânaturallyâ with people. So far the most popular response has been to make the social robot as human-like as possible, neatly closing the loop on science fiction imaginaries such as Asimovâs Bicentennial Man. Yet, before considering the pragmatics of form, function and behaviour, it is worth asking whether we as a culture understand these fundamental questions yet. And who asks the questions? Robots and humanârobot configurations are historically and culturally constructed socio-material assemblages, materially enacting provocative political, social and aesthetic relations. Currently, our visions seem to be arrested along the boundary of the humanâ machine binary; we are either invested in blurring this boundary or reaffirming it.

The Creative Robotics issue of the Fibreculture Journal deliberately positions itself at the uneasy nexus out of which these sociomaterial assemblages emerge, while subscribing to a fundamentally experimental, embodied and performative approach. It addresses an emerging research area that brings concepts and methods from experimental arts and performance, and critical perspectives from social anthropology to the interdisciplinary research of humanârobot interaction. The Creative Robotics issue wants to manifest a sense of the scope and diversity of questions and issues raised by present visions of humanârobot configurations. At the same time, it wants to unhinge, open up and expand these visions.

To produce this transdisciplinary discourse, this issue of the Fibreculture Journal invites contributions from a wide range of fields and practices, including experimental arts; performance and dramaturgy; science, technology and society; social anthropology; humanârobot interaction (HRI); robotics, embodied cognitive science; and artificial intelligence/philosophy. Contributions could explore:

â representation vs. ontology
â embodiment and performativity
â aesthetics and affect
â machines and performance
â thinking with the machine body
â cultural and historical practices
â differentiated entry points for humanâmachine configurations
â humanârobot kinesics and communication
â new practices in humanârobot interaction

To shape the discursive landscape of this special issue our editorial process aims for a meshwork of perspectives and a mix of theoretical and experimental practices that explore sociomaterial relations and the ways in which they are historically, culturally and technologically constituted.

The Fibreculture Journal (http://fibreculturejournal.org/) is a peer reviewed international journal, associated with Open Humanities Press (http://openhumanitiespress.org/), that explores critical and speculative interventions in the debate and discussions concerning information and communication technologies and their policy frameworks, network cultures and their informational logic, new media forms and their deployment, and the possibilities of sociotechnical invention and sustainability.

--

"A traveller, who has lost his way, should not ask, Where am I? What he really wants to know is, Where are the other places" - Alfred North Whitehead

Andrew Murphie - Associate Professor
School of the Arts and Media,
University of New South Wales,
Sydney, Australia, 2052

Editor - The Fibreculture Journal http://fibreculturejournal.org/>
web: http://www.andrewmurphie.org/

tlf:612 93855548 fax:612 93856812
room 311H, Robert Webster Building