[csaa-forum] Invitation - CRN Workshop - Obsolescence.

[Jason Wilson]

Obsolescence Research Workshop

1 – 2 October 2009, University of Wollongong

Particpants are invited to a workshop on Obsolescence: Media History,  
Policy and Aesthetics, supported by the ARC Cultural Research Network.

Some international scholarship has taken obsolescence as a focus, but  
this workshop aims to provide a focus for those whose concerns go  
beyond the world of the “early adopters”. Speakers are interested in  
how technologies age, how old technologies survive, and in the  
shadings and gradations between the latest thing and yesterday’s  
gadget, between retro-chic and junk.

Obsolescence raises questions on a number of fronts, which this  
workshop will address. In aesthetics: how do technologies and texts  
pass from the sublime “new”, to the ugliness of obsolescence, to the  
recovered beauty of the collectable and the antique. In policy terms,  
what of the large numbers of people struggling on with obsolete  
communication technologies, on obsolete networks? Is policy biased to  
early adopters? In terms of more critical views, how does the constant  
contemporary production of obsolescence square with an ethics of  
waste? Does the distinction accorded to early adopters reveal  
something about other divides – the city and the country, class, gender?

Importantly, the focus on obsolescence means that conversations at the  
workshop will be cross-media. For accounting obsolescence demands that  
we chart the emergence of the new in relation to the passing of the  
less-than-new, and the redundancy of the old.

This workshop will provide a focussed forum for a development of  
obsolescence as a focus for investigations of media history in  
Australia. Participants will be asked to prepare short presentations  
addressing obsolescence as it relates to their research focus. These  
should not be formal conference papers, as we are looking for more of  
a moderated discussion looking towards future outcomes and  
collaborations.

If you would like to be involved, send Jason Wilson  
(jasonw at uow.edu.au) a short paragraph indicating how your interests  
fit to the theme.

Dr. Jason Wilson
Lecturer in Digital Communication
School of Social Sciences, Media and Communication
University of Wollongong
NSW, Australia

T +61 (0)2 42213088
M +61 (0)432955503
E jasonw at uow.edu.au
skype jason_a_w

http://gatewatching.org
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