[csaa-forum] Call for panel papers for the 2013 meeting of the Society for Literature, Science and the Arts

[Elizabeth Stephens]

Call for panel papers for the 2013meetingof the Society for Literature, Science and the Arts.

This year’s annual meeting of the Society for Literature, Science and the Arts, on the theme of the PostNatural, will be held at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, from October 3-6, 2013.  Information about the conference can be found at http://www.litsci.org/slsa13/.

We are currently calling for papers for a panel and/or roundtable on “Reconfiguring Sensation: Sensory Prostheses and the Postnatural Sensorium.”

We are interested in papers that consider questions such as:

·       how are sensory prostheses and technologies of sensory substitution (e.g. TVSS) reconfiguring the sensorium?

·       what can art-science collaborations, including digital installations, teach us about rewiring the senses or expanding our modalities?

·       the rise of neuro-tech in public exhibitions and displays, is it only sensationalism or thrill-seeking, or are there more serious implications for the public understanding of the relation between cognition, perception and sensation?

·       given the availability of biometric data collection for everyday exercise (e.g. FitBit, Nike+, smartphone apps), what are the implications for somatosensation and our somatic imaginary?

·       what is 'natural' about our sense modalities anyway? Do we, as Aristotle claimed, have only five senses?

·       how have the senses been historically mediated through technologies that help us map our neurophysiological understanding of the body?

·       what effective aesthetic examples are there of mashups, remixes, reconfigurations, of senses and affects?

·       for those with sensory disability or impairment, how can technologies of sensory prosthesis make aesthetic experience available?

·       what happens 'after' touchscreens? how do other aspects of the body me come implicated or addressed in the human-computer interface (HCI)?

This tentative series of issues is by no means exhaustive, and we would welcome contributions that critically re-examine the 'natural'/normate status of the senses, sensation and the sensorium in theory and in (art) practice.

If interested, please get in touch (ahem) at the earliest possible opportunity.

Mark Paterson
Department of Communication
University of Pittsburgh
Email: paterson at pitt.edu<mailto:paterson at pitt.edu>

Elizabeth Stephens
Centre for the History of European Discourses
University of Queensland
Email: e.stephens at uq.edu.au<mailto:e.stephens at uq.edu.au>


Elizabeth Stephens
Deputy Director
ARC Senior Research Fellow
Centre for the History of European Discourses
University of Queensland
St Lucia Australia 4072
Email: e.stephens at uq.edu.au<mailto:e.stephens at uq.edu.au>
Phone: + 61 7 3346 9493
Academia webpage: http://uq.academia.edu/ElizabethStephens
Pre-orders of the paperback edition of Anatomy as Spectacle can now be made at: http://www.amazon.com/Anatomy-Spectacle-Exhibitions-University-Representations/dp/1846318742/ref=tmm_pap_title_0


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