Conference

The presidential theme of the ACLA 2012 was "Collapse/Catastrophe/Change".From the Lisbon earthquake of 1755 to 9/11 to the recent upheavals in the Middle East, the language of collapse and catastrophe, of crisis and change has come to dominate the public sphere. What figures and tropes produce and recuperate such events? How have they been represented differently in different periods and across linguistic and national boundaries? Economic meltdown, financial collapse, environmental depletion and disaster, trauma, the crisis in the humanities, in the foreign languages, in comparative literature itself: we are besieged by a discourse of crisis. At the same time, discourse itself seems to be in crisis, on the brink of collapse from the strain of having to reinvent itself with each new cataclysm without becoming redundant or incommensurate. What remains of terms like “revolution,” “democracy,” “justice,” “tragedy,” “community,” “freedom”? How are they mediated culturally? nationally? globally? Can the literary re-imagine so as to renew? What is the relation between figuration and change?

The Network Archaeology conference at Miami University, co-convened by cris cheek and Nicole Starosielski, brought together scholars and practitioners to explore the resonances between digital networks and “older” (perhaps still emergent) systems of circulation; from roads to cables, from letter-writing networks to digital ink. Drawing on recent research in media archaeology, network archaeology may be seen as a method for re-orienting the temporality and spatiality of network studies. Network archaeology might pay attention to the history of distribution technologies, location and control of geographical resources, the emergence of circulatory models, proximity and morphology, network politics and power, and the transmission properties of media. What can we learn about contemporary cultural production and circulation from the examination of network histories? How can we conceptualize the polychronic developments of networks, including their growth, adaptation, and resistances? How might the concept of network archaeology help to re-envision and forge new paths of interdisciplinary research, collaboration, and scholarship?

The conference traced continuities and disjunctures between a variety of networks, including telecommunication networks, distribution systems for both digital and non-digital texts, transportation routes, media storage (libraries, databases, e-archiving), electrical grids, radio and television broadcast networks, the internet, and surveillance networks. It sought to address not only the technological, institutional, and geopolitical histories of networks, but also their cultural and experiential dimensions, extending to encompass the histories of network poetics and practice. The proceeds of the conference will form the basis for a substantial publication on Network Archaeology.

This conference was organized by the Miami University Humanities Center. It was the final event in a year-long series entitled “Networked Environments: Interrogating the Democratization of Media” and is a companion to the Fall 2011 symposium, “Networks and Power,” which featured panels, interventions, and keynote presentations by Wendy Chun (Brown University) and Lisa Parks (UC Santa Barbara).

CFP: The Digital Subject: Questioning HypermnesiaInternational and transdisciplinary symposiumLabex Arts-H2H projectUniversity of Paris 8 Vincennes Saint-Denis, November 13-15, 2012

New extended deadline for submissions: July 1st, 2012

Keynote speakers

- Bernard Croisile, Chair, Department of Neuropsychology, Neurological Hospital of Lyon

- N. Katherine Hayles, Professor, Duke University

- Lydia H. Liu, Professor, Columbia University

- Scott Rettberg, Professor, University of Bergen, Co-founder of Electronic Literature Organization and Project Head, ELMCIP 

- Jean-Michel Salanskis, Professor of Philosophy, University of Paris Ouest Nanterre

- Bernard Stiegler, Philosopher, President of Ars Industrialis, Head of Institut de Recherche et d’Innovation (Centre Georges Pompidou)

Organizers:Pierre Cassou-Noguès (Department of philosophy, LLCP, SPHERE, EA 4008)Claire Larsonneur (Department of anglophone studies, Le Texte Étranger, EA1569)Arnaud Regnauld (Department of anglophone studies, CRLC – Research Center onLiterature and Cognition, EA1569)

Call for papersToday’s digital technologies of inscription and preservation have enabled the creation ofsubstantial electronic archives and complex databases while ushering in new ways ofarchiving knowledge exemplified by collaborative encyclopedias. Such technicaldevelopments have foreshadowed a radical reconfiguration of human relations to theworld and knowledge at large, and delineate a probable mutation in our understanding ofthe human subject.Hypermnesia, a recurrent motif in science fiction narratives, was already prefigured in H.G. Wells’ (World Brain, 1937) or Borges’ works (“Funes el memorioso,” 1944). Fromthen on, the notion has migrated into other literary genres, be they published in traditionalprint or in a digital medium. Similarly, the possible externalization and extension ofmemory is one of the cornerstones of contemporary philosophical theories (such as thatof the “extended mind”) on both sides of the border separating the analytical andcontinental schools of philosophy.Right after the Second World War, machine memory, the thematization of subjectivememory in reference to computer memory, the potential alteration of the very nature ofhuman memory due to the development of machines were recurrent issues in discussionspertaining to cybernetics and they are still vivid in the contemporary diagnosis ofposthumanism.Of particular interest is the scope and typology of works featuring the theme ofhypermnesia, from fantasies of omnipotence to rewritings of the Babel myth, to political,cultural and economic policy blueprints. This call for papers invites contributions fromvarious fields and disciplines (the history of science and technology, literature,philosophy among others) which question the theme of hypermnesia and memorythrough the prism of the ambiguous relationship between man and machine, in ahistorical as well as in a more contemporary perspective.At the crossroads of philosophy, literature and the history of science and technology, thissymposium is part of a broader long-term project focusing on the digital subject, a subjectwhose status and attributes appear to have been altered by the real or fictionaldevelopment of digital calculating machines from Babbage to Internet.The working languages will be French and English. Contributions may be submitted ineither language and should not exceed 3000 characters. Please enclose a brief biobibliographical note.

Contact : hypermnesia@univ-paris8.fr

This symposium has received the support of the LABEX Arts-H2H scientific committee.

Extended deadline for submissions: July 1st, 2012

Contributors will be informed of the scientific committee’s decision by September 15, 2012.

Scientific committee :Yves Abrioux (Université Paris 8)Noelle Batt (Université Paris 8)Maarten Bullynck (Université Paris 8)Pierre Cassou-Noguès (Université Paris 8)Claire Larsonneur (Université Paris 8)Hélène Machinal (Université de Brest)Arnaud Regnauld (Université Paris 8)Mathieu Triclot (Université de Technologie de Belfort-Montbéliard)

The sixteenth ACM Hypertext conference was held in Salzburg, Austria. 

The first conference on Hypertext, and the place where the Storyspace software and Joyce's hypertext afternoon were first presented in public.

Texto Digital invites submissions of papers on the theme of transcultural/transliterary readings of digital literature in English. Texto Digital’s June issue 2012 will be dedicated to present the current state of digital literature in English, with special emphasis placed on works or readings which bring to the fore the blurring of cultural and literary boundaries. Our transliterary approach invites reflection on literary proposals which transcend particular literary traditions and cultures, using their digital nature to make the blurring of boundaries effective. From writers of various cultures using the English language as their medium for literary dissemination, passing by unexpected ideal cyber-readers of English digital literature, to works which deal with cultural identity, nomadism, migrations, hibridity, etc.

128th MLA Annual Convention. The presidential theme will be Avenues of Access, with accessibility referring to: student access to higher-education, tenure-track jobs for PhDs, the implications of disability studies for the humanities, and open access and the future of scholarly communication.