In computing, an interrupt (IRQ) is a command sent to the central processor (CPU), demanding its attention and calling for the initiation of a new task. Interrupt 2012 is a three-day international studio celebrating writing and performance in digital media. It will feature readings, performances and screenings, along with Interrupt Discussion Sessions (IRQds), all aimed at investigating the theme of interruption in digital literary art and performance. Events will take place February 10-12, 2012 on the Brown University campus. Interrupt 2012 is organized by graduate and undergraduate students associated with Brown University’s Department of Literary Arts and RISD Digital+Media. As organizers, we are interested in the interruptions that digitally-mediated writing and performance can initiate, as well as in identifying the systematic functions that they can interrupt. Our aim is to create a studio, broadly conceived, in which invited guests and community members not only interrupt trends in the field of literary aesthetics, but execute their interruption routines as informed critiques of the sociopolitical forces that condition the very possibility of the expanded writing practices with which we engage. ---- The IRQ Discussions are central to the processes of our Interrupt Studio. We conceive our Studio as structured, but radically open and subject to interruption. It is an opportunity to share our research for the sake of critical and aesthetic practice, more specifically, for the sake of language-driven digitally-mediated art. We ask all participants to review the following outline of how the IRQ Discussions will be conducted. We trust that all those attending will acquire some familiarity with the protocols of these discussions. We hope that everyone will participate—if only by listening to the discussion that transpires—and that, if they do wish to make an active contribution, they respect a format that is intended to allow openness and interruption while retaining a strong sense of productive direction. _ IRQds: the workings of an Interrupt Discussion Session _ IRQds are organized so as to encourage open discussion. There will be a number of artists, theorists, and researchers who have been invited to speak, but we do not ask them to give papers or even panel-style presentations. Instead, they will prepare a five-minute IRQ. An IRQ may take any form. Typically, it will be expository or performative. However, an IRQ should invite further processing in terms of discussion. The IRQds will be moderated by a designated CPU. The CPU will process but not generate IRQs. Further guidelines: - Invited speakers are asked, if at all possible, to attend all the IRQds scheduled for the Studio whether or not they hold an IRQ for a particular session. Invited participants will be seated in a large circle or semi-circle during each IRQds, with other attendees surrounding them. - At each IRQds four or five of the named speakers will have the right to use their IRQ. At any time, they may interrupt the discussion and hold the floor, uninterrupted, for a maximum of five minutes (no minimum). - One of the named speakers—chosen randomly or by consensus—will begin each IRQds with his or her five-minute intervention, and so use up an IRQ. If the chosen IRQ holder does not wish to begin the discussion, s/he may instead nominate another IRQ holder. - Once a speaker has completed an IRQ, discussion is open to all attendees, including the other IRQ holders. Discussion will be strictly moderated: all interruptions of all kinds must pass through the CPU. - The remaining speakers with IRQs are asked to attend to the discussion carefully and—rather in the manner of an old-school Quaker meeting, minus any ritual or dogma—listen for the moment when their prepared IRQs would be most beneficial to the overall IRQds’ expressive processing. ---- Interrupt II is generously supported by Brown University's Creative Art Council and organized under the auspices of the Department of Literary Arts, in particular its Electronic Writing/Literary Hypermedia program. Key organizers: Nalini Abhiraman, Mimi Cabell, John Cayley, Angela Ferraiolo, Edrex Fontanilla, Ari Kalinowski, Clement Valla (RISD), and the Writing Digital Media Cadre.
(Source: John Cayley)