amber'09

>>the theme
(un)Cyborgable?

Living in a technologically-mediated environment causes changes and shifts in human habits, postures and behaviors. Technologies have an impact on our perceptions; each new technology demands new practices of body and speech as well as a new comprehension of time and space.

The notion of the cyborg (cybernetic organism) explores the literal and figurative integrations of the human body and technology. A hybrid concept, cyborg links the organic and non-organic and raises questions concerning human corporeality and subjectivity. In the same vein, the field of Art and Technology also elaborates on the transforming and emerging human and addresses the questions of who or what we may become as a result of our increasing engagements with technology.

Based on the recent technological developments and their incorporation in the social, cultural, and political domains, amber’09 explores the consequences of exposing and augmenting our bodies with digital technologies. It aims to elaborate on the body and its relationships in the social and cultural domains, the asymmetrical structures and practices inherent to contemporary societies and the possibilities to break these asymmetries in order to achieve a free and equal society.

Re-visiting and re-thinking the notion of the cyborg, amber’09 asks: Are you (un)Cyborgable?

extended text

The possibilities, restrictions and dangers generated by digital technologies and their implications in the social, cultural, and political domains have been subject of discussion for decades. Currently Open source and the Internet are some of the many technologies that enhance democratic practices and the promises of democracy. Simultaneously the digital divide, surveillance and technologically based wars provide argument for a dystopic and totalitarian society.

These two contrasting visions of society enabled by digital technology can be analyzed through a concept of the body interpreted as the locus of contemporary politics and aesthetics. What are the consequences of exposing and augmenting our bodies with digital technologies? Does the perception of the body change as a consequence of its increasing encounter with and assimilation of digital technologies? In what ways does the change in the understanding of the body, the new cyborg body (cybernetic organism) reconfigures the relation to social and cultural domains? And in what ways are the asymmetrical structures and practices inherent to contemporary societies reconfigured by the digitally enhanced body? Or can these encounters between digital technologies and the body implies the possibility of a more ‘free’ and equal society?

What kind of selves will these encounters generate? Which ethical ideas will these new cyborg selves turn to? In which ways will affects of the cyborgs come together with their moral percepts? If one meaning of technology is mediation as in ‘techne’ , how will these cyborgs experience the world as that world gets to increasingly prevent unmediated relations between self and other? Or can technology in the hands of cyborgs go beyond itself and lead to new less controlled and mediated relations?

In popular culture these ethical questions the cyborg poses us have been explored. Blade Runner illustrates the willpower of androids; Johhny Mnemonic explores the personification of memory, while The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy focuses on the feelings and desires of robots. While these art works presume a smoothly produced and received technology, in Turkey one prominent popular line of humor has been on the twists and turns of the arrival of technology as part of global, national and local uneven development. Indeed in locales such as Middle East, the Balkans, The Mediterranean, Caucasian and Turkic countries technology’s potential in generating and enhancing social and economic disparities is vividly visible. Moreover ongoing crises in the region continue to attract attention to the manifold effects of the asymmetrically produced technological violence. As we continue to live in these lands that generate cyborgs in these violently uneven ways and search for a new ethics that can respond to these through new bodies we ask: Are you (un)cyborgable?

>>call for
interactive
installations

Deadline: 1st of August 2009

amberFestival is interested in interactive installations that explore the theme of “(un)Cyborgable” in today's world.

We see the theme as a tool to think and work with, and the festival as an opportunity to raise an artistic voice. You alone will define that voice.

click to submit your artwork>
http://submissions. amberfestival.org

>>call for
amberConference

Deadline: 1st of August 2009

go to amberConference site >

The first international amberConference will be held in conjunction with the amber’09 Art and Technology Festival on the 7th and 8th of November 2009 in Istanbul, Turkey. The conference aims to create a platform of discussion and dissemination for the various themes and topics in which Science, Art and Technology converge.

The theme for this year's event is "Cyborg", a concept that has captured the imagination of the artistic and scientific communities in terms of theoretical, technological and creative outputs.

The conference seeks previously unpublished papers of a maximum of 4500 words within the fields of Arts and Humanities, Social Sciences, Computer Sciences and Art Papers discussing original artwork.

Topics include (but are not limited to)

Machinic/Cyborg Art
Robotics and robotic art
Cyborg and Performing arts
Avatars (virtual worlds and virtual environments)
Computer Games
Wearable and Tactile Technologies
Artificial intelligence
Post humanism
New modes of embodiment
Agency
Medicine
Genetic engineering, biology, clones and hybrids
Religion, tradition and eternal life
Militarism
Gender

Important Dates:
A 500 word abstract to be submitted by 1st of August 2009
Notification of acceptance 20th of August 2009
Registration deadline 1st of October 2009
Deadline for full paper submittion 1st of November 2009
Conference 7th and 8th of November 2009
Deadline for final revized paper submittion 30th of December 2009
Proceeding book will be published by February 2010

Accepted artists/authors will be notified of a second deadline by which they are expected to submit the completed paper of a maximum of 4500 words to be published as a volume of conference proceedings in late 2009.

go to amberConference site >

>>about
amber'09
art and technology festival

amber’09 Art and Technology Festival will take place in between 6-15 November 2009 in Istanbul in a variety of venues.

amberFestival is annually organized by BIS (Body-Process Arts Association) based in Istanbul. amberFestival aims to promote an intellectual and artistic platform in the field of Art and Technology in Turkey.

please visit previous festivals' web sites:

amber'09 will host a variety of stage performances, an exhibition of interactive installations, a conference and workshops by international and local group of artists and thinkers.

amber’09 will offer an opportunity for artistic exchange and cooperation as well as will constitute an opportunity for Istanbul art audiences and young artists to view and experience an avant-garde art form as executed by artists from different cultural backgrounds. The exhibited artworks will employ computers, electronic devices, sensors, motion capture devices and special softwares.

ACTIVITIES

Conference The first international amberConference will be held in conjunction with the amber’09 art and Technology Festival in November 2009 in Istanbul, Turkey. The aims and scope of this conference are to create a platform of discussion and dissemination for the various themes and topics in which Science, Art and Technology converge.

Stage performances involve performance groups that focus on the inter-relations between body and technology through the use of various interactive forms and devices on the stage. amber’09 invites artists and art groups who create multimedia stage shows to İstanbul.

Interactive Installations seek to produce an interactive and participatory environment by inviting and including the viewer into the artwork. Some of the artworks are invited, the others will be selected works from among the submissions.

Workshops focus on a particular artistic or technological question or issue and involve an in depth collective study/experimentation session led by an expert in the field. These workshops will be designed on different levels based on specific needs for artists, technicians, children and students.

Artists’ Presentations involve individual presentations by artists on their work and methods. This presentations give the audiences a chance to meet and discuss with the artists every day in the exhibition venue. Additionally, a night of artists presentations will be organized.

Activities for Children are an important feature of the festival which includes stage performances and workshops. BIS will also organize regular guided tours in the exhibition venue for the children and will co-operate with various schools or foundations that work with children.

amberNetwork Meeting will be held

>>about
the organization
BIS
body process arts
association

amber festival is a project of BIS.

BIS (Beden-İşlemsel Sanatlar Derneği / Body Process Arts Association) is an Istanbul based initiative that aims to explore artistic forms of expression at the conjunction of the body and the digital process. It was founded in 2007 as an association by a team of researchers and artists from disciplines such as dance, performance, design, social sciences and engineering. The founders of amber came together in order to create a local discussion and production platform on art and technology in a globalized World itself transformed by new technologies.

BIS defines its area of interest through the wording of its subtitle. The concept of body-process refers to the inevitable relation between the modern human body and technological processes and tools. Starting from the observation that new technologies increasingly manage practical and critical aspects of our lives such as communication, health and security, this concept orients itself to think about the fluid boundaries between body and technology and the consequences of their interaction. The concept of body-process arts envisages artistic forms that explore, think, embody and question this complex and multifaceted relationship.

for more information on BIS: www.a-m-b-e-r.org