28 February 1 March.
Time: 10:45 17:00 hours.
Location: Auditorium, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Museumpark 18-20,
Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Admission: 80,- for two days, 50,- for one day, discount (student, cjp, RotterdamPas, 65+): 60,- for two days, 40,- for one day.
Lectures by:
Arjun Appadurai, Simon Conway Morris, Ingo Günther, Scott Lash, Winy Maas, Brian Massumi, Sadie Plant.
Moderation by: Manuel DeLanda
The symposium is part of and deals with the theme of the Dutch Electronic Art Festival (DEAF03 Data Knitting), organized by V2_, Institute for the Unstable Media (25 February - 9 March 2003 in Rotterdam)
The symposium will be in English.
Publication available: see text below.
Symposium Information is Alive
'Information is Alive' focuses on archives as unstable, plastic, living entities. Information storage, processing and transmission take place on many levels: individually, in our memories; collectively, in stories, rituals, laws, celebrations, games, concepts, language, image and architecture; biologically, in fossils and in bodies as living forms; and technologically, in archives and databases. In the last 20 years information has been stored and retrieved more and more by means of digital technologies.
Unlike more classical archive models, digital databases need not be ordered hierarchically, for they are made accessible through highly complex linking technologies which no longer need to work linearly, as they did with old-style computers. Search engines can be designed to find the proverbial needle in the haystack or even to create a haystack where there are only needles. A digital archive, like the human memory, need not be a static system. The value of what is stored lies in how it can be used in the present, lies in it's operationality instead of its meaning. Memory is a process that functions in the present and is continually updated through that mode of functioning.
Research into neurological, social, cultural and evolutionary information storage lived archives of habits and practices, continuously being broken down and rebuilt provides a model or tool for understanding the possibilities of multilinear and nonlinear archiving. The atomization of the archive in the database has made the whole Art of Memory into a technological, interactive art that suddenly becomes a highly urgent topic. First, for all those institutions that feel the need to open their archives, second for all those who describe and study modes of being, third for all those who design and use our new archives, be it books, websites, cities or other forms. The theme of the symposium lies in the exploration of unexpected developments that may arise through the storing, linking, reprocessing, transforming and complexifying of what otherwise would simply have remained as raw data.
"Information is Alive" brings together a high profile and interdisciplinary group of scientists, theorists, artists and architects who will present and discuss their ideas and projects and invite the audience to enter into active public dialogue.
Lectures by:
Arjun Appadurai (IND/USA), anthropologist, professor at Yale University.
His recent research focuses on ethnic violence and the modern nation-state. Appadurai is writer of Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization (1996).
Simon Conway Morris (GB), palaeobiologist, professor of Evolutionary Palaeobiology at the University of Cambridge (GB).
In 1990 he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society. Conway Morris has done field research in the most diverse places, such as China, Mongolia, Australia and Greenland. He has published, among much else, The Crucible of Creation (1998).
Ingo Günther (D), artist, journalist.
In the early 1980s he evaluated and publicized satellite data that dealt with political and military hotbeds. Since 1989, Günther uses globes as a medium for his artistic and journalistic projects.
Scott Lash (USA/GB), sociologist, author of Critique of Information (2002).
His interests include information society, global media, continental philosophy, technology and culture, and the problem of flows.
Winy Maas (NL), architect, co-founder of MVRDV, an office that produces designs and studies in the fields of architecture, urbanism, landscape design and design philosophy.
With MVRDV he has published many books, among which FARMAX: Excursions on density? (1998) and Metacity/Datatown (1999).
Brian Massumi (CDN), philosopher, teaches at the University of Montreal (CDN).
Massumi is interested in the relationship between technology, science and humanoria. His publications include Parables for the Virtual: Movement, Affect, Sensation (2002). Massumi is translator of the works of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari.
Sadie Plant (GB), philosopher, teaches philosophy at Manchester University.
She was director of the Cybernetic Culture Research Unit at Warwick University. Plant has published extensively in the field of gender and technology, among which Zeros + Ones: Digital Women and the New Technoculture (1997). She is one of the pioneers of cyber feminism.
Moderation by:
Manuel DeLanda (MEX/USA), writer, filmmaker, media artist, programmer and software designer. Author of among others Phylum: A Thousand Years of Non-Linear History (1997). DeLanda teaches at Columbia University New York (USA) Philosophy of History: Theories of Self-Organization and Urban Dynamics, and Philosophy of Science: Thinking about Structures and Materials.
Program
Friday 28 February 2003
10.45: opening words V2_
11.00: introduction Manuel DeLanda
12.00: lecture Scott Lash
13.00: lunch break
14.00: lecture Simon Conway Morris
15.00: lecture Ingo Günther
16.00: tea break
16.15: panel discussion
17.00: end
17:15 Presentation of the Digital Depot of the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, free entrance for symposium participants
Saturday 1 March 2003
10.45: openings words Manuel DeLanda
11.00: lecture Brian Massumi
12.00: lecture Arjun Appadurai
You may register for the symposium by sending an e-mail to tickets@v2.nl or via the festival website
http://deaf.v2.nl
For more information on registration, phone: +31 (0)10 750.15.15
Payment procedure:
Your registration for the symposium becomes valid upon receipt of payment. V2_ will confirm your registration when both reservation and payment have been received. Your ticket(s) may then be collected at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen on the day(s) of the symposium. In case of overbooking, V2_ reserves the right to cancel your registration.
Please forward your payment to account number 245 38 96 (Postbank) in favor of Stichting V2_, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, mentioning your last name + 'symposium'. Alternatively, you may use the Direct Payment method at the festival website http://deaf.v2.nl
Publication Information is Alive
V2_, in cooperation with NAi Publishers, will release a publication 'Information is Alive'; accompanying 'DEAF03 Data Knitting'. The book features descriptions of the installations of the DEAF03 exhibition and essays and interviews by Arjen Mulder, Manuel DeLanda, Brian Massumi, Sadie Plant, Arjun Appadurai, Scott Lash, Simon Conway Morris, Antonio Damasio, George Dyson, Winy Maas, Boris Groys, Ryszard Kapuscinski and Ingo Günther. Price: 22,50 (during the DEAF03 festival 20,-). This book is available at a discount in bookshops on presentation of the action coupon (action number 00000 743-7371). This offer is valid from 25 February until 9 March, 2003.
ISBN 90-5662-310-9
More information can be found on DEAF03 Online: http://deaf.v2.nl
DEAF03 Online offers the possibility to view the symposium online and to participate in various festival activities.
For educational programs and/or guided tours during DEAF03 please contact Valentijn Webbers, valentijn@v2.nl or +31 (0)10 750 15 18
