“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” (Arthur C. Clarke)

Keynote speakers: Ianis Dobrev (Chimerical Intelligence Lab) and Laura Tripaldi (NYU Shanghai)

The 5th Annual Conference organized by the European Culture and Technology Laboratory ‘ECT Lab+’ and this year hosted by Baltan Laboratories, Eindhoven, Netherlands aims to bring together experts from the Arts, Humanities, Social Sciences, Technology, and other fields exploring ways of enquiry that enrich (non-)positivist ways of knowing as well as post-structuralist critiques. The digital age is transforming the nature and practice of interpretation raising questions that range from the status of digital objects to the challenges of ethical practice.

Informed by the attitude of the alchemist as a proto-scientist, bridging disciplinary boundaries as well as the mystical and the rational, this conference explores our planetary computational condition and the not-yet-possible (improbable) in an indisciplinary manner. Can proto-science, long discarded as primitive, be an inspiration for making sense of our rapidly transforming socio-technical environment? At the very least, it can stimulate us to overcome the limitations of disciplinary siloing through a recognition of the complex and interconnected nature of our predicament and the need for embodied approaches. The figure of the alchemist also elicits the question of how to deal with its “more than” (or maybe ir-) rational heritage. What role does epistemic diversity play in a world that is increasingly ruled by technical rationality?

Under these premises, the conference will host papers, panels, performances, workshops, seminars, poster presentations, artistic submissions, artist talks, installations, and interventions that address the challenges of digital hermeneutics in the 21st century.

For queries please contact [email protected]