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CFP: Seminar on Afterlife and Death in a Digital Age

CALL FOR PAPERS: AFTERLIFE AND DEATH IN A DIGITAL AGE SEMINAR

http://mundanetechnologies.com/goings-on/workshop/singapore/
--------------------------------------------------
Contributions in the form of a 300 word abstract (CHI Extended Abstracts format) are 
invited for a one day seminar at the National University of Singapore, Singapore on 17th 
April 2010
--------------------------------------------------

SYNOPSIS
--------------------------------------------------
http://mundanetechnologies.com/goings-on/workshop/singapore/call.html

As emergent technologies increasingly pervade people’s lives they are also increasingly a 
part of dying and of hopes and illusions of immortality and possible afterlife. Our 
interests in this seminar include:

* possible immortality and afterlife through digital media;
* cultural issues with dying, death, afterlife and technology;
* new forms of grieving and commemorating via emerging technologies;
* the motivation, role and function of technological responses to mortality;
* digital archiving and the preservation of self and society;
* the ethics of supporting death and desecration through technology;
* the hybridisation of once living, sentient beings with other biological and robotic 
entities.

Some questions we wish to address through this workshop include (but are not restricted 
to):

* How is the dash between life and death, being and oblivion reflected in the age of 
digital media? How can we approach the subtleties of different cultural practices and 
beliefs through design?
* What is the technological response to the ephemerality of our digital and physical 
existence? What are the issues around ordinary technologies transforming into 
memorials, evoking powerful memories, nostalgia etc?
* What is the function of different projects offering technological response to death and 
afterlife? Are we simply witnessing technological sentimentality and kitsch?
* What are different design solutions responding to? For example, are they trying to 
respond to the immense indifference of nature and the universe to human life and death?
* How can we respond to the ever-increasing mass of digital refuse or ‘dead’ data and 
what are the implications of and insights provided by reflecting on the end of ‘civilisation’?
* What are the legal and ethical implications of ‘freedom of choice’ being supported 
through technology, digital desecration and the hybridisation of (the remains of) the dead 
with the living?

These issues promise not only to stretch our analytical approaches and tools but also our 
methods, methodologies and ethical frameworks.

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
--------------------------------------------------
Dr. Martin Gibbs, University of Melbourne, Australia
Dr. Dave Kirk, Nottingham University, UK

SUBMISSIONS
--------------------------------------------------
Please submit a 300 word abstract describing what you propose to present and discuss. 
We will require successful authors to submit an extended abstract of no longer than 2 
pages in length that should conform with the CHI extended abstracts format before the 
seminar. Please submit all abstracts to Connor Graham: onecalledconnor [at] gmail [dot] 
com.

Appropriate submissions include:

* Initial reports from the field;
* Opinion (position) pieces;
* Design proposals addressing particular themes;
* Discursive pieces exploring themes;
* Reflections on approaches and methods;
* Early reports on studies of technologies in situ.

The 300 word abstract should clearly describe the nature of the work to be discussed, the 
kind of submission it is (e.g. initial report from the field) and how the work relates to the 
seminar themes. Extended abstracts should develop this further and include points for 
discussion after the presentation and any references participants should read before the 
seminar (3-4 will be sufficient). The extended abstracts and a reference list will be made 
available to all participants before the seminar.

We aim to consolidate work presented at the seminar through planning a special issue of 
a journal.

KEY DATES
--------------------------------------------------
Please submit your abstract on or before 15th February 2010*. We will indicate the 
acceptability of your abstract before 19th February* and provide brief feedback by 5th 
March*. Extended versions of abstracts should be submitted before 14th March*.

*2400 (EST) to onecalledconnor [at] gmail [dot] com

ORGANISING COMMITTEE
--------------------------------------------------
Workshop Chairs
Dr. Denisa Kera (Communications & New Media, National University of Singapore)
Dr. Connor Graham (Independent and Department of Information Systems, University of 
Melbourne)

REGISTRATION COSTS
--------------------------------------------------
The cost of attending this workshop will be S$100 (full fee) and S$50 
(student/unemployed/retired). This will include refreshments at the seminar.

PUBLICATION
--------------------------------------------------
All accepted papers will be made available through the Website.

--------------------------------------------------
Please contact Connor Graham for further information:
onecalledconnor [at] gmail [dot] com 
--------------------------------------------------

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