First Call for Abstracts

MutaMorphosis: Challenging Arts and Sciences, International Conference, Prague :: organised by CIANT as part of the ENTER festival in the framework of the Leonardo 40th anniversary celebrations. The festival will feature also the first retrospective exhibition of Frank J. Malina :: 8th - 10th of November 2007, Prague, Czech Republic :: Deadline: February 15, 2007

The conference will explore the major mutations that are affecting the future of our world. We invite papers from artists, scientists and researchers on the evolution of living beings and the societies they constitute, and on modes of knowledge, expression and communication of humans, animals and other forms of life.

“MutaMorphosis” seeks a multiplicity of perspectives as well as a qualified and diverse group of conference participants. The conference will concentrate on the growing interest — within the worlds of the arts, sciences and technologies — in EXTREME AND HOSTILE ENVIRONMENTS. These environments appear as symptomatic indicators of the mutations that are taking place; they are potential vectors that make possible an awareness of the different problems at the origin of the disturbances that threaten the ensemble of the Earth’s eco-systems.
We invite practitioners in the arts, sciences, engineering and humanities to submit abstracts that explore the limits and extremes within the following streams of interest:

1. LIFE

How do the arts and sciences deal with new ideas about strategies of life in extreme conditions?

Keywords: adaptation, artificial life, bioart, biotechnology, cell, cloning, control, emergence, ethics, evolution, extremophilia, hybrid, limit, organization, performativity, self-organization, strategy, survival, symbiogenesis, symbiosis, tissue, transformation, transgression, transplantation, unpredictability.

2. SPACE

How do the arts and sciences face radical scales and extreme environments?

Keywords: Antarctica, astrophysics, colonisation, climate, dark matter, dark energy, deserts, deteritorialization, ethics, exobiology, exploration, geotagging, globalization, map, macro, micro, nano, singularity, outer space, speed, territory, underwater, vacuum.

3. COGNITION

How do the arts and sciences address evolving ideas about cognition in extreme environments?

Keywords: collective intelligence, complexity, connectivity, decision, deficiency, distributed, ethics, intelligence, dysfunction, emotion, efficiency, information, instrument, handicap, manipulation, memory, mobility, networked, pathology, perception, sensorial, simulation, system, therapy, visualization, web 2.0.

All submitted abstracts will be peer reviewed by an international advisory panel. Submissions accepted and presented at the conference will be published in the conference proceedings.

500-word abstracts required by 31st of January 2007 via email to mutamorphosis[at]ciant.cz.

Join us in Prague 8th – 10th of November 2007.

Conference Steering Committee: Alban Asselin, Louis Bec, Annick Bureaud, Don Foresta, Denisa Kera, Roger F. Malina (co-chair: rfm.mutamorphosis[at]gmail.com), Louise Poissant, Pavel Sedl¡k (co-chair: sedlak[at]ciant.cz), Pavel Smetana

Organiser: CIANT – International Centre for Art and New Technologies in Prague, CZ.

Co-organisers: Leonardo (www.leonardo.info, USA; www.olats.org, FR), Hexagram (www.hexagram.org, CAN), Pépinières européenes pour jeunes artistes (www.art4eu.net, FR)

Partners: Centre for Global Studies at Charles University (CZ), CYPRES Arts Sciences Technologies Cultures (FR), Czech Academy of Sciences – Week of Science and Technology (CZ), French Institute in Prague (CZ), MARCEL (GB), UQAM (CAN)