Social
Spaces

“The aesthetic power of feeling”, wrote the late Félix Guattari, seems to be “on the verge of occupying a privileged position within the collective assemblages of enunciation of our era.” In discerning a “new aesthetic paradigm” he was not anticipating something along the lines of the primacy of the institutionalised arts within the social field, but rather a kind of “proto-aesthetic paradigm”, traversing all universes of value and existential territories, from the arenas of science and the ethico-political, to the modalities and practices of subjectivation. This general aestheticisation which Guattari had in mind at the end of the 1980s may be regarded as one of the first descriptions of a fundamental upheaval in the history of technology and sensation, a change taking place during the second half of the twentieth century, but especially since the 1990s, and one which potentially shifts the meaning of aesthetics as such: under the new media-technological conditions we observe a proto-aesthetic dressing of the present.

This special issue of ZfM sets out to clarify the historical-systematic contours as well as the political implications of the new aesthetic paradigm. This necessitates focusing on the key technical-medial scenes of the current sensorial caesura, outlining the associated conceptual challenges and issues of politics of terminology, in order thereby to contribute to the redescription of media-aesthetics under technological conditions, in particular those of the new era of social and mobile media in the network age.

Text submissions (around 25,000 characters, notes and spaces included), by the end of August 2012, to: erich.hoerl@ruhr-uni-bochum.de

This special issue of ZfM will be published in April 2013. The language of publication is German. Papers are accepted in German, English and French; papers will be translated after peer-review and acceptance.

http://www.zfmedienwissenschaft.de/index.php?TID=71

In het kader van 75 jaar Wit Gele Kruis in Vlaanderen wordt er op 31 mei een event georganiseerd rond “goede” technologie. Happy Technology Makes Happy People brengt praktijkvoorbeelden en reflecties over het inzetten van technologie in zorgomgevingen. Het vertrekpunt van dit event is de relatie tussen mens en technologie: hoe kan technologie ingezet worden om de zorgverlener te ondersteunen een meer patiëntgerichte zorg uit te voeren; hoe kan de technologie “enablend” werken en de zorgbehoevende helpen zijn zorgtraject mee in handen te nemen?

Vanuit Social Spaces presenteren Andrea & Niels (samen met Karin Slegers van CUO) het werk dat ze uitvoeren in het ATOM-project.

Meer info en inschrijven via de KHLIM.

On March 1^st the e-book Dat is design (This is design) was launched. The book is a collection of essential writings concerning design reflection. It follows the concept of the book Dat is Architectuur (This is architecture) that was published in 2001. 150 texts of the 21^st century, starting from 1850, are presented in chronological order. The texts are categorized in 15 themes, namely triviality (alledaagsheid), canon, consumption, digital, function, tool, identity, critique, art?, literature, machine, research, beauty, sign (teken) and responsibility. The MAD-faculty, and more specifically researchers from Social Spaces, developed the themes digital and research.

Dat is design is a collaboration between the design institutions of the KULeuven Association. The professional bachelor program Interior Design of the group Design & Technology (Lessius Mechelen) initiated and coordinated the development of the book. In this phase the book is only accessible for the institutions of the KULeuven Association. However, the book will be published later. Visit the website for more information (it is in Dutch however).

This special issue of the journal invites papers, projects and reviews exploring and developing the notion of Design Fictions. One of the early proponents of Design Fictions, the author Bruce Sterling, said that design: “seeks out ways to jump over its own conceptual walls – scenarios, user observation, brainstorming, rapid prototyping, critical design, speculative design” (Sterling, 2009). Despite the current burgeoning of this field and its various histories and antecedents, the coming together of design and fiction, as ‘design fictions’, remains relatively underexplored.

Design Fictions might also be sensed as a ‘speculative turn’ in design practice, founding a new engagement in ‘prototyping’ conjectural projections of designed futures. In the context of ever-present near futures, projected as scenarios that threaten radical ruptures of the real, digital creativity expands into a post-digital cybernetics. Design Fictions speculative design methodologies take their cue from science fiction, Sterling however would also have it the other way around, saying that: “design and literature don’t talk together much, but design has more to offer literature at the moment than literature can offer design” (Sterling, 2009).

This issue seeks to put design and literature into conversation. The journal wishes to ask how Design Fictions and related methodological work have mutated or glitched across art, design and architecture, for example in response to ‘design fictions’ (Nokia/Bleecker); in ‘critical design’ (Dunne & Raby); in speculative and visionary architecture (Spiller); in science fiction as prototyping (Intel/Johnson); and in ethnographic work on design and prototyping (Kelty).

Deadline for extended abstracts: 5 March 2012
Website: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/NDCR

Publication about this call in Wired: http://www.wired.com/beyond_the_beyond/2011/12/design-fiction-digital-creativity-special-issue-on-design-fictions/

On the 11th of February 2012  the 14th World Information Architecture Day will be organised. THe World IA Day wants to focus on the importance of information architecture and tries to bring together a community of interested at the same day throughout the world.  This years theme is on Designing Structures for Understanding and focusses on global conversations on this subject and provide a local venue to connect with leaders and peers. At 14 locations in the world people will come together discuss and exchange ideas on approaching complex information challenges.

Former C-md student Hannes d’Hulster, working for the Ghent based webcompany Netlash-B-seen, is co-organising a Belgian event. More info on this can be found at http://informatiearchitectuur.be/.