Jan van Eyck Academie - Call for Applications

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Artists, designers and theoreticians are invited to submit proposals for individual or collective research projects for a one-year, two-year or variable research period in the department of Design

Extrastatecraft: Hidden Organizations, Spatial Contagions and Activism, a new project of the Design department, initiated by Keller Easterling, researches underexplored territory in the world's infrastructural and organizational strata. The work focuses on shared protocols, managerial subroutines and financial instruments as they produce and program physical space around the world. Perhaps because these organizations operate in the background, in an active and relational rather than nominative register, their political outcomes are often at once pervasive and mysterious.

For instance, how do organizations like the ISO (International Organization for Standardization) or McKinsey determine management protocols? How do construction networks, more than the singular creations of architects and urbanists, disseminate materials and processes that determine how the world is calibrated? How do markets and financial instruments create templates that shape space?

The research also explores the political leverage latent in this renovated conception of global infrastructure. Some of the most radical changes to the globalizing world are being written, not in the language of law and diplomacy, but rather in the language of architecture, urbanism and infrastructure. Armand Mattelart argues that global infrastructure is a field that is 'young and uncharted' largely because it is often still considered in terms of national rather than international histories. Moreover, the political instrumentality of these increasingly familiar global spheres is still frequently theorized in terms of militarization or universal rationalization, when they might really be agents of more discrepant or obscure forms of polity. The notion that there is either a dominant logic or a proper forthright realm of political negotiation usually acts as the perfect camouflage for parallel political activity - the medium of subterfuge, hoax and hyperbole that actually rules the world.

Extrastatecraft will consider a number of tools effective in manipulating active organization, but will pay particular attention to the ways in which these organizations are really populations of repeatable components and formats, the arrangement and chemistry of which possess a political disposition. The project will research multipliers in the organization that make components contagious and powerful as shapers of polity, and will consider these as stealthy tools of activism. New objects of practice and entrepreneurialism, redefined in a relational register, reflect the network's ability to amplify structural shifts or repeatable moves. If icons of piety, collusion or competition often escalate tensions, might alternative design ingenuities distract from them? Having customarily absented itself from official political channels, architecture, as extrastatecraft, finds itself in an unexpectedly consequential position, manipulating codes of passage and points of leverage in the thickening back channels of global infrastructure.

While researchers will find in the topic many points of entry, some anticipated research agendas address the managerial and infrastructural substrates of space related to finance, construction, trade and marketing. Travel, language skills, archival experience and fieldwork will serve the research. Textual, graphic or design documents may contribute to the final collective product.

Candidates interested in this project can apply with a research proposal. Selected candidates gain the position of researcher at the Design department of the Jan van Eyck Academie.

Deadline applications: 24 November 2008.

WALLED GARDEN by Virtueel Platform

WALLED GARDEN
by Virtueel Platform
20 & 21 November 2008, Lloyd Hotel, Amsterdam

Virtueel Platform invites you to take part in WALLED GARDEN. This international working conference will approach the development and future challenges of the current Web 2.0 through exploration, experimentation and exchange of knowledge. Our goal: a blueprint for policy makers, funders and practitioners that works towards a public garden.


WALLED GARDEN will address issues of identity, mobile communities and networks by focussing on the tendency towards online gated and closed communities. How does this affect the (in)accessibility of information and knowledge? Now is the time to identify success factors and failures of Web 2.0 and to initiative new tools and strategies for the future Web. Keywords: trust, transparency, accountability, enforcement, privacy, personalization, context-awareness.

Virtueel Platform sows the seeds with lively debates but we need your expertise!


WALLED GARDEN breaks with the traditional conference format. Structured participative group dialogue will be interspersed with inspirational presentations from artists, researchers and technologists. Registration is open until Monday 10 November.


Speakers and moderators

Sessions will be led by international researchers, including:

Bronac Ferran (Royal College of Art, London),
Tom Klinkowstein (Media A, New York),
Tapio Mäkelä (University of Salford),
Erin Manning (Senselab, Montreal),
Aymeric Mansoux (goto10.org),
Sabine Niederer (Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam),
Matt Ratto (University of Toronto),
Edward Shanken (University of Amsterdam),
Adam Somlai-Fischer (The Kitchen, Budapest)


Virtual and physical presentations by:

Celia Pearce (Georgia Tech),
mez breeze (_Augmentology 101_ ),
Aenimae (Performing Creativity Platform),
Aymeric Mansoux & Marloes de Valk (Metabiosis),
Tom Klinkowstein and Irene Pereyra (2030 – a day in the life of..) and many more.


Registration closes on 10 November 2008!

If you want to be part of WALLED GARDEN please mail to workshop@virtueelplatform.nl

Since there is a limited number of seats available, a selection process will take place if the quantity of applications succeeds this number. Therefore, please send us a short statement of max 250 words describing why you want to participate and what you would like to gain by taking part.

The fee is 150 euro (students 75 euro) for two days, including lunches and dinner.


About Virtueel Platform

Virtueel Platform is an independent expertise centre that stimulates innovation and supports knowledge exchange in the field of e-culture in the Netherlands. Virtueel Platform has an international orientation and provides insight in Dutch e-culture for the international cultural community. The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science has given Virtueel Platform the task of supporting interdisciplinary e-culture. Our aim is to encourage new kinds of partnerships, particularly between parties who would not normally work together. The resulting projects then go on to serve as examples of good practice.

The 6th Annual Chinese Internet Research Conference will be held 13-14 June 2008.

The conference :
When: June 13-14, 2008
Where: University of Hong Kong
The conference theme, “China and the Internet: Myths and Realities,” calls attention to scholarly work that helps to separate fact from fiction about the Internet in China. Does the Internet bring more democracy to the country? Is there freedom of expression on the Internet? Does the Internet foster greater integration of China and its diaspora? Do the Chinese use the Internet for entertainment only?

Call for proposal/paper deadlines:
We welcome proposals for presentations from all disciplines. Proposals can be submitted in Chinese or English. Kindly be reminded the deadline for submission of your proposal is coming up on 1 March 2008 and conference participants are encouraged to submit full papers by 10 May 2008. Graduate students may submit papers for the Annual Best Graduate Student Paper Award. Proposals are also due 1 March, 2008, with full papers due by 10 May 2008. For futher details about submissions, please visit this weblink