CFP – Autonomous Art Systems: Opportunities, Pitfalls and Implications – Media-N -2017 Fall Issue

Guest Editors

Nick Bontrager, Texas Christian University

Adam Fung, Texas Christian University

Editor-In-Chief

Kevin Hamilton

Media-N, the Journal of the New Media Caucus, invites submissions for an issue about the use of Autonomous Art Systems, tethered and untethered systems of making, self-guided vehicles, and related programming in creative fields of study. Submissions could include: accounts of new artworks that address concepts of drones or autonomous surveillance as subject or form; reflections on the influence of emerging “intelligent” technologies on studio art practices; or critical/historical analysis of the aesthetics of autonomous technologies in light of their social and technical implications.

Artists have long engaged concepts and techniques of artificial intelligence, emergent order, and generative systems. Others have reflected through practice on technologies of surveillance and war as extensions of the human body and senses. How might these histories and examples help us understand contemporary forms of autonomous production, with all their accompanying ethical and social questions?

Paired with video or audio in their mobile form, Autonomous Art Systems offer new visual perspectives, production values, and aesthetics previously unattainable or associated only with state power. Autonomous assembly systems offer possibilities for emergent spatial order, with inevitable influence on design for the built environment. This issue poses the question: how will the new abilities, access, perspectives, and potential restrictions on technology associated with autonomous machines and systems be reflected in art practice of the future?

Submissions for this special issue on Autonomous Art Systems might address the following questions:

  • How has the field of new media art as a whole been affected by Autonomous Art Systems (AAS), and what is the significance of the modalities in which this dialogue takes shape?
  • What are the new media forms and aesthetics, from locative media to visualization, generative art, or even physical computing, that are common to AAS?
  • What is the legal status of AAS, particularly related to drones, today? How do regulations, rules, laws, and reception inform this form of new media art?
  • How do today’s explorations of AAS build on past examples of generative or programmatic aesthetics?
  • How do artistic explorations of such technologies contend with their associations and origins within military, policing, or other defense-related industries?
  • How do AAS further, hinder, or complicate the dialogue surrounding authorship in contemporary art?

Media-N is an English language journal, and all submissions must be received in English adhering to the standards set by the 16th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style.

(http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/)

Media-N, Journal of the New Media Caucus (ISSN: 1942-017X) is a scholarly, invitational, and double blind peer-reviewed journal. It is open to submissions in the form of theoretical papers, reports, and reviews on new media artworks. The journal provides a forum for national and international New Media Caucus members and non-members featuring their scholarly research, artworks and projects.

TIMELINE:

April 1, 2016: Deadline for submission of abstracts/proposals.

May 1, 2016: Notification of accepted proposals – invitation to submit.

July 1, 2016: Deadline for submission of final papers.

ABSTRACT GUIDELINES:

Please send your submission proposal by email adhering to the following:

Proposal Title, and a 300-500 word Proposal Description. Include your Email(s), your Title(s)/Affiliation(s) (the institution/organization you work with ­ if applicable, or independent scholar/practitioner).

On a separate document, send a Resume (no longer than 3 pages).

NOTE: Materials should be submitted in English, as Microsoft Word documents (.doc or .docx).

SEND THE SUBMISSION TO:

Email to: n.bontrager@tcu.edu and adam.fung@tcu.edu