TECHNOLOGICAL IMAGINARIES: IMAGINED FUTURES, UTOPIAN VISIONS, AND FABULATIONS OF ALTERNATIVE WORLDS

Session will present: In-Person
Affiliated Society or Committee Name: New Media Caucus

Imagined futures, utopian visions, and fabulations of alternative worlds make up recent technological imaginaries that use science fiction, specific cultural cosmologies, and the remaking of technological tools. Based on Sang-Hyun Kim and Sheila Jasanoff’s concept of “sociotechnical imaginaries” which are “collectively imagined forms of social life and social order reflected in the design and fulfillment of nation-specific scientific and/or technological projects” (Jasanoff and Kim, 2009), I focus on the specificity of technological imaginaries that have and continue to emerge in art making practices that rethink technology away from its “technocapitalist” logic of expansion, profit, and extraction (Villa, 2009). Instead, artists and artist-collectives reimagine technology through Afrofuturist aesthetics and ideals, indigenous cosmologies, ecological perspectives, and alternative uses of technology for artistic ends. In this panel, we seek contributions by scholars and artists that expand on the concept of technological imaginaries to help us envision possibilities, ruptures, and potentialities away from the Global North paradigm.
Field(s) of Study:
Time Period: Twenty-First Century
Media: New Media
Media: Time-Based Media
Media: Digital Media (history and studio)
Topics: Cosmology

Chair:

Constanza Salazar, The Cooper Union

https://caa.confex.com/caa/2024/webprogrampreliminary/Session12804.html