Membranes, Surfaces and Boundaries: interstices in the history of science, technology and culture

Workshop at the Max-Planck-Institute for the History of Science, Berlin.
October 7-9, 2010
organized by Mathias Grote, Laura Otis and Max Stadler

http://www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/workshops/en/Membranes-Surfaces-Boundaries.html


The world, more of than not, is and has been conceived in its compactness, as stuff, things, and
objects; far less so, in its interstices. Science, technology and culture, of course, are permeated and
traversed by boundary phenomena: From the materialities of life itself, whether cellular membranes,
skin, immune-systems or ecological habitats, to surface, separation and purification processes in
chemistry and industry to the making, processing and exhibition of photographs and films, things
coalesced at surfaces. They are palpable as well in the history of geography and politics, of urban
and private spaces, of literature, art, psychology and the self, and certainly enough, as interfaces, in
contemporary media theory.
    The workshop Membranes, Surfaces and Boundaries aims to recover and bring together these
interstices. We wish to attract contributions from a wide range of disciplines, including the natural
sciences, that cross, straddle and make permeable these specialist divides, and that interrogate the
historical being of surfaces. We wish to focus the workshop on the materialities of membranes,
surfaces, and boundaries themselves. Possible anchors are surfaces and membranes as biological
entities; chemical and technical phenomena at boundaries such as catalysis, filtration or
electrophoresis; or films, photographic and otherwise, as media of projection and material surface
processes. We invite contributions engaging with these and other spheres and their manifold
intersections. Some illustrative questions include: In the history of science, can we generate cultural
histories of the biological cell, a historiographically rather neglected object? Or related, of the
similarly neglected but important, huge fields such as electro-chemistry or chemical engineering?
Might we re-read through surface-objects disciplinary histories, experimental practices or the ways
science is permeable to its social and cultural settings (and vice versa)? In film and media studies,
how can attention to the materialities of surfaces incorporate the histories of science, technology or
industry? Or again, more philosophically, how can we bring together concepts and materials, the
abstract and concrete, metaphors and physical boundaries in re-thinking the histories of
interstices?
    All submitted abstracts showing some relation to our main theme will be given careful
consideration. Abstracts of up to 300 words should include your name, institutional affiliation, and
email address. These should be submitted by email to Mathias Grote (mgrote@mpiwg-
berlin.mpg.de) and Max Stadler (mstadler@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de). The deadline for abstract
submission is 31 January 2010.