CfPs: Hermeneutics of Science and Technology (and World of Games) - Technology and Language
The tenth issue of "Technology and Language" has appeared, and with it a new call for contributions that is primarily addressed to philosophy, cultural studies of technology and art, semiotics and hermeneutics.
The current issue features submitted papers that contribute to various ongoing discussions in the journal. The philosophical discussion of the work of Ernesto de Martino adds to the analysis of Technology and Magic in issue 3:4. Two papers are the first in a series on hermeneutic approaches to science – one regarding the authors and readers of experiments, the other on the question of “understanding” quantum mechanics. Three papers query on a fundamental level the conflation of technology and language and whether this conflation might prove productive, e.g., in respect to “computer languages” or the notion of “composition” in music, language, and programming. A third paper discusses two Wittgensteinian interpretations of technogrammar. Origami and the art of folding collapse three-dimensional complexity onto a surface, thus providing a technical method for mapping distance and
proximity, for understanding Actor Network Theory and thus for providing a view of the social. Three empirical studies consider how technical gaming cultures can creatively expand and transform language, and how
language acquisition benefits from team-work on technical platforms.
New Call for Contributions:
„Hermeneutics of Technology“ (Deadline: Dec 5, 2023) — For a long time, hermeneutics was confined to the humanities and arts, to legal and religious studies, and to the exegesis primarily of texts. In recent years, however, the hermeneutics of science and technology came into its own, along with questions of „scientific understanding“ or „hermeneutic Technology Assessment,“ and along with the challenges posed by Artificial Intelligence or quantum technology which appear to elude human comprehension. Sense-making becomes especially important in a
so-called culture of prediction, robustness, and reliability - and hermeneutics provides suitable methods for sense-making as well as observing and appreciating the various ways of making sense. Expanding the reach of the hermeneutic approach does not imply, therefore, that it now includes all forms of discourse-analysis or interpretation. In regard to science and technology as well, we can consider the transformative act of „reading“ within a horizon of meaning. Thus the consideration of an experiment or a historically significant device can
remind us of their proximity to philosophically significant art-works.
We invite contributions from philosophy, cultural studies of technology and art, science studies. There will be the possibility to present some draft-papers at a Chinese-German workshop on Hermeneutics of Science and Technology on June 2 and 3, 2023. (guest editors: WU Guolin and LUO Dong)
Other open calls (shortened): „Mythologies. The Spirit of Technology in its Cultural Context“ (expressions of interests until May 2, 2023): This special issue is concerned with technological developments in relation
to state sponsorship and how these implicate myths of progress. Simultaneously, we wish to explore how scholars have explored technological determinism and critiqued techno-cultural imaginaries of national destiny. The different use of technologies in response to Covid 19 has amplified the difference of national attitudes in national contexts, raising anew “The Question concerning Technology” in Europe, Russia, China, or the United States. (Guest editors: Coreen McGuire and Natalia Nikiforova)
”Future Writing“ (Deadline: June 5, 2023): Starting from a Derridean grammatological review of the act of writing today, this special issue invites us to consider writing-the-future along with the future-of-writing. The question is framed by our contemporary experience: Writing and the memory of the hand are becoming obsolete by way of typing and other technical proxies. At the same time, Chinese, Arabic, Roman typographies assume a new visuality and transformative power that veers toward the asemic, reminding us of enactment and embodiment in the digital world. (Guest editors: Dajuin Yao and Nikita Lin, originating from an intermedia investigative project by Dajuin Yao
and the Open Media Lab at the School of Intermedia Art, China Academy of Art)
“Computational Models and Metaphors of the Mind” (Deadline: September 5, 2023) Is the meaning of a text accessible to machine learning? Questions like these have become ever more puzzling. Mind, behavior, and machine are configured differently at different times, in different research programs. This concerns questions of intelligence, technology, and language: What is consciousness, is it possible to artificially reproduce it? What is a language in terms of information theory and data models? Can a language be expressive without ontology or semantics? How significant are shared features of brains and computers – e.g. neural networks, and how significant are the differences between human and machine intelligence – e.g. conceptual vs. statistical thinking? (guest editor: Pavel Baryshnikov)
Beyond these calls for special topics, any submitted paper and interdisciplinary exploration at the interface of technology and language is always welcome. The next deadline for submitted papers in English or Russian is May 1, 2023 - these may include issues of science and fiction, the literary and artistic treatment of technological
catastrophes, the languages of tastes and smells.
Finally, a brief announcement of the conference „The World of Games: Technologies for Experimenting, Thinking, Learning“ (proceedings will be published in the Springer Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems). Gamification affords understanding of proper functioning, successful performance, and strategic cooperation, but is there also a loss?
(Deadline July 10, 2023)
Queries, suggestions, and submissions can be addressed to soctech@spbstu.ru or to Daria Bylieva and Alfred Nordmann.