The veridical travel of the truly imaginary plant: Curatorial approach and underlying ideas

O projecto The Traveling Plant é um projecto colaborativo que se desenvolve através de uma rede global e tem o objectivo de ser partilhado localmente. Pretende lidar de uma perspectiva composta numa série de ações que impactam o global e vivem na localidade, transparecendo e projetando uma variedade de modos de fazer e de ver; de modo a abraçar a dualidade de práticas partilhadas e troca de saberes presente numa rede distribuída de forma virtual e física/não-virtual. Procura lidar com as questões de um fazer concentrado em perspectivas para além do simplesmente humano, que incluem o não-humano e procuram evitar formas colonialistas e antropocénicas de agir e estar. Este artigo apresenta uma estratégia curatorial e as suas questões adjacentes que o grupo de comissárias toma como ponto de partida, a estrutura organizacional para o desenvolvimento do projeto e clarifica como se vai desenrolar

Jumpstarting the future with Fredric Jameson: Reflections on capitalism, science fiction and Utopia

This paper turns around the key concern that it has become almost impossible to imagine a form of the future that is neither a prolongation of what already exists nor its apocalyptic demise. In trying to find ways of reconceiving the future in a more productive fashion, the paper relies heavily on Fredric Jameson?s work. Jameson worries that the traditional realist novel, which has featured so prominently in discussions of ?literature? in the field of organization studies, has committed itself far too readily to what he terms ?ontological realism?: the deliberate confusion of that which is meaningful with that which exists. He therefore explores the potential of Science Fiction (SF), and in particular radical SF from the 1960s and 1970s, for figuring a break with a hollowed-out present. This is achieved, for example, by transforming our own present into the past of something yet to come. It is as if Walter Benjamin?s angel of history would stand in an imaginary future with its face turned back towards our present. Such revelatory time-slips find their clearest expression in the novels of Philip K Dick, and it is to them that this paper will turn when working through some concrete examples

Virtual reality in theatre education and design practice - new developments and applications

The global use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) has already established new approaches to theatre education and research, shifting traditional methods of knowledge delivery towards a more visually enhanced experience, which is especially important for teaching scenography. In this paper, I examine the role of multimedia within the field of theatre studies, with particular focus on the theory and practice of theatre design and education. I discuss various IT applications that have transformed the way we experience, learn and co-create our cultural heritage. I explore a suite of rapidly developing communication and computer-visualization techniques that enable reciprocal exchange between students, theatre performances and artefacts. Eventually, I analyse novel technology-mediated teaching techniques that attempt to provide a new media platform for visually enhanced information transfer. My findings indicate that the recent developments in the personalization of knowledge delivery, and also in student-centred study and e-learning, necessitate the transformation of the learners from passive consumers of digital products to active and creative participants in the learning experience

Hybrid laws: constitutionalizing private governance networks

s.a.: Das Recht hybrider Netzwerke. Zeitschrift für das gesamte Handelsrecht und Wirtschaftsrecht 165, 2001, 550-575.. Italienische Fassung: Diritti ibridi: la costituzionalizzazione delle reti private di governance. In: Gunther Teubner, Costituzionalismo societario. Armando, Roma 2004 (im Erscheinen)

Open Source Movements as a Model for Organizing

Open source software such as the operating system Linux has in a few years created much attention as an alternative way to develop and distribute software. Open source is to let anyone have access to the source code, so that they can modify it. Open source could be seen as a movement, where communities of highly skilled programmers collectively develop software, often of a quality that outperforms commercial proprietary software. These movements are based on virtual networking on Internet and the web. They are loosely coupled communities kept together by strong common values related to hacker culture. Work seems to be totally distributed, delegated and loosely coupled. The highly skilled members contribute by pride to the collective effort of free software development. In this paper the open source phenomena is investigated from different perspectives. In this paper it is claimed that the open source movements is one key to the understanding of future forms of organizations, knowledge work and business

The iconographic brain: a critical philosophical inquiry into (the resistance of) the image

The brain image plays a central role in contemporary image culture and, in turn, (co)constructs contemporary forms of subjectivity. The central aim of this paper is to probe the unmistakably potent interpellative power of brain images by delving into the power of imaging and the power of the image itself. This is not without relevance for the neurosciences, inasmuch as these do not take place in a vacuum; hence the importance of inquiring into the status of the image within scientific culture and science itself. I will mount a critical philosophical investigation of the brain qua image, focusing on the issue of mapping the mental onto the brain and how, in turn, the brain image plays a pivotal role in processes of subjectivation. Hereto, I draw upon Science & Technology Studies, juxtaposed with culture and ideology critique and theories of image culture. The first section sets out from Althusser's concept of interpellation, linking ideology to subjectivity. Doing so allows to spell out the central question of the paper: what could serve as the basis for a critical approach, or, where can a locus of resistance be found? In the second section, drawing predominantly on Baudrillard, I delve into the dimension of virtuality as this is opened up by brain image culture. This leads to the question of whether the digital brain must be opposed to old analog psychology: is it the psyche which resists? This issue is taken up in the third section which, ultimately, concludes that the psychological is not the requisite locus of resistance. The fourth section proceeds to delineate how the brain image is constructed from what I call the data-gaze (the claim that brain data are always already visual). In the final section, I discuss how an engagement with theories of iconology affords a critical understanding of the interpellative force of the brain image, which culminates in the somewhat unexpected claim that the sought after resistance lies in the very status of the image itself

Neal Stephenson’s Readme: a critique of gamification

Neal Stephenson’s writing has in many ways shaped post-cyberpunk science fiction as well as having a massive influence on real-world technology, so his move to realism with 2011’s Reamde offers an opportunity to understand science fiction’s changing relationship to realism in the twenty-first century. Stephenson is considered a core cyberpunk writer thanks to 1992’s Snow Crash, a novel that depicts an online virtual world known as the ‘Metaverse’. This novel is based on the premise that the actions of an online world could have a material impact on participants outside of the game: namely, gamers can be brain damaged by a computer virus. Stephenson has continued to explore these themes throughout his career, but recently through contemporary settings, rather than the futures of his science fiction. Stephenson’s Reamde could therefore be considered an example of ‘science fiction realism’, a term coined by Veronica Hollinger to describe William Gibson’s Pattern Recognition (2003), a novel which also uses science fictional tropes and techniques, but in a contemporary setting

Appraisal and the Future of Archives in the Digital Era

Discussion of the implications of new technologies, changing public policies, and transformation of culture for how archivists practice and think about appraisal

School's Over: Learning Spaces in Europe in 2020: An Imagining Exercise on the Future of Learning

This report uses a rigorous imagining approach to develop an alternative way of organizing learning in Europe whereby the traditional school system no longer plays a significant role. This study shows that on the basis of phenomena already present in Europe today it is possible to invent a discontinuous model of how people learn and how what they learn is used in everyday life. At the core of this model is a carefully elaborated idea of learning spaces that encompass new ways of ensuring that people have the capacity to control, direct, share and deepen their knowledge throughout their lives. These multi-dimensional learning spaces are imagined as operating in a systemically different economic and social context. One where non-technocratic, non-hierarchical learning is central to the production of local well-being and community based identity. ¿School¿s Over¿ is meant to challenge both the functional and organizational assumptions that currently dominate, often implicitly, the choices being made today.JRC.J.4-Information Societ

The Hacker Imaginaire: Recoding Futures? Technoscientific Promises from the Inventors of the Internet

In the 1970s, researchers and engineers built the technical predecessor of today’s global digital networks, but more importantly, they created an “Internet Imaginaire” (Flichy 2007) with the aim of building a global virtual society. In the 1990s, most supporters of the utopian digital community fell silent. The hackers, however, remained, and they still adhere to rules put down in the so-called “hacker ethic” (Levy 1984; Coleman 2015), such as decentralization and freedom of information, which contribute to a sociotechnical “Hacker Imaginaire.” With the Sociology of Knowledge Approach to Discourse (SKAD) as a research programme, this paper investigates the genesis and perseverance of this imaginary by uncovering technoscientific promises in media documents and interviews, which were formulated in response to the continued development of Internet-based technologies and fuel this imaginary; and by describing its phenomenal structure.In the 1970s, researchers and engineers built the technical predecessor of today’s global digital networks, but more importantly, they created an “Internet Imaginaire” (Flichy 2007) with the aim of building a global virtual society. In the 1990s, most supporters of the utopian digital community fell silent. The hackers, however, remained, and they still adhere to rules put down in the so-called “hacker ethic” (Levy 1984; Coleman 2015), such as decentralization and freedom of information, which contribute to a sociotechnical “Hacker Imaginaire.” With the Sociology of Knowledge Approach to Discourse (SKAD) as a research programme, this paper investigates the genesis and perseverance of this imaginary by uncovering technoscientific promises in media documents and interviews, which were formulated in response to the continued development of Internet-based technologies and fuel this imaginary; and by describing its phenomenal structure