November 29, 2023
Lecture by Dominique Routhier, postdoc in the Department of Language and Culture and DIAS affiliated
WHEN: Wednesday 29th of November 11.15-12.15
WHERE: The DIAS seminar room, Fioniavej 34, Odense campus
All are welcome, no registration is needed.
DIAS Senior Fellow Kathrin Maurer will present the lecture.
Art and Automation: Cybernetics, Modernism and the Avantgarde
Abstract: In a 2022 New York Times article, an artist who won a local art competition with an AI-generated artwork dramatically declared: ‘Art is dead, dude. It's over. AI won. Humans lost.’ This statement exemplifies a broader sense of anxiety about AI and automation, extending beyond concerns about jobs and livelihoods to encompass fundamental aspects of the human condition: our ability to think, reason, communicate, and express ourselves artistically. In a DIAS lecture presenting his new book, With and Against: the Situationist International in the Age of Automation, Dominique Routhier historicizes the automation-debate by returning to its ‘cybernetic’ origins in the 1950s. The lecture thus focuses on the centrality of cybernetics—a largely forgotten interdisciplinary ‘science of communication and control’—to the postwar moment in art, and, by way of examples from mid-century modernism and the avantgarde, argues that the history of automation and the history of art are deeply intertwined.
About: Dominique Routhier is a postdoc in the Department of Language and Culture at the University of Southern Denmark, an affiliate at DIAS (Danish Institute for Advanced Studies), and part of the research project ‘Drone Imaginaries and Communities’ (Independent Research Fund Denmark, 2020-2024). His research focuses on the cultural history of automation, with a particular interest in the intersection of art, technology, and political economy. Dominique is currently at work on a scholarly handbook, The Aesthetics of Machine Vision: Critical Terms and Ideas (in review, MIT Press). His writings have appeared in numerous Scandinavian and international journals, including K&K, Nordic Journal of Aesthetics, Rethinking Marxism, Boundary 2, Historical Materialism, and LARB, among other places. Author of With and Against: the Situationist International in the Age of Automation (Verso Books, 2023).
November 16, 2023
Invitation to Book Launch!
The Center of Technology would like you to invite the launch of Kathrin Maurer’s new book The Sensorium of the Drone and Communities (MIT Press).
The book delivers a discussion of how civilian drones sense the world and how they build the aesthetic imaginaries of our communities. For more info, see info on MIT Press website The Sensorium of the Drone and Communities. Please note that MIT made this book open access! Just click here Direct to Open Model.
Program: After short intro by Kathrin Maurer, Svea Braeunert (Visiting Professor at the Film University Babelsberg/physical) and Jussi Parikka (Professor in Digital Aesthetics and Culture at Aarhus University/on zoom) will share some comments about the book. There will be a small reception afterwards.
Where? University of Southern Denmark, Odense, DIAS SEMINAR ROOM
When? November 16, 2023 at 14:00-16:00 (Danish Time, CET)
How? This is a hybrid event. If you would like to follow the event on zoom, please click use this link: https://syddanskuni.zoom.us/j/66581849894?from=addon. If you like to attend physically, just show up in the DIAS Seminar room.
Registration: If you like to attend physically, please register by writing to Kathrin Maurer kamau@sdu.dk no later than Nov 14, 2023.
Download the flyer here.
I am so much looking forward to seeing you in one form or the other! Kathrin
October 26, 2023
Workshop on Robots in Science and Fiction
When: October 26, 2023; 14:00-16:00 (Denmark me, CEST)
Where: HYBRID EVENT
Physical: University of Southern Denmark, Campusvej 55, 5230 Odense; DIAS Seminar room
ZOOM: htps://syddanskuni.zoom.us/j/67518128424?from=addon
No need to register. Just come by or join the zoom link on day of event.
For more information including full programme click here.
October 2nd, 2023
Book launch
Dylan Cawthorne from SDU TEK invites you to a book launch for The Ethics of Drone Design: How value sensitive Design can create better Technologies.
Hosted by SDU Drone Center at TEK SDU and the Center for Culture and Technology at HUM SDU.
Monday October 2nd from 13:00-15:00 (might be shorter, but this is just to be safe)
Physical event at SDU TEK in the Ellehammer seminar room, TEK-28-600-3
The book presents a holistic approach to the development of drones and demonstrates the connection between human values and technological capabilities. The book includes four case studies of prototype drones designed and built by the author: the healthcare drone, the search and rescue drone, the educational drone, and the spiritual drone. Methods from the fields of engineering, ethics, and art, are utilized in the case studies, with the aim to create better technologies that benefit society.
Find the book here.
August 23, 2023
3pm - 5 pm (CEST)
The Center for Culture and Technology invites to this hybrid event about monuments and virtually reality:
Antimonument Expanded
During the recent years, we are confronted with more and more images of protestors undoing monuments that express a colonial or imperialist worldview. These acts of deconstructing monuments became a universally understood symbol of uprising and discontent against the publicly inscribed history. The idea for “Antimonument Extended” - Virtual Reality program aims to create a discussion about the status of such monuments in German speaking societies without physically destroying them. By means of VGA technology users can intervene directly on the scanned version of the controversial monuments.
The project is focused on three public monuments in Düsseldorf made by artists formerly on the list of “Gottbegnadeten” (god-gifted) by the National socialist regime. These artists, even after the war, continued to receive large public monument commissions, and they are still in our public spaces. Pop-up workshops will take place in front of these sculptures where visitors can try out the Virtual Reality program. In parallel, artists living in Germany and Austria with immigration background are invited to intervene on these monuments with 3D projection mapping and performance. The concluding exhibition will take place in a gallery where the documentation of these pop-up workshops can be seen, while giving a platform to further discuss the meaning of the project in current context.
In this virtual/hybrid conference, the invited artists and organizers will discuss the results of the workshops and reflect on each process.
Read more about the event including Zoom link here
May 24, 2023
Introduction to the Center for Culture and Technology on May 24, 2023 from 12-13
The Center for Culture and Technology would like to introduce itself to the new merged departments in the humanities at the University of Southern Denmark. As we encourage interdisciplinary research across the humanities, social sciences, and engineering, we are curious to explore new collaborations and find new associates.
If you are interested, join us for a brown bag lunch in O 96 at SDU (Campusvej 55) on May 24, 2023 from 12-13, right after the department meeting. Brown bag means you bring your own lunch. There will be a few short presentations by the leader group of the center and plenty of networking.
No need to register. Just stop by! It is a physical meeting.
See our website https://www.sdu.dk/en/cult-tech and follow us on Facebook or LinkedIn!
If you have any questions, please contact Kathrin Maurer (Professor mso of Humanities and Technology and Leader of the Center for Culture and Technology).
Email: kamau@sdu.dk
We are looking forward to seeing you!
Kathrin Maurer, Dylan Cawthorne, Stig Børsen Hansen, Casper Sylvest, Bo Kampmann Walther