Apologies for cross posting
*DRHA '17 - Data Ache*
The 21st International Conference on the Digital Research in the Humanities and
Arts (DRHA)
Hosted by the Arts Institute at the University of Plymouth (UK)
10–13 September 2017
CONFIRMED KEYNOTE SPEAKERS:
Prof Eduardo Miranda & Prof Jane Winters
“We’re drowning (not waving) in a sea of data – with data, data everywhere, but
not a drop of information.” (US National Security Agency Website, 2011)
This major international conference, hosted by the Arts Institute at the
University of Plymouth, explores the broad cross-disciplinary theme of data in
the digital arts and humanities: in particular, the material, practical and
theoretical challenges imposed by data and the digital turn; the tensions,
difficulties and creative potentials that data provokes. In an era of big data,
ubiquitous computing and a marked naturalisation of digital technologies, we
are increasingly living with, and through, data. Indeed, data—often synonymous
with digital information or understood as an abstraction of knowledge—has
become personal and professional; interwoven into the fabric of our lives,
contemporary culture and research practices.
Data can be thought of in at least three distinctive, yet overlapping senses:
computational data (big or otherwise), research data, and data as a
bureaucratic and politically charged material. In each of these contexts, much
of our lives is governed by the competing interests and flows of data. We drown
in data; we search for data. We encounter noisy data and the aesthetic and
ethical ambiguities of manipulating it (which also means manipulating the
world).
In other words, we experience what might be termed ‘Data Ache’: the ache of the
academic, in search of absent data, groaning under the weight of vast data-sets
or grappling with and cleansing dirty data; the possibilities of networked
communities, relationships and identities, mediated through data storage and
transmission technologies; the interpretational potential of quantitative and
qualitative analytical modes; the manipulative power to process text and image,
which simultaneously adds layers of abstraction; the fragmentation and
recombination of meaning sorted person-by-person according to buying patterns
and search habits; the huge opportunities for media and culture made
accessible, and sharable, and malleable through its status as data. And since
the 1960s, our thinking about and understanding of these issues has been shaped
by artistic visions and creative practices.
The 2017 DRHA Data Ache conference welcomes proposals for research
presentations that explore the effect and affect, implication and application
of data. These may include papers, performances, workshops, screenings,
exhibitions, installations, panels/roundtables, and 5-minute “living posters”.
Proposals must be emailed to drha2017@xxxxxxxxx by 31st March 2017.
Further information about the submission process and general information
(including submission forms, details of studio spaces, etc) can be found at:
drha2017.com.
DRHA2017 Conference Chairs and Co-Directors:
Prof James Daybell, Prof Roberta Mock, Dr Sana Murrani and Dr Andrew Prior
Prof Sue Broadhurst,
Director of Research,
Department of Arts and Humanities,
Brunel University,
London,
UB8 3PH, UK
Direct Line: +44(0)1895 266588
Extension: 66588
Fax: +44(0)1895 269768
Email: susan.broadhurst@xxxxxxxxxxxx
