Thomas Söderqvist One of the potentially most interesting workshop titles I’ve seen announced so far this year is ‘Biodigital lives: making, consuming and archiving the lives of technoscience’.
The meeting — convened by Kate O’Riordan (Sussex) and Adrian Mackenzie (Lancaster) and hosted by the Centre for the Economic and Social Aspects of Genomics (CESAGen), the Centre for Material Digital Culture and the Centre for Life History and Life Writing Research at the University of Sussex on 14 July — will “examine issues and questions about digital and biodigital life, lives and identities framed by biosciences, contemporary media and biopolitical cultures”:
From the lives of scientists to the technologisation of life, ‘Biodigital lives’ will analyse biotechnological and bioinformatic forms and practices of identifying, archiving and storying the living. It will discuss diverse forms of new/digital mediation and informatics as they pertain to the lives of people, plants, animals, microbes, viruses and ecosystems entangled in global media, biopolitical institutions and bioeconomies.
Topics might include:
- How digital/life history and genetic genealogies intersect
- Biomediation and biotechnological media in reading and writing lives
- Biodigital memory, narration and identity (e.g. memory and archive, genetics and life story, digital life practices)
- Genomic databases and biobanks as biographical resources
- Techniques of writing, reading, editing and publishing the lives of species and populations
- Life archives and life histories of humans and non-humans
- Synthetic biology and bioinformatic communities from the perspective of biological literacy, design and participation
- Genomes as digital/media artefacts – new media/biotech convergences and commercial genealogies
- Genetics and genomics as/in life narratives and popular culture
- Aesthetic encounters in biodigital life in sci-art, film, games, software, art etc
- Genealogies and critical potentials of bioart/digital media art intersections
The workshop will be arranged around short presentations and will favour discussion and broad participation. 300 words abstracts + short bios to Kate O’Riordan (k.oriordan@sussex.ac.uk) by 20 April 2009. Final confirmation and draft programme by 11 May.
