Ma(n)chines

The relationship between life and machine has always been problematic, not just since human beings began using drones to kill people or neuroscience started connecting synapses with control and monitoring electronics. While the terms “life” and “machine” may first and foremost represent oppositional categories of cultural self-portrayal, a look at the histories of culture and science reveals their mutual implications and hybridization; humanity is constantly using them as benchmarks for negotiating and renegotiating its position between nature and culture.

The international conference Ma(n)chines is devoted to examining these borders and connections between the ‘cultural’ and the ‘natural’ in the natural sciences, philosophy and art: its main focus: how can we redefine the relationship between life and inanimate objects beyond the concepts of the military-industrial complex?

Program

15-17h Terms - Concepts - Perspectives I

Mai Wegener (PAS Berlin): The Humming of the Machines

Maximilian Haas (Viadrina): The Machine as Protagonist

Thomas Ebke (ENS Paris): "Checkmate". On the historical epistemology of chess computing and the Thanatos position of cybernetic regimes

17-17.30h Break

17.30-19h Terms - Concepts - Perspectives II

Pierre-Laurent Boulanger (projet AiME, Sciences Po): Presentation of Bruno Latour’s "Enquête sur les modes d'existence. Une anthropologie des Modernes"

Uwe Wirth (JLU Gießen): Practises of grafting in the field of tension between man and machine

Mehr zum Projekt "An Inquiry Into Modes of Existence" (AIME) von Bruno Latour

19-19.45h Keynote II

Thomas Macho (HU Berlin): Machine Dreams, Dream Machines

19.45-20.30h Closing discussion

Conception and organisation:

Patricia A. Gwozdz (Uni Potsdam)

Jakob C. Heller (Viadrina)

Tim Sparenberg (Viadrina)

Ronja Tripp (Viadrina)

Contact: manchine.konferenz@gmail.com

First day of conference

Thu 05-12-2013, 4pm

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Second day of conference

Fri 06-12-2013, 10am

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