PhD Course - Open Hardware Open Machines
Organizer(s):
Laura Beloff (ITU), Morten Søndergaard (Aalborg University)
Website:
http://www.eva-copenhagen.dk/phd-course/
Lecturer(s):
María Antonia González Valerio (Professor of Philosophy at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de
México)
Patrícia J. Reis (Ph.D. in Art (University of Évora, Portugal, 2016), Research Fellow at the National
Science Technology Foundation of Portugal (2011-2015), Assistant Professor at Polytechnic Institute
of Beja, Portugal (2006-2012), Lecturer at Universität für Angewandte Kunst in Vienna and
Kunstuniversität Linz (current))
Date(s) of the course:
March 15 – May 18, 2018.
Scheduled Activities:
March 15: Application and Bio Submission (Online)
March 20: Group Formation (Online)
March 27: Group Skype Meetings (Suggested, Online)
April 5: Blog Posts + Feedback Session (Online)
April 20: Join curatorial framework development (Online)
May 14 and 18: Workshop + Presentation at CLICK (Elsinore)
Time:
9:00 – 5:00 (8 hours/day, specific times subject to change)
Room:
Course will take place online and at CATCH (Centre for Art + Technology) in
Elsinore
Course description:
The PhD course contributes to and takes place prior to and after the international conference
“Politics of the Machine: Art and After” (May 15-17 2018 in Copenhagen). The attendees participate
in a workshop where they will generate mandatory online and offline outputs related to the
conference theme. The conference is centered on questions about how machines impact and
contextualise artistic production and perception and in doing so welcomes submissions that take an
innovative approach to the politics of the machine. Likewise, this workshop aims to engage research
in a broad sense of the word and thus invites artistic and practice-based as well as theoretical and
historical approaches to the subject.
The practice-base results from the workshop will be exhibited in the Catch project space during the
Click Festival.
Topic:
The overall topic of the workshop is openness in/of machines and the potential political and social
effects of opening up the machine. The workshop is organized along two thematic tracks:
1. Open Structures, Open Machines - Production of Futures
Open hardware has paved the way for a different approach to the machine and the way we think
about labor and production. How can the instruments of labor be reclaimed and repurposed with
the aim of developing novel alternatives to existing structures of organizing production and
consumption? We will investigate how artistic approaches can be implemented into, extend, or
disrupt production, distribution, and financial processes.
2. Open Bodies, Open Machines - Future Pleasure Objects
The machines developed to stimulate human bodies, beyond visual pleasure and medical
applications, often reproduce a traditional binary of woman/man. You can purchase stimulators and
devices derived from stereotypical understandings of gender and sexuality. Can we build machines
that deconstruct these? Can machines help develop future human and more-than-human genders?
Can machines become objects that stimulate and resonate with the body and its Umwelt and not
just the genitals?
Learning Goals:
When students have completed the course, they will be able to:
• analyze and explain examples of how machines impact and contextualise artistic production
and perception
• understand how artistic approaches can be implemented into, extend, or disrupt
production, distribution, and financial processes
• understand how machines can help develop future human and more-than-human genders
• create and present a joint project using artistic methodologies that combines their individual
research interests
Reading List:
Selected essays from
Oliver, J., Savičić, G., & Vasiliev, D. (2011). The Critical Engineering Manifesto. Berlin.
Rüst, A. (2014). A Piece of the Pie Chart: Feminist Robotics. Leonardo, 47(4), 360–366.
Winner, L. (1980). Do artifacts have politics? Daedalus, 109(1), 121–136.
Agre, P. E. (1997). Toward a Critical Technical Practice: Lessons Learned in Trying to Reform AI. In G.
C. Bowker (Ed.), Social science, technical systems, and cooperative work: beyond the great
divide (p. 470). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Biggs, M. (Michael A. R. ., Karlsson, H., & Riksbankens jubileumsfond. (2010). The Routledge
companion to research in the arts. Routledge.
Gray, C., & Malins, J. (2004). Visualizing research: a guide to the research process in art and design.
Ashgate.
Haraway, D. J. (1991). A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late
Twentieth Century. In Simians, cyborgs and women: the reinvention of nature (p. 287).
Mortimer-Sandilands, C., Erickson, B., & Gable, E. (2010). Queer ecologies: sex, nature, politics,
desire. Indiana University Press.
Giffney, N., & Hird, M. J. (2008). Queering the non/human. Ashgate.
Murphy, K., Ruiz, J., & Serlin, D. (2008). Queer Futures. Duke University Press.
Haraway, D. J. (2016). Staying with the trouble: making kin in the Chthulucene. Duke University
Press.
Cuboniks, L. (n.d.). Xenofeminism: A Politics for Alienation.
Prerequisites:
Send a short note (about 200 words) explaining your interest in the workshop and a short bio to
Jonas Jørgensen at jjoe@itu.dk with the subject line: “POM PhD” no later than March 1.
Participation in the Politics of the Machines conference (http://www.eva-copenhagen.dk/) which is
affiliated with this PhD course is not required, but is strongly recommended.
Exam:
The course runs from March 15 to May 18 2018. To pass the course and be awarded credits (2,5
ECTS), students must participate in the online collaboration and workshop in Elsinore. Participants
will be examined on the work completed throughout the course by Laura Beloff (internal) and
Morten Søndergaard (external) on the afternoon of Friday, May 18th during presentations of the
work. Participant are also expected to provide oral peer feedback on all of the work that is shown.
Credits:
2.5 ECTS
Amount of hours the student is expected to use on the course:
In-Person Participation: 22.5
Online Preparation/Reading: 47.5
Participation in the course includes the production of a blog entry prior to the workshop, dialogue
and co-production online with other participants, the production of a joint project, and a joint
presentation of this output at the Click Festival. PhD students can be awarded 2,5 ECTS for their full
participation. Furthermore, participants are encouraged to submit regular papers for the conference
and attend the conference events.
The workshop can accommodate up to 20 participants, groups will consist of 3-4 persons. Selection
will be based on how well the submitted project fits within the overall theme of the conference and
course topic and also aimed at generating variety within the group (in terms of research subject,
disciplinary background, practical/theoretical approach etc.).
Participants:
20 participants are expected in total.
How to sign up:
Write a mail to lbel@itu.dk (Laura Beloff)