V2_/DEAF03: Symposium Information is Alive

[marjolein at v2.nl]

28 February 1 March.
Time: 10:45  17:00 hours.
Location: Auditorium, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Museumpark 18-20, 
Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Admission: ? 80,- for two days, ? 50,- for one day, discount (student, cjp, 
RotterdamPas, 65+): ? 60,- for two days, ? 40,- for one day.

Lectures by:
Arjun Appadurai, Simon Conway Morris, Ingo Günther, Scott Lash, Winy Maas, 
Brian Massumi, Sadie Plant.
Moderation by: Manuel DeLanda

The symposium is part of and deals with the theme of the Dutch Electronic 
Art Festival  ?DEAF03 Data Knitting?, organized by V2_, Institute for the 
Unstable Media (25 February - 9 March 2003 in Rotterdam)

The symposium will be in English.

Publication available: see text below.

Symposium ?Information is Alive?

'Information is Alive' focuses on archives as unstable, plastic, living 
entities. Information storage, processing and transmission take place on 
many levels: individually, in our memories; collectively, in stories, 
rituals, laws, celebrations, games, concepts, language, image and 
architecture; biologically, in fossils and in bodies as living forms; and 
technologically, in archives and databases. In the last 20 years 
information has been stored and retrieved more and more by means of digital 
technologies.

Unlike more classical archive models, digital databases need not be ordered 
hierarchically, for they are made accessible through highly complex linking 
technologies which no longer need to work linearly, as they did with 
old-style computers. Search engines can be designed to find the proverbial 
needle in the haystack or even to create a haystack where there are only 
needles. A digital archive, like the human memory, need not be a static 
system. The value of what is stored lies in how it can be used in the 
present, lies in it's operationality instead of its meaning. Memory is a 
process that functions in the present and is continually updated through 
that mode of functioning.

Research into neurological, social, cultural and evolutionary information 
storage  lived archives of habits and practices, continuously being broken 
down and rebuilt  provides a model or tool for understanding the 
possibilities of multilinear and nonlinear archiving. The atomization of 
the archive in the database has made the whole ?Art of Memory? into a 
technological, interactive art that suddenly becomes a highly urgent topic. 
First, for all those institutions that feel the need to ?open their 
archives?, second for all those who describe and study modes of being, 
third for all those who design and use our new archives, be it books, 
websites, cities or other forms. The theme of the symposium lies in the 
exploration of unexpected developments that may arise through the storing, 
linking, reprocessing, transforming and complexifying of what otherwise 
would simply have remained as raw data.

?Information is Alive? brings together a high profile and interdisciplinary 
group of scientists, theorists, artists and architects who will present and 
discuss their ideas and projects and invite the audience to enter into 
active public dialogue.

Lectures by:
Arjun Appadurai (IND/USA), anthropologist, professor at Yale University. 
His recent research focuses on ethnic violence and the modern nation-state. 
Appadurai is writer of ?Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of 
Globalization? (1996).

Simon Conway Morris (GB), palaeobiologist, professor of Evolutionary 
Palaeobiology at the University of Cambridge (GB). In 1990 he was elected 
Fellow of the Royal Society. Conway Morris has done field research in the 
most diverse places, such as China, Mongolia, Australia and Greenland. He 
has published, among much else, ?The Crucible of Creation? (1998).

Ingo Günther (D), artist, journalist. In the early 1980s he evaluated and 
publicized satellite data that dealt with political and military hotbeds. 
Since 1989, Günther uses globes as a medium for his artistic and 
journalistic projects.

Scott Lash (USA/GB), sociologist, author of Critique of Information (2002). 
His interests include information society, global media, continental 
philosophy, technology and culture, and the problem of ?flows?.

Winy Maas (NL), architect, co-founder of MVRDV, an office that produces 
designs and studies in the fields of architecture, urbanism, landscape 
design and design philosophy. With MVRDV he has published many books, among 
which ?FARMAX: Excursions on density? (1998) and ?Metacity/Datatown? (1999).

Brian Massumi (CDN), philosopher, teaches at the University of Montreal 
(CDN). Massumi is interested in the relationship between technology, 
science and humanoria. His publications include ?Parables for the Virtual: 
Movement, Affect, Sensation? (2002). Massumi is translator of the works of 
Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari.

Sadie Plant (GB), philosopher, teaches philosophy at Manchester University. 
She was director of the Cybernetic Culture Research Unit at Warwick 
University. Plant has published extensively in the field of gender and 
technology, among which ?Zeros + Ones: Digital Women and the New 
Technoculture? (1997). She is one of the pioneers of cyber feminism.

Moderation by:
Manuel DeLanda (MEX/USA), writer, filmmaker, media artist, programmer and 
software designer. Author of among others ?Phylum: A Thousand Years of 
Non-Linear History? (1997). DeLanda teaches at Columbia University New York 
(USA) ?Philosophy of History: Theories of Self-Organization and Urban 
Dynamics?, and ?Philosophy of Science: Thinking about Structures and 
Materials?.

Program
Friday 28 February 2003

10.45: opening words V2_
11.00: introduction Manuel DeLanda
12.00: lecture Scott Lash

13.00: lunch break

14.00: lecture Simon Conway Morris
15.00: lecture Ingo Günther

16.00: tea break

16.15: panel discussion
17.00: end

17:15 Presentation of the ?Digital Depot? of the Museum Boijmans Van 
Beuningen, free entrance for symposium participants

Saturday 1 March 2003

10.45: openings words Manuel DeLanda
11.00: lecture Brian Massumi
12.00: lecture Arjun Appadurai

13.00: lunch break

14.00: lecture Winy Maas
15.00: lecture Sadie Plant

16.00: tea break

16.15: panel discussion
17.00: end


You may register for the symposium by sending an e-mail to tickets at v2.nl or 
via the festival website http://deaf.v2.nl. For more information on 
registration, phone: +31 (0)10 750.15.15


Payment procedure:
Your registration for the symposium becomes valid upon receipt of payment. 
V2_ will confirm your registration when both reservation and payment have 
been received. Your ticket(s) may then be collected at the Museum Boijmans 
Van Beuningen on the day(s) of the symposium. In case of overbooking, V2_ 
reserves the right to cancel your registration.
Please forward your payment to account number 245 38 96 (Postbank) in favor 
of Stichting V2_, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, mentioning your last name + 
'symposium'. Alternatively, you may use the Direct Payment method at the 
festival website http://deaf.v2.nl.

Publication ?Information is Alive?
V2_, in cooperation with NAi Publishers, will release a publication 
'Information is Alive'; accompanying 'DEAF03 Data Knitting'. The book 
features descriptions of the installations of the ?DEAF03? exhibition and 
essays and interviews by Arjen Mulder, Manuel DeLanda, Brian Massumi, Sadie 
Plant, Arjun Appadurai, Scott Lash, Simon Conway Morris, Antonio Damasio, 
George Dyson, Winy Maas, Boris Groys, Ryszard Kapuscinski and Ingo Günther.
Price: ? 22,50 (during the DEAF03 festival ? 20,-). This book is available 
at a discount in bookshops on presentation of the action coupon (action 
number 00000 743-7371). This offer is valid from 25 February until 9 March, 
2003.
ISBN 90-5662-310-9

More information can be found on ?DEAF03 Online?: http://deaf.v2.nl
?DEAF03 Online? offers the possibility to view the symposium online and to 
participate in various festival activities.

For educational programs and/or guided tours during DEAF03 please contact 
Valentijn Webbers, valentijn at v2.nl or +31 (0)10 750 15 18