[Discussion] CFP: Cyborgs and Cultural Systems (Cyprus) (2/11/05; Inscriptions, 5/12/05-5/13/05)

[Sule Tarakcioglu]

CALL FOR PAPERS

Cyborgs and Cultural Systems

A Panel Discussion at the
Eighth International Literature and Humanities Conference,
INSCRIPTIONS '05: an arts and culture conference and festival at
Eastern Mediterranean University in
Famagusta, on the island of Cyprus
May 12th - 13th, 2005

The term "cyborg" (cybernetic organism) was originally coined by Clynes
and Kline in 1960 to characterize a self-regulating complex entity made
up of interacting electrical/mechanical and human systems-as distinct
from "robot," which was derived by Capek in 1923 from a Czech word
meaning "drudgery," and which still today describes a non-sentient
machine performing tasks set and ultimately controlled by a human being.

However, since the publication of Donna J. Haraway's "Manifesto for
Cyborgs" in 1985, the cyborg has evolved in disciplines as diverse as
literature, film, sociology, cybernetics, and medicine-into a figure and
a trope of hybridity. As such, it interrogates and/or collapses the
differences between the sentient and the non-sentient, the human and
the non-human; it engages and undoes a wide range of binary oppositions
from Cartesian dualism to culturally coded distinctions of gender,
class, and race; and it exemplifies the breaching of boundaries and
frontiers in social, ethical, legal and technological issues from
disability to genetic engineering to computer privacy.

We invite proposals for a Panel Discussion aimed at extending current
concepts of the cyborg, and exploring the ramifications of the
interaction between human beings and their socio-cultural,
technological, and biological environments.

Some possible topic areas (others are welcome):

-the extensions of man and woman: from Marshall McLuhan
     to Donna Haraway
-the cyborg and the "posthuman": the work of N. Katherine Hayles
     and Bruno Latour
-bodies without organs (Artaud)/desiring machines (Deleuze and Guattari)
-cyborgs and social systems: Niklas Luhmann on media and "ecological
communication"
-between biological and cultural systems: Humberto Maturana and
Francisco Varela
-rethinking Enlightenment rationality: between La Mettrie, deism, and
the cyborg
-avatars and cybersex: desire, fragmentation and jouissance in cyberspace
-the hyperreal and the decay of lying: from Oscar Wilde to The Truman Show
-Lacanian cyberspace: the Imaginary and the Symbolic
-technomyths of fear and limitation: Icarus, Prometheus, and Pandora
-science/creation myths: Michelangelo's Creation of Adam to Mary
Shelley's Frankenstein
-reconfiguring the grotesque: monsters/hybrids from satyrs, centaurs and
mermaids to cyborgs, androids, replicants, clones, and zombies
-cyborgs and hyperreality: Benjamin's aura, Debord's spectacle,
Baudrillard's simulacrum
-deconstructing grand narratives: ecofeminism and narratives of empowerment
-monstrosity in film: from The Island of Dr. Moreau to Jurassic Park and
Monsters, Inc.
-technophilosophical utopias/dystopias: Zamyatin's We, Orwell's 1984,
and their progeny
-cyborg fiction: Asimov, Clarke, Gibson, Ballard, Dick, Coupland, etc.
-prosthetics in literature/film: From Edward Scissorhands to Luke Skywalker
-cyber-environments, interactive/virtual realities: Tron, eXistenZ,
Johnny Mnemonic, The Matrix series
-prosthetics in reality: From Gotz von Berlichingen to Stephen Hawking
-magical technologies: from Perrault's seven-league boots
     to Oz and the Tinman's heart
-war, amputation, disability: the ethics of medical transplant/implant
technology
-the avatars of Arnold Schwarzenegger: Total Recall, Terminator,
RoboCop, The Sixth Day
-the ethics of reproductive technology: genetic selection, cloning, and
eugenics
-theorizing new technologies: Kevin Warwick, the VeriChip, "smart" clothing
-chemical enhancement: from cosmetics and steroids to genetically
modified foods
-cyborgs and superheroes: Spiderman, the Hulk, X-Men, etc.
-Foucault's "political technology of the body": panopticism and cyborg
ideologies
-city machines: Metropolis, Logan's Run, The Matrix, Vanilla Sky,
Minority Report
-language-instinct machines: the work of Noam Chomsky, Steven Pinker,
and Marvin Minsky
-monstrosity and decadence: Des Esseintes, and Bouvard and Pecuchet
-art and technology: from Futurism and Constructivism to Borofsky and
Stelarc

Prospective panelists are invited to send 250-word abstracts/proposals
for 15-20 minute presentations on any aspect of these areas to
rodney.sharkey@emu.edu.tr by 11th February, 2005. I look forward to
learning about your research, and to a provocative discussion.

For more information about INSCRIPTIONS '05, please visit our website at
http://www.emu.edu.tr/elh/inscriptions

Please also check out our links to "Individual Research Presentations"
and "Creative/Performance Work."



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