CALL FOR PAPERS Summer Session 2016

Designing (for) the future

Study Circle 8 Comparative Futurologies

Summer Session: 24-31 July 2016 in Orivesi, Finland

Invitation

We invite scholars, students, academics and artists from all fields to take part in our study circle, a migratory non-hierarchical group of international researchers. Our circle is developed within the Nordic and Baltic framework of Nordic Summer University. Since its inception, the primary aim has been to provide a forum for experimentation and cross-disciplinary collaboration welcoming members both from within and outside of universities and other institutions.

Theme: Designing (for) the future

Through projects of designing the future, artists, scientists, technologists, corporations and nation states attempt to shape or control what the future will be. Predicted and desired futures have led these stakeholders to embark on certain paths. Who are the designers? How do they design? What kind of power is at stake? Questions will differ, however, as to what degree the future is seen as something possible to design or control.

Modernism already fostered different futurisms: most notoriously the Italian and the Russian forms – both of which to some point became associated with totalitarianism and in a way made the template for the infamous connection between futurism, understood as the aesthetic imagining of the future, and politics. Going back to such projects, however, it is also possible to re-think and re-imagine the links between art, design, technology and politics, without the totalitarian connection.

Comparative Futurologies is a study circle that investigates and discusses different perspectives on the future. The perspectives include understandings of scientific futures, cultural imaginations of futures, and artistic productions of future. We believe that comparing these different perspectives will unearth original, cross-disciplinary approaches to future thinking. We rely on participants coming from multiple scholarly backgrounds such as cultural studies, natural sciences, engineering, biotech etc. in addition to artistic productions of future. We have a facebook-group named ‘Comparative Futurologies’.

Format of the presentation

We strongly encourage you to craft a format that suits your presentation, however some suggested formats are: e.g. 5 minutes presentation and 25 minutes discussion; 15 minutes presentation and 15 minutes discussion or 30 minutes presentation and ten minutes discussion. Maximum duration of presentation + discussion: 40 min.

To submit a proposal please send via email to the coordinators

Lars Ylander: ylander@ofir.dk

Claus Krogholm: clauskrogholm@mail.dk

1. A written proposal (350 words) with a title and descriptive subtitle. This text should include your presentation proposal, its format its duration, facilities you need (I.e. technical equipment)
2. A short bio (200 words)

If you would like to attend the symposium without presenting, please email a short bio.

The study circle provides a space for theoretical experimentation and the cross-fertilization of methodologies. It aims at developing insights that can be used in further research.
We invite you for a week of exchange and debate in an open environment of people with different backgrounds. Presentations are meant to be rather short, while discussions pursuing ideas are central for the circle and will be given considerable space during the week.

The deadline to submit proposals is 8 May, 2016. The preliminary program will be announced on May 15, 2016 on www.nordic.university where you can also find more information about NSU and sign up for the newsletter.

Application process and registration:
The application process has two steps:

(1) Application to coordinators for acceptance. Application starts 1st of April and closes on 8th

of May.

(If you wish to participate without presentation you can apply until 25th of May. Also, you can

still apply late in case of vacant slots by contacting the coordinators and submitting an abstract.)

(2) After you have been accepted, the next step is registration and payments, which closes on

1st of June. All registration and payment will be done electronically on the www.nordic.university homepage

Note: if you apply late, the payment must still be completed by the 1st of June.

Accommodation – the prices include all meals during the entire seminar. All prices in €:

Single room: 550

Double room: 320

Family members (in double room): 380

Children over 12 years: 380

Children between 4-12 years: 250

Children between 2-4: 46

Children less than 2 years: 0

NSU offers a number of grants and scholarships:

Application for grant or scholarship must be sent to the coordinators no later than 15 April Please cite motivation for the application for a grant (such as being freelance or unemployed).

Grants: 100

Scholarships: 80

We favour participants from Baltic countries for grants. Notification for applicants is given 1 May.

Arrival: 24 July Departure: 31 July

For any questions about presentation, registration and NSU, please contact coordinators: Lars Ylander on ylander@ofir.dk or Claus Krogholm on clauskrogholm@mail.dk

Arrival: 24 July 2016

Departure: 31 July 2016

The Nordic Summer University (NSU) is a Nordic network for research and interdisciplinary studies.

NSU is a nomadic, academic institution, which organises workshop-seminars across disciplinary and national borders. Since it was established in 1950, Nordic Summer University has organised forums for cultural and intellectual debate in the Nordic and Baltic region, involving students, academics, politicians, and intellectuals from this region and beyond.

Decisions about the content and the organisational form of the NSU lay with its participants. The backbone of the activities in the NSU consists of its thematic study circles. In the study circles researchers, students and professionals from different backgrounds collaborate in scholarly investigations distributed regularly in summer and winter symposia during a three-year period.

For more information www.nordic.university

Downloadable version of this Call for Papers: Call For Papers, Circle 8 – Comparative Futurologies, Summer Session 2016