Some interesting prospects for the events happening this week and the next.
The first one is organised by the Centre for Cultural Inquiry (ZkF) of the University of Konstanz, where there are at this point several research agendas interested in approaching the topic of infrastructure (apparently through very diverse perspectives). The core topic of the Rethinking Infrastructure conference seems to converge in several ways with the agenda of the Cloud Gaming Atlas: It is stated that “while infrastructure constitutes a basic dimension of human life, it is widely taken as a matter of course. In a sense, this is what makes it infrastructure in the first place: if it works, it no longer has to be reflected upon but retreats to a deeper level of human consciousness and social organization. The major crises of recent years, however, suggest that infrastructure needs to be taken into consideration, and what is more: that it needs to be fundamentally rethought. Streets and bridges that are swept away by floods; health care and social security systems that collapse in the face of a pandemic; social orders that change within weeks because of a military offensive: these are all examples of infrastructure crises. Mere technical improvements to existing infrastructures will not suffice to meet such crises. Rather, we need to question on a fundamental level what we mean when we speak of infrastructures, what role we assign to them, and how we can handle them more flexibly”. Thinking through these infrastructure crises appears to be one important direction for research in the Humanities in the coming years. Bruce Robbins (Columbia University, New York) will make the opening talk of the Rethinking Infrastructure conference, entitled Elevator Pitch. Gratitude for Infrastructure, and Beyond. The event will be held at the Sigismundsaal of the Konzilgebäude Konstanz, next Wednesday at 18h30. Furthermore, from 30.06 to 01.07, the initiative will provide a workshop on cultural perspectives to rethink infrastructure.
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AuthorThis blog is meant to provide a space for discussing the geophysical as well as the the imaginary entanglements between media infrastructures and organic environments. In the coming months, it will be dedicated to my current project, Cloud Gaming Atlas, which is particularly interested in observing and interrogating the infrastructures developed for cloud gaming initiatives in regard to their environmental implications. Additionally, it should also gather information about events and publications related to my project at the Zukunftskolleg and the Department of Literature, Art and Media of the University of Konstanz. Archives
January 2024
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