Panel at Conf of the Society for the Social Studies of Science (4S): Technologies of representation in design and making (Nov 2015, Denver USA)

Dates: 11-14 November
Location: Denver, Colorado, USA
Website: http://www.4sonline.org/meeting
Deadline for submission of abstracts: 29 March 2015

Listed as Panel #36: From one thing to another: Technologies of representation in design and making
Arlene Oak, University of Alberta, aoak@ualberta.ca
Claire Nicholas, cn4@ualberta.ca

Technologies of visualization are a well-established matter of concern to STS scholars interested in questions of knowledge production and representation (Hacking 1983, Latour and Woolgar 1986, Latour 1990, Kaiser 2005). Recent work extends this consideration to acoustic technologies (Helmreich 2007, Pinch and Bijsterveld 2004, Roosth 2009). This panel opens an adjacent conversation in relation to the use of digital and analog media in the design processes of fields such as industrial design, architecture, planning, engineering, and visual communication design. Here the issues are less about constituting pattern, order, and meaning from scientific data, with the digital/analog question instead highlighting issues of translatability, or “transductivity” (Helmreich 2007, Silverstein 2003) across representational mediums, and in relation to problems of scale and complexity. It also bears on professional debates on craft, making, and aesthetics.

xCoAx 2015: 3rd International Conference on Computation, Communication, Aesthetics and X (June 2015, Glasgow)

Dates: 25-26 June 2015
Location: Glasgow, UK
Website: http://xcoax.org/
Deadline for submissions: 18 January 2015

Computational tools and media, from traditional computers and software to the latest wearable artifacts, sensors, haptic interfaces and more, have dramatically transformed the landscape of arts, design, and several other cultural forms.

xCoAx is an exploration of this environment in the form of a multi-disciplinary enquiry on aesthetics, computation, communication and the elusive x factor that connects them all.

xCoAx is meant as a hub for the exchange of ideas and the discovery of interdisciplinary and international synergies, with the participation of a diverse confluence of computer scientists, media practitioners and theoreticians working on the frontiers of digital arts and culture.

Our focus has always been on critical and stimulating intersections: between the computable and the uncomputable, the communicable and the incommunicable, the chaos of creativity and the rules of algorithms, the human and the machine, in a constant search for new directions in aesthetics.

DeSForM2015: Aesthetics of Interaction | Dynamic, Multisensory, Wise (Oct 2015, Milan Italy)

Dates: 13-17 October 2015
Location: Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy
Website: http://www.desform2015.polimi.it
Deadline for submissions: EXTENDED 31 January 2015

The works traditionally presented at DeSForM investigate the evolving nature of design artifacts and how new forms or objects’ aesthetics convey meaning. We aim to discuss the potential, the limits, and the constraints of designing intriguing experiences with technology-affected artifacts (be they tangible, virtual or intangible). We will also explore the balance of aesthetics, ethics, meaning, and emotion in design.

Annual conference of the Universities Arts Association of Canada (October 2014, Toronto)

Dates: 23-26 October 2014
Location: OCAD University, Toronto
Website: http://www.uaac-aauc.com/en/conference
Deadline for submissions: 18 June 2014

THE TENSIONS AND SYNERGIES OF AESTHETICS OF ‘DESIGN FOR SUSTAINABILITY’

Paradoxically, while sustainability has become a keyword of contemporary reorientations of design practices and theories, most research endeavors have been devoted to improving efficiency or performance and few to understanding the influences of these injunctions on culture on the one hand, and design thinking on the other. How designers address the ever increasing environmental expectations or even, how they maintain a creative balance between ethics and aesthetics, remains largely unaddressed in recent design theory.  This session is focused on the questions regarding the tensions between cultural and technical responses of design for sustainability that cross the main disciplines concerned with design thinking, be it at the scales of product, architecture, landscape, and urban design. Do designers go beyond current injunctions of environmental norms, certifications, and policies in order to maintain a creative balance between ethics and aesthetics in their projects? Is the aesthetic tension between form and content emerging as a new framework for designing more sustainable environments?

Session Chair: Carmela Cucuzzella, PhD
Affiliation: Graduate Program Director, Certificate in Digital Technologies in Design Art Practice
Assistant Professor, Design and Computation Arts, Faculty of Fine Arts, Concordia University
Email address : carmela.cucuzzella@concordia.ca

xCoAx 2014: 2nd International Conference on Computation, Communication, Aesthetics and X (June 2014, Porto Portugal)

Dates: 26-27 June 2014
Location: Porto, Portugal
Website: http://xcoax.org/
Deadline for submissions: UPDATED 19 January 2013

The development of computational tools and media has been radically transforming the landscape for the practice of the arts, of design and of numerous cultural manifestations. Recognizing this, xCoAx is designed as a multi-disciplinary enquiry on arts, computers, computation, communication and the elusive x factor that connects them all.xCoAx is a forum for the exchange of ideas and the discovery of new and valuable synergies. It is an event exploring the frontiers of digital arts with the participation of a diverse confluence of computer scientists, media practitioners and theoreticians, with a focus on the relations between what can and cannot be computed, what can and cannot be communicated, what is beautiful and how humans and computational systems intersect in the development of new directions in aesthetics.

xCoAx 2013: 1st International Conference on Computation, Communication, Aesthetics and X (June 2013, Bergamo)

Dates: 27-28 June 2013
Location: University of Bergamo, Bergamo Città Alta, Italy
Website: http://xcoax.org/
Deadline for submissions: 31 December 2012

The development of computational tools and media has been radically transforming the landscape for the practice of design, the arts and numerous cultural manifestations. Recognizing this, xCoAx is designed as a multi-disciplinary and nomadic enquiry on arts, computers, computation, communication and the elusive x factor that connects them all.

xCoAx is a forum for the exchange of ideas and the discovery of new and profitable synergies. It is an event exploring the frontiers of digital arts with the participation of a diverse confluence of computer scientists, media practitioners and theoreticians, that will focus on the relations between what can and cannot be computed, what can and cannot be communicated, what is beautiful and how humans and computational systems intersect in the development of new directions in aesthetics.

IJDesign: Special Issue on Designing for Aesthetics of Interaction (March 2010)

Full Paper Due: 1 March 2010

Now that the world of HCI has united with the world of product design, and computers are no longer merely a means for doing our jobs but also an integral part of our lives, one might question the appropriateness of functionality and efficiency as the main guiding principles for design. The spectrum of efficiency, productivity and, in general, “getting things done” has been enriched by other values, such as those represented by curiosity, playfulness, intimacy and creativity. User experience and the aesthetics of that experience are becoming increasingly paramount.