CALL FOR PAPERS
Cybermind is the name of a discussion list and on-line community. It is also starkly descriptive of an emerging episteme in contemporary Western and increasingly globalised society.
It is appropriate and timely therefore to bring together members of this discussion list, with others interested in computer-mediated communication, including members of the artistic and academic communities to discuss virtuality and community.
The conference is seeking papers, presentations, installations, and performances which fall under the categories of "Peformance and Communication," "Boundaries," "Mediating Reality," and "Politics." Submissions outside of these categories will be considered.
Some questions that might be raised include:
Performance and Communication
How real are 'virtual' communities? Is society itself a form of virtuality? How virtual are 'real' communities? How is the virtual manifest _within_ the real? What are the performative aspects of communication? Virtual genders/real bodies - gender in cyberspace.
Boundaries
In a boundary-less world, what new boundaries may form? How will identity politics of gender, sexuality, and ethnicity reformulate in virtual associations? How do uncertain boundaries impact upon existing theories of subjectivity?
Mediating Reality
Does computer-mediated communication bring anything new to the study of reality and virtuality? What makes a virtual community a community? How does one build a virtual community? VR may not be as consensual a hallucination as we think. Is consensus necessary and what challenges does this pose for its inhabitants?
Politics
The lack of a fixed "self" confounds traditional institutions of social control, warranting, and accountability. What will post-traditional institutions look like?
Presentations will be drawn from a diverse group of people with an interest in the philosophy and psychology of cyberspace. Papers will be refereed for a collection to be published in electronic format.
Abstracts may be submitted on paper or by email in standard ASCII text or in HTML format.
A cybercafe will be established to enable online participatory sessions to to be scheduled within the conference programme.
DEADLINE FOR ALL SUBMISSIONS: 30 September 1996.
29th November - 1st December 1996.
hosted by the School of Design Curtin University Perth, Western Australia.