April NUI Galway to Host Second International Digital Cultures Conference

NUI Galway’s Moore Institute will host the second annual international Digital Cultures conference entitled, ‘Transient Topographies: Space and Interface in Digital Literature and Art’ taking place on 20-21 April.

The two-day conference will focus on the ways in which we experience the spaces of the digital age. In particular, it explores the points of encounter between humans, machines and natural environments such as: screens, mobile networks, and data clouds. The contributors will focus on different topics ranging from sonic, visual and audiovisual aesthetics, virtual environments, ecological challenges, and various forms of critical interrogation of new media platforms.

Conference organiser, Dr Anne Karhio of the Moore Institute at NUI Galway, said: “This two-day event at NUI Galway brings together scholars and artists from all over the world to consider our relationship with the rapidly evolving contemporary media and technological environment. The participants will explore the various interfaces between actual and virtual worlds, and the spaces where these encounters take place. The talks and creative works also address important questions regarding the increasingly blurring boundaries between humans, technology and the natural world.”

Conference speakers and artists include:

• Søren Bro Pold, University of Aarhus has published widely on digital and media aesthetics and electronic literature.
• R. Carpenter, University of Plymouth, is a Canadian-born artist and academic based in Devon. She is a multi-award winner, including the CBC Quebec Writing Competition and the QWF Carte Blanche Quebec Award.
• Alinta Krauth, Queensland University of Technology is an Australian digital artist and interaction designer. Her practices include projection art, interactive art, sound art, and electronic literature, and the inherent connections between these fields.
• Jason Nelson, Griffith University, Australia is an internationally renowned digital poet, whose work has been exhibited widely in galleries and journals. His projects have featured around the globe at various events on digital literature and art, and he has won a number of awards, including the Paris Biennale Media Poetry Prize.

Professor Daniel Carey, Director of the Moore Institute at NUI Galway, said: “The digital era has created new opportunities for creative expression, combining poetry and narrative with sound and video, layering data with language and imagery. This conference explores these new modes of practice at the forefront of creativity.”

The conference is funded by the Irish Research Council and the European Commission via Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, and the Moore Institute at NUI Galway.

The conference will take place on 20-21 April in the Moore Institute, Hardiman Research Building, NUI Galway.

For conference information, visit: https://transienttopographies.wordpress.com/ or contact conference organiser Anne Karhio at anne.karhio@nuigalway.ie.

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