Culture Action Europe - Beyond the Obvious Conference in Romania
Culture Action Europe is working on the Beyond the Obvious (BtO) Conference 2018, which will explore the relations between Technology and Humans. The event will take place in Timisoara, Romania from 25 to 27 October, 2018.
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Culture Action Europe - the biggest umbrella organisation and the only network representing all cultural sub-sectors - is organizing its annual flagship event, Beyond the Obvious Conference. The event, entitled "ctrl+shift HUMAN: Arts, Sciences and Technologies in Coded Societies", will take place in Timisoara, Romania from 25 to 27 October, 2018. It will also include Culture Action Europe Members' Forum and Annual General Meeting (open for members only).
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Beyond the Obvious Conference 2018
Code, algorithms and artificial intelligence complement the human condition, can solve problems, accelerate decision-making, and help complete complex tasks through self-learning processes. The framework in which these operate is often defined as a communication system that is universal, transparent, simple and accessible.
However, algorithmic processes are inscribed in our infrastructures. And beyond the purely functional transmission and transformation of the data, they often work invisibly, shaping and influencing social, cultural, economical and political spheres and redefining our individual and common identities.
Beyond the Obvious Conference 2018 will focus on that paradigm: between the fascination generated by the possibilities this hybrid and augmented condition brings, and the awareness of the new patterns that lead to redefinitions of creativity, disciplines, representation, globalization, production, labor… all within the framework of an increasing code dependence.
The conference will also explore the environmental impacts of media content and data generation, storage and transfer. Algorithmic processes require ever-increasing infrastructures, supported by servers, putting pressure on available natural resources and on the environment where citizens and cultures develop.
Approaching these issues recognizes the strategic importance of a wider outlook, beyond disciplinary silos, including arts, sciences, education and research. This provides enormous possibilities to cross knowledge and sectors. It includes discussions about policy intervention and funding - local, national and European – and about how to foster collaboration between different operators and institutions.
The event will bring together various experiences and practices from the fields of arts and culture, sciences, technologies, activisms, theory and politics, to explore possible cross-disciplinary answers and diverse actions towards the challenging relations between Technology and Humans.
