"Textologies: An Interdisciplinary Workshop on Multmedia Technologies, Ethics and Culture" will be held at McMaster University on October 14-16, 2004. This event will bring together researchers involved in McMaster's new interdisciplinary initiative in Technology and Culture with other leading scholars on innovative multimedia technologies, ethics and cultural theory. The workshop will enable McMaster researchers to work together with researchers and experts from other universities and programs on how best to develop and implement conceptual models and research strategies in areas pertinent to this kind of interdisciplinary research: digital culture and art, global culture and information technology, technology and ethics, the relationship between information and wisdom (philosophy of technology), human computer interface design, computer gaming, and so on. The purpose of the workshop will be to serve as a catalyst for future research collaborations, and in particular to develop a network of researchers assessing the impact of new information and digital technologies upon the production and interpretation of textual, visual and aural communications media in the University and the wider culture. It will also contribute resources for the responsive development of interdisciplinary research practices and educational programming that is able not only to incorporate the use of new technologies effectively, but also to analyse and to reflect critically upon their cultural and ethical implications. Currently an interdisciplinary M.A. program in Digital Society is being proposed for approval at McMaster (anticipated startup is September 2005), and the workshop will also be an opportunity to ventilate and refine the curriculum.

PROPOSED PROGRAM
There will be five workshops spread over three days. Each workshop will open with a presentation by an invited scholar (see below) that develops an analysis of innovative technologies, text and culture, and that suggests a model for the interdisciplinary research and teaching of these areas. Prepared responses will follow, and working groups, comprised of participants from various disciplines will then be invited to relate these presentations to areas of possible research collaboration and curriculum development, exploring both their theoretical and pedagogical-practical implications in a critical and constructive manner.

The scholars we have invited to lead the workshop sessions are leaders in the field of multimedia technologies, cultural and ethical theory, and interdisciplinary inquiry. Each of them is not only an accomplished theorist who has made important scholarly contributions to the analysis of digital culture and multimedia technologies, but also each has made important contributions to the critical and creative, experimental application of new technologies in university-based research and teaching. These scholars also represent an interesting and important range of differing conceptual and disciplinary perspectives to common questions, and this diversity will serve to stimulate the kind of critical debate and challenging exchange needed to develop constructive research directions for the future. Each has agreed to lead a half-day workshop as listed below.

1) Thursday, October 14, 1:30 p.m.

"Are Humans Obsolete? Post-Humanism and Technology-Related Interdisciplinary Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences," led by Langdon Winner, Professor of Political Science in the Department of Science and Technology Studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Professor Winner's work has been a pioneer in raising critical questions of social responsibility and technological change in advanced technological societies, as is evident by the fact that MIT Press plans to issue a second edition of his important early book, Autonomous Technology. Yet his research and writing have kept pace with the development of new technologies. His most recent work focuses on the development of digital technologies and human identity, exploring questions of human computer interface design and the social and political dimensions of cyber-engineering design. Winner has also been an organizer of the new Center for Cultural Design, a cross-disciplinary design facility and graduate research program at Rensselaer. His publications include also The Whale and the Reactor: A Search for Limits in an Age of High Technology and Political Artifacts: Design and the Quality of Public Life (forthcoming).

2) Friday, October 15, 9:00 a.m.:

"Information and Reality: IT and the Human Condition," led by Arthur Kroker, Canada Research Chair in Technology, Culture and Theory, and Professor of Political Science at the University of Victoria. Founder and Co-editor of Ctheory and Ctheory Media, a critically acclaimed electronic journal subscribed to by over 25,000 researchers, Professor Kroker is the author of numerous books and articles on internet culture, the cultural impact of information technology, and the future of cyber- and biotechnologies. His nationally and internationally recognized research explores in a provocative manner the creative possibilities and crucial challenges of major technological change, and he is currently establishing the Pacific Centre for Technology and Culture to create an innovative interdisciplinary research space that will include annual networked seminars. His publications include Technology and the Canadian Mind; Hacking the Future; Digital Delirium; The Will to Technology and the Culture of Nihilism (forthcoming).

3) Friday, October 15, 1:30 p.m.:

"Critical Theory, Technology and Culture," led by Andrew Feenberg, Canada Research Chair in Philosophy of Technology in the School of Communication, Simon Fraser University. An expert in critical social theory and the philosophy of technology, Professor Feenberg's books on technological culture, critical theory and ethics have been widely reviewed and translated into several languages. He is also recognised as an early innovator in the field of online education, a field he helped to create in 1982, and is currently also working on the TextWeaver Project on improving software for online discussion forums and computer conferencing. His creative work thus importantly bridges the gap between critical philosophical theory about technology and applied technology studies. His publications include Alternative Modernity; Questioning Technology; Transforming Technology; Modernity and Technology.

4) Saturday, October 16, 9:00 a.m.:

"Visual Poetics and Digital Technology," led by Johanna Drucker, Robertson Professor and Director of Media Studies, and Professor of English, University of Virginia. An expert on the history of typography, visual art and digital studies, Professor Drucker is the author of important scholarly books on the relationships between textual and visual media. In addition to her scholarly work, Drucker is internationally known as a book artist and experimental, visual poet. Her work has been exhibited and collected in special collections in libraries and museums, including the Getty Center for the Humanities, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Marvin and Ruth Sackner Archive of Visual and Concrete Poetry, the Houghton Library at Harvard University, and many others. She has pioneered interdisciplinary and innovative approaches to the dialogue between traditional text-based and visual research, and electronic and digital resources in the humanities. Her publications include The Visible Word; The Alphabetic Labyrinth; Digital Reflections: The Dialogue of Art and Technology; Figuring the Word.

5) Saturday, October 16, 1:30 p.m.:

"Digital Directions in the Humanities," led by Martha Nell Smith, Director of the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities and Professor of English at the University of Maryland. A leading researcher in the area of computing, digital studies and electronic text in the humanities, Professor Smith’s many publications include three award-winning books on Emily Dickinson, and her Dickinson Electronic Archives project at the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities at the University of Virginia has been the subject of a New York Times Magazine cover story (November 28, 1998). She is a leading theorist in the field as well as a pioneer in the application of digital multimedia technologies to humanities research. Her publications include Comic Power in Emily Dickinson; Open Me Carefully: Emily Dickinson’s Intimate Letters; The Iconic Page in Manuscript, Print and Digital Culture.

PRACTICAL DETAILS:

The workshop is being funded by SSHRC and therefore registration costs, all lunches and a Friday evening dinner, will be included for invited participants. Publication will be sought for the workshop proceedings, including invited presentations and responses. If you are interested in participating in this workshop, please send a short C.V. and a statement of your interest in relation to your areas of research and/or teaching via email (kroekert@mcmaster.ca or andrew.mactavish@mcmaster.ca) before May 15, 2004. Invitations will be issued in late May.

Program Committee:
Travis Kroeker, Religious Studies
Andrew Mactavish, Multimedia
McMaster University
Hamilton, ON L8S 4K1