ANTHEM

An interesting coming together of art and science. The interview with the artists on the BBC’s Culture Show is also highly recommended: it’s an excellent STS case study in itself. Apparently many scientists took this for a recording of an experiment, as it looks so convincing. Fact or fiction? You decide…

Update: We had to remove the embedded video as some of the browsers couldn’t handle it. You can watch Magnetic Movie here instead.

Issue 16 of Distinktion: Scandinavian Journal of Social Theory is out and  it is packed with interesting articles on the technologies of politics, several of them engaging with actor-network theory. Authors include Kristin Asdal, Noortje Marres, Peter Sloterdijk, John Law, Richie Nimmo, Guro Ådnegard Skarstad, and Nigel Thrift.

The draft programme for the 2008 4S/EASST Conference in Rotterdam is now available from the 4S website [1MB PDF]. There are just too many interesting talks here for us to be able to even begin to list them, so we will stick with highlighting just the one session that is most closely in line with the ANTHEM theme: Session 1.3.16 “Actor Network Theory meets (Post)Phenomenology,” between 13:30-15:30 on 21 August 2008 in Room T3-31. Session organisers: Jack Post and Peter-Paul Verbeek. The talks:

• “I have never been Modern - nor has Postphenomenology been so,” by Don Ihde, State University of New York at Stony Brook
• “Posthuman Perceptions: on hybrids and human-technology relations,” by Peter-Paul Verbeek, University of Twente

(more…)

Two calls for papers from the new International Journal of Actor-Network Theory and Technological Innovation (IJANTTI):

1. for the Special Issue:”Approaches to Technological Innovation,” due 1st August 2008
2. for the regular issue: due 1st September 2008

The 2nd Triangular Post-Graduate Conference, “Challenges for contemporary research on technology and organisation,” will take place on 4-6 June 2008 at UCD Business School. The conference is jointly organised by Lancaster University, University of Cambridge and University College Dublin, and is chaired by Séamas Kelly, Lucas Introna, and Matthew Jones. The call for papers invites doctoral students from information systems and organisational studies to present preliminary research findings and/or challenging theoretical and methodological issues concerning their research. (more…)

The 4th Social Study of IT Open Research Forum (SSIT-ORF) will take place on 23 and 24 April 2008 at the Information Systems and Innovation Group (ISIG) at the LSE. At ISIG there is a long tradition of research interest in both actor-network theory and Heidegger, as approaches to the study of technology. This event may be of particular interest to PhD students and junior researchers who would like to discuss their research with other PhD students and leading IS academics in this area. The deadline for registration has been extended to 30 March 2008. Register here.

Click here to listen to (1 hour 23 minutes) or download (19.7MB) the recording of Bruno Latour’s lecture “Another European Tradition: traceability of the social and the vindication of Gabriel Tarde” at the London School of Economics and Political Science on 4 February 2008. The event was introduced and chaired by Nikolas Rose.

Click here to listen to (1 hour) or download (27.7MB) the recording of Graham Harman’s talk “The Greatness of McLuhan” at the Media School Research Seminar at Bournemouth University on 4 February 2008. The event was introduced by Barry Richards and Peter Erdélyi.

On Thursday 24 January 2008 from 12:00 to 13:30 Noortje Marres will be giving an ISRF talk at ISIG at the London School of Economics and Political Science entitled “Devising Affectedness: Eco-Homes and the Making of Material Publics.” (more…)

This blog is the public interface of ANTHEM. Given the increasing interest in our activities, we decided to set up this blog. (more…)