Myths of Disruption

[©blendeauf]

Dr. Solvejg Nitzke

Solvejg Nitzke is a literary and cultural studies researcher who focuses on the relationships between texts and environments. Her research encompasses disaster and science fiction, plants and mountaineering. In 2021 she was awarded the status of "TUD Young Investigator" and is a PI of TUDiSC's project group "Disrupt!Research".
 

[© negativespace.co]

Short History(ies) of Humankind | How do we tell of our origins? | Moderator: Dr. Solvejg Nitzke

Grand narratives are booming. Yuval Harari's bestseller Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind is perhaps the most prominent example of this trend. The story of humanity is told as continuous progress, with people still finding solutions to their problems. Harari's success speaks to the fact that he has struck a nerve with this kind of historical narrative. It conveys: Things will go on. In view of man-made global crises, this relieves the acute pressure to act. Is science allowed to use such narrative strategies to communicate its findings to the people? Who is allowed to pass off which stories as 'scientific' facts? How much narrative can history and science tolerate? The science journalist Susanne Wedlich and the historian of science Nils Güttler work in a dialogue between the disciplines and discuss which stories from the primordial slime to the superman are contained in the "little stories of mankind". What problems arise for science and its communication? How political is popular popscience? And how can you tell if a story is plausible?

Where?
Deutsches Hygiene-Museum
When?
Tuesday, September 5, 2023, 7pm.
 

[©Grafik: N. Bongaerts/IÖR-Media]

Turnaround in Transport Policy – Rethinking Transport Areas | Dialogue forum as part of the IOER autumn series

As part of a cooperation with the Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development, the TUDiSC research project "DOUbT" will hold the dialogue forum "Turnaround in Transport Policy - Rethinking Transport Areas" September 5 as part of the Autumn Series 2023.

Concept of the Dialogue Forum

Our cities have grown and changed many times over the centuries. The growing ecological challenges, as demonstrated by Earth Day, call for a fundamental change in our lifestyles and forms of mobility. This raises the question of what this means for the development of our cities and the design of public space. How can the model of the car-centered city be overcome and a sustainable mobility culture and infrastructure be established? Through the discussion, land potentials and the changeability of traffic areas are to be made visible. Obstacles to a traffic turnaround are to be discussed and at the same time potentials for new ideas and creativity are to be shown.

When?
September 5, 2023, 6:30 - 8:00 p.m.

Where?
COSMO Science Forum in the Dresden Palace of Culture, Schloßstraße 2, Dresden

[©PantherMedia / Andriy Popov]

The Great Spotlight Day on Writing-Intensive Teaching from the School of Humanities and Social Sciences.

[©JohannaMehl]

Call for Papers: "Leakage"

Drawing on fields that include critical data studies, feminist materialisms, environmental studies, critical disability studies, infrastructure studies, critical posthumanisms, mobility studies, energy humanities, and the anthropology of science and technology, the conference theme “Leakage” invites submissions that defamiliarize, disrupt, or otherwise explore the generative potential of what may count as leakage, leaky, or leaking as a variegated paradigm for STS, whether engaged as a physical phenomenon, a material metaphor, an analytical tool, or a political strategy. Please find a more detailed description in the Call for Papers.
Deadline for Abstract Submission: October 15, 2023
The conference will take place at TU Dresden on March 19-22, 2024 and is co-organized by members of the TU Dresden Chairs of Micro-Sociology and Techno-Social Interaction, North American Literature and Future Studies, Human Geography, Digital Cultures, and Thermodynamics.

[© Andreas Prott / Peshkova – stock.adobe.com]

Workshop by the TUDiSC project "Designate" | Collaboration with the State Center for Political Education

We are delighted to bring to your attention an exciting workshop by the TUDiSC project "Designate" held as part of a campaign on the subject of "Internet policy & Democracy" by the Center for Political Education.

The event will take place on the following dates:

14.11.2023, 17.00-19.00
SLUB Makerspace, Zellescher Weg 17, Dresden

17.11.2023, 18.00-20.00
COSMO Wissenschaftsforum, Schloßstr. 2, Dresden

Workshop Concept

Booking trips, watching funny videos on YouTube, scrolling through Instagram - much of what used to cost money now seems readily available and free. But only seemingly - if we don't pay with money, we pay with our personal data, our time or our attention.

The workshop looks to address this subject by tackling the following questions:

• Where are you being manipulated on the web?
• Are you doing something about it, and if so, what?
• What other strategies are conceivable for dealing with design patterns that are intended to obscure information, capture our attention, or urge us to buy a product?
• What do you need to protect yourself from this kind of influence?

Find out more and register your attendance on the event page.

[©BereichGSW]

Registration is open!
Discourses in/of Disruption, 16-17.11.23

The conference is dedicated to the multi- faceted entanglements of discourse and disruption. It will focus both on discourses in disruption, addressing disruptive subversions of discursive orders and constellations, and discourses of disruption, addressing discursive negotiations of disruptive events. Not only is the preliminary program available on the conference webpage but also registration for participation is now possible by sending a mail to Sabine Hollmann.

[© Johanna Mehl]

Conference "Smart Borders" | A collaboration between TU Dresden & LSE | 15-17.11.23

We are delighted to share the news that the Chair of Digital Cultures at TU Dresden, in collaboration with the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) will be hosting an exciting conference on the subject of "Smart Borders".

Conference Concept

This conference aims to address the international research field on temporalities and histories of smart borders, to trace genealogies and longue durées of media, communication, and information technologies in the control of borders and migration. Such histories can be traced on different levels: materialities of media technologies, uses and practices around them, struggles against bordering tactics and technologies, as well as socio-technical imaginaries of what these technologies can and cannot do – all of which are characterized by continuities and change.

Questions guiding the conference are:

• How can we understand histories of the “smart border” within histories of media technology and digitalization, as well as within histories of territorialization, biopolitics, racial capitalism, colonialism, and bordered states?
• How are technological innovation as well as processes of digitalization and computation historically tested, developed, and trialed in the context of border and migration control?
• How has the entanglement of media technologies with borders evolved over time?
• How can historical perspectives on smart borders advance critiques of violence and discrimination enacted by smart border regimes today?

[© T.S. Halpern]

Against Catastrophe | Volume 3 | Now Online!

We are excited to share with you that Volume 3 of the multimodal research project ‘Against Catastrophe’ has just been released. The latest dispatch focuses on the multifaceted concept of Mobility:
 
Mobility can be registered, both, under affirming terms or terms of challenge, refusal or rejection. It lies on a spectrum of addressing and presenting political urgency, historical contingency as well as poetic negotiations of everyday life. The five contributions of this set of dispatches show that mobility occurs in and for different forms. It seems to often serve purposes that produce consequences, contexts, and constellations of ambivalence or contradiction. This, of course, is only appropriate in a world as complex as the one we call ours.
 
‘Against Catastrophe’ is led by TUDiSC Speaker Dr. Orit Halpern, Lighthouse Professor and Chair of Digital Cultures and Societal Change at Technische Universität Dresden. The core project team led by Sudipto Basu is based out of Concordia University (Montreal), MIT, and TU Dresden. With illustrations and design treatment by T.S. Halpern.
The project is funded by Fonds de recherche du Québec and the Swiss National Science Foundation, and is part of the larger Governing Through Design research cluster and part of the TUDISC Research Cluster at TU Dresden.

[© transCampus]

transCampus Initiative: Call for Projects in Collaboration with King's College London

As part of an ongoing collaboration with King’s College London (established in 2020) a call for future transCampus projects has been opened, the closing date for which is fast approaching (22.09.2023).

As a university of excellence, the TU Dresden aims to develop and expand the
initiative, and to further establish it as an interdisciplinary research-strong collaboration with a strong impact on education and transfer. Particularly given the strategic importance of the partnership, we would be delighted to see participation from TUDiSC researchers.
More details below...

Discussion

Kurze Geschichte(n) der Menschheit
Wie erzählen wir unsere Herkunft?

  Deutsches Hygiene-Museum

Dialogue Forum

Turnaround in Transport Policy – Rethinking Transport Areas
 

  COSMO Science Forum

Workshop

Future Editor Forum

  Open Science Lab

Workshop

Dark Patterns - Manipulative Design on the Internet!?
Collaboration between TUDiSC project "Designate" and the State Center for Political Education

  SLUB Makerspace (14.11.) &
COSMO Science Forum (17.11.)

Conference

Smart Borders
A collaboration between TU Dresden and LSE

  TBC

Conference

Discourses in/of Disruption

  Open Science Lab

Conference

4th TUDiSC Conference: "Myths of Disruptions. Programs, Narratives, and Utopias of Future Innovations"

  August-Bebel-Straße 20 and COSMO Science Foum

Conference

Leakage
Inaugural Conference of stsing e.V.

  TU Dresden

           

Disruption and Societal Change Center
TUDiSC

Zellescher Weg 17
01069 Dresden

+49 0351 463 40629