Call for papers: Arts, culture and algorithms: Forms, formats, ane of platformisatd genres in the agion

PhD and research seminar

Cultural goods are today produced, disseminated, and consumed on digital platforms. Music, film, literature, plays, or concerts –  or museum collections for that matter – are available wherever and whenever. Distributed in different technical formats, of varying quality and with wildly differing ambitions, endless streams of aesthetic outputs are consumed 24/7 in a plethora of formats, be it photos on SnapChat, dance stunts on TikTok, interactive electronic poetry or blog-based creative writing – not to mention the more conventional formats such as music files on Spotify, movies on Netflix, videos on YouTube or novels on Kindle. Devoid of anything resembling what Walter Benjamin called “aura”, and incompatible with the public sphere out of which modern art once emerged, these goods exist by virtue of an algorithmic affect economy without which they would stop generating the surplus value that are their condition of existence.

Platforms and their algorithmic cultures have transformed and redefined the content and social meaning of such staple notions of critical theory as cultural industry, cultural institutions, and cultural practices. Still, it is the nature of aesthetic practices, whether they be deemed “arts” or something else, to explore, respond and give form to, the realities of which they are a part. Thus, even if the restricted logics of the platform economies tend to prioritize affects, they also allow new formats of knowledge, for new ways to experience, and new ways to exist.

This PhD and research seminar welcomes contributions that scrutinize these transformations and their effects on patterns of cultural production and consumption, artistic forms, formats, genres, not to forget the cultural institutions that for a long time provided the infrastructure and social reality of the fields of art and literature. Possible topics for papers include, but are not limited to, how the notion of a platform economy – whether from a historical, technological, or sociological perspective – bears upon arts, literature, and the cultural field and its institutions.

  • The forms, formats and genres (literary, artistic, intellectual) of an age of platformisation
  • Historical perspectives on technology, artistic and literary production
  • Cultural industries, markets, and the economics of platforms
  • Cultural institutions (museums, archives, libraries), digitalization and platforms
  • Platforms and creators of digital content (artists, writers, curators, amateurs…)
  • Cultural policy, intellectual property, and regulation
  • Digital labour, artistic production, and platforms
  • The ecologies of affect in the age of algorithmic culture

This provides the backdrop for our seminar as a possible analytical framework for capturing the specificities of the cultural and aesthetic experiences characteristic of platformisation and the platform society. With these perspectives as a starting point, participants are invited to reflect on notions of the historical complexities of the forms, formats, and genres of the age of platforms, how platformisation affects cultural institutions and forms specific cultural practices – and how these pertain to their dissertation subjects empirically, analytically, or epistemologically. PhD students from TBLR member universities and the Department of Arts and Cultural Studies are invited to attend and present their work.

Practical information

Key-note speakers

  • Olga Goriunova, Professor, Royal Holloway University, London
  • Nanna Bonde-Thylstrup, Associate Professor, Copenhagen Business School, Copenhagen

Application Process

Those who would like to attend should fill in the application form and submit a short draft of their paper by the 15th of March latest (roughly 300 words).

Programme

The program will consist of plenary key-note lectures (60-minute presentation, 30-minute discussion) and group work. Participant papers will be presented in a conventional conference setting (15-minute presentation, 15-minute discussion). The seminar’s last session is dedicated to a panel consisting of art museum professionals from Denmark and Norway who will discuss the platformisation of culture from the perspectives of art museums.

Working language

English.

Credits (TBLT students)

2/5 ECTS. Participation and presentation will result in 2 ECTS. Working over and submitting an edited version of the presentation (10-12 pages) after the seminar engaging with text(s) from the reading list, will yield an additional 3 ECTS. Signed and authorized course diplomas will upon request be bestowed upon participants having completed the course.

Credits (IKK students)

Participation and presentation will result in ca. 3 ECTS

Hotel

Hotel reservations will be made by the participants themselves. Up to four nights will be reimbursed (up to 1000 DKR per night) for students from the institutions participating in TBLR.

Meals

Lunch every day and dinner Tuesday and Wednesday nights.

Travel

PhD students are expected to cover their own travel expenses.

Texts

Reading materials will be made available by Dropbox one month before the seminar.

Deadline for application

15th March.

Applicants from TBLR should submit form available on: https://www.ntnu.no/tblr

Applicants from IKK should submit to valtysson@hum.ku.dk

Any questions should be directed to Bjarki Valtysson valtysson@hum.ku.dk or Knut Ove
Eliassen knut.eliassen@ntnu.no.