Date: Thu, 11 Jul 1996 01:06:52 -0400
From: owner-spoon-announcements


 [NOTE:  Spoon-Announcements is not a list; it's a mechanism for distributing
 information of potentially general interest to all subscribers of the Spoon
 Collective's mailing lists without bombarding them with cross-postings.]

              Cybermind is the name of a discussion list and on-line
              community. It is also starkly descriptive of an emerging episteme
              in contemporary Western and increasingly globalised society.

              It is appropriate and timely therefore to bring together members
              of this discussion list, with others interested in
              computer-mediated communication, including members of the
              artistic and academic communities to discuss virtuality and
              community.

              The conference is seeking papers, presentations, installations,
              and performances which fall under the categories of "Peformance
              and Communication," "Boundaries," "Mediating Reality," and
              "Politics." Submissions outside of these categories will be
              considered.

              Some questions that might be raised include:

                    Performance and Communication

                    How real are 'virtual' communities? Is society
                    itself a form of virtuality? How virtual are 'real'
                    communities? How is the virtual manifest
                    _within_ the real? What are the performative
                    aspects of communication? Virtual genders/real
                    bodies - gender in cyberspace.

                    Boundaries

                    In a boundary-less world, what new boundaries
                    may form? How will identity politics of gender,
                    sexuality, and ethnicity reformulate in virtual
                    associations? How do uncertain boundaries
                    impact upon existing theories of subjectivity?

                    Mediating Reality

                    Does computer-mediated communication bring
                    anything new to the study of reality and
                    virtuality? What makes a virtual community a
                    community? How does one build a virtual
                    community? VR may not be as consensual a
                    hallucination as we think. Is consensus
                    necessary and what challenges does this pose
                    for its inhabitants?

                    Politics

                    The lack of a fixed "self" confounds traditional
                    institutions of social control, warranting, and
                    accountability. What will post-traditional
                    institutions look like?

              Presentations will be drawn from a diverse group of people with
              an interest in the philosophy and psychology of cyberspace.
              Papers will be refereed for a collection to be published in
              electronic format.

              Abstracts may be submitted on paper or by email in standard
              ASCII text or in HTML format.

              A cybercafe will be established to enable online participatory
              sessions to to be scheduled within the conference programme.

              DEADLINE FOR ALL SUBMISSIONS: 30 September 1996.



                     29th November - 1st December 1996.
                hosted by the School of Design Curtin University
                           Perth, Western Australia.