----------------------------Original message---------------------------- >>From Energy to Information: Representation in Science, Art, and Literature >The University of Texas at Austin, April 3-5, 1997 > >A symposium/workshop co-sponsored by the Center for the Study of Modernism >Dept. of Art and Art History, UT) and the Center for Interactive Arts >Studies (College of Fine Arts, UT) > >Co-organized by Linda Dalrymple Henderson, Dept. of Art and Art History, UT, >and Bruce Clarke, Dept. of English, Texas Tech University, with Richard >Shiff, Director, Center for the Study of Modernism, UT > >This interdisciplinary symposium/workshop provides a unique opportunity to >examine the representation of scientific concepts ranging from energy to >information in the art and literature of modern and postmodern culture. By >the later nineteenth century, thermodynamics and electromagnetism had >radically challenged prevailing conceptions of physical reality. Many >innovations in modern art and literature are rooted in the rapid cultural >reception of scientific ideas such as entropy and X-rays, a situation >paralleled in our time by the wide interest in information technology and >virtual reality. The goal of the conference is to give contemporary >researchers in the humanities and sciences an enhanced appreciation of the >historical contexts of and theoretical connections among scientific ideas, >technological developments, and cultural productions in the later 19th and >20th centuries. > >The symposium/workshop offers two plenary addresses by distinguished >scholars: historian and critic W. J. T. Mitchell and Nobel prize-winning >physicist and chemist Ilya Prigogine. Five panels will bring together >scholars from the fields of history of science, art, and literature (as well >as media studies, anthropology, and architecture in certain cases) to >investigate practices of representation and inscription in scientific texts >and illustrations and in literary and artistic images at particular >historical moments. Two-hour sessions, with 30-minute papers presented by >the three speakers, will allow ample time for full audience discussion. By >regrouping panelists with graduate students and audience members, lunch-time >focus groups will provide the opportunity of meeting invited speakers and >discussing topics related to their specific interests. > > > SCHEDULE > >Thursday, April 3, 1997 >5:45-6:50 Registration/Reception (Art Building Lobby) > >7:00 First plenary address: W. J. T. Mitchell, University of Chicago, > "Dinosaurs Decoded" (Art Auditorium, 1.102) > >Friday, April 4, 1997 >All remaining conference sessions will be held at Thompson Conference >Center, adjacent to Art Building and Fine Arts Building. > >8:30-9:30 Registration (Coffee/Refreshments) > >9:30 Panel: "The Cultures of Thermodynamics" (Moderator: Bruce J. Hunt, UT) > Norton Wise, Princeton University (History of Science), > "The Gender of Energy and Time" > Bruce Clarke, Texas Tech University (Literature), "Models of > Energy: Entropy and Space from H. G. Wells to Yevgeny > Zamyatin" > Charlotte Douglas, New York University (History of Art), > "Energetic Abstraction, or the Forces of Representation" > >11:30-1:00 Lunch (including focus groups with panelists) > >1:00 Panel: "Ether and Electromagnetism: Capturing the Invisible > (Moderator: Bruce Clarke, Texas Tech University ) > Bruce J. Hunt, University of Texas (History of Science), "Lines of > Force, Swirls of Ether" > Ian F. A. Bell, University of Keele (Literature),"Modernist > Energies: Ezra Pound and the Ether-eal" > Linda Dalrymple Henderson, University of Texas (History of Art), > "Vibratory Modernism: Early 20th-Century Art and the > Ether" > >3:00-3:30 Break (Coffee/Refreshments) > >3:30 Panel: "Traces and Inscriptions: Diagraming Forces" > (Moderator: Linda Dalrymple Henderson, UT) > Robert Brain, Harvard University (History of Science), > "'The Language of the Phenomena Themselves': The > Graphic Method and the Instruments of Scientific > Modernism" > Charles Altieri, Berkeley (Literature), "Force as Meaning: > Abstraction and the Limits of Representation" > Douglas Kahn, University of Technology, Sydney (Media Arts), > "A Portrait of Beethoven Repeated 50 Times Per Second" > >5:30-5:55 Break (Wine and Cheese) > >6:00 Second plenary address: Ilya Prigogine, University of Texas and > Free University, Brussels, "Nature as Construction" > >7:30 Cocktails/Cash Bar (University of Texas Alumni Center Ballroom) >8:00 Dinner and Party > >Saturday, April 5, 1997 >9:00-9:45 Coffee/Refreshments > >9:45 Panel: "Representing Information" > (Moderator: Wayne Andersen, Professor at Large, MIT) > David Tomas, University of Ottawa (Anthropology), "On the > Imagination's Horizon Line: Mechanical Drawing and > Babbage's Calculating Engines" > N. Katherine Hayles, UCLA (Literature), "The Android, the > Paranoid and the Schizoid: The Anxiety of Boundaries in > Second-Wave Cybernetics and Philip K. Dick's Fiction" > Kristine Stiles, Duke University (History of Art), "Parallel > Worlds: Representing Information at the Intersection of > Art, Technology, and Psychic Phenomena" > >12:00 Lunch > >1:30 Panel "Virtual Spaces/Virtual Bodies" > (Moderator: Michael Benedikt, Architecture, University of Texas) > Timothy Lenoir, Stanford University (History of Science), > "The Virtual Edge: Postmodern Surgery" > Gregory Ulmer, University of Florida (Literature), "The Visual > Mood in Online Authoring" > Marcos Novak, University of Texas and UCLA (Architecture), > "After Territory" > >3:30-4:00 Break (Refreshments) > >4:00 Formal Wrap-up Session (Richard Shiff, University of Texas, and > W. J. T. Mitchell, University of Chicago) > >5:00 Closing Reception > >Further information on the conference will be made available at the "Energy >to Information" website, http://www.ar.utexas.edu/centrifuge/e2i.html. To >obtain copies of registration materials, e-mail to >[log in to unmask] or send requests to Energy to Information >Symposium, c/o Center for the Study of Modernism, Dept. of Art and Art History, >University of Texas, Austin, Texas 78712-1104 (tel: 512-471-7757). >Linda Dalrymple Henderson >Dept. of Art and Art History >University of Texas at Austin >Austin, TX 78712-1104