EDITING: Silvia Bertolotti, Roberta Colavecchio, Marco Mancuso
CONTRIBUTING AUTHORS: Samaa Ahmed, Nicola Bozzi, Claire Burke, Marco Cadioli, Alessio Chierico, Salvatore Iaconesi, Patty Jansen, Linda Kronman, Miriam La Rosa, Patrick Lichty, Randall Packer, Oriana Persico, Jeroen Van Loon, Andreas Zingerle
Identity is becoming a fluid concept, encompassing different domains of the self. How are identities affected by technology and digital tools? What is the role of art in shaping this notion? The Digimag Journal is back with a new international call for papers from its independent publishing house Digicult Editions.
One of the most interesting aspects of our relationship with technology is the way we relate to other people and create new identity narratives through it. Internet, social networks and p2p tools have amplified this phenomenon, enabling the ramification of larger networks built around individuals. As a consequence, personal narratives are linked to virtual (and real) dimensions of social, economic and artistic fields. Digital identity becomes, therefore, the individual unit of a larger digital culture environment.
This subject has been widely studied in Streaming Egos, the pioneering international project by Goethe Institut (http://blog.goethe.de/streamingegos/) which involved five different European countries through the production of an online platform, some critical texts, a convention, commissioned artworks and a final catalogue. The aim of the project was to study how Internet, social networks and, more in general, technologies are modelling the way we relate to others and to the external world, both conceived not simply as biological systems, but also as virtual entities telling their own stories.
“Who am I?” is a primordial existential question, with different connotations depending on the context (social, political or cultural). “Who do I want (or: do I have) to be?” is questioning the very basis of economy, ethics, theology and politics, especially in its collective meaning “Who are we?”
The act of transforming and reinventing the concept of ourselves and, consequently, the idea of community is at the very basis of identity explorations in the digital era. Identity becomes a fluid concept, encompassing different domains of the self. How are identities affected by technology and digital tools? What is the role of art in shaping this notion?
When interacting with other people on the Net, individuals reflect more and more on themselves, carefully choosing contents (whether personal or not) to be shared (and seen by others). This leads to a self-discourse redefining the notions of identity, repetition and difference.
The call includes, but is not limited to, the following themes:
– Technology and Existence (Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Bio-engineering, Robotics…)
– Posthumanism / Post-Anthropocentrism / Identity and the Anthropocene
– Queer identities / Feminisms
– Transpecies Narratives and the Animal
– Surveillance Culture / Collective Identity / Communities and Networks
