Conference Outline of Culture of the Information Age Conference
FreesideEurope Online Academic Journal 2007.
This is a Call by the international online academic journal, Freeside Europe, for presentations and papers for a conference about the culture of the Information Age. We are requesting submissions that address the following issues:
How can the unique features of digital information--its manipulability, networkability, density, compressibility and impartiality-- generate cultural changes?
How is the always-on nature of web services and the convergence of hitherto discreet media influencing the cultural content of everyday life?
How can digital media and media convergence assist in making human cultures past and present accessible to all in a world without borders?
Is intellectual discourse being dumbed-down by the "everyone-is-equal" ethos of social media? Should standards be established, and if so, how and by whom?
What are the new art-forms that are the exclusive/unique creations of digital media and how can their artistic worth be assessed? Do we need new critical theories to deal with new media arts or will the old ones do just as well?
Is self-made, collaborative media (podcasts, blogs, social bookmarking/networking, wikis etc) creating a new popular culture or merely a new way of disseminating old forms?
The changes generated by the new media in society, culture and communication systems have been a topic of debate since the 1970s. Freeside Europe is proud to continue that tradition of academic discourse about the cultural changes being wrought new media technology.
The speed of adoption of new media technologies in these first few years of the 21st century is unparalled in any comparable period; their ubiquity and power to change the way we live, work and play is unprecedented in human history. This is a good time to be asking questions about their utility, value, consequence and meaning.