“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” — Arthur C. Clarke
Baltan Laboratories is pleased to host the 5th Annual Conference organized by the European Culture and Technology Laboratory (ECT Lab+). This gathering aims to unite experts from the Arts, Humanities, Social Sciences, Technology, and other fields to explore methodologies that enrich (non-)positivist ways of knowing and engage with post-structuralist critiques. In the digital age, the nature and practice of interpretation are evolving, raising questions ranging from the status of digital objects to the challenges of ethical practice.
Drawing inspiration from the alchemist as a proto-scientist—bridging disciplinary boundaries as well as the mystical and the rational—this conference delves into our planetary computational condition and the not-yet-possible (improbable) in an indisciplinary manner. Can proto-science, long dismissed as primitive, inspire new understandings of our rapidly transforming socio-technical environment? At the very least, it can encourage us to transcend the limitations of disciplinary silos by recognizing the complex and interconnected nature of our predicament and the need for embodied approaches. The figure of the alchemist also prompts us to consider how to engage with its “more than” (or perhaps ir-) rational heritage. What role does epistemic diversity play in a world increasingly governed by technical rationality?
Keynote Speakers:
Ianis Dobrev (Co-founder, Chimerical Intelligence Lab): Ianis Dobrev is a cultural theorist and practitioner. He holds degrees from the Art and Design School of Saint-Étienne, France, and from Design Academy Eindhoven, the Netherlands. His research investigates the ramifications of the ecological nature of reality. His visual practice aims to channel objects engineered by specific fields of knowledge into other imaginaries. He designs thinking systems that generate trans-/infra-/inter-disciplinary conversations.
Laura Tripaldi (Artist in Residence and Visiting Clinical Assistant Professor of Interactive Media Arts (IMA), NYU Shanghai): Laura Tripaldi is a transdisciplinary researcher at the interface of science, technology, and speculative thinking. Her research focuses on materiality, exploring its cultural implications and technological futures.
Call for Contributions:
We invite submissions for papers, panels, performances, workshops, seminars, poster presentations, artistic submissions, artist talks, installations, and interventions that address the challenges of digital hermeneutics in the 21st century. This open call is directed to scholars, philosophers, scientists, artists, designers, and creative practitioners.
Please submit a 500-word description/abstract (excluding references) for your proposed contribution by May 15th, 2025.
Submissions should be in PDF format and rendered completely anonymous (including metadata) to facilitate blind refereeing. Please send your title and abstract to: ectlabconference2025@univ-tech.eu.
Notification of acceptance will be communicated by June 20th, 2025.
An edited volume of conference proceedings will be published in 2026. Previous proceedings can be found here.
Possible Topics for Contributions Include, but Are Not Limited To:
• The changing nature of interpretation in the 21st century
• The figure of the alchemist, human and more than human
• The limitations of alchemy today
• The role of expertise and Critical Pedagogy Frameworks
• The mystification of digital systems by their complexity
• Indisciplinarity / Interdisciplinarity / Transdisciplinarity
• The siloing of research and the hierarchy of disciplinary knowledge
• Situated/Indigenous knowledge and digital hermeneutics
• The intersection of different epistemic approaches such as sociology, economics, engineering, art, and philosophy
• The ir/rationality of technical rationality or: the dialectics of enlightenment
• Digital ‘objects’ as fetishes
• Embodied Research
• The power of global corporations and the limits of state regulations
• Myths of inductivism and positivism
• Technoscientific epochal change in the humanities
For further inquiries, please contact connell.vaughan@tudublin.ie.
This project has received funding from the MSCA SE programme under grant agreement No.101129655.