PROTOPLASMIC FLOW
The Symbiocene Anthology is a series of alternative artists books reviews by Oscar Salguero relating to the way in which we adapt or immerse ourselves into a post-anthropocene reality. Coined by philosopher Glenn Albrecht, the Symbiocene appeals to a new generation of humans aiming for symbiotic possibilities with nature and the various entities with whom we share this planet. This is the first review of the series, future reviews will be posted here. PROTOPLASMIC FLOW - by Oscar Salguero A black mailer envelope arrives from Milan, Italy on October 4, 2021. The label announces a content list which includes the words “petri dish” and “poster.” Samara Editions is an Italian publishing experiment that focuses on performances via post. Each edition is the result of a unique collaboration
Are you sold yet? – By Timo Kats
To investigate the impact of Artificial Intelligence in the media landscape, ACED has initiated the Reverb Channel programme, a trans-disciplinary programme where artists, data scientists and media professionals can carry out investigative experiments and share results to evoke debate with the field and the general public. In collaboration with dr. Peter van der Putten and Timo Kats of the LIACS institute of Leiden University, we investigated whether machines can aid you distinguishing editorial content from advertorial content. It turns out that this is the case. Timo Kats reports on his investigation. Advertising is an important part of news in every medium. Whether you open up your morning paper or visit an online news site, it’s very probable that you see advertisements all over the place trying
A Central Human Condition – Elselijn Kingma
Dr Elselijn Kingma is an Associate Professor in Philosophy at the University of Southampton. Between completing her PhD in Cambridge in 2008 and joining Southampton in 2013, Elselijn held positions at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda (USA); King's College London, and Cambridge. Elselijn's has research interests in philosophy of medicine, philosophy of biology, metaphysics and applied ethics. From 2016 she is Principal Investigator on a five research concerning 'Better Understanding the Metaphysics of Pregnancy'. Elselijn also has a part-time appointment as Socrates Professor in Philosophy and Technology in the Humanist Tradition, at the University of Eindhoven (NL). Before studying Philosophy, Elselijn obtained undergraduate degrees in Clinical Medicine (2004) and Cognitive & Neuro Psychology (2004) at the University of Leiden, the Netherlands.
Future Based x Inverse Surveillance x Rudy van Belkom
Rudy van Belkom is a futures researcher at the Netherlands Study Centre for Technology Trends (STT). He recently published his book about ethics in the design process (‘AI no longer has a plug’) that offers developers, policymakers, philosophers and basically anyone with an interest in AI, tools for integrating ethics into the AI design process. The main question of his research is always: what future do we want? We need to ask ourselves what purpose we want to use technology for, rather than seeing it as purpose in itself. How can we use technology to create a better world? And what exactly is a better world? Currently Rudy is focusing on the impact of technology on the future of Democracy. In addition he developed an ethical design game for AI, inspired by the scrum process, that can be used to translate ethical issues into practice. The essence of the game is based on the position paper that he wrote together with the HU research group on AI and was accepted for ECAI 2020: ‘An Agile Framework for Trustworthy AI’. Van Belkom also investigated the role of AI in the future of his own field.
Events:
We are all time travellers. In each moment, we visit the next point in time. Triggered by scents, sounds and sensations, we travel to the past while we relive a memory. Science fiction includes many time traveling tales. For example, iconic novel Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut illustrates how our perception of time affects our experience
What do you think the end of the world would look like? Stories about the apocalypse and post-apocalyptic living have been popular across time and space, such as zombie novel World War Z by Max Brooks and Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, which involves a flu pandemic. We use it to escape reality,
Running projects:
A project on the extraordinary nature of the ordinary things around us.
Future Based Scientific Imagination is a new project of the Future Based platform, hosted and curated by Sabine Winters. The philosophical quest of this project is based on the wish to understand more about the role of imagination in our understanding of the world. Furthermore, the different perspectives on the function of imagination, represents a wider perspective on questions on human knowledge: how we obtain knowledge and which beliefs we hold about the methodologies in acquiring knowledge. Special contributors are among other professor Vincent Icke, Astropreneur Nancy Vermeulen and Cybrog anthropologist Marques D Anderson. Read more.
Witchcraft made Science – how witchcraft created modern science.
Guided and curated by Lieke Wouters, we’ll be discussing how the common stereotype of the witch, the old crone wearing a black pointy hat while riding on a broomstick with a black cat in tow, stands in the way of important herstories about women healers, midwives and other non-conforming women and the impact of witch-hunts from the 16th century onwards on the development of science. What can we learn from these anti-patriarchal re-tellings and how do they influence our view on gender diversity in science? Read more.
Creating Life – A three part essay on human beings – being human
In a series of three video essays created in collaboration with Marjolein Pijnappels, we explore how life is created and sustained on our planet. Taking a closer look at human birth, mycorrhiza connectivity, chimerism and the pan-microbiome from a philosophical and personal perspective, Marjolein wants to shed light on the different perspectives on the ability to bear life, on being alive, and on what defines being a human being in this particular aspect of life. The research will run from June through December 2021, begins with a personal examination and reflection on the three topics around the theme “Creating Life”: Life Cycle, Multitudes, Networked Beings. The final result, in collaboration with a filmmaker, will be cast in three short video essays that will be presented on our website, and during a meetup. Read more.
