Berlin-based experimental music and art platform Creamcake is pleased to announce the 2nd « <Interrupted = “Cyfem and Queer>” symposium, exploring the theoretical, artistic, and political histories of our current bio-colonial-techno capitalist reality on April 13 at Südblock & aquarium, Berlin.

Happening at Berlin’s Südblock and aquarium, the experimental symposium is a day and night-long series that includes conversations, brainstorming sessions, panels, lectures and performances dedicated to broadening the discourse around digital space. Last year’s inaugural assembly critically engaged with the foundations of cyber- and technofeminist thought. This year, the event will examine the biotechnological and political management of identity, sex, and gender online, along with questions of agency, body politics, and the subversive appropriation of technologies. Advanced technocapitalism, accelerating global media and digital culture determine the organization of life as we know it.

The 2nd “<Interrupted = “Cyfem and Queer>” examines our understanding of what it means to inhabit a (sexed, gendered, raced, aging, cyborgian) body, which has changed drastically with the dawn of the 20th century. The invention of plastics, the contraceptive pill, synthetic hormones, body modifying surgeries and modes of technological embodiment, as well as changing practices and knowledge in psychology, sexology, endocrinology have led us to a networked age. It’s one in which we can imagine the self in myriad new ways. With that in mind, we ask the following questions:

• What are the numerous histories of sexuality, body politics, and biomedicalization?
• With the production of biovalue in the bioeconomy, which parts of our bodies are being commodified, and for whom?
• How do artists navigate identity politics and generate resistance through their music and art?
• How can creative engagement initiate self-empowering action?

The 2nd « <Interrupted = “Cyfem and Queer>” symposium event is a day and night-long series of conversations, brainstorming sessions, panels, lectures and performances dedicated to broadening the discourse around (embodied) technologies, digital space, and cyborgian experience. A place for reflection and action at the intersection of technology, the internet, gender and sexuality, the event aims to formulate strategies for queering the blurred line between science, music and art. Discussion will focus on trans- and interdisciplinary approaches to feminist ideas and concepts, and developing reading, writing, thinking, performing and sounding practices, as well as other political work, in order to analyze contemporary thought on nature/culture and technology.

Curated by Daniela Seitz and Anja Weigl of Creamcake and Gala Rexer, the second « <Interrupted = “Cyfem and Queer>” conference gives its digital queer community the space it needs to share a much-needed voice.

Open call: http://interrupted.creamcake.de/

Application Deadline: March 1st, 2019

Calling all artists, writers, activists, coders, thinkers, and scholars. Applications are open for participation in the 2nd « <Interrupted = “Cyfem and Queer>” symposium, exploring the theoretical, artistic, and political histories of our current bio-colonial-techno capitalist reality. Curated by Daniela Seitz and Anja Weigl of Creamcake and Gala Rexer, the event will take place at Berlin venues Südblock and aquarium on April 13, and follows 2018’s inaugural assembly that critically engaged with the foundations of cyber- and technofeminist thought. This year, we examine the biotechnological and political management of bodies, sex, and gender in the digital world — pleasure, pain and identity — along with questions of agency, body politics, and the subversive appropriation of technologies.

Advanced technocapitalism, accelerating global media and digital culture determine the  organization of life in a number of new ways. Our understanding of what it means to inhabit a (sexed, gendered, raced, aging, cyborgian) body has changed drastically since the dawn of the 20th century. The invention of plastics, the contraceptive pill, synthetic hormones, body modifying surgeries and modes of technological embodiment, as well as changing practices and knowledge in psychology, sexology, endocrinology have led us to a networked age. It’s one in which we can imagine the self in myriad new ways.

The 2nd « <Interrupted = “Cyfem and Queer>” symposium event is a day and night-long series of conversations, brainstorming sessions, panels, lectures and performances dedicated to broadening the discourse around (embodied) technologies, digital space, and cyborgian experience. A place for reflection and action at the intersection of technology, the internet, gender and sexuality, the event aims to formulate strategies for queering the blurred line between science, music and art. Discussion will focus on a trans- and interdisciplinary approaches to feminist ideas and concepts, and developing reading, writing, thinking, performing and sounding practices, as well as other political work, in order to analyze contemporary thought on nature/culture and technology.

We are seeking academic papers and practice-based reflections; presentations, panel and workshop ideas; art and music performance contributions related but not limited to the following:

• The myriad histories of sexuality, body politics, and biomedicalization
• Producing (counter-)knowledge within the realms of medicine, biology, and technology
• The production of biovalue in the bioeconomy: Which parts of our bodies (e.g. egg cells, sperm, embryos, wombs, organs) are being commodified, and for whom?
• Assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) that are changing the ways we perceive biological and social reproduction: How do the legal, economic and political aspects of assisted reproduction enable or impede reproductive justice?
• Imagining new reproductive futurities: queering and decolonizing kinship and descent
• The Quantified self: the opportunities and obstacles of data acquisition and self-tracking in our daily lives
• Body politics and the tensions of self-determination versus control under the white, heteronormative and neoliberal conditions of self-optimization
• Pleasure, desire and identity, and how they are (de)constructed, contested and practiced online and offline
• Queer and feminist self help strategies and practices, like DIY gynecology or biohacking

How to apply via form:

• Summarize your practice (200 words max. in English or German)
• What do you wish to explore during the 2nd « <Interrupted = “Cyfem and Queer>”? (200 words max. in English or German)
• What tools or support do you need to present your work?
• Provide us with a short bio (required) and supporting documentation (optional) of your work (200 words max. in English or German)
• Tell us your contact details, location and gender pronouns

We encourage women, queer, trans and gender non-conforming people, black people, and people of color to apply. We welcome applications from emerging artists and researchers.

Accepted applicants will be invited to present their project or research on April 13 at Südblock and aquarium in Berlin. We will endeavour to cover food and accommodation as much as possible and will contribute with a budget to your travel expenses. Resources for travel are limited but we are also open to connecting online.

If you have any questions, please contact: interrupted@creamcake.de.

Accepted applicants will be invited to present their project or research on April 13 at Südblock and aquarium in Berlin.

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Creamcake is an open and queer platform dedicated to exploring the impact of the Internet on music at the intersection of music, art and technology. Founded by Daniela Seitz and Anja Weigl in 2011, together they initiate and organize digital projects, lectures and workshops, performances, exhibitions and festivals, including 3hd, インフラ INFRA, NextGen, Europool and « <Interrupted = “Cyfem and Queer>”. These question prevalent patterns of thought and behaviour, create new space for action and reflection, and approach digital change with a fundamental openness and flexibility. Cooperating with a number of institutions, Creamcake is as an open and queer series, presenting visionary, nonconformist, and experimental sounds, while actively encouraging women and people of all genders to work together on an equal basis.

Gala Rexer is a feminist researcher, PhD candidate in sociology and freelance journalist. Since 2016 she is research associate and project coordinator for a research project entitled “Contesting Authorities over Body Politics: The Religious/Secular Tension in Germany, Israel, and Turkey” (Humboldt University of Berlin/Tel Aviv University). Rexer studied social sciences at Humboldt University of Berlin and Middle Eastern studies at Tel Aviv University. Her research interests lie in the field of postcolonial and (techno)feminist theory, biopolitics, reproductive technologies, sociology of the body, and (post)secularism. In her PhD project, she is working on the biopolitical function of reproductive technologies (such as IVF or surrogacy) and reproductive justice in Germany, the UK and Israel/Palestine.

The « <Interrupted = “Cyfem and Queer>” project is made possible with the support of the Senate Department for Culture and Europe.

interrupted.creamcake.de