The 7th International Conference on the Histories of Media Art, Science and Technology titled RE:TRACE focuses on an evaluation of the status of the meta-discipline MediaArtHistories today.

More than a decade after the first conference founded the field now recognized worldwide as a significant historical inquiry at the intersection of art, science, and technology, Media Art Histories is now firmly established as a dynamic area of study guided by changing media and research priorities, drawing a growing community of scholars, artists and artist-researchers.

Immersed in both contemporary and historiographical aspects of the digital world, we explore the most immediate socio-cultural questions of our time: from body futures, information society, and media (r)evolutions, to environmental interference, financial virtualization, and surveillance. And we do so through a fractal lens of inter- and trans-disciplinarity, bridging art history, media studies, neuroscience, psychology, sociology, and beyond. MediaArtHistories is a field whose theory, methods, and objects of study interweave with and overlay other disciplines.

The organizing committee invites researchers of different areas, disciplines and practices to submit individual papers, posters and full panels with new and original research preferably in the following

themes:

• MediaArtHistories – historiographies and futures of an ever-emerging field • Institutional histories of Media Art • Media Art & Politics (surveillance, climate, visualizations, etc.) • Collecting media art / Media Art market • Archiving, preserving and representing Media Art • Re-Use of cultural heritage data, including education, learning and research • Methodologies and research tools for MediaArtHistories with a focus on Digital Humanities • International and local histories and practices of media art • (Post-)Colonial experiences and non-Western histories of media art, science and technology • Paradigm shift – Digital vs. Post-Digital Theory • Alternative histories for Media Art in relation to newly evolving or unexpected fields.

• Models and perspectives of research fields adapted across traditional disciplinary lines.

• New symbolic architecture of digital super companies (Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, FB, Google)

The conference program will include competitively selected, peer-reviewed individual papers, panel presentations and posters, as well as a small number of invited speakers. Presentations will be delivered in a range of formats, from panel discussions to a poster session. We particularly encourage submissions by researchers from international contexts outside of Europe and North America.

Keynote lectures by internationally renowned, outstanding leaders in the field, will deliberate on the central themes of the conference series, its histories and futures.

Initiated by the Media Art Histories Board (Steering Committee):

Prof. Dr. Sean CUBITT (Deputy Head of Department & PhD Tutor / Media and Communications / Goldsmiths University of London / UK); Univ.-Prof.

Dr. habil. Dr.h.c. Oliver GRAU, MAE (Head of Dept & Chair Professor in Image Science / Danube University / AT); Dr. Linda Dalrymple HENDERSON (David Bruton, Jr. Centennial Professor in Art History / History / University of Texas at Austin / US); Dr. Andreas BROECKMANN (Leuphana Arts Program, Leuphana University of Lüneburg, GER); Prof. Dr. Erkki HUHTAMO (Departments of Design Media Arts, and Film, Television, and Digital Media / University of California Los Angeles / US); Prof. Dr.

Douglas KAHN (Professor of Media and Innovation / National Institute of Experimental Arts (NIEA) / University of New South Wales, Sydney / AU); Prof. Dr. Machiko KUSAHARA (School of Letters, Arts and Sciences / Waseda University / Tokyo, Japan); Prof. Dr. Tim LENOIR (Kimberly J.

Jenkins Chair for New Technologies in Society / Duke University / US); Prof. Dr. Gunalan NADARAJAN (Dean / Stamps School of Art & Design / University of Michigan / US); Prof. Dr. Paul THOMAS (Director / Fine Arts at College of Fine Art / University of New South Wales /AU)

MAH Honorary Board: Martin KEMP, Jasia REICHARDT, Itsuo SAKANE, Peter WEIBEL, Douglas DAVIS †, Rudolf ARNHEIM †

Venues: Danube University / Located 70km from Vienna in the UNESCO World Heritage Wachau region, Danube University is the only public university in Europe specializing in advanced continuing education by offering low-residency degree programs for working professionals and life-long learners. Located at both a modern university campus and in the Göttweig Monastery, the Dept. for Image Science is an internationally unique institution for research and innovative teaching with an international faculty, at this point 120 scholars from various nations and disciplines. The innovative approach of the Department for Image Science with the close connection to practice has developed the Archive of Digital Art and founded in 2006 the low-residency MediaArtHistories-Advanced, MA answering the need for international, post-graduate studies.

Vienna / The vibrant capital of the Republic of Austria in Central Europe meeting international travel standards with safe and exciting surroundings that embrace culture both old and new. Planning for Vienna is being organized with partner institutions and colleagues. Fast and frequent public transportation between Vienna and Krems allows for a blending of two locations into one venue, distributing separate days in each venue.

Supported by Academia Europaea

Links:

MediaArtHistories-Advanced, MA – www.mediacultures.net/mah

Archive of Digital Art – www.digitalartarchive.at