[Air-L] CALL FOR PAPERS Digital Animals: Inhabiting the Intersections of Nature, Culture, and Technology

[Phil Bratta]

CALL FOR PAPERS

Digital Animals: Inhabiting the Intersections of Nature, Culture, and
Technology

TRACE (http://trace.english.ufl.edu/) publishes online peer-reviewed
collections in ecology, posthumanism, and media studies. Providing an
interdisciplinary forum for scholars, we focus on the ethical and material
impact of technology. We welcome submissions in a variety of media that
engage cultures, theories, and environments to “trace” the connections
across and within various ecologies.

The first issue of TRACE explores current conversations at the intersection
of animal studies and digital media studies. Animal studies scholars argue
that animals influence the ways we engage with philosophy, critical theory,
literature, and filmic technologies. Moreover, posthumanist theorists, such
as Cary Wolfe and Donna Haraway, challenge how humans relate to
animals--decentering humans as the reference for understanding
relationships between nature and technology. TRACE’s Digital Animals:
Inhabiting the Intersections of Nature, Culture, and Technology extends
conversations by examining the role of digital media in animal lives and
representations.

Building on recent conversation in Antennae’s “Virtual Animals” and similar
publications, TRACE questions how digital technology augments human-animal
interactions and reimagines alterity, agency, affect, identity, embodiment,
and experience. Animals influence digital media by challenging
anthroponormative approaches to technology use and design. From drone
surveillance systems shaped like sharks to ipad apps for cats - animals
drive innovations in digital technology. This issue invites scholars to
explore the shared ecology of animals and technology.

Contributions should make evident how cultures conceptualize nonhuman
species, as well as illustrate how digital media can either reify or
challenge established perceptions.

Topics for papers may include:
· Representations of animals in games, social media, apps, hypertexts,
internet memes, etc.
· Digital media designed for nonhuman animals
· Digital imaging, modeling, motion capture, or 3D printing of or related
to animals
· Artificial intelligence
· Animal robotics and prostheses
· Microchipping, tagging, and other mechanisms of digital tracking
· The roles of digital media in animal rights advocacy or ethics
· Posthumanism and systems theory

Completed articles will be peer-reviewed and should be between 3000-6000
words in length. Multimedia submissions are accepted. If you are interested
in contributing to the TRACE Innovation Initiative’s Fall 2015 issue,
please send a 500 word abstract to mbianchi at ufl.edu by June 1, 2015.



-- 
Ph.D Student
Department of Writing, Rhetoric, & American Cultures
Michigan State University
300 Bessey Hall
East Lansing, MI 48824
philbratta at gmail.com
http://www.philbratta.com/