ctrl+shift HUMAN | Culture Action Europe Conference, Romania

Code, algorithms and artificial intelligence complement the human condition, can solve problems, accelerate decision-making, and help complete complex tasks through self-learning processes. The framework in which these operate is often defined as a communication system that is universal, transparent, simple and accessible.
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However, algorithmic processes are inscribed in our infrastructures. And beyond the purely functional transmission and transformation of the data, they often work invisibly, shaping and influencing social, cultural, economical and political spheres and redefining our individual and common identities.
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This year’s Beyond the Obvious (BtO) Conference ctrl+shift HUMAN: Arts, Sciences and Technologies in Coded Societies will focus on that paradigm: between the fascination generated by the possibilities this hybrid and augmented condition brings, and the awareness of the new patterns that lead to redefinitions of creativity, disciplines, representation, globalization, production, labor… all within the framework of an increasing code dependence.
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BtO will also explore the environmental impacts of media content and data generation, storage and transfer. Algorithmic processes require ever-increasing infrastructures, supported by servers, putting pressure on available natural resources and on the environment where citizens and cultures develop.
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Approaching these issues recognizes the strategic importance of a wider outlook, beyond disciplinary silos, including arts, sciences, education and research. This provides enormous possibilities to cross knowledge and sectors. It includes discussions about policy intervention and funding – local, national and European –and about how to foster collaboration between different operators and institutions.

25-27 October, 2018.

More information here: cae-bto.org

ctrl+shift HUMAN | Culture Action Europe Conference, Romania