Abstract deadline: February 1, 2015

The idea of a society, in which everyday smart objects are equipped with digital logic and sensor technologies, is currently taking shape. Devices connected as learning machines to the ‘Internet of Things’ necessitate further research on issues related to digital media and their materiality. In this context, media, culture and social theories, dealing with the materiality of digital technology, have gained increasing relevance.

Investigations of digital material have given rise to a wide range of (new) research questions, approaches, and issues. From the early 2000s onwards, we can identify two major strands of research that developed: (1) from the technological and material conditions of hardware and software towards (2) the social/political/economic/legal infrastructures and power relations of proprietary networks and platforms. The eventual establishment of research fields such as software studies, critical code studies, media archaeology and the notion of the post-digital − represented by scholars such as David Berry, Wendy Chun, Alexander Galloway, Mark Hansen, Katherine Hayles, Friedrich Kittler, Lev Manovich, William Mitchell, Anna Munster, Adrian Mackenzie, Jussi Parikka, Eugene Thacker, and others, − can also be understood as indicators of an institutionalisation of ‘media-materialistic’ research.

For the first issue “Digital Material/ism”, the newly founded Digital Culture & Society journal calls for further methodological and theoretical reflection on issues of digital materiality and digital materialism.

Approaches may be rooted in (digital) media and cultural studies, as well as social sciences. Interdisciplinary contributions, for example, those from science and technology studies, are likewise welcome.

Paper proposals may relate to, but are not limited to, the following topics:

• the internet of things, smart objects and ambient intelligence
• augmented environments
• wearables (and augmented reality)
• hardware studies and Open Hardware
• hacker, Maker and DIY Culture
• post-digital media research
• media ecologies and e-waste
• agency of assemblages

For more information about potential paper topics and questions to address in your proposals, visit the full posting here.

Deadlines and contact information:

Initial abstracts (max. 300 words) and a short biographical note (max. 100 words) are due on: February 1, 2015
Authors will be notified by February 16, 2015, whether they are invited to submit a full paper.
Full papers are due on: May 1, 2015

Please send the abstracts and full papers to:
Ramón Reichert – ramon.reichert@univie.ac.at
Annika Richterich − a.richterich@maastrichtuniversity.nl

Further information on the Digital Culture & Society journal and the current call for papers can be found here.