Message posted on 22/03/2018
CfP: The Multifaceted Relationship between Fear and Technology
Call for Papers <br>The Multifaceted Relationship between Fear and Technology <br>Interdisciplinary Workshop, 1012 October 2018, Max Planck Institute (MPI) for <br>Human Development, Berlin <br> <br> <br>Alexander Gall (Deutsches Museum, Munich), Martina Heler <br>(Helmut-Schmidt-Universitt, Hamburg), Bettina Hitzer (MPI for Human <br>Development, Berlin), Karena Kalmbach (TU Eindhoven), Anne Schmidt (MPI for <br>Human Development, Berlin), Andreas Spahn (TU Eindhoven) <br> <br> <br>The aim of the workshop is to hash out various interdisciplinary approaches to <br>conceptualizing the relationship between technology and fear. Computer games <br>provide an example that illustrates well how complex and multifaceted this <br>relationship can be: <br>According to a Bitkom survey conducted in 2017, 43 percent of Germans over the <br>age of 14 regularly play computer games. Every year, more and more visitors <br>attend the Berlin Radio Show (Internationale Funkausstellung Berlin/IFA). And <br>every year, people spend millions of euros on video games and other forms of <br>electronic entertainment. These findings are just some of the many indices of <br>the widespread fascination with technology. But outside the technology pages <br>of the papers and the internet, discussions about computer games often <br>foreground a feeling markedly different from fascination, namely, fear. Some <br>of the fears discussed are familiar, recalling the sorts of fears that <br>cultural critics of the past summoned up to resist the arrival of new media. <br>However, the example of computer games does more than give occasion to think <br>about continuities; it also demonstrates that the relationship between <br>technology and fear is complex and multifaceted. <br>Every time a young person commits a mass shooting, politicians, teachers, <br>psychologists and journalists debate about whether regularly playing <br>first-person shooter games had a part in it. More generally, fears that such <br>games spark or strengthen a tendency to violence are commonly voiced. On a <br>different level, many parents fear that the daily consumption of computer <br>games might hinder their childs cognitive and emotional development. Or is <br>the real danger an addiction to gaming, as some members of the American <br>Psychiatric Association proposed in 2017 when they formulated the new <br>diagnosis Internet Gaming Disorder? In other spheres of society, experts and <br>laypeople alike subscribe to the notion that computer games harbor the danger <br>of a substance-independent dependency. Around the world, clinics and <br>self-help groups are being set up to help heal the addicted. Gamers themselves <br>present us with yet another form of fear, in the sense that many of them enjoy <br>games built on an intense experience of fear, such as horror games like the <br>popular Outlast. What is so attractive about this kind of play-fear? Is it a <br>source of pleasure? Or can gaming be used as a kind of medicine to put a <br>damper on everyday fears? For years, psychologists, neurologists and doctors <br>have been grappling with the possible therapeutic dimensions of artificially <br>invoking fear in playful settings. Computer games designed for this purpose <br>are supposed to help people control their physiological reactions of fear in <br>certain situations or overcome real phobias through playing in virtual worlds. <br>There is even a special genre of cancer-killer shooters intended to help <br>people sublimate fears of illness into positive forms of resistance. For those <br>afraid of losing their mental sharpness, there are computer games for mental <br>jogging designed to hem cognitive aging. <br>The example of computer games makes clear how fear can be tied up with <br>technology in manifold, often contradictory ways. Fear can be a reaction to <br>the proliferation and use of certain technologies and the consequences of such <br>use; indeed, it is this kind of fear of technology that has dominated extant <br>research on the subject. In most research, fear is treated in relation or <br>opposition to other emotions, such as hope, fascination, pleasure, concern, <br>and the search for security. But feelings of fear can also be inextricably <br>bound up with the use of technology, and can even be desired and sought out. <br>These facts toss up a number of questions that have until now received little <br>attention from researchers, such as: What role does knowledge about fear, its <br>physiology and its functioning play in the development of certain <br>technologies? How does marketing research evaluate and measure the need for <br>fear and the fear of fear? Finally, how have specific understandings of what <br>fear is shaped the development of certain technologies, making them into <br>emotional things whose materiality alters or produces experiences of and <br>approaches to fear? Can game designers deliberately calculate the addictive <br>potential of games? And if so, is it because they have precise knowledge about <br>the fears of consumers? How can the degree to which technologically produced <br>immersive experiences are convincing enough to be held as real be determined, <br>explained, and studied? And to what extent has the gaming industry taken on a <br>leading role in other branches? What role does the exchange of knowledge <br>between various industries and fields of research play, and what effects do <br>these exchanges have? How do marketing and the media use and produce fear when <br>trying to pave the way for the implementation of certain forms of technology? <br>Does the fear of technology adhere to a similar logic in the fields of <br>commercial production, private consumption and politics, or does it take on <br>different patterns in different fields? What role do gender, age, social <br>background, ethnicity, and other social categories play in the development, <br>production, marketing, circulation and consumption of technologies associated <br>with fear? <br>The workshop will address these questions from historical, philosophical, <br>sociological and anthropological perspectives. In doing so, it will contribute <br>to our understanding of the relation between technology and fear in the <br>twentieth and twenty-first century, which has until now received little <br>attention from academic research. The aim of the workshop is to hash out <br>various interdisciplinary approaches to conceptualizing the relationship <br>between technology and fear. It will provide an occasion for exchange and <br>bring together scholars interested in conducting further research on the <br>topic. The workshop is open for contributions from virtually all fields. In <br>particular, however, the organizers would like to attract contributions on the <br>following subjects: <br>- Technologies of communication and entertainment <br>- Security technologies <br>- Infrastructures <br>- Technologies in medicine, care and therapy <br>- Processes of digitalization and automation <br>In order to give maximum time to interdisciplinary discussion, we ask <br>contributors to keep their talks to no more than 15 minutes. This will provide <br>opportunity for participants from other disciplines to comment on <br>contributions. Accordingly, each participant will be asked to provide an oral <br>comment on another contribution. <br> <br>Travel and accommodation costs will be covered by the Max Planck Institute for <br>Human Development. There is no registration fee. <br> <br>If you are interested in participating, please send an application to <br>cfp-emotions@mpib-berlin.mpg.de by 30 April 2018 and attach a single word-file <br>containing a short CV and a paper-proposal of not more than 700 words. All <br>applicants will be informed regarding acceptance of their proposals by 15 June <br>2018. <br> <br>Kontakt <br> <br>Bettina Hitzer <br> <br>Lentzeallee 94 <br>14195 Berlin <br> <br>cfp-emotions@mpib-berlin.mpg.de <br>_______________________________________________ <br>EASST's Eurograd mailing list <br>Eurograd (at) lists.easst.net <br>Unsubscribe or edit subscription options: http://lists.easst.net/listinfo.cgi/eurograd-easst.net <br> <br>Meet us via https://twitter.com/STSeasst <br> <br>Report abuses of this list to Eurograd-owner@lists.easst.netview formatted text
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