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Another issue of "Technology and Language" has appeared, and with it a new call for contributions that appeals to philosophy, history of media and technology, theatre and film, disability and cultural studies, voice coaching and education, acoustics and sonification, musicology and anthropology..

https://soctech.spbstu.ru/en/issue/19/

www.philosophie.tu-darmstadt.de/T_and_L

The latest issue features 13 papers that explore the various dimensions of the hermeneutic approach to science and technology.  There has been increasing interest in this field, and so it is easy to forget that a hermeneutics of science or technology was never meant to be. The editorial formulates this „original antagonism“  and each of the 12 contributions seeks ways to overcome it.  The contributions include, on the one hand, considerations of science as a self-expressive human practice through taxonomies or metaphor. On the other hand, systematic distinctions are offered to better trace the symbolic dimensions in the perception of technical artefacts. The philosophical tradition has treated scientific explanation and humanistic understanding as two cultures. Here is a call to speak of explanation and understanding in science as well as technology.

There is a new CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS (deadline April 5, 2026: „Voice(s)“  – Pen and paper, printing press, typewriter and word processor are but some of the technologies of and for written language. But language is voiced in poetry and prose, in conversation and song, at the lectern and on stage, in cries of pain and moans of pleasure. To find and have a voice is fundamental to human existence, requiring technologies of the self but also coaching or speech-therapy. To have one‘s  voice heard is fundamental to human sociability, it is a matter not just of politics but also of megaphones and media platforms.  And yet the technologies of voice reach even more deeply into our daily lives.  1) Voices themselves are tunable instruments that can be used strategically. 2) Voices are subject to technical change not only in the age of AI when the human voice might be displaced. After the initial shock of the disembodied recorded voice, the question of voice becaime controversial when the era of silent movies (never quite) came to an end: Do mute people and things NOT have a voice as well?  3) Human and machinic voices serve as an interface to technology as we are interrogated by and speak to devices. There is, for example, the echo in its ancient and modern guise: Through sonifcation in science, technology, and art, we can interact with material constellations of otherwise inert things. Indeed, the birth of humanity itself has been associated with the evolutionary origins of voice production that gave rise to language and technology at once. — We invite scholars who seek to dialogue at the level of case-studies, grand narratives, or theory.  (Guest editors: Hardy Frehe, Anna Shcherbak, and María José Ríos)

Other open calls (shortened)

„The Language and Poetics of Machines“ (if interested, contact us asap): The intelligibility of mechanical processes lends a peculiar expressive power to the machine. This became explicit when engineering scientists articulated a compositional grammar of mechanical elements. To construct a machine became a way of expressing an idea and promoting cultural development, thus implicated in labor and gender relations and questions of power. We welcome papers from the point of view of philosophy, culural and literary studies, (art) history, or engineering - expanding the discussion to machine theories in western, islamic, and chinese contexts, moving also from mechanical to organic or cellular machinery and the mechanics of digital language processing. The poetics of machines in the works of Lars Gustafsson, Jean Tinguely, or Rube Goldberg might also be considered. — Selected texts from this special issue may be invited for subsequent inclusion in a special issue of the Chinese journal Academia Ethica. (guest editors: DENG Pan and Kevin Liggieri)

„Technology and Tragedy“ (Deadline: September 5, 2025) — Prometheus, Daedalus and Icarus, Faust and Frankenstein are tragic characters. In the Anthropocene and the age of climate change, many pin their hopes on new technologies – as they confront the tragic end of the modern technological world. There is the shipwreck of the Titanic, the fiery destruction of the Hindenburg airship, the Bridge of San Luis Rey - they are framed as „tragedies“ and thus they receive a narrrative form which is a social technology in itself. This form enables us to observe, derive meaning, and create sense of events. This offers a space for self-reflection: what narratives do we use, and how do they shape our understanding of technology? (guest editors: Anonymous and Oliver Schlaudt) For an extended version of the call, see https://soctech.spbstu.ru/en/news/

„Technological Modernization: Western and Non-Western Accounts (Deadline: January 5, 2026) — For a long time- it went without saying: Modernization is firmly a Western affair, if only because of its origins in modern science, capitalism, industrialization, and the formation of liberal societies. In the contemporary multi-polar world and an age of technoscience, this view has been challenged. China and Russia, India and Brazil have been exploring non-Western models of modernization. How credible are these attempts? We invite narratives and counter-narratives of technological modernization from history and philosophy of technology, political theory, cultural studies, global TA and comparative governance, environmental and sustainability research, as well as the microsociological study of technological development. (Guest editors: Carl Mitcham, YAN Ping, and YE Luyang)

Beyond these calls for special topics, submitted papers and interdisciplinary explorations at the interface of technology and language are always welcome. The next deadline for submitted papers in English or Russian is October 10, 2025.

“Technology and Language” is a quarterly journal: international, peer reviewed, Scopus listed, online, open access, academic (no fees). Queries, suggestions, and submissions can be addressed to soctech@spbstu.ru or to Daria Bylieva (bylieva_ds@spbstu.ru) and Alfred Nordmann (nordmann@phil.tu-darmstadt.de).

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