November 15, 2015: Deadline for submission of abstracts/proposals.
Mestizo Technology: Art, Design and Technoscience in Latin America

GUEST EDITORS
Paula Gaetano Adi, Rhode Island School of Design
Gustavo Crembil, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Pat Badani

DESCRIPTION
Using the term “Mestizaje” as a lens to understanding Latin American culture, this thematic Spring 2016 issue of Media-N seeks to explore how electronic technologies are used in art and design practices within the context of Latin America – a diverse cultural and geopolitical region that embraces countries that stretch from the southern border of the United States of America to the southernmost tip of South America, including the Caribbean.

“Mestizaje” is a Spanish term broadly used to denote the hybridization of identities in Latin America. As a theme, numerous cultural producers have addressed it in one form or another, due to the nature of colonization in Latin America and the extensive and sometimes forceful cultural mixing that ensued. Today, the term “Mestizaje” not only refers to a process manifested in the blending of multiple subjectivities that involve ancestry, race, and language, but also the recognition of the plurality of intercultural mixtures and modern forms of hybridization beyond identity politics to cultural forms of technological art and design.

With the above in mind, Mestizo Technology: Art, Design and Tecnoscience in Latin America seeks submissions that consider the dynamics of “Mestizaje” in art and design; essays and artworks that conceptualize the development of unique technological practices in Latin America.  Some of our questions are: How is technology embodied, transformed, assimilated and appropriated in Latin American art and design?  What are the characters that mark technoscience in Latin American art and design practices? What are the roles of Latin American traditions and scientific knowledge in the production of digital media art, and what are the influences of Western scientific rationale and technical expertise?  And, how is Latin American technology-based art influencing artistic production in the West?

Mestizo Technology: Art, Design, and Technoscience in Latin America will investigate how technology functions within the everyday contradictions of local and global political, economical, social, and cultural relations in Latin America. Moreover, we are interested in submissions that survey how influences have been appropriated and adapted to the particular needs, resources and interests of Latin American thinkers and makers who question hegemonic histories of power.

Hence, the call for submission addresses how Latin American artists, designers, architects, educators, museums, and other organizations are delineating an aesthetic that acknowledges Latin America’s place within a global modernity full of unexpected and involuntary encounters, dialogues, and confrontations. We seek contributions that examine the methodologies, theories, histories, and pedagogies that arise when producing, teaching and making technology-based art in the context of Latin America.  And, we welcome proposals that discuss original research and artworks from a broad range of technology-based areas that explore how these productions challenge the traditional dichotomies of craft/technology, western/indigenous, modern/traditional, global/local, developed/developing, big-science/small-science, high/low, and theory/practice.

Media-N is an English language journal, and all submissions must be received in English adhering to the standards set by the 16th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style.
(http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/)

Media-N, Journal of the New Media Caucus (ISSN: 1942-017X) is a scholarly, invitational, and double blind peer-reviewed journal. It is open to submissions in the form of theoretical papers, reports, and reviews on new media artworks. The journal provides a forum for national and international New Media Caucus members and non-members featuring their scholarly research, artworks and projects.

TIMELINE:
November 15, 2015: Deadline for submission of abstracts/proposals.
December 15, 2015: Notification of acceptance.
February 1, 2016: Deadline for submission of final papers.

ABSTRACT GUIDELINES:
Please send your submission proposal by email adhering to the following:
Proposal Title, and a 300-500 word Proposal Description. Include your Email(s), your Title(s)/Affiliation(s) (the institution/organization you work with ­ if applicable, or independent scholar/practitioner).
On a separate document, send a Resume (no longer than 3 pages).

NOTE: Materials should be submitted in English, as Microsoft Word documents (.doc or .docx).

SEND THE SUBMITION TO:
Email to: pgaetano@risd.edu – AND – crembg@rpi.edu
Subject line: Media-N Submission and you name(s)