Visualising East Asia: Diasporas and (Post)digital Dialogues

Digitalisation is an important aspect of today's globalised world, enabling instant communication and access both to data and to individuals, including culture makers residing in different nations. While digital communication transcends the borders of East and West, so do people, as they physically travel and relocate to different regions .Such diasporas, like the Internet itself, are in some ways situated in more than one location at once, as they experience inbetweenness and necessary multi-national dialogues. This poses the question as to whether the omnipresence of digital technology to some extent annuls diasporic identity or, alternatively, whether - in the twenty first century - we are all in some ways diasporic. This panel addresses such questions and asks participants to explore the relationship between East Asian cultural diasporas and digital art.

Commentators - such as Ascott - suggest that we are living in a post-digital age. They suggest that the significance of digital technology is its capacity to improve or benefit the human function and experience; that to digitalise is to humanise. It can also be acknowledged or contested that the digital is now so intrinsic to our everyday existence, that it is no longer debatable as a post-modern phenomenon; we are beyond digitalisation and so we are post-digitalisation. If this is the case, then further questions need to be asked regarding how this affects contemporary artists who may be working outside of the digital medium itself, or who are living in Asian countries where Internet usage is limited or unsanctioned? Is it possible for diasporic artists in particular to ignore forms of digital art and communication, and to what degree does it impact upon their cultural existence?

Participants are encouraged to discuss specific artistic groups and individuals from East Asia who consider themselves to be diasporic and the ways in which the digital or post-digital globe works to enhance or alienate their everyday creative experiences.

This call for paper aims to form a panel for the International Convention of Asian Scholars. Macao: The East-West Crossroads, to be held on 24-27 June 2013 in Macao. http://www.icassecretariat.org/.

Please submit a maximum 250 words abstract with a maximum 200 words biography to the panel convenors, Dr Ming Turner (De Montfort University, mturnerdmu.ac.uk) and Dr Beccy Kennedy (Manchester Metropolitan University, b.m.kennedymmu.ac.uk) by 24th June 2012.