Machines Will Watch Us Die

The symposium draws on and accompanies "machines will watch us die" (9 April-11May 2018, The Holden Gallery, Manchester), an exhibition that explores how the idea of digital decay can be rethought following the material turn in media studies. Following the adoption of media archaeology as the conceptual framework for the show, this 1-day event looks at notions of digital materiality and temporality in relation to art, curatorial practice and media history.

The symposium aims to contextualize the exhibition in a variety of fields – curating, media theory, art practice, and art history – and gain a better understanding of how material processes of digital materiality, such as digital decay, have been explored. Taking curatorial methodologies, media studies and creative practice as starting points, the symposium aims at merging theoretical and practice-led perspectives on digital decay, digital materiality, deep time, agency, obsolescence and history of media.

The symposium is organized in collaboration with The Holden Gallery and Manchester Metropolitan University.

Confirmed Keynote:
Dr Michael N. Goddard is Reader in Film, Television and Moving Image in the School of Media, Arts and Design at the University of Westminster. He has published widely on Polish and international cinema and audiovisual culture as well as cultural and media theory.


We welcome abstracts (up to 250 words + 50-word bio) for 20-minute presentations (papers, visual essays, artwork and exhibition analysis, films, etc.).

Topics include but are not limited to:

- Curatorial strategies for digital art critically concerned with digital materiality and temporality;
- Innovative definitions of digital materiality within art practice;
- Post-medium approaches to digital materiality;
- Digital decay: the material and the immaterial;
- Curatorial responses to Media Archaeology;
- Digital materiality and agency in art practice;
- Alternative curatorial strategies for new media art based on materiality rather than immaterial behaviours (interactivity, computability and connectivity)
- Notions of agency and the curatorial;
- Memory and digital materiality;
- Digital decay and the Anthropocene: e-waste, obsolescence; natural resources exploitation and geo-political issues;
- Deep time as timescale of digital art;
- The artwork as time machine (Erkki Huhtamo, 1995) as a curatorial approach that addresses the variety of temporalities (deep time, real time, immediacy, delay, etc.) embedded in digital materials

Deadline to submit a 250-words ABSTRACT: 9 APRIL
We will let successful applicants know by the 12 APRIL
Confirmation of attendance and registration: 19 APRIL

For Info: machineswillwatchusdiegmail.com