(In)Forming Coexistence: Existential Posthumanism, Ontological Design and Refashioning.

Università Iuav di Venezia
Global Posthuman Network
Scuola di Interazione Uomo-Animale (SIUA)
in collaboration with
Centro Studi Filosofia Postumanista, Posthuman Academy, and Rete Italiana Postumana

Third World Colloquium on Existential Posthumanism.

Contemporary social, ecological, technological, and existential crises compel a rethinking of what it means to exist, to coexist, and to take form in a posthuman world. Drawing on diverse strands of posthumanism, this CFP approaches existence not as an exclusively human condition but as a relational, distributed, and more-than-human process. The notion of (in)forming central for this conference, is understood simultaneously as giving form and to give information, being formed and informed, while remaining open to transformation. (In)forming thus offers a critical lens through which to interrogate posthuman modes of existence, processes of regeneration and refashioning, and ontological design, in the recognition that the worlds we design in turn design us.

Along this line, this CFP invites contributions that explore posthuman coexistence as an ongoing process of refashioning and regeneration of relations, bodies, environments, information, and ways of living, beyond human exceptionalism, anthropocentrism, and fixed ontologies. Rather than seeing form as closed or complete, (in)forming also emphasizes relations, process, adaptability, and the capacity for continual regeneration and refashioning - key topics within posthumanist thought. It highlights how nature and culture, material and meaning, human and nonhuman agencies are inseparable, and shows how our actions shape and reshape the worlds we inhabit alongside other beings and systems. From the perspective of ontological design, form is never neutral: infrastructures, images, garments, algorithms, habitats, and institutions configure possibilities of being and becoming for humans and more-than-humans alike. In this sense, (in)forming is not merely descriptive but performative and world-making: it actively participates in processes of regenerating and refashioning how life is lived, cared for, contested, and sustained, even under persistent conditions of conflict, extraction, and planetary disruption.

The CFP is particularly interested in practices of refashioning and regeneration: conceptual, material, aesthetic, artistic, technological, ecological, and ontological practices that re-envision and transform inherited forms of life, opening new possibilities for co-existence. We especially welcome contributions grounded in critical and affirmative posthumanism, as well as related approaches such as new materialism, that rethink agency, embodiment, temporality, and responsibility beyond the autonomous human subject. We invite engagements with ontological design as a way of understanding how designed artifacts, systems, and imaginaries structure subjectivities, ecologies, and forms of coexistence, and how they might be refashioned and regenerated otherwise. Such practices may include experimental modes of design; fashion as existential refashioning; artistic interventions that imagine regenerative ways of existing; technological assemblages oriented toward ontological regeneration; multispecies care practices; speculative imaginaries; or philosophical reconfigurations of how to inform, how to form, and how to be-with in more-than-human worlds. Here, refashioning and regeneration do not imply mastery or control, but rather a situated responsiveness to vulnerability, interdependence, and planetary entanglement.

Specific interest will be offered to the question of how practices of war can be transformed into practices of co-existence, in dialogue with the open workshop “The Dis/Ease of War” organized by the Global Posthuman Network, which explores the possibility of war as a collective dis/ease.

We invite scholars, artists, art historians, designers, scientists, journalists, and practitioners, among others, to consider questions such as:

- How can posthumanism reconceptualize coexistence beyond hierarchical or extractive models, toward regenerative relations grounded in interdependence, care, and ontological plurality? How might such thinking support practices of refashioning and regeneration?
- In what ways does (in)forming illuminate the mutual shaping of humans, non-humans and more-than-human, nature and culture, matter and meaning, across deep temporalities that include prehistoric forms of coexistence as well as contemporary assemblages? How might these temporalities be approached as processes of ongoing regeneration and refashioning, rather than linear progress or decline?
- How might design practices - encompassing material, product, fashion, visual and exhibition design, as well as experimental, discursive, responsible, and ontological approaches to design - participate in the ethical designing of existence in a more-than-human world, fostering regeneration and refashioning rather than optimization, extraction, or militarization of life?
- What forms of co-existence emerge through multispecies, technological and planetary entanglements when viewed through a posthumanist lens, and how might these forms be sustained through practices of regeneration?
- What might it mean, from a posthuman perspective, to approach war as a form of dis-ease - a condition of relational, ecological, informational, and ontological breakdown - and how could processes of regeneration and refashioning open pathways toward renewed coexistence?
- How do practices of refashioning and regeneration challenge dominant human-centered narratives of progress, autonomy, sustainability, or innovation?

Possible themes include, but are not limited to:
- Posthumanism (critical, cultural, decolonial, existential, philosophical, etc.), new materialism, affirmative ethics and regenerative relational ontologies
- From Prehistory, Paleolithic and Neolithic to Near and Far Futures: Deep Time, and more-than-human coexistence as processes of regeneration
- Nature–culture entanglements, multispecies relations, and practices of refashioning
- Design, technics, fashion, and existential performativity in posthuman and regenerative contexts
- Ecological aesthetics, speculative practices, and regenerative imaginaries
- Ethics of care, vulnerability, interdependence, and more-than-human responsibility
- Temporalities of becoming, decay, conflict, regeneration, refashioning, transformation, and ontological reconfiguration
- Technology–organic and AI assemblages, bio-digital ecologies, synthetic and artificial agencies, and posthuman technics—engaging contemporary developments in artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotics, bioengineering, synthetic biology, neural interfaces, and regenerative biotechnologies—as active participants in processes of ontological design, regeneration, and refashioning.

Modalities:
This event will be in person only. The language of shared communication will be English and Italian (with translations).
The sessions will be offered in four formats. Please specify in Your abstract whether You wish to participate:
(1) in a panel session (with the option of proposing a full panel with other 4 speakers);
(2) present a workshop, lab, or practical seminar;
(3) a poster;
(4) or contribute a performance
More information:
https://sites.google.com/view/third-existential-posthumanism/home

Please submit an abstract between 150 and 200 words, along with a brief biographical note and all other required information, by completing the form provided below:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfP4auE25JHMEvdGlpu1MHrkHWRh0Bl3iyct1eFt3YQ8kPD2g/viewform