As the world around us increases in technological complexity, our understanding of it diminishes. Underlying this trend is a single idea: the belief that our existence is understandable through computation, and more data is enough to help us build a better world. In reality, we are lost in a sea of information, increasingly divided by fundamentalism, simplistic narratives, conspiracy theories, and post-factual politics. Meanwhile, those in power use our lack of understanding to further their own interests. Despite the apparent accessibility of information, we’re living in a new Dark Age.”
~ James Bridle, The New Dark Age: Technology and the End of the Future
The Association for the Study of Literature and Environment will be hosting a panel at SLSA 2019. This ASLE panel will address the conference theme of “Experimental Engagements” by soliciting six, ten-minute papers on materialist critiques of technology and/as ecological critique. Papers on any aspect of this broad topic are welcome. Please send 300-word abstracts and one-page cvs by April 28, 2019 to Helena Feder, federh@ecu.edu .
Participants must be members of ASLE before November 7th.