Everything is a matter of distance
a DARC/transmediale research workshop
A Peer-Reviewed Newspaper, vol. 14, no. 1 (2025) - PDF
A Peer-Reviewed Newspaper, vol. 14, no. 1 (2025) - PDF
Introduction
We are looking forward to the research workshop "Everything is a matter of distance", organised by Digital Aesthetics Research Center at Aarhus University, in collaboration with transmediale festival for digital art & culture, Berlin.
Resonating closely with transmediale 2025 theme (near) near but — far that focuses on "how algorithms place us in weird proximities and new intimacies with one another and the qualities of closeness we lose by way of their machine-driven actions." Our workshop on ”everything is a matter of distance" engages with historical and contemporary tropes of distance as they pertain to digital culture, while collectively developing a sense of what methods, which critical tools, and what kind of conceptual traditions help to reframe the nuances in proximity and distance.
The workshop features projects that discuss questions of distance and/or proximity, and how they relate to how we consume – and are consumed by – platforms, interfaces, and late-capitalist politics. Participants engage with these questions and offer feedback to each other in the days before the workshop. We turn to writers such as Johanna Drucker (2018), who argues for a designed dynamics of cognitive resonance that produces a feeling of "within-ness and "among-ness" and Olga Goriunova (2019) to help in this task while aiming to discover our own route through data and software culture.The workshop reflects on how distance can be mobilised as a resource as well, including how “digital subjects also offer sites of reinvention, liberation, and play” when practicing research and developing ways we get to know/sense/feel things.
The workshop takes place on 29-31 January which includes contribution to the panel during transmediale festival on the 31st January.
See original call for participation on the transmediale website here.
Timeline
10 jan: upload texts to the wiki 10 jan - 25 jan: commenting on each other 29 jan: introduction, presentations & feedback + McLuhan lecture 19.00 30 jan: re-writing and preparing presentations, preparing format for proceedings 31 jan: panel at transmediale
Schedule
commons pad: https://ctp.cc.au.dk/pad/p/EDM_25
29 jan - intro, presentations, feedback
Location: Betonhalle, silent green <-- be aware this is not at HKW!
Introductions
09.30 - 09.45 slow arrival (less but some distance)
09.45 - 10.00 Intro // Of the event and its aims + roles
Presentations (3 people panel 10 mins each + 20 mins collective feedback)
10.00 - 10.50 PANEL 1: Daria Iuriichuk, Christoffer Koch Andersen, , Maya Erin Masuda [moderated by Magda]
11.00 - 11.50 PANEL 2: Sami Itavuori, Paul V. Schmidt, Ruben van de Ven [moderated by Pablo]
12.00 - 13.30 [Lunch break]
13.30 - 14.20 PANEL 3: Matīss Groskaufmanis, Kola Heyward-Rotimi, Maja Funke [moderated by Jussi]
14.30 - 15.20 PANEL 4: Megan Phipps, Katya Sivers, Nico Daleman [moderated by Søren]
15.30 - 16.00 Distance/Proximity session 1: collective dialogue on TM presentation
16.00 - 17.30 Re-writing space
19.00 McLuhan lecture (Canadian Embassy) OR Steffen Köhn & Nestor Siré: Handmade Networks Book presentation (Panke Gallery)
30 jan - re-writing, preparing format for proceedings, talking
Location: Betonhalle, silent green
10.00 - 10.50 Distance/Proximity session 2: collective dialogue on the form of the proceedings
11.00 - 11.50 Re-writing space (deadline for final 500 word version)
12.00 - 12.30 Distance/Proximity session 3: round up of writing. / status meeting
12.30 - 13.30 [Lunch break]
13.30 - 16.00 Distance/Proximity session 4: Preparation of TM presentation
16.00 - 16.30 Round-up
31 jan - presentation at Transmediale
Location: HKW / Angie Stardust Foyer
We meet at 10.00. All presentations uploaded here as powerpoint files: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/13x2ZSF3H2PxjS0QJS8HkN2Qk98WEdBPh?usp=sharing - name it "Panel#_name1_name2_name3"
11.00 - 12.30 - TM presentation
11.00: Introduction
11.10 - 11.25 PANEL 1: Daria Iuriichuk, Christoffer Koch Andersen, , Maya Erin Masuda [moderated by Magda]
11.25 - 11.40 PANEL 2: Sami Itavuori, Paul V. Schmidt, Ruben van de Ven [moderated by Pablo]
11.40 - 11.55 PANEL 3: Matīss Groskaufmanis, Kola Heyward-Rotimi, Maja Funke [moderated by Jussi]
11.55 - 12.10 PANEL 4: Megan Phipps, Katya Sivers, Nico Daleman [moderated by Søren]
12.10-12.30 Q&A
Create an account in this wiki (closed)
- Go to the Log in page and click on the "Join CTPwiki"
- Remember to take a note of your username and password, when you create an account.
- Once you are logged in, you can #Create a page for the EMD wiki
We will use the Semi library. This is another services hosted by our ctp-server, which hosts literature and allows for communal note-taking.
To access the library:
- Go to https://ctp.cc.au.dk/semi click on guest (upper-right corner) and log-in (you will receive this credentials in our online meeting or through an email).
- Once logged in: on the left column, under "SHELVES", click on "EMD transmediale 25"
- Select a book and click on the "spawn pad" button.
(note that you have to be logged in into the library to see the shelf, files, and associated etherpads)
If you want to add a text to the shared library, please send it to Pablo or Christian.
Create a page for the EMD wiki
When creating a page, please follow the format:
Name - Title (e.g. Pablo - A very insightful paper title)
Make sure that you do not delete the line: [[Category:emd]] at the bottom of the page.
Contributions
REQUEST: Make sure the title of your contribution is formatted as a Header 2 and author name in bold (use "edit source", not the visual editor). Example:
<div class="metadata"> ==title== '''author name''' </div>
REQUEST: Insert referenes 'wiki-style' Example: 1) open your document/text and click "edit source" 2) Insert your references in the text with [1] example The Uruguayan poet Cristina Peri Rossi painfully states that, in love as in boxing, everything is a matter of distance.[2] The elliptic, gelatinous 3) At the bottom of the text (where the references go) insert
