
Track 01
Arab revolutions:
Refugees, Communication technology, Mobile connectivity.
Track chair Hassan Choubassi (International University of Beirut), Joe Elias (International University of Beirut)
The implication of media augmentation within the context of the Arab revolutions, how the image of media augmentation continues to amass the dreads and worries of the modernist when concerned with industrial technologies of production? It exemplifies yet another burden on the masses in the economy, consumption, and psychological manipulation, in dumbing down and in political oppression, until its explosion physically and violently in the Arab world in what is called the “Arab Spring”.
Papers under this topic would deal with the explosion of the Arab revolutions, the situation of the Arab masses before and after digital media and new technology mechanisms, the situation of refugees in the host countries of the surrounding areas. How they lived a status of oppression and frustration under harsh political oppression of dictatorships and how this situation rendered the virtual realm of the new media of social networks a fertile ground of freedom that was not possible in the actual. The virtual was an incubation period of freedom of speech and an implosion of desires until people found a way out with the advent of the new technology of smartphones, it was possible for them to maintain the link of virtual connection but at the same time they were free to move around in actual reality, this is the explosion of the political in the street.
Media augmentation contributed in the act of revolution when it allowed for connectivity among activist while they are mobile in the street demonstrating and it served as the sole reporter of the event directly and continuously from the hot spots of action. This revolution is the explosion of the political in the street of the actual after being trapped in the realm of virtuality for so many years.
POM Beirut Tracks
(based on the call for topics)
Based on the first call for topics, the call is now open for individual submissions within the following tracks:
01.Track: Arab revolutions: Refugees, Communication technology, Mobile connectivity.
02.Track: Terrorism machines: Art production, Sociopolitical implications.
03.Track: Fourth Industrial Revolution (IR 4.0): Art, Cyberphysics, Automated creativity.
04.Track: The Battlefield of Vision: Perceptions of War and Wars on Perception.
05.Track: Internet of things: Dystopian Artificial Intelligence, Black Boxes.
06.Track: Living machines: Wars within living organisms.
07.Track: Artificial intelligence for art AIA: Computational creativity, Neural networks, Simulating human activity.
08.Track: Permanent Telesurveillance: Privacy, data protection, panopticon.
09.Track: The Politics of Evidence: Refugees, Frictions, Sound-representation.
10.Track: Body-politics of the machines: Troubles WITH/IN/OUT art, body, perception, politics, and technology.
11.Track: The Ecosystem Analogy: Machinery of Nature, Borrowed landscapes, Anthropology of the near.
Submission information
last updated January 8th, 2019
Notification of acceptance will be announced by the end of March 2019.
Individual proposals should consist of a 300-word abstract.
All submissions will be reviewed, according to the highest international academic standards.
Submitters should also upload a short bio file, no longer than a ½ page per person.
Please note that there will be a conference fee payable by all participants and delegates of the conference (Fees and packages will be announced in January 2019).
POM Beirut 2019 committees
last updated January 8th, 2019
POM Series executive committee
Dr. Morten SØNDERGAARD and Dr. Laura BELOFF.
POM Beirut 2019 Steering Committee
Dr. Morten SØNDERGAARD, Dr. Laura BELOFF, Dr. Hassan CHOUBASSI, Mr. Joe ELIAS, and Mrs. Sahar CHARARA.
POM Beirut 2019 Organizing Committee
Dr. Hassan CHOUBASSI, Mr. Joe ELIAS, Mrs. Sahar CHARARA, Dr. Fadi YAMMOUT, Dr. Walid RAAD, Ms. Fatima ABOU NASSIF, and Mr. Tarek Mourad.
More information
please contact: