Call for Papers: Interference

Interference, n:

1. preventing (a process or activity) from continuing or being carried out properly.
2. the combination of two or more electromagnetic waveforms to form a resultant wave in which the displacement is either reinforced or cancelled.

Interference is a gathering of people, perspectives, theories, and actions that share a critical approach to society and technology. It will take place at the Binnenpret in Amsterdam, NL from 15th to the 17th of August 2014. It will be a space where we can meet, debate, share, learn, and find our affinities and oppositions. The event comes as a response to the lack of a common ground for confrontation and discussion over themes like hacking, technology, art and politics that could break out of the existing containers and roles for such concepts and practices.

Interference is not a hacker conference. From a threat to the so-called national security, hacking has become an instrument for reinforcing the status quo. Fed up with yet another recuperation, the aim is to re/contextualize hacking as a conflictual praxis and release it from its technofetishist boundaries. Bypassing the cultural filters, Interference wants to take the technical expertise of the hacking scene out of its isolation to place it within the broader perspective of the societal structures it shapes and is part of.

Interference tries not to define itself. Interference challenges hacker's identity, the internal dynamics of hackerculture and its ethical values. It undermines given identities and rejects given definitions. Interference is a hacking event from an anarchist perspective: it doesn't seek for uniformity on the level of skills or interests, but rather focuses on a shared basis of intuitive resistance and critical attitude towards the techno-social apparatus.

Interference is three days of exploring modes of combining theory and practice, breaking and (re)inventing systems and networks, and playing with the art and politics of everyday life. Topics may or may not include philosophy of technology, spectacle, communication guerrilla, temporary autonomous zones, cybernetics, bureaucratic exploits, the illusions of liberating technologies, speculative software, the creative capitalism joke, the maker society and its enemies, hidden- & self- censorship, and the refusal of the binarity of gender, life, and logic.

Interference welcomes discordians, intervention artists, artificial lifeforms, digital alchemists, oppressed droids, luddite hackers and critical engineers to diverge from the existent, dance with fire-spitting robots, hack the urban environment, break locks, perform ternary voodoo, decentralise and disconnect networks, explore the potential of noise, build botnets, and party all night.

The event is intended to be as self-organised as possible which means you are invited to contribute on your own initiative with your skills and interests. Bring your talk, workshop, debate, performance, opinion, installation, project, critique, the things you're interested in, the things you want to discuss. Especially those not listed above.

Please let us know how you would like to interefere by sending a (brief) abstract of your proposal before June 15 to interference [at] puscii.nl.

Updates and more information can be found on http://interference.io