PNCA’s Make+Think+Code hosts the 2018 CyborgCamp

October 15, 2018

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 10, 2018

Portland, OR—October 10, 2018— Make+Think+Code at Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) is excited to host the 2018 CyborgCamp, a conference on the future of humans and technology on November 2-4, 2018. PNCA’s Make+Think+Code is a creative technology-focused lab that regularly convenes students and professionals in Portland’s technology communities for projects and events such as the 2018 Digital Inclusion Summit, Sensing the Environment Hackathon, and Winter Light Festival as well as workshops and meet-ups.

Highlights of CyborgCamp on November 3 include the opening talk by Cyborg Camp organizer Amber Case on Cyborgs and Calm Technology and keynotes by Stephanie Mendoza on Mixed Reality and Anselm Hook on Civics and Augmented Reality. The opening party is on Friday evening, November 2, and there is a Cyborg zine-writing workshop on Sunday, November 4.

Learn more and register. And follow them on Twitter.

The first CyborgCamp in Portland in 2008 had speakers including Ward Cunningham, inventor of the first wiki. In the years since, CyborgCamps have been organized in Seattle, Vancouver B.C., and at MIT. CyborgCamp is a conference that is also an unconference, planned and executed by its attendees.

Amber Case, co-founder of CyborgCamp and author of An Illustrated History of Cyborg Anthropology and Calm Technology: Designing for the Next Generation of Devices, has been appointed a Faculty Researcher at PNCA’s Make + Think + Code and will be hosting workshops on Calm Tech and Designing with Sound at the college in November.

CyborgCamps are small, in-depth unconferences about the future of the relationship between humans and technology. Attendees discuss a variety of topics such as the futures of identity, privacy, surveillance, hardware to wetware, drones, 3D printing, cyberpunk, human augmentation, constructed reality, the second self, ethics, robot rights, sexuality, urban design, and anthropology. Topics are discussed the morning of the conference and scheduled into the conference grid by attendees themselves, making it a DIY conference experience.

In addition to the above topics, the following has been discussed at CyborgCamps around the world: cyborgs, wearables, prosthetics, sensors, control systems, assistive tech, transcendence, transhumanism, technological singularity, artificial intelligence, intelligence amplification, utopia/dystopia/weird-topia, identity, quantified self, exocortex, ubicomp, robots, sensory augmentation, steam punk, philosophy, ethics, intelligence, the borg, hackerspaces, telepresence, science fiction, DIY, cryonics, cybernetics, open source, nanotech, augmented reality, brain-computer interface, artificial life, functional electrical stimulation, and neural science. Each CyborgCamp has its own mix of topics created by what the attendees want to discuss.

Every CyborgCamp welcome people from different backgrounds, including social, business, academic and trade-related. Just as cyborg studies sit at the crossroads of multiple academic disciplines, we like to invite people at the crossroads of different disciplines and boundaries as well.

At CyborgCamp, attendees make the conference. Some attendees come prepared with ideas of what they want to talk about, and others come to listen and learn. Some attendees have relevant experience and prepared talks, and others just have a woolly idea needing discussion. At the start of the conference, attendees write their ideas up on a board and the conference begins!

Schedule

Friday, November 2, 2018

6pm - 12am - CyborgCamp Pre party and art show at an undisclosed location. Will include sonic arts, live music, interactive installations, and VR. Address provided after RSVP.

Saturday, November 3, 2018

9:00am - 9:45am - Doors open. Registration, Coffee, Breakfast, Networking, and Setup

9:45am - 10:15am - Conference Begins – Morning Introductions, Speakers, Sponsors, Unconference Overview. Livestream accessible to remote attendees.

10:20am - 10:40am - Opening Speaker: Amber Case: Cyborgs and Calm Technology

10:45am - 11:05am - Stephanie Mendoza – Mixed Reality

11:10am - 11:30am - Featured Speaker TBD

11:30am -11:40am - Break

11:40am - 12:15pm - Unconference Planning

12:15pm - 1:00pm - Lunch Break

1:00pm - 3:15pm - Unconference sessions

3:15pm - 3:30pm - Afternoon Break

3:30pm - 5:15pm - Unconference sessions

5:20pm - 6:00pm - Conference wrap up, sponsor thanks, and cleanup

6:00pm - Conference Over

Sunday, November 4, 2018

Collaborate on a Cyborg zine with other conference attendees to produce and publish an archive of the conference in a single day! Details forthcoming.

About Make+Think+Code
Make+Think+Code is a research studio and lab that brings together members of Portland's vibrant creative, tech, civic, and educational communities to explore the powerful role that creativity and technology play in the search for imaginative and impactful solutions to complex and urgent problems.

Make+Think+Code fosters a culture of inclusion and equity, emphasizing research, collaborations, and partnerships between and across industry, government, and academic and cultural institutions to create a supportive ecosystem of individuals and organizations.

We are passionate about increasing diversity and equity in and access to technology and design industries. Our programming supports an inclusive community of learners from a variety of disciplines, cultures, generations, experience, and expertise, and we strongly believe this diversity leads to more exciting and impactful applications and ideas.

About Pacific Northwest College of Art
Pacific Northwest College of Art empowers artists and designers to reimagine what art and design can do in the world. Founded in 1909 as the Museum Art School in Portland, Oregon, PNCA’s students, alumni, and faculty have been instrumental in shaping the culture of the region. PNCA offers 11 art and design Bachelor of Fine Art programs, seven graduate programs including Master of Arts and Master of Fine Arts programs within the Hallie Ford School of Graduate Studies, a Post-Baccalaureate program, and Community Education courses for artists and designers of all ages. pnca.willamette.edu

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