Lecture: Špela Petric "Eeating back" [Conversations on Art and Media: Unconventional Computing]

Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung (HfG) Karlsruhe, Thursday, November 6 at 06:00 PM GMT+1

[[ ↓↓ English Below ↓↓]]

Raum 115

Die fortlaufende Vortragsreihe mit geladenen Gästen aus den erweiterten Bereichen Medienkunst und -theorie, befasst sich mit unkonventionellen Konzepten und Materialisierungen von Computern sowie alternativen Umgangsweisen. Angesichts des Quasi-Monopols großer Technologieunternehmen und angesichts mächtiger Voreinstellungen und Standards befassen sich Gastvorträge und Gespräche mit den Fragen: Inwieweit können Computer anders aussehen oder funktionieren? Auf welche Weise können wir Computing-Geräte anders reflektieren, wahrnehmen oder handhaben oder sie verändern?

Über Špela Petric:
Špela Petrič is a Slovenian hybrid media artist with a background in the natural sciences. Her artistic research and practice combines biomedia and performativity to enact strange relations between bodies that question the underpinnings of our (bio)technological societies. Recently she has been busy with looking closely at automation of care in agriculture and medicine. Petrič has received several awards, such as the White Aphroid for outstanding artistic achievement (Slovenia), the Bioart and Design Award (Netherlands), and an Award of Distinction at Prix Ars Electronica (Austria).

Weitere Termine:

• Thursday Dec. 11, 2025, 07:00 pm, ZKM Kubus, Jia Liu (Karlsruhe) & Edy Fung (Stockholm/Belfast): Superposition Composition

• Thursday Dec. 18, 2025, 06:00 pm (hybrid), HfG Lichtbrücke, Lauren Lee McCarthy (UCLA): Becoming Auto

• Thursday Jan. 22, 2026, 01.30 pm, HfG Lichtbrücke, Nolwenn Maudet (Université de Strasbourg): Digital design and its relationships with environmental sustainability

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Room 115

Conversations on Art and Media: Unconventional Computing is an ongoing lecture series with invited guests from the expanded fields of media art and theory, co-organized by members of HfG Karlsruhe and ZKM. During winter semester 2026, the series discusses unconventional conceptions and materializations of computers as well as alternative ways of dealing with them. In the light of the quasi-monopoly of big tech companies and in view of powerful presets and standards, guest lectures and conversations will address the questions: To what extent can computers look or function differently? In which ways can we reflect on, perceive or handle computing devices differently or change them?

About Špela Petric: Špela Petrič is a Slovenian hybrid media artist with a background in the natural sciences. Her artistic research and practice combines biomedia and performativity to enact strange relations between bodies that question the underpinnings of our (bio)technological societies. Recently she has been busy with looking closely at automation of care in agriculture and medicine. Petrič has received several awards, such as the White Aphroid for outstanding artistic achievement (Slovenia), the Bioart and Design Award (Netherlands), and an Award of Distinction at Prix Ars Electronica (Austria).

Weitere Termine:

• Thursday Dec. 11, 07:00 pm, ZKM Kubus, Jia Liu (Karlsruhe) & Edy Fung (Stockholm/Belfast): Superposition Composition

• Thursday Dec. 18, 06:00 pm (hybrid), HfG Lichtbrücke, Lauren Lee McCarthy (UCLA): Becoming Auto

• Thursday Jan. 22, 01.30 pm, HfG Lichtbrücke, Nolwenn Maudet (Université de Strasbourg): Digital design and its relationships with environmental sustainability

https://keepkarlsruheboring.org/event/lecture-spela-petric-eeating-back-conversations-on-art-and-media-unconventional-computing

Just published: my (translated) chapter on "Unconventional Computing" as a pre-print on ResearchGate:

http://txt3.de/ucomp

#UnconventionalComputing #ToyComputing #Complexity #ComputerArchaeology

Just finished my chapter on #UnconventionalComputing for the Reader "Handbook on Media Theories of the 21st Century", edited by Christoph Ernst, Katerina Krtilova, Jens Schröter, Andreas Sudmann. It will be published online soon.

https://link.springer.com/book/9783658381202

... writing about billard-ball-like computers made from swarms of soldier crabs.

https://archive.ph/20131010190209/http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/onepercent/2012/04/researchers-build-crab-powered.html

#UnconventionalComputing

I am very looking forward to tonights "VCC" (Vintage Computing Circle) at the HU #MediaStudies: We will use all their #AnalogComputer machines to transform them into #Analog #Synthesizer|s.

I will give an introductory talk about analog computers, their history, theory, and how to program them.

If you like to attend:

Starting 5pm (open end), Georgenstraße 47, 10117 Berlin, 2nd Floor, Room 2.26 "Signallabor"

#ElectronicMusic #Synth #Hackathon #UnconventionalComputing

Crab Computing:

https://www.complex-systems.com/abstracts/v20_i02_a02/

#UnconventionalComputing

The microscopic world hidden within an #autumnleaf has won the Royal Society Publishing #photography competition 2023.

Overall winner Irina Petrova Adamatzky researches the electrical activity of #fungi, #slimemoulds and other #microorganisms, at #UnconventionalComputing Lab, UWE Bristol.

‘I unintentionally captured this scene while collecting samples of slime moulds in a field near my home in Somerset, noticed them the evening before and had intended to gather samples…