Transforming Spaces.
The Topological Turn in Technology Studies


March 22 - 24, 2002

Location: University of Technology Darmstadt, Old Main Building, Hochschulstrasse 1, Darmstadt, Germany

 

 

  Conference Program
 
     
     
  SECTION 1: Coping with Urban Places: Physical Structures and Daily Life in the Modern City  
     
  Plenary speech 1 (Friday, March 22, 13.30):  
  (chair: Mikael Hård, Technical University Darmstadt)  
     
    Thomas J. Misa, Illinois Institute of Technology: Skyscrapers, Modernity, and Spatiality: Città Nuova to the World Trade Center  
     
  Session 1a (Friday, March 22, 15.30): The Spatial Character of Urban Infrastructures  
  (chair: Oana Mitrea, Technical University Darmstadt )  
     
    Hans Buiter, University of Technology Eindhoven: From 'Wet Towns' to 'Dry Cities' - Spatial and Functional Transformations of Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague between 1860 and 1940.  
       
    Barbara Schmucki, University of York/National Railway Museum/Technical University Darmstadt: 'Transported Bodies: The Efficiency of Urban Public Space.  
       
    Derek Simons, Simon Fraser University Vancouver: Spectres of Paradise: Vancouver's New Streetscape and the Apprehension of Technology.  
       
  Session 1b (Saturday, March 23, 9.30): Information Flow and Expert Knowledge in Urban Settings  
  (chair: Thomas J. Misa, Illinois Institute of Technology)  
       
    Martina Heßler, Munich Center for the History of Science and Technology: Death of Distance? "Science-Cities" and the Importance of Spatial Proximity.  
       
    Paul R. Josephson, Colby College: The Topology of the Civilian-Military Interface: Science and Technology in the Ural Scientific Center.  
       
    Norbert Stieniczka, Technical University Darmstadt: From Traffic Flow to Data Flow – The Transformation of Urban Traffic Concepts.  
       
  Session 1c (Saturday, March 23, 15.30): Architecture and Urban Spaces  
  (chair: Hans Buiter, University of Technology Eindhoven)  
       
    Casey Alt, Stanford University: Flow, Process, Fold: Intersections in Bioinformatics and Contemporary Architecture.  
       
    Cornelis Disco/Adrienne van den Bogaard, University of Twente/Delft University of Technology: The Three Dimensional City. Plans, Volumes, Layered Systems and Intersections.  
       
    Martine Duquesne, University Paris I-Pantheon-Sorbonne: Is Urbanism a Feminine Occupation?  
       
    Laurent Tourrette, University of Technology of Belfort-Montbéliard: The Harder They Fall: Should High-Rise Towers Be Seen as Modern Towers of Babel?  
       
  SECTION 2 Coping with the Dimensions: Visual Technologies and the Re-Ordering of Spaces  
     
  Plenary speech 2 (Friday, March 22, 20.30):  
  (chair: Philine Warnke, Technical University Darmstadt)  
     
    David Gugerli, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zurich: Visualizing the Human Body - The Inter-Play of Dissection, Norms, and Repaired Topologies (1917/1986).  
       
  Session 2a (Friday, March 22, 15.30): Technologies of Surveillance and Visibility  
  (chair: Martina Heßler, Munich Center for the History of Science and Technology)  
       
    Anne Meyer-Rath/Werner Rammert, Technical University Berlin: In the Public Gaze: CCTV and the Prevention of Events in Urban Space.  
       
    Anna Vitores Gonzalez, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona: From Inhabiting to Haunting: New Ways of Social Control.  
       
    David Wood, University of Newcastle: Technology, Territory and Transgression: Algorithmic Surveillance in Public Spaces and the Displacement of Politics.  
       
  Session 2b (Saturday, March 23, 9.30): Making the World Transparent  
  (chair: Andreas Lösch, Technical University Darmstadt)  
       
    Sabine Höhler, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science Berlin: A Sound Survey: Technological Perceptions of Ocean Depth.  
       
    Dirk Verdicchio, Technical University Darmstadt/University Freiburg: Cruising the Body.  
       
    Helen Watkins, University of British Columbia Vancouver: Fridge Stories: Three Geographies of the Domestic Refrigerator.  
       
    Yutaka Yoshinaka, Technical University of Denmark Lyngby: On Knowledge Processes, Distribution and Alignment: Spatio-materialities and their Transformation in Clinical MRI.  
       
  Session 2c (Sunday, March 24, 11.30): Simulation Processes and the Creation of New Phenomena  
  (chair: Sabine Höhler, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science Berlin)  
       
    Thomas Dahl, SINTEF Industrial Management Trondheim: The Transformation of Space and the Construction of Engineering Knowledge and Practice – From Renaissance Perspective Thinking to Gaspard Monge’s Descriptive Geometry.  
       
    Andreas Lösch, Technical University Darmstadt: The ›Natural‹ Spaces of Biotechnology ( Reflections on the Simulated Conditions of Space from the Perspective of Cultural Sociology.  
       
    Erich W. Schienke, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute: Who's Mapping the Mappers?: Ethnographic Research in the Production of Digital Cartography.  
       
    Philine Warnke, Technical University Darmstadt: Computer Simulation and Space Transformation - A multidimensional Story.  
       
  SECTION 3: Virtual Entertainment, the Arts, and Emerging Lifestyles  
     
  Plenary discussion (Saturday, March 23, 13:30): "How do we study the relationship between space and materiality?"  
  (chair: Christoph Rodatz, Technical University Darmstadt)  
       
  Session 3a (Friday, March 22, 15.30): Virtual Realities: From Miniature Dioramas to Holodecks  
  (chair: Karin Zachmann, Technical University Darmstadt)  
       
    Natascha Adamowsky, Humboldt Universität Berlin: See you on the holodeck! Morphing into new dimensions.  
       
    Don Ihde, State University of New York: Multistability in Cyberspace.  
       
    Nicolas P. Maffei, Norwich School of Art and Design, Norwich: The Future in Miniature: The Production and Consumption of Norman Bel Geddes's Futurama and War Models Exhibit, 1937- 1944.  
       
    Claus Pias, Bauhaus-University Weimar: From Saigon to SimCity© and back.  
       
  Session 3b (Saturday, March 23, 9.30): Overcoming Distance  
  (chair: Ulrike Kissmann, Technical University Berlin)  
       
    Kerstin Evert, Free University Berlin. Theatre as Hyperspace.  
       
    Ute Holl, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar. Cinematic Feedbacks in the Perception of Space: Murnau´s Raum.  
       
    Christoph Rodatz, Technical University Darmstadt: The e-Flaneur as Figure of Transition.  
       
  Session 3c (Saturday, March 23, 15.30): Mediated Interfaces  
  (chair: Norbert Stieniczka, Technical University Darmstadt)  
       
    Ulrike Kissmann, Technical University Berlin: The Legacy of Nationalsocialism in the Perception and Use of German Nuclear Technology.  
       
    Günther Landsteiner, MEDIACULT: Intern. Res. Inst. f. Media, Communic., & Cultural Developm., Vienna: Interfaces – Constructing Information Spaces, Regulating Practices.  
       
    Mark Saatjan, University of California Santa Barbara: Balloon Flight and the Invention of Airspace (1783-1870).  
       
  Session 3d (Sunday, March 24, 11.30): Ordering Public and Private Spaces  
  (chair: Kerstin Evert, Free University Berlin)  
       
    Michael Curry, University of California Los Angeles: Geographic Technologies and the New Topography.  
       
    Maria Rentetzi, Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognitive Research Vienna: The Spatial Culture of Physics and its Gender Dimensions: The Spatial Location of the Institute for Radium Research in Vienna and the Gender Production of Knowledge.  
       
  SECTION 4: The Spatial Dimension of Human — Non-human Interaction  
     
  Plenary speech 4 (Sunday, March 24, 9.30)  
  (chair: Dirk Verdicchio, Technical University Darmstadt/University Freiburg)  
       
    Kevin Hetherington, Lancaster University: Relationality, Topology and the Disposal of Space.  
       
  Session 4a (Saturday, March 23, 15.30): Representation by Topological Means  
  (chair: David Gugerli, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zurich)  
       
    Gernot Böhme, Technical University Darmstadt: The Corporeal Space and Space as Medium of Representation.  
       
    Tiago Moreira, Lancaster University: Surgical Monads: The Topological Dynamics of an Operating Room.  
       
    Albena Yaneva, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science Berlin: How Does a Museum Wall Move? Configuring Space and Agency in the Art Installation Process.  
       
  Session 4b (Sunday, March 24, 11.30): Mobility and Ubiquity in a World of Technologies  
  (chair: Mikael Hård, Technical University Darmstadt)  
       
    Mattias Esbjörnsson/Daniel Vesterlind, Gothenburg University: Mobility and Social Spatiality.  
       
    Sarah S. Jain, Stanford University: Topological Mobility.  
       
    Oana Mitrea/Georgeta Cornita, Technical University Darmstadt/Universitatea de Nord, Baia Mare, Romania: The Configuration of Mental Space in Mobile Telephony.  
       
     
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