4th Annual Digital Assembly conference "Discursive Treatments of Materiality" March 5-7, 2009

The Digital Assembly, a graduate student group in the English Department of the University of Florida, is happy to announce its 4th annual conference "Discursive Treatments of Materiality". The interdisciplinary conference has been co-organized by graduate students in the Department of Anthropology, Art & Art History, and English and has drawn scholars from across the globe. Attention to materiality has manifested itself in various ways across these disciplines addressing issues ranging from the increased interest in the position of the physical body with the post-Greenbergian rise in performance and installation art, technological interactions in anthropological studies, and the relationship between visual representation and language in literary studies.

Our conference commences on Thursday March 5th with a filming of original works largely comprised of works from anthropologists working from Florida to Afghanistan, South Carolina to Italy. Academic panels will present their research on March 6th and 7th throughout the morning and early afternoon. Immediately after panel presentations Friday the 6th, our keynote speaker, Dr. Bill Seaman, will deliver his lecture "Emergent Transdisciplinary Education as Addressed Through Differing Combinatoric Micro-Strategies" followed by our art exhibit opening at the local WarpHAUS gallery. The exhibit is curated by Shepherd Steiner and includes pieces from local faculty, students, and outside contributors from across Florida. In addition to the conference, we are pleased to announce an associated event. On March 27th Filip DeBoeck will deliver his lecture "Youth and the Life of the Corpse: A Graveyard Ethnography from Kinshasa"

All program information is available on our conference page. Questions concerning the conference can be addressed to Elise Takehana at takehana@ufl.edu

Reading Group Meetings Spring 2009

The Digital Assembly meets to discuss readings we have chosen as a group during the fall semesters. Please see the below for locations, times, and readings.

• February 1st, 2008 3:00pm at Volta’s Coffee, Tea, and Chocolate at 48 SW 2nd St. - Bill Seaman's "Recombinant Poetics and Related Database Aesthetics" from Database Aesthetics

Reading Group Meetings Fall 2008

• October 19, 2008 3:00pm at Mauro’s (email mcarassai@ufl.edu for directions) - Katherine Hayles Electronic Literature Chapter 1.
• November 2, 2008 at Volta’s Coffee, Tea, and Chocolate at 48 SW 2nd St. - Anna Munster, Materializing New Media, Introduction
• November 16th, 2008 at Elise's (email takehana@ufl.edu for directions) - Sean Fenty, "Why Old School Is 'Cool': A Brief Analysis of Classic Video Game Nostalgia" from Playing the Past.
• December 7, 2008 at Volta’s Coffee, Tea, and Chocolate at 48 SW 2nd St. - Mark Hansen, New Philosophy for New Media, Foreword and Introduction