Webinar: *“Geeking” and “Prototyping” the “New Normal”* *** With apologies for x-posting*** You are welcome to attend the following webinar: *“Geeking” and “Prototyping” the “New Normal”* A/Professor Christina Dunbar-Hester and Professor Fred Turner Could we imagine and prototype human life in the post-pandemic world? Will geeks rule in the emerging social conditions of the new normal, or will they simply become extinct in the digital mainstreaming of daily life? The webinar will tackle the question of human typologies in new social formations and online networks. *Register here:* https://arts.unimelb.edu.au/research/digital-studio/programs/seminar-series/... *Date & time:* *October 8, 2020* Los Angeles (Pacific Daylight Time): 10:00 PM *October 9, 2020* London (Greenwich Mean Time +2): 7:00 AM Melbourne (Australian Eastern Standard Time): 4:00 PM This webinar is a part of the series: *Redefining Digital Keywords* *From Digital Archaisms to (Post)Pandemic Neologisms* (Digital Studio, the University of Melbourne) *Register here: * https://arts.unimelb.edu.au/research/digital-studio/programs/seminar-series *Synopsis:* In 2016 Benjamin Peters published his edited collection *Digital Keywords* <https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691167336/digital-keywords> (Princeton University Press). With provocative short essays from international digital media scholars in anthropology, history, political science, philosophy, religious studies, rhetoric, science and technology studies, and sociology, the book explored and critiqued the rich vocabulary of the growing field of digital humanities on 25 keywords, ranging from meme to surrogate, from forum to mirror, from cloud to digital. The pandemic outbreak has challenged and reconfigured human experience across physical, social and digital realities, and hence urges us to revisit our digital keywords vocabulary. This global webinar series will bring together leading digital humanities scholars to reflect upon their original contributions to the *Digital Keywords. *Each webinar will focus on two digital phenomena and their corresponding keywords to explore how their meanings are changing in the face of disruptions caused by lockdowns or social distancing, and what new cultural practices, social challenges and political implications emerge around the new digital vocabulary. Series curated by Dr Natalia Grincheva (Digital Studio Senior Research Fellow). *Schedule* *October 23: “Sharing” and “Gaming” in the Post-pandemic World* Dr. Nicholas A. John and Professor Saugata Bhaduri How do we share online versus offline and what games can we play when limited within digital reality? What are the consequences on our health and well-being of non-stop digital sharing of our lives and emotions? And is it possible to transfer sport matches, games, and even such world sport mega-events as the Olympics into the digital world? The webinar will aim to answer these questions in conversation with Dr Nicholas A. John and Professor Saugata Bhaduri. *November 6: “Zooming” In and Out to Examine the “Virus”* Professor Jodie McVernon and Professor Sean Cubitt What new meanings of words such as zoom and virus did the Convid-19 outbreak instigate? How did we move from ‘Google it’ to ‘Let’s Zoom’, and what are the economic and political implications of platform-imperialism in the time of the 24/7 digital communication? What are the real and potential powers of online and biological viruses to disrupt, challenge, improve or destroy human life? The final webinar will facilitate a cross-disciplinary conversation between researchers at the University of Melbourne to share insights on the role of digital technologies in the current pandemic with its consequences for moral, social and physical being.