*Digital Media and Borders: Infrastructures, Mobilities, and Practices across Asia and Beyond* *Workshop* * 7-9 December 2017* * Lingnan University, Hong Kong* Invited speakers: Brett Neilson, Jack Qiu, Ned Rossiter, Nishant Shah, Ravi Sundaram Workshop organizers: Rolien Hoyng, Iam-chong Ip, Lisa Leung, Yvonne Yau Sponsored by: Lingnan University and Kwan Fong Cultural Research and Development Programme. Digital communication, despite its apparent immateriality, remains dependent on infrastructure placed somewhere. This workshop focuses on the intersection of urban situatedness and geo-location in order to examine the spatial relations that digital infrastructures either make part of or generate, especially in Asia. The internet features a layered design, including undersea cables, Cloud architecture, platforms, and apps. In what ways does this design reproduce or undo borders and territories? Relinquishing assumptions of a singular global regime of cybernetic power, how does the internet as stack transform the governance of populations, now addressed as “users,” and what contradictions emerge in this process? Moreover, considering that different bodies relate to digital infrastructure differently, how do users negotiate and exploit the modes of power afforded by digital infrastructure? How do these processes amount to either the reproduction of dominant formations of citizenship or alternative identifications and subjectivities, for instance for migrants or “uncivil” users? We welcome critical scholarship and non-traditional inquiries that help us reflect on digital infrastructures and practices in relation to the production of space and the particularities of place and context in Asia and beyond. Topics include but are not limited to: - Digital infrastructure, (extra)statecraft, urbanisms - Local or global apps, platforms, and data-driven governance - Speculative digital culture - “Uncivil” webs: hacking, porn, radical free speech, trolling - Digital media, citizenship, populism - Digital media, migration, and belonging A conference dinner is planned for the evening of 7 December. On the morning of the 9th we invite you to join a local excursion exploring digital infrastructure and borders in Hong Kong. There is no conference fee. Abstracts of max. 500 words are due by 15 July and should be sent to digitalmediaonsite@gmail.com. Authors will be notified of acceptance via email by the end of July. Full papers are expected no shorter than 10 days before the start of the workshop. Please provide full name, affiliation, contact information, and a short bio with your abstract submission. Guidelines for presentation will be provided upon acceptance of the abstract. Event webpage: http://www.ln.edu.hk/ihss/crd/CFP2017.html Inquiries: digitalmediaonsite@gmail.com My best, Rolien Rolien Hoyng Assistant Professor Department of Cultural Studies Lingnan University, Hong Kong