VU International Symposium Will Bring Together Researchers from around the World to Discuss Technology and Imagination

On 3 June, Vilnius University (VU) will host an international symposium with the participation of Lithuanian and foreign researchers.

The symposium will be dedicated to the dialectic of technology and imagination (as well as imagination and technology), while taking into account contemporary discussions on posthumanism, new materialism and realism, as well as anthropocene and new forms of environmental thinking. How can we get involved in the analysis of this reciprocal relationship? How can the role of technology be re-imagined? Can the imagination be interpreted as a primordial human technique?

“It has long been thought that the essence of humanity is related to language. However, new theories of philosophy and anthropology emphasise the primacy of the imagination, even in terms of language or symbolic institutions. Thus, in terms of our origins, mankind should first and foremost be treated as an imaginative being who defines his relationship with the environment as a technique. The development of digital media is providing a basis for rethinking the interactions between imagination and technology,” said the organiser of the event, Professor Kristupas Sabolius.

The symposium will take place on 3 June this year. It will be held in VU Aula Parva Hall (Universiteto g. 3) in English, and participation is free. The full programme will be announced soon.

Speakers: Babette Babich (Fordham University), Chiara Bottici (New School for Social Research), Sebastián Lomelí Bravo (National Autonomous University of Mexico), Andrew Feenberg (Simon Fraser University), Daina Habdankaitė (Vilnius University), Pietro Montani (Vilnius University / Sapienza University of Rome), Kristupas Sabolius (Vilnius University), Ignas Šatkauskas (Vilnius University) and Federico Vercellone (University of Turin).

The symposium is a part of the European research project The Future of Humanity: New Scenarios of Imagination (Vilnius University). This project has received funding from the European Social Fund (Project No 09.3.3-LMT-K-712-01-0078) under a grant agreement with the Research Council of Lithuania (LMTLT).