CALL FOR PARTICIPATION

Conference on

„HOMO 2003 - Information society, cultural heritage and folklore text analysis”

29th September – 1st October 2003, Budapest, Hungary

http://itm.bme.hu/homo2003/eng/

Based on increasing international research cooperation in the field of safeguarding immaterial cultural heritage, the conference wants to

· address methodological progress, connecting ethnology and the sciences,
· provide participants with a focused overview of new research opportunities in digitized public collections (libraries, archives and museums),
· identify available components of new services for the information society,
· establish a forum for scholarly discussions and project generation.

Background: In 2001, edited by Prof. Pierre Maranda, a volume of essays entitled „The Double Twist: From Ethnography to Morphodynamics” was published, bridging the methodological map between fieldwork and modelling in anthropology based on the thoughts of Claude Lévi-Strauss (http://www.utppublishing.com/detail.asp?TitleID=2305). This breakthrough is implicitly calling for the reconsideration of broadening and deepening subject access to digitized (virtual) public collections, and creating integrated services to exploit the wealth of immaterial cultural heritage. The elements for a future cultural technology – integrated software tools, methodology, skills and knowledge – are becoming increasingly available. Traversing the line of thought of Lévi-Strauss with regard to myth analysis and its translation to modelling, case studies from Melanesia, Ancient Greece and Finno-Ugric peoples will be also mentioned.

The conference idea has evolved to include a plenary part (with UNESCO and the EU as invited speakers); the appreciation of The Double Twist; the presentation of the virtual text processing laboratory concept; a roundtable discussion; a joint project building workshop (by invitation); a poster / software demonstration part; and a reception for the conference, generously offered by the Embassy of Finland in Budapest.

Although the programme of the conference is being finalized, we still welcome poster and software demonstration proposals. Deadline for proposals: 15 July, 2003.

Registration fee: EUR 40 / HUF 10.000, transferred to the BUTE before 15 th August, or EUR 60 / HUF 12.500 before 15th September against the invoice of the BUTE (including lunch, coffee, reception and conference material). You can register by filling in the enclosed registration form, sending it back per fax to: Anikó Langer, fax:+361-463-4035.

Deadline for participants: 15 September 2003

Please distribute this Call to interested colleagues and relevant mailing lists!