Lifestyles • Lifeworlds • Lifeworks

April 6-8, 2017

University of Oregon in Portland

The seventh annual “What is…? ” conference-experience will engage communication, media, and nature by examining everyday life — our lifeworks and lifestyles — emphasizing the lifeworlds (environments) we live in. It will investigate how communication/media constitute and permeate all avenues and forms of life — from scale, pace, and pattern to the public, private, and organic. By building bridges through multidisciplinary networks, the event emphasizes how communication is instrumental in and for living systems. What is life and how is life mediated? What is Life? (2017) builds on last year’s conference, What is Media? (2016), expanding a transdisciplinary notion of medium/media with special attention to its material, historical, and ecological ramifications. It marks the second collaboration with scholars from the natural sciences (physical and life sciences) and the arts. The experience will bring together scholars, government and community officials, industry professionals, alumni and students, as well as scientists, artists, filmmakers, grassroots community organizations, and the public. We welcome submissions for plenary speakers, roundtables, paper presentations, installations, and special events. A wide range of possible topics and potential themes can be found at the online at the  Call for Proposals.

For more information, visit the What Is Life website.