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UID:565@1718.ucla.edu
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270409T090000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270409T170000
DTSTAMP:20261027T155001Z
URL:https://1718.ucla.edu/events/human-machine/
SUMMARY:Human/Being\, 1400-1800\, Conference 3: Human/Machine
DESCRIPTION:\n\nOrganized by Javier Patiño Loira (University of California
 \, Los Angeles) and David P. Bardeen (Los Angeles County Museum of Art)\n\
 nThis conference is part of the 2026-27 Core Program\, a year-long series 
 of three conferences – Human/Plant\, Human/Animal\, and Human/Machine 
 – that invite participants from across the humanistic disciplines (inclu
 ding history\, art history\, history of science\, literature\, philosophy\
 , religious history\, and ecocriticism) to explore how early moderns (1400
 -1800) sought to define and understand themselves through their relationsh
 ips with non-human life forms\, entities and systems. The rise of generat
 ive models and autonomous systems has provoked intense anxieties about hum
 an exceptionalism\, posing the deceptively simple question: What does it m
 ean to be human? But “the human" has never been a stable category\, part
 icularly during the early modern period\, when artists\, writers and think
 ers grappled with the slippery boundaries between human and non-human agen
 cies.\n\nAt a time when generative AI has sparked intense discussion of hu
 man exceptionalism and what\, if anything\, makes humans unique\, the thir
 d conference\, Human/Machine\, examines the long-standing and complex rela
 tionship between “the artificial" and "the human." In the early modern p
 eriod\, understandings of the human involved an interrogation of the tools
  that we build and use\, the animals that we mimic\, and the machines we f
 eared might replace us. From the early modern obsession with automatons—
 used by René Descartes to explain vegetative and sensitive life—to the 
 era's widespread interest in the relationship between artifice and the abi
 lity to deceive\, the conference invites speakers to explore how the notio
 n of the human-made served as a mirror for both the human and its negation
 \, and how these ideas were mobilized in broader social and political cont
 exts.\n\n\n\nSpeakers\n\nLamia Balafrej\, University of California\, Los A
 ngeles\nJessica Keating\, Carleton College\, Associate Professor\nDeirdre 
 Loughridge\, Northeastern University\nWenjie Su\, University of Arkansas\n
 Elly R. Truitt\, University of Pennsylvania\nColin Webster\, University of
  California\, Davis\nThijs Weststeijn\, Utrecht University\n\n\n\nThis eve
 nt is free to attend with advance registration and will be held in-person 
 at the Clark Library. Seating is limited. Walk-in registrants are welcome 
 as space permits. The registration form will be posted here approximately 
 one month in advance of the program.\n\n\n\nImage credit: Tacuinum sanitat
 is\, Österreiche Nationalbibliothek\, call number Cod. Ser. n. 2644\, (fo
 l. 40r).
CATEGORIES:Conferences,Core Program
LOCATION:UCLA William Andrews Clark Memorial Library\, 2520 Cimarron Street
 \, Los Angeles\, California\, 90018\, United States
GEO:34.033012;-118.314487
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 Angeles\, California\, 90018\, United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=100;X-TITLE=UC
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DTSTART:20270314T030000
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