Schedule

October 10–12, 2019 
 

Modeling The Pacific. Oceanic Research in Science, Technology, and Humanities 
Conference in cooperation with UCSB

Mosher Alumni Hall, Santa Barbara  

October 22, 2019 

6pm

The Charisma Machine: The Life, Death, and Legacy of One Laptop per Child
Lecture by Morgan Ames (Berkeley):

CDC | MECS Office, Lüneburg 

October 23, 2019

8pm

 

In Search of Media
Book launch 

Bar Blaenk, Lüneburg

October 24, 2019

12:15pm
(weekly)

Digitale Kulturen 
Weekly lecture series with Olga Goriunova, Martina Leeker, Kathrin Passig and others
Beginning October 24, 2019

HS 1, Leuphana University Lüneburg 

October 30, 2019

12pm

Platform Worlds
Lecture by Marc Steinberg (Concordia): 

CDC | MECS Office, Lüneburg 

November 7–13, 2019

 

 

Filme des Windes
Exhibition with Christoph Oeschger and Floran Dombais
Opening Novermber 7, 2019, From 6pm 

Kunstraum Leuphana 

November 7–8, 2019
 

Windkanäle. Wissen, Politik und Ästhetik bewegter Luft 
Workshop in cooperation with ZHdK 

C 7.320 and CDC | MECS Office 

November 13, 2019

4pm 

Exhaustion of Copyright in Digital Objects 
Lecture by Dan Burk (Irvine) 

CDC | MECS Office, Lüneburg 

November 13, 2019

6pm

 

Im Paradies des Taktilen. Reale Experimentalsubjekte und spekulative Assistenzmedien
Lecture by Karin Harrasser (Linz)  

C 40.256

November 20–22, 2019

 

Digitalität in den Geisteswissenschaften 
DFG-Symposium 

C 40.704

December 11, 2019

6pm

Virtual U: Simulating Higher Education
Lecture by Peter Krapp 

CDC | MECS Office, Lüneburg 

December 12, 2019

2:30pm 

 

Ephemera. Data & Drama 
Workshop 

CDC | MECS Office 

December 18, 2019

6:30pm

The Oxford Handbook of Media, Technology, and Organization Studies 
Book Launch 

Bar Blaenk, Lüneburg 
Janaury 15, 2020
6pm

DRM und andere Verschlüsselungen 
Lecture by Klaus Schmeh (Krypto Vision)

CDC | MECS Office 

January 22, 2020
2:30pm

Datenfilme. Zur digitalen Reanalyse eines analogen Strömungsfilms 
Colloquium by Mario Schulze & Sarine Waltenspül

CDC | MECS Office

January 29, 2020
6pm Dying experiments. A case study
Lecture by Lukas Mairhofer 

CDC | MECS Office 

Abstracts – CDC MECS Events Winter 2019/20

  • Dan Burk
  • Lukas Mairhofer

Abstracts – CDC MECS Events Winter 2019/20

Dan Burk

Exhaustion of Copyright in Digital Objects

Intellectual property systems create the possibility of conflicting overlapping ownership in books, DVDs, or other media objects: an owner of the intellectual property itself and a different owner of the physical object in which the intellectual property is embodied.  This problem is generally solved by the legal doctrine of exhaustion, or termination of the intellectual property owner’s rights at the time of an authorized sale of the associated physical object.  However, the application of this solution has become unclear for digital property that has no physical embodiment.  In this lecture, I discuss how this problem has been approached on each side of the Atlantic, using the differing approaches as a vehicle to understand resolution of disputes in the information age.

Dan L. Burk is Chancellor’s Professor of Law at the University of California, Irvine, where he was a founding member of the law faculty.  An internationally prominent authority on issues related to high technology, he teaches and writes on patent law, copyright, and related topics.  Professor Burk holds a B.S. in Microbiology (1985) from Brigham Young University, an M.S. in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry (1987) from Northwestern University, a J.D. (1990) from Arizona State University, and a J.S.M. (1994) from Stanford University.  He is the author of numerous papers on the legal and societal impact of new technologies, drawing on interdisciplinary insights from social science, physical science, and the humanities.  During the Fall of 2019, he will be a Senior Visiting Fellow at the Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society in Berlin.

Lukas Mairhofer

Dying experiments. A case study. 

Working experiments are the exception rather than the rule. Experimental setups seem to be broken pretty much all the time, and building, aligning, maintaining and repairing the apparatus form a much larger part of laboratory work then actual measurements.  Faults and failures of technical instruments increase over time, limiting the lifetime of experimental setups. The fragility of the apparatus exhibits the multitude of agencies contributing to an observation. These agencies act on cultural, social, material and political levels. 
Here I will present the case of a dying quantum physics experiment, the Kapitza-Dirac-Talbot-Lau interferometer for molecules of the Vienna QuantumNanoPhyiscs group. This outstanding interferometer currently holds the world record for the largest particles exhibiting quantum delocalization and superposition, demonstrated by producing a nano-structured fringe pattern of these molecules.
I will discuss the lifecycle of the experiment and how it was shaped by funding, career interests and inherent limitations of the apparatus. Its performance decreased significantly after about ten years of successful operation, and the interference fringes began to fade. This becomes clearly visible when taking a look at the number of publications the experiment yielded. The failure of the apparatus triggered intense social conflicts within the group, driven by questions of power and differences in culture as well as experimental practice, but also influenced by external political pressure. Over a period of two years parts were exchanged and the interferometer realigned, giving insight into the interdependence of the material practices and the status of the interference-pattern as artifact. Finally it was declared dead and bid farewell with funeral rites.