Electricdreams - Between fiction and society IV
VISIONS OF CONTROL: POWER AND TECHNOLOGY IN SPECULATIVE FICTION
Call for papers for an international in-person conference on speculative fiction, Organized and hosted by IULM University of Milan (Italy) in collaboration with Complutense University of Madrid and the HISTOPIA research group, taking place from October 15 to 17, 2025.
Areas of interest: literature, cinema, television, comics, games/videogames, new media, performative arts, cultural studies.
The fourth edition of Sognielettrici – Between Fiction and Society invites contributions on how speculative fiction – across media such as literature, film, television, video games, comics, and performative arts – critically addresses the entanglement of power and technology.
Technological development—material and conceptual, ethical and political—plays a fundamental role in shaping societal structures and cultural imaginaries. As Marshall McLuhan (1967) famously argued, “All media work us over completely. They are so pervasive ... that they leave no part of us untouched.” Technology conditions not only what we can do, but also how we think and relate to others. Its influence is pervasive, its neutrality questionable. Power, likewise, resists reduction to a single definition. As Faridun Sattarov (2019) notes, it can be episodic (interpersonal influence), dispositional (the capacity to affect outcomes), systemic (structural constraints and affordances), or constitutive (productive of identity and agency). These modalities of power interact in diverse, often conflicting ways with the technologies we use and imagine. David Kipnis (2012) writes that “technology represents the means by which humans exercise control over their physical and social worlds.” It is therefore clear that technology is power, and that power—not only political but also economic—seeks technology as a tool for control and the assertion of its authority. Clearly, technology is not solely or simply an instrument for manipulation and propaganda; it can also be a means of resistance and sharing.
Speculative fiction offers a privileged space for exploring, contesting, and reimagining the uses and abuses of power through technology. In the decaying world of George Orwell’s 1984 (1949), for instance, technology allegorically supports the divine eye of Big Brother, enabling continuous government surveillance across Oceania and depriving citizens of privacy and self-determination. In contrast, in Mattapoisett, in the utopian future envisioned by Marge Piercy in Woman on the Edge of Time (1976), technology serves the “good place,” helping to level social, racial, and gender inequalities, and to harmonize architecture and nature with a strong emphasis on ecological sustainability. There could also be rebellious technologies, as in the Swedish TV series Äkta människor (Real Humans, 2012), or uncontrollable and alien ones, such as the shimmer and the genetic technologies in Annihilation (Jeff VanderMeer, 2014) and the fungal technology in The Girl with All the Gifts (M.R. Carey, 2014). The Deus Ex video game series (2000-2016) explores transhumanist themes and the ways in which corporations and governments use technology to control society. In the Japanese manga Blame! (1997-2003), by Tsutomu Nihei, technology shapes vast architectural environments and autonomous intelligent systems that have spun out of human control. Conversely, in the narrative universe of Star Trek (1966-present), technology is portrayed as a utopian force that transforms society by overcoming inequality and misunderstanding, and by fostering knowledge and exploration. Furthermore, performative arts such as documentary theatre employ testimonies, documents, and archives to question power and truth. Technology assumes a dual role as both a narrative tool and a subject of critique, highlighting how media and devices shape perceptions of power. The stage transforms into a site of resistance, prompting the audience to consider authenticity and narrative control. In this way, theatre and technology merge to reveal systems of domination in modern society.
We invite proposals that explore speculative representations of power and technology across all media, historical periods, and cultural contexts. Topics may include, but are not limited to:
- interpretations, representations, and reimaginings of power-technology relations;
- ecocritical approaches and environmental justice;
- singularity, inevitability, accelerationism, techno-solutionism;
- postcolonial reconfigurations of technological infrastructures;
- post-/trans-human, animal, and environmental forms of otherness;
- alien technologies and alternative realities;
- dystopian regimes of control and surveillance;
- technological imaginaries of resistance and collective agency (e.g., solarpunk, utopia, ecotopia);
- intersections of power and technology with gender, race, religion, minority identities.
The conference will be held in-person and its official language will be English. We welcome abstracts for 20-minute presentations from scholars at all career stages. Papers may be submitted individually or as part of pre-constituted panels. We invite proposals that explore speculative representations of power and technology across all media, historical periods, and cultural contexts. Topics may include, but are not limited to:
● interpretations, representations, and reimaginings of power-technology relations;
● ecocritical approaches and environmental justice;
● singularity, inevitability, accelerationism, techno-solutionism;
● postcolonial reconfigurations of technological infrastructures;
● post-/trans-human, animal, and environmental forms of otherness;
● alien technologies and alternative realities;
● dystopian regimes of control and surveillance;
● technological imaginaries of resistance and collective agency (e.g., solarpunk, utopia, ecotopia);
● the intersections of power and technology with gender, race, religion, minority identities.
The conference will be held in-person and its official language will be English. We welcome abstracts for 20-minute presentations from scholars at all career stages. Papers may be submitted individually or as part of pre-constituted panels.
Submission details
Please send:
- name, affiliation and contact information
- an abstract (max 300 words)
- a short bio (max 100 words)
by 30 June 2025
For panel proposals (3–4 participants), please include a brief panel overview and individual abstracts and bios.
Important dates
- Abstract deadline: 30 June 2025
- Notification of acceptance: 15 July 2025
- Confirmation of participation: 30 July 2025
The conference is part of the Sognielettrici / Electricdreams International Film Festival (13–18 October 2025).
Registration
Conference fee: €40
Optional social dinner: €20
Note: payments are non-refundable.
Scientific Committee:
Simone Arcagni (IULM University)
Matteo Bittanti (IULM University)
Gianni Canova (IULM University)
Manuela Ceretta (University of Turin)
Luisa Damiano (IULM University)
Megen de Bruin-Molé (Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton)
Elisabetta Di Minico (HISTOPIA)
Ester Fuoco (IULM University)
Gaia Giuliani (CES - Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra)
Hagen Lehmann (IULM University)
Stefano Locati (IULM University)
Scott Jordan (Illinois State University)
Francisco José Martínez Mesa (Complutense University of Madrid, HISTOPIA)
Anna Pasolini (University of Milan)
Juan Pro Ruiz (CSIC - Spanish National Research Council, HISTOPIA)
Federico Selvini (IULM University)
Nicoletta Vallorani (University of Milan)
Organizers contacts:
Stefano Locati, [email protected]
Elisabetta Di Minico, [email protected]
Federico Selvini, [email protected]
LINK: SOGNI ELETTRICI
