LitPDX seeks to amplify marginalized voices, and welcomes all, their ideas, their events, and their words.

For details regarding specific events please contact the organizers or venues. If you are an organizer or venue and would like to reach out to us please feel free to contact us or submit an event using our submission form. We’d love to hear from you!

The Reality Game: How the Next Wave of Technology Will Break the Truth

Powell's Books at Cedar Hills Crossing 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd, Beaverton, OR, United States

Fake news posts and Twitter trolls were just the beginning. What will happen when misinformation moves from our social media feeds into our everyday lives? Despite Samuel Woolley's warnings as early as 2013, the problem of online disinformation stormed our political process in 2016 and has only worsened since. Yet as Woolley shows in his urgent new book, The Reality Game (PublicAffairs), it may pale in comparison to what's to come: human-like automated voice systems, machine learning, "deepfake" AI-edited videos and images, interactive memes, and more. In deeply researched stories, Woolley describes this future and imagines its profound impact on our politics.

Free

Submission Deadline: 2021 Bitch Media Fellowships for Writers

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

We’re pleased to announce that the 2021 Bitch Media Fellowships for Writers applications are now open! A series of three-month intensive writing fellowships, the goal is to develop, support, and amplify emerging voices in feminist media. All fellows will work under the guidance of Bitch cofounder Andi Zeisler. This fellowship was created in order to cultivate and amplify new voices. If you are a writer who has minimal publication experience, we strongly encourage you to apply. If you are passionate about one of the above subject areas but do not have a history of writing or blogging about them, we strongly encourage you to apply. If you are a writer still figuring out what subjects obsess you, we strongly encourage you to apply. Fellows will work in one of four subject…

Free

Summer 2020 Online: Science, Magic, and the Mundane: Speculative Worlds and How to Write Them

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

When we think of speculative words, such as those found in science fiction, high fantasy, and urban fantasy, we often wonder how the author managed to come up with fantastical ideas that are both believable and logical. We often don’t stop to think about how much of the scientific in our world could easily be considered magical, or how our mundane life could also be seen as extraordinary. It’s easy enough to say that our technology would be fantastical to someone from a hundred years ago, but what separates the current mundane from the current fantastical in our writing? In this class we will first examine modern technology, current trends, the natural world, and popular beliefs, and convert them to a magical viewpoint. Participants will…

$185

Nicole Perlroth in Conversation With John Markoff

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Zero day: a software bug that allows a hacker to break into your devices and move around undetected. One of the most coveted tools in a spy's arsenal, a zero day has the power to silently spy on your iPhone, dismantle the safety controls at a chemical plant, alter an election, and shut down the electric grid (just ask Ukraine). For decades, under cover of classification levels and non-disclosure agreements, the United States government became the world's dominant hoarder of zero days. U.S. government agents paid top dollar — first thousands, and later millions of dollars — to hackers willing to sell their lock-picking code and their silence. Then the United States lost control of its hoard and the market. Now those zero days are…

Free

Premise Course: Do we shape our world or does it shape us? Arendt’s The Human Condition

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

(Learn about Premise classes here: https://www.premiseinstitute.com/premisefaq) What is the role of technology in shaping us? What is the purpose of public life? Should we live as thinkers or doers? These are the questions that Hannah Arendt tackles in her 1958 work The Human Condition. Philosophers have long argued that the ideal state for the human condition is a life of contemplation and inward focus. Arendt questions the value of the vita contemplativa and proposes that a life of action, vita activa, is central to the human condition. Hannah Arendt is one of the most influential thinkers and writers of the twentieth century. She is typically associated with her work on totalitarianism and the philosophical roots of evil and judgment. The Human Condition offers a comprehensive…

$150

Tech Support Group

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

This workshop will take place on zoom. Register here. In this four-part workshop meets peer support group, participants will gather to cultivate community and creative consciousness around the complex presence that smartphones have in our lives. Each meeting will include space for sharing, inquiring, exploring creative prompts and developing ideas for a cumulative collaborative Tech Support zine. The zine may include drawings, writings, poems, prompts, experiments, photos, etc which reflect the unique experiences participants have with their phones. Participants can expect weekly email offerings with questions, prompts and themes to support their processes, to be used if desired. About the facilitator: Erika Dedini (she/her) holds a Bachelor of Science in Art Practices from Portland State University. She has completed a two-year training program in mindful somatic therapy from Mindful…

Free

PNCA Graduate Symposium 2021: Speculative Futures

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Hallie Ford School of Graduate studies (HFSGS) at PNCA is pleased to announce the 2021 Graduate Symposium theme: “Speculative Features.” This symposium will consider how contemporary artists render algorithmic harms visible and imagine speculative futures optimized for just outcomes. The two-day event will facilitate conversations on the ethical, environmental, political, social, and economic impacts of artificial intelligence and machine learning for artists, designers, makers, writers, researchers, and cultural workers. Featuring the work of Amelia Winger-Bearskin, an artist who innovates with technology to make a positive impact on her community and the environment, and Mashinka Firunts Hakopian, a scholar and curator exploring the intersections of algorithmic justice and visual art, Speculative Futures explores how artificial intelligence shapes political imaginaries of what is yet to come. SCHEDULE:…

Free

Tech Support Group

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

This workshop will take place on zoom. Register here. In this four-part workshop meets peer support group, participants will gather to cultivate community and creative consciousness around the complex presence that smartphones have in our lives. Each meeting will include space for sharing, inquiring, exploring creative prompts and developing ideas for a cumulative collaborative Tech Support zine. The zine may include drawings, writings, poems, prompts, experiments, photos, etc which reflect the unique experiences participants have with their phones. Participants can expect weekly email offerings with questions, prompts and themes to support their processes, to be used if desired. About the facilitator: Erika Dedini (she/her) holds a Bachelor of Science in Art Practices from Portland State University. She has completed a two-year training program in mindful somatic therapy from Mindful…

Free

Intro to InDesign

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

In this in-person Intro InDesign workshop, learn the basics of setting up a zine in InDesign. InDesign is a staple for book designers, zinesters and anyone looking to take their zines, chapbooks and publications to the next level. This guided tutorial will give participants an overview of some of InDesign’s most useful features and functions. Taught by Anthony Wylen $20-40 sliding scale. Register HERE.

$20 – $40

Samantha Cole in Conversation With Andi Zeisler

Powell's City of Books 1005 W Burnside Street, Portland, OR, United States

From the moment there was an “online,” there was sex online. The famous test image used by software engineers to develop formats like the jpeg was “Lena,” taken from Playboy’s November 1972 centerfold. Early bulletin boards and multi-user domains quickly came to serve their members sexual musings. Facebook started as a way to rate “hot or not” Harvard co-eds. In fact, virtually every significant development that defines the Internet we know and love (and hate) today — privacy issues, online payments and online banking, dating, social media, streaming technology, mass data collection — came about through the meeting of sexuality and technology. And the kicker is, not only did sexuality vastly influence the Internet, but the Internet arguably changed modern human sexuality by giving every…

Free