Surveillance Teach-in

metafactory — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 16:05:01 +0000

Nothing like a good ol’ fashioned teach-in! In collaboration with the Whitney (art gallery) a teach-in has been organized in New York city around the topic of surveillance. In my mind some of the most interesting and exciting assemblies of people are organized as companion events to art-exhibitions.

Award-winning filmmaker Laura Poitras explores issues of war, justice, and power. Her current film trilogy, focusing on America post 9/11, documents the Iraq War, secret state surveillance, and the suspension of the rule of law in the “war on terror.” For this evening program, she is joined by Jacob Appelbaum, computer security researcher, privacy advocate, hacker, and human rights activist. Woven through the Museum will be interactive installations by Stimulate. The Surveillance Teach-In is an artistic and practical commentary on living in the contemporary Panopticon.

Enrique Rodriguez lecture

metafactory — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 19:10:38 +0000

Jonathan Sterne Lecture

metafactory — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 09:37:17 +0000

Writing for the Future

metafactory — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:03:10 +0000

Professor Paul Stoller (Guggenheim Fellow, and UT Austin Alum) will be here on February 27th as part of the Sensorium lecture series.

Writing for the Future

A public lecture by Professor Paul Stoller (West Chester University)
Time: February 27, 2012 at Noon
Location: Student Activity Center 5.118
Paul Stoller’s Faculty web page

Abstract: In the academy there has always been a tension between institutional expectation – what we are expected to do to advance on our scholarly path – and creative desire – what we want to produce to fulfill our deep existential obligations. Given the power of academic institutions, most of us, and here I certainly include myself, tend to do what is expected: to produce academic texts that are markers of intellectual distinction. These texts, usually written with the “dead hand of competence” in a bloodless plain style, may well raise eyebrows and make important contributions to knowledge. They are usually documents that seek “the truth of statements,” a truth formed in the logical precision of discourse. No matter the sophistication of the argument, these texts usually do not endure. In relatively short periods of time, they are stored away – to make room for newer works that reflect the next moment. Once in storage, these “dated” texts remain closed to the world. But there is another path. Texts that seek the “truth of being,” a truth that is, in part, sensuously evoked through narrative and image, have a much better chance of remaining open to the world. These are productions in which the scholar takes institutional risks to create works that may pass the test of time, works that produce knowledge that somehow makes life a little sweeter. In this talk, I suggest how anthropologists might produce works that seek a “truth of being.” These are productions that reflect a measure of mastery. For the Songhay of Niger, mastery is reached when the specialist – a custodian of knowledge – is finally ready to take on the greatest obligation: to pass on what he or she has learned on to the next generation. Stories are told, lessons are learned and the work moves on to a future in which the specialist’s thoughts and images remain open to the world.

“Paul Stoller has been conducting anthropological research for 30 years. His early work concerned the religion of the Songhay people who live in the Republics of Niger and Mali in West Africa. In that work, he focused primarily on magic, sorcery and spirit possession practices. Since 1992, Stoller has pursued studies of West African immigrants in New York City. Those studies have concerned such topics as the cultural dynamics of informal market economies and the politics of immigration. The results of this ongoing research has led Stoller to the study of the anthropology of religion, visual anthropology, the anthropology of senses and economic anthropology. Stoller’s work has resulted in the publication of 11 books, including ethnographies, biographies, memoirs as well as two novels. His work is widely read and recognized. In 1994 he was awarded a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship. In 2002, the American Anthropological Association named him the recipient of the Robert B Textor Award for Excellence in Anthropology. He lectures frequently both in the United States and Europe and has appeared on various NPR programs as well as on the National Geographic Television Network.” (Huffington Post)

Photography & ethnicity in 19th-century Mexico discussed

metafactory — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 17:36:31 +0000

Description: “The Heart of Darkness in the Lacandon Rain Forest” is a talk by Dr. Deborah Dorotinsky, Institute of Aesthetic Research, National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). Dorotinsky examines the visual construction of landscape and ethnicity in Mexico, as counterpoints to the post-revolutionary discourse on urban development, the New Man and modernization.

Time: Wed. Feb.15 from 5-6 p.m.
Location: Art Building (ART) 1.120
Admission: Free

Deborah Dorotinsky, Institute of Aesthetic Research, National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), will examine the visual construction of landscape and ethnicity in Mexico, as counterpoint to the Post Revolutionay discourse on urban development, the New Man, and modernization. Photography of indigenous peoples of Mexico grew towards the end of the 19th century together with the documentation of popular types. Photography soon became an artifact in the classification, control, and knowledge production of cultural, social, and gendered otherness.

In 1943 Mañana published a four-part photographic essay on an adventurous field trip undertaken to the Lacandon rain forest by a group of scientists, government officials, and two of the magazine’s journalists. The rhetoric of the journalistic account recaptures the discourse of the 19th century adventure and travel novels characteristic of Colonial discourse. It also turns the rain forest and the Lacandon groups into a Mexican version of Joseph Conrad’s The Heart of Darkness, wherein inhabitants mark the zero degree of civilization.

Sight, Darkness, Secrecy

metafactory — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:21:52 +0000

Sensory Complications in Maya Archaeology

A public lecture by Professor Stephen D. Houston (Brown University)
Time: February 6, 2012 at Noon
Location: Student Activity Center 5.118

Abstract: The human senses access and process stimuli from a variety of sources. This talk, which focuses on evidence from the Classic Maya, attends to the abridgement of one sense in particular, that of sight, and to the calculated withholding of input. For Classic elites, seeing was understood as a validating form of witness. It was also, it seems, a creative and inceptional act. What then, did the ancient Maya make of darkness, invisibility, and further acts of withholding? What was a “secret,” knowledge revealed to few, and how was withholding, showing, and seeing managed in the buildings and habitual spaces of the Classic Maya? Evidence brought to bear will include glyphic texts, archaeology, more recent language, and the comparative anthropology of secrecy.

Informal Workshop: Chelsi West

Calvin — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 03:11:05 +0000

Join Cultural Forms student Chelsi West as she workshops images from her fieldwork in Albania.

When: Thursday, December 1st at noon
Where: Intermedia Research Studio

Informal Workshop: Daniel Rudin

Calvin — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 21:17:21 +0000

When: Thursday, November 10th at noon
Where: Intermedia Research Studio

Drop in, stop on by, and workshop with MFA student Daniel Rudin as he designs a new video/installation on November 10th at noon. This is a public workshop, everyone is welcome.

Art/E/Fact Publication

Calvin — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 17:23:08 +0000

An interesting new project exploring the connections and entanglements of art and anthropology, Art/E/Fact brings together essays and new media productions in a biannual publication supported by The Centre for Visual Anthropology at Goldsmiths. Art/E/Fact’s first issue, On Dialogues, focuses specifically on the generative point of contact between artistic mediums and anthropological methodologies. From the website:

An academic resource and traveling exhibition, ART/E/FACT is designed to be a forum for artists and anthropologists to use their own mediums to approach the space wherein anthropology and the arts intersect; the first of its kind.

Submissions for the second publication will be announced in the winter of 2012.

New Nikon Slide Feeder for Scanning 35mm Slides

Calvin — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 21:49:07 +0000

The Workshop just installed a new, motorized slide feeder to the 35mm slide scanner. Load up to 50 slides at once, and let the Nikon SF-210 quickly digitize your collection of images. The feeder handles most slide sizes and brands. … Continue reading →