Lecture Series
Saturday, September 12th, 2009Lecture Series
“City as Stage, City as Process“ brings together speakers from art and (counter) culture, architecture, urbanism, and media technology to discuss such questions as: In what way is the city not a fixed entity, but a process? How do artists and cultural activists reclaim the street, activating the city as backdrop and insisting on public space? What makes a city a city? Who owns the city? How can media technology be designed to intervene in and navigate the city? The MIT Visual Arts Program (VAP) lecture series is directed by Ute Meta Bauer and Amber Frid-Jimenez. On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the VAP this term, the lecture series highlights the issues at the core of the academic program and the work and research of the faculty.
All events are free and open to the public.
For information:
vap at mit dot edu
617-253-5229
http://visualarts.mit.edu
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2009 Fall Schedule
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Monday, September 28, 2009 7-9 PM
Factory City
Christoph Schaefer
Watch the video
In the new urban fabric, subcultures, cultural workers, musicians and artists play a significant role as producers of collective spaces, places shaped by desires; as inventors of new perspectives and lifestyles. Christoph Schaefer will introduce Park Fiction, a collective self-organised project that managed to break from the grip of real estate developers an expensive piece of land on the prestigeous riverbank of Hamburg St. Pauli. A group of residents together with artists organized for the right to the city and against gentrification, winning a public park with a harbor view. The struggle for urban spaces is the struggle for the means of production: the city is our factory. What role can cultural workers play in this scenario?
Monday, October 5, 2009 7-9 PM
Performative City
Joan Jonas
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Performance and video pioneer Joan Jonas screens and discusses her outdoor performance pieces “Jones Beach Piece” and “Delay, Delay” that she developed into a video piece titled “Song Delay” (1973). First performed in lower Manhattan in 1972, the footage was shot from the roof of a loft building. From there, the audience overlooked the performance taking place in empty lots below with a view to the distant docks of the Lower West Side. Performing with a cast that included Gordon Matta-Clark, Jonas choreographed a theater of space, movement and sound with the urban landscape of New York in a featured role. She performed this piece a second time in Rome, where the audience watched the performance from the other side of the Tiber riverbank.
Monday, October 19, 2009 7-9 PM
Public City
Antoni Muntadas
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Artist Muntadas investigates notions of ‘City’ and ‘public.’ Is there still a public space? Is the city a place for interventions? City authorities and the private sector provide surveillance and control. Yet it is the city dwellers who should make critical decisions over the city. Can they? What contribution can artists, architects, designers, city planners make today to this discussion?
Monday, October 26, 2009 7-9 PM at Bartos Theater (E15)
Propaganda City
Mike Bonanno of The Yes Men
The activist collective The Yes Men transformed New York city for a day through a tactical media intervention. A hoax print of the New York Times was massively distributed throughout the city during the US presidential election campaign in 2008.
This event was made possible in part by the Grants Program of the Council for the Arts at MIT.
Monday, November 2, 2009 7-9 PM
Protest City
Ana Miljacki
Nomeda Urbonas
Ana Miljacki speaks about her project Classes, Masses, Crowds. This project was presented in Making Things Public, a 2005 exhibition curated by Bruno Latour and Peter Weibel at the ZKM in Karlsruhe, Germany. Nomeda Urbonas talks about the concept, process, and outcome of the project Pro-test Lab, a multi-dimensional project to save a historical cinema in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Monday, November 9, 2009 7-9 PM
Fractured City
Angus Boulton
Watch the video
Photographer Angus Boulton traverses Berlin’s complex layers of memory and history to record this visually exhilarating cityscape in transformation, where old and new are thrown together in dynamic juxtaposition. This event is a collaboration between the MIT Museum and the MIT Visual Arts Program on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall.
Monday, November 16, 2009 7-9 PM
Porous City
Krzysztof Wodiczko
Artist Krzysztof Wodiczko introduces his critical design proposals including Poliscar and Homeless Vehicles. Wodiczko’s work points toward the search for the city to come, one which provides a space that allows for disagreement, a prerequisite for democracy. Since 1980, Wodiczko has created over 70 public projections of still and video images that have animated historic monuments and civic edifices internationally. He has also developed a series of tools and devices for urban interventions as well as portable and wearable communication instrumentations.
This lecture series is directed by Ute Meta Bauer and Amber Frid-Jimenez. The series highlights the focus of studies and faculty work and research at the MIT Visual Arts Program on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the program.
MIT Visual Arts Program
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Department of Architecture
Directions
The MIT Visual Arts Program is located adjacent to the MIT Museum. Enter through the grey door on Front Street and take the elevator to the third floor. Exit to your left and go down the ramp. The Joan Jonas Performance Hall is located on the right.
By Public Transportation
Take the Red Line to Central Square. Walk four blocks along Massachusetts Avenue towards Boston and the Charles River, or take the #1 bus to the Front Street stop.
For information:
vap@mit.edu
617-253-5229
http://visualarts.mit.edu
