---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Gediminas Urbonas <[email protected]> Date: Wed, Apr 18, 2018 at 4:28 AM Subject: Zooetics+ Symposium at MIT, April 27 - 28 To: Gediminas Urbonas <[email protected]> Dear friends and colleagues, We are delighted to send you this invite to the Zooetics+ Symposium that commences April 27-28, 2018 at MIT. The Zooetics+ Symposium will discuss the habits of thought associated with cybernetics and the transition towards new thinking, inspired by sympoietics. The Zooetics+ invites renowned scholars, artists, philosophers, scientists, anthropologists and cultural theorists to address cohabitation of human and other forms of life as an urgent issue that unfolds through a variety of discourses: indigenous and vernacular knowledge, posthumanism, and human-animal studies, among others. Zooetics+ proposes re-imagining the role of ecosystemic thinking and artistic imagination in this context. Please find the Symposium description in the link below: http://act.mit.edu/projects-and-events/events/public-programs/international- symposium-on-zooetics/ Zooetics+ is part of ACT’s program recognizing the 50th anniversary of the founding of the renowned MIT’s Center for Advanced Visual Studies (CAVS), a predecessor to ACT. The Symposium is free and open for public (registration is required though). You are welcome to share this opportunity with your colleagues and students. Looking forward seeing you at Zooetics+ Symposium at MIT! best wishes, Nomeda & Gediminas GU / *谷* * Gediminas Urbonas Associate Professor MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology School of Architecture and Planning * --- MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology (ACT) ACT Cube 20 Ames Street <https://maps.google.com/?q=20+Ames+Street&entry=gmail&source=g>, E15-001, Cambridge, MA 02142 The Zooetics+ Symposium commences Friday, April 27, 2018 with the sessions “What Does Ecosystemic Thinking Mean Today” and “Knowledge Production Through Making and Living with Other Species,” discussing the habits of thought associated with cybernetics and the transition towards new thinking, inspired by sympoietics. The day will be finalized with a session speculating on what non-human imagination could look like in the session “The Radical Imagination: Toward Overcoming the Human.” On Saturday, April 28, the program will explore further devices for ecosystemic thinking, discussing relevant artistic methods and practices in the panel “Artistic Intelligence, Speculation, Prototypes, Fiction.” “Creating Indigenous Futures” will be explored through bringing Indigenous values together with science and technology. The need for other, alternative vantage points—of species, of time, of traditions, of beings will be addressed in the session “Futures of Symbiotic Assemblages: Multi-naturalism, Monoculture Resistance and “The Permanent Decolonization of Thought.” The symposium will conclude with a roundtable and launch of a new artistic research program “Sympoiesis: New Research, New Pedagogy, and New Publishing in Radical Inter-disciplinarity.” Zooetics+ will be accompanied by a program of performances and installations by Juan Pérez Agirregoikoa, Allora and Calzadilla, Rasa Smite and Raitis Smits, Rikke Luther and NODE Berlin/Oslo. *Detailed Schedule and Description of Program Sessions:* *FRIDAY, APRIL 27* *9:30 AM Registration* *10:00 AM Opening Protocol by Erin Genia* *10:15 AM Introduction to Zooetics+ Nomeda & Gediminas Urbonas* *10:30 AM–12:00 PM What Does Ecosystemic Thinking Mean Today? *Genealogy, impact and legacy of ecosystematic thought since the dawn of cybernetics. How have the infrastructures changed today since the publication of “Limits to Growth” or “Whole Earth Catalogue”? What tools are there to attune ourselves to perceive the interconnections of natural and man-made systems and to be able to make ethical, political, aesthetic decisions? This session is engaged with the question of how to transition from the habits of thought associated with cybernetics towards new thinking… perhaps sympoietics? Cary Wolfe and Sophia Roosth Respondent: Lars Bang Larsen *12:00 PM–1:30 PM Lunch break and Banner Tow Flight by Juan Pérez Agirregoikoa* *1:30 PM–3:00 PM Knowledge Production Through Making and Living with Other Species* Visions for species equality. Conviviality. Accessing other-than-human ways of knowing. Learning from other species (vis-a-vis biomimicry of other species) Scott Gilbert and Stefan Helmreich Moderator: Caitlin Berrigan Respondent: Caroline A Jones *3:00 PM–3:15 PM Break* *3:15 PM–5:00 PM The Radical Imagination: Toward Overcoming the Human* Often reduced to a capacity of either a subject or consciousness, imagination could be thought as a way of opening up to the future and the unknown. Simultaneously being a sphere of change and transformation, it invents the directions of its own development and acts as a link between a human and the powers of the world. However, is it possible transcend human imagination? What would a non-human imagination look like? Chiara Bottici, Richard Kearney and Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg Respondent: Kristupas Sabolius *SATURDAY April 28* *9:30 AM Registration* *10:00 AM–11:30 AM Artistic Intelligence, Speculation, Prototypes, Fiction. Learning Through Artistic Methods. *Artistic methods of speculation, prototype making, modelling and fiction as pedagogical devices for ecosystemic thinking. Sheila Kennedy, Heather Davis Respondents: Larissa Harris and Laura Serejo Genes *11:30 AM–11:45 AM Break* *11:45 AM–1:15 PM Creating Indigenous Futures: **Indigenous artists discuss their work in relationship to futurity and creative reclamation* Looking ahead to future generations, sustained by the strength of our ancestors and wise to the challenges of living in fraught times, how do we bring our values as Indigenous people to our work in creating Indigenous futures? Courtney M. Leonard (Shinnecock), Jackson Polys (Tlingit), Kite (Oglala Lakota) Respondent: Mario Caro *1:30 PM–2:30 PM Lunch break* *2:30 PM–4:00 PM Futures of Symbiotic Assemblages: Multi-naturalism, Monoculture Resistance and “The Permanent Decolonization of Thought”* In the age of post-truth, peak oil, alternative facts, and the alternative right, it has never been more urgent to defend the need for the coexistence of other, alternative vantage points – of species, of time, of traditions, of beings. Emmanuel Alloa, Kim TallBear Respondents: Gediminas Urbonas, Laura Knott, Nuno Gomes Loureiro, and Nolan Oswald Dennis *4:00 PM–4:30 PM Break* *4:30PM–5:30PM Closing remarks and future plans: *Sympoiesis: New Research, New Pedagogy, and New Publishing in Radical Inter-disciplinarity Florian Schneider, Corinne Diserens, Lars Bang Larsen, Gediminas Urbonas, Nomeda Urbonas, Judith Barry, Gary Zhang, 3 witnesses *6:00 PM Chalk by Allora and Calzadilla, Saxon Tennis Courts, 3 Ames Street, Cambridge, MA <https://maps.google.com/?q=3+Ames+Street,+Cambridge,+MA&entry=gmail&source=g>* *6:30 PM Reception at the Muddy Charles Pub, Walker Memorial, Building 50, first floor* *8:00 PM Projection Event by NODE Berlin/Oslo* *8:30 PM Biotricity by Rasa Smite and Raitis Smits, MIT Center for Theoretical Physics, Building 6-304* *9:30 PM Performance by Rikke Luther, ACT Cube, Building E15-001* *Speakers:* - Emmanuel Alloa, philosopher, University of St.Galen, Switzerland - Lars Bang Larsen, curator, Royal Institute of Art Stockholm, Sweden - Judith Barry, artist, MIT ACT - Caitlin Berrigan, artist, NYU Tisch, Photography and Imaging - Chiara Bottici, philosopher, The New School for Social Research - Mario Caro, curator, MIT ACT - Heather Davis, writer, McGill University - Nolan Oswald Dennis, artist, MIT ACT - Corinne Diserens, curator - Erin Genia (Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate), artist, MIT ACT - Scott Gilbert, biologist, Swarthmore College and the University of Helsinki - Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, artist, freelance artist - Nuno Gomes Loureiro, physicist, MIT Nuclear Science and Engineering - Larissa Harris, curator, Queens Museum, New York - Stefan Helmreich, anthropologist, MIT Anthropology - Caroline A. Jones, art historian, MIT Architecture - Richard Kearney, philosopher, Boston College - Sheila Kennedy, architect, MIT Architecture - Kite (Oglala Lakota), artist, Concordia University - Laura Knott, artist, MIT ACT - Courtney M. Leonard (Shinnecock), artist - Jackson Polys (Tlingit), artist, Columbia University - Sophia Roosth, historian of science, Harvard University - Kristupas Sabolius, philosopher, Vilnius University - Laura Serejo Genes, artist, MIT ACT - Florian Schneider, artist, NTNU, Trondheim Academy of Fine Art - Kim TallBear (Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate), indigenous scholar, University of Alberta - Nomeda & Gediminas Urbonas, artists, MIT ACT - Cary Wolfe, cultural theorist, Rice University - Gary Zhexi Zhang, artist, MIT ACT *for registration: * *http://act.mit.edu/projects-and-events/events/public-programs/international-... <http://act.mit.edu/projects-and-events/events/public-programs/international-symposium-on-zooetics/>* Organized by: Jutempus and the MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology: Gediminas Urbonas (MIT Program in Art, Culture & Technology), Nomeda Urbonas (ACT, and NTNU, Norway), Viktorija Siaulyte (Jutempus Interdisciplinary Art Program), Kristupas Sabolius (Vilnius University), Laura Knott (MIT Program in Art, Culture & Technology), Lars Bang Larsen (Royal Institute of Art), Laura Serejo Genes (MIT Program in Art, Culture & Technology) A___Zooetics is part of the Outreach and Education Programme of Frontiers in Retreat project (EACEA 2013-1297) and is funded with support from the European Commission as well as Lithuanian Council for Culture. This communication reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use of the information contained herein. The Symposium is co-produced by Jutempus Interdisciplinary Art Program and the MIT Program in Art, Culture & Technology (ACT), and sponsored, in addition, by the Office of the Dean of the School of Architecture + Planning, MIT. Co-presented by the MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology (CAST). *Thanks to our generous sponsors*: AC/E Acción Cultural Española; Council for the Arts at MIT (CAMIT); The Danish Art Council; Diversity Office, SA+P; Goethe-Institut Boston; MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology (CAST); MIT Committee on Race and Diversity; Mediafon; Nordic Culture Fund; Office for Contemporary Art Norway; Office of the Dean, SA+P; Pro Helvetia; swissnex Boston for more information please contact: [email protected] [email protected] -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens
