Symposia
Aesthetic activism
This symposium, convened by Mark Foster Gage, explores emerging positions that cast aesthetics as the primary discourse for social, ecological, and political engagement. In contrast to commonly held opinions that these issues are antithetical to the aesthetic, recent work in aesthetic theory across multiple disciplines suggests that such political and ontological problems may be best addressed as aspects of aesthetic experience. An interdisciplinary group of philosophers, scholars, media theorists, artists, curators, and architects will speculate on how a reignited discourse on aesthetics is prompting new insights into our relationships with not only objects, spaces, environments, and ecologies, but also with each other and political structures in which we are all enmeshed. Philosophical viewpoints foregrounding aesthetics, including Accelerationism, Afro-Futurism, Dark Ecology, Extro-Science Fiction, Disobedient Objects, Immaterialism, Object-Oriented Ontology, and Xenofeminism, will be explored and discussed through a series of lectures, presentations of work, and interdisciplinary roundtable discussions.
Symposium program
Thursday, October 13, 2016
Keynote address Elaine Scarry, Harvard University “Building and breath: beauty and the pact of aliveness” Hastings Hall, 6:30 p.m.
Friday, October 14, 2016
Morning session Hastings Hall, 9:00 a.m.
Mark Foster Gage, Yale University Jonathan Massey, California College of the Arts Keller Easterling, Yale University Catherine Ingraham, Pratt Institute Timothy Morton, Rice University
Afternoon session Hastings Hall, 2:00 p.m.
Ferda Kolatan, University of Pennsylvania Graham Harmon, Southern California Institute of Architecture Ariane Lourie Harrison, Yale University David Ruy, Southern California Institute of Architecture Elaine Scarry, Harvard University Tom Wiscombe, Southern California Institute of Architecture
Keynote address Jacques Rancière, Université Paris-VIII Mark Foster Gage, Yale University “The aesthetic today” Hastings Hall, 6:30 p.m.
Saturday, November 11, 2017
Morning session Hastings Hall, 9:00 a.m.
Peggy Deamer, Yale University Nettrice Gaskins, Boston Arts Academy Diann Bauer, Artist Catherine Flood, Victoria & Albert Museum Jonathan Massey, California College of the Arts
Early afternoon session Hastings Hall, 12:30 p.m.
Michael Speaks, Syracuse University Hernan Diaz Alonso, Southern California Institute of Architecture Lydia Kallipoliti, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Jason Payne, University of California, Los Angeles Rhett Russo, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Albena Yaneva, University of Manchester
Late afternoon session Hastings Hall, 2:00 p.m.
Michael Young, Yale University Gregory Crewdson, Yale University Caroline Picard, Curator Pamela Rosenkranz, Artist Roger Rothman, Bucknell University David Ruy, Southern California Institute of Architecture
This symposium is supported by the J. Irwin Miller Endowment Fund.