Lecture series: Looking Forward ACT! Intersecting Explorations Across Art-Culture-Technology

Urgent, critical, and experimental explorations across art-culture-technology. Our fall 2021 programming aims to revisit the foundational parameters of the Art, Culture, and Technology Program, positioning ACT within the context of a changing world and its future challenges. By articulating key thematic avenues and methodological approaches that intersect the work of invited artists and ACT faculty members, we link these inquiries to concerns of other researchers at MIT and beyond. The programming falls into two categories: artist talks and panels.

Encumbrance, Cameron Rowland
Monday, November 8, 6pm EST, virtual event
The property relation of the enslaved included and exceeded that of chattel and real estate. Plantation mortgages exemplify the ways in which the value of people who were enslaved, the land they were forced to labor on, and the houses they were forced to maintain were mutually constitutive. Following the lecture, Rowland will be joined by Professor Yolande Daniels (MIT Architecture Faculty) and Curator Natalie Bell (List Visual Arts Center) for a discussion, followed by an open Q+A. Note: real time event only, there will be no recording.

Sovereignty & Indigenous Curation Panel
Monday, November 15, 6pm EST, virtual event
A conversation with heather ahtone, Mario Caro, Patricia Norby, and Anna-Marie White. This panel discussion will consider ways in which the practice of Indigenous curation enacts sovereignty by addressing the various challenges of doing Indigenous curation within and, at times, against art institutions. The panel will include short presentations followed by a moderated discussion with ACT Lecturer Mario Caro, and an open Q+A.

Art, Science & Crisis Panel
Monday, December 6, 6pm EST, virtual event
This panel discussion will include short presentations followed by a moderated discussion with ACT Faculty, and an open Q+A.

Previous events:

Oracular, Sanford Biggers
Thursday, September 16, 6pm EDT, watch here

Vibrations, Lina Lapelytė
Monday, September 27, 6pm EDT

Begin Again, Again, Leslie Thornton
Saturday, October 23, 2pm EDT
In collaboration with the List Visual Arts Center.

Contested History & Performative Preservation
Monday, October 25, 6pm EDT, watch here
A conversation with Azra Akšamija, Morehshin Allahyari, Mark Jarzombek, and Charles Shadle. 

ACT’s lecture series draws together artists, scholars, and other cultural practitioners from different disciplines to discuss artistic methodologies and forms of inquiry at the intersection of art, architecture, science, and technology. Each spring and fall semester brings a different thematic focus and the format for each event shifts depending on the visitor(s) and the nature of their presentations and performances.

ACT’s fall 2021 series is conceived by Azra Aksamija, ACT Director, and coordinated with Marissa Friedman, Marketing and Communications Manager. This lecture series is made possible with the generous support of The Council for the Arts at MIT (CAMIT).