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30/11/2014

Going the Distance: Cultural Work in Far-flung Political and Geographical Spheres

Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School, New York

The third of a series of seminars investigating political engagement through various artistic and cultural practices including dis-engagement, boycotts, or other modes of withdrawal, "Going the Distance" delves into cultural and political work over great distances-physical, political, philosophical, social, financial, or cultural. In a world in which technological innovation characteristic of late capitalism has collapsed time and space to diminish distance, how do we connect with other geographies and people via artistic production? In locations where the political situations on the ground are unclear, complex, dangerous or unstable, and information and news are unreliable and nuanced, how do cultural workers contend with knowledge-gathering, research, communication, and production? What methodologies do artists and cultural producers employ to activate the power of digital communication when the power of in-person human contact has been paralyzed? The Back Room's Ava Ansari and Molly Kleiman kick off the seminar at 5pm with the screening of a short film featuring architectural historian Craig L. Wilkins and Ava Ansari's joint reading of the Remix Section of his Aesthetic of Equity, respectively in English and in Farsi. A discussion follows with Ansari and Kleiman on the translation process and Wilkins's notion of "code switching" from academic to vernacular black register; the politics and challenges of translating vernacular speech; and specific examples of "untranslatables" in the English and Farsi text. From 6:30 to 9pm Ansari and Kleinman present their work more broadly, connecting their specific practices to the larger problematics of cross-border engagement. They are joined by artists Melanie Crean and Yevgeniy Fiks in this conversation on modes of engagement that transcend various borders of geography, culture, language; abstract notions of working across great distances, and the specific practicalities of their realization; and the importance of deconstructing perception in the face of the reality of cultural assumptions. (Image: Yevgeniy Fiks, Postcards from the Revolutionary Pleshka, 2013) Free admission.

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