Fall 2015 Symposium
This wide-ranging interdisciplinary symposium will examine art, commerce, politics, history, and urban space on both sides of the Pacific. Creative artists and scholars will explore contemporary performance, film, art, and activism in Mexico City from the Revolution to today. Ruben Gallo of Princeton University will trace the ancestry of Mexico City’s current urban form and artistic life to the work of the writers, builders, and artists of the early twentieth century, and discussions with leading performers, filmmakers and scholars will follow. Speakers will include Gaston Alzate, Minerva Cuevas, Tatiana Flores, Daniel Hernandez, Edward J. McCaughan, Jesusa Rodríguez and Juan Carlos Rulfo.
As a counterpoint from the other side of the Pacific Rim, Margaret Crawford and Winnie Wong of UC Berkeley will present an exhibition on current art and urbanism in China’s dynamic Pearl River Delta, manufacturer to the world of both smartphones and mass-produced Van Goghs. Research on contemporary Shanghai by a team from the UCLA Urban Humanities Initiative will also be presented by Dana Cuff and Jonathan Crisman in a parallel exhibit, and a new UC Berkeley publication and website on participatory urbanisms will be unveiled.
The symposium is sponsored by the Global Urban Humanities Initiative, a transdisciplinary experiment in innovative methods of investigating cities. The UC Berkeley Global Urban Humanities Initiative and the UCLA Urban Humanities Initiative are both supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The symposium and exhibitions will highlight the ways in which methods from the arts and humanities can be combined with techniques from architecture and city planning to analyze and represent urban form and human experience.
The symposium will be held at the University of California, Berkeley, at Wurster Hall. The exhibitions will be presented at the Wurster Gallery and other spaces in Wurster Hall, and the curators will be available for discussion and tours.
Visit the Symposium page for more info.