The Copper in my Cooch and Other Technologies
with Marisa Morán Jahn
Artist, Cambridge, MA and New York, NY
An Art, Technology, and Culture Colloquium, co-sponsored by the Wiesenfeld Visiting Artist Lecture Series and the Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation, presented with Berkeley Arts + Design as part of Arts + Design Mondays.
When we think about technology, most conjure images of things automated (eg, robots) and agents automating (eg, AIs). In this talk, artist Marisa Morán Jahn broadens how we think about technology through the example of copper, whose extraction, refinement, and use is both ancient and future-forward. Copper is a pliable and naturally-occurring element found in our homes, computers, cities, lightning rods, and the IUD located in the uterus (“snatch”) of 170 million women across the world today. As the first metal mined across the world, copper’s wide usage in tools, anti-bacterials, jewelry that promotes blood circulation, household fixtures, digital networks, and reproductive technology point to its central role as a metal that lives with(in) us. Jahn will share examples from her current work, ‘Snatchural History of Copper’, a participatory art installation, book, and film that celebrates copper’s coterminous relationship with human civilization while questioning who has the right to exert control over bodies and land.
About Marisa Morán Jahn
Of Ecuadorian and Chinese descent, Marisa Morán Jahn’s artworks redistribute power, “exemplifying the possibilities of art as social practice” (ArtForum). Characterizing her playful approach, MIT CAST writes, ‘[Jahn] introduces a trickster-like humor into public spaces and discourses, and yet it is a humor edged with political potency.” Key projects: BIBLIOBANDIDO (a literacy movement started in Honduras led by a story-eating bandit whom kids believe in like Santa Clas); VIDEO SLINK UGANDA (experimental films slipped or “slinked” into bootleg cinemas); a domestic worker app named as “one of 5 apps to change the world” (CNN); and CAREFORCE, a PBS/Sundance-supported film + mobile studios (NannyVan, CareForce One) that amplify the voices of America’s fastest growing workforce — caregivers. Jahn’s work has been presented at Obama’s White House, MoMA, Tribeca Film Festival, ArtBrussels, Creative Time, The New York Times, etc. Jahn is the founder of Studio REV-, an art, media, and social justice non-profit. She has taught at Columbia University, The New School, and MIT. She is a graduate of UC Berkeley and MIT. marisajahn.com
About the Art, Technology, and Culture Colloquium
Founded by Prof. Ken Goldberg in 1997, the ATC lecture series is an internationally respected forum for creative ideas. Always free of charge and open to the public, the series is coordinated by the Berkeley Center for New Media and has presented over 200 leading artists, writers, and critical thinkers who question assumptions and push boundaries at the forefront of art, technology, and culture including: Vito Acconci, Laurie Anderson, Sophie Calle, Bruno Latour, Maya Lin, Doug Aitken, Pierre Huyghe, Miranda July, Billy Kluver, David Byrne, Gary Hill, and Charles Ray.
Fall 2019 - Spring 2020 Series Theme: Robo-Exoticism
Monday Evenings, 6:30-8:00pm
Osher Theater, BAMPFA, Berkeley, CA
http://atc.berkeley.edu/
Presented with Berkeley Arts + Design as part of Arts + Design Mondays.
2019
09/09 Robots Are Creatures, Not Things
Madeline Gannon, Artist / Roboticist, Pittsburgh, PA
Co-sponsored by the Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation and CITRIS People and Robots (CPAR)
09/23 The Copper in my Cooch and Other Technologies
Marisa Morán Jahn, Artist, Cambridge, MA and New York, NY
Co-sponsored by the Wiesenfeld Visiting Artist Lecture Series and the Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation
10/21 Non-Human Art
Leonel Moura, Artist, Lisbon
Co-sponsored by the Department of Spanish & Portuguese and CITRIS People and Robots (CPAR)
11/4 Transience, Replication, and the Paradox of Social Robotics
Guy Hoffman, Robotics Researcher, Cornell University
Co-sponsored by the Center for New Music and Audio Technologies and CITRIS People and Robots (CPAR)
2020
01/27 Dancing with Robots: Expressivity in Natural and Artificial Systems
Amy LaViers, Robotics, Automation, and Dance (RAD) Lab
Co-sponsored by the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies and CITRIS People and Robots (CPAR)
02/24 In Search for My Robot: Emergent Media, Racialized Gender, and Creativity
Margaret Rhee, Assistant Professor, SUNY Buffalo; Visiting Scholar, NYU
Co-sponsored by the Department of Ethnic Studies and the Department of Comparative Literature
03/30 The Right to Be Creative
Margarita Kuleva, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow
Invisible Russia: Participatory Cultures, Their Practices and Values
Natalia Samutina, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow
Co-sponsored by the Department of Slavic Languages and Literature and Department of the History of Art and the Arts Research Center
04/06 Artist Talk
William Pope.L, Artist
Presented by the Department of Art Practice
04/13 Teaching Machines to Draw
Tom White, New Zealand
Co-sponsored by Autolab and CITRIS People and Robots (CPAR)
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ATC Director: Ken Goldberg
BCNM Director: Nicholas de Monchaux
Arts + Design Director: Shannon Jackson
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