BCNM Fall 2020: Events In Review
Thank you for an amazing semester of online events! This semester came with unprecedented challenges, but with the switch to all online events, we were able to incorporate live-captioning into the event experience and publish transcripts of event event to make them more accessible. This semester also marked the launch of Indigenous Technologies as the theme of our History and Theory of New Media lecture series and an ongoing project dedicated to engaging questions of technology and new media in relation to global structures of indigeneity, settler colonialism and genocide in the 21st century.
We're grateful for everyone who tuned into discuss new media with us and what it means in this transformative time of grief, collapse, and urgent calls for racial justice. Thank you for your presence and tuning in. We hope to continue to provide spaces for gathering and envisioning next semester.
9.10 / History and Theory of New Media, Indigenous Technologies
Corrina Gould: A Conversation with the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust
Corrina Gould’s life’s work has led to the creation of Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, a women-led organization within the urban setting of her ancestral territory of the Bay Area. Sogorea Te' Land Trust works to return Indigenous land to Indigenous people.
Corrina Gould in the Indigenous Technologies Syllabus
9.21 / Arts, Technology, and Culture Colloquium, Presented by the Department of Art Practice
Pope.L: Notes on the Role of the Artist when the world has always been on fire??
“Pope.L.’s talk challenged the extents of space and surface within the technological confines designated by our pandemic circumstances. The artist’s Zoom broadcast took the form of a series of acts played out, each with their own shifting set designs. We were introduced to a portfolio of public interventionist art, through which the artist amplified the idea of coexistence.” (Jaclyn Tobia)
Event Write-up by ATC Fellow Jaclyn Tobia
Video of Highlights on Vimeo
10.12 / Commons Conversation
Gu Jiang: Cultural Heritage & Cultural Consumption
Gu Jiang presented a comparative study of intangible cultural heritage and its different inroads in the UK and China.
10.26 / ATC
Lawrence Lek: The Sinofuturist Trilogy: Sinofuturism (1839-2046 AD), Geomancer, and AIDOL
Interlaced with conspiracy theories and speculative fiction, Lawrence Lek’s CGI films, installations, and open-world games explore the geopolitical impact of automation and simulation. His cinematic universe is populated with dreamers—intelligent satellites, freedom fighters, fading superstars—all searching for autonomy in a future dominated by data.
11.5 / HTNM, Indigneous Technologies
Skawennati: World Re-Building: Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace and the Initiative for Indigenous Futures
Skawennati makes art that addresses history, the future, and change from her perspective as an urban Kanien’kehá:ka woman and as a cyberpunk avatar.
Skawennati in the Indigenous Technologies Syllabus
11.18 / Commons Conversation
Xiaowei Wang and An Xiao Mina: Blockchain Chicken Farm and Grass Mud Horses
UC Berkeley Geography Ph.D student and debut author Xiaowei Wang discussed their book Blockchain Chicken Farm: And Other Stories of Tech in China's Countryside, an original and probing look into innovation, connectivity, and collaboration in the digitized rural world. Xiaowei’s book has since been featured in KQED, The Nation, WIRED, and the New York Times!
Stay tuned! For more on BCNM's programming
2020-2021 History and Theory of New Media series