Fall 2009 Program

The Odd Months
An Installation of Inkjet Prints by Chris Ashley

On Exhibit: August 24 – December 11, 2009

Opening Reception: August 24, 2009 | 4:00 – 5:30 pm

Chris Ashley is known for his multi-year drawing project, which uses HTML tables to make browser-rendered images posted daily on his blog, Look, See. These images are often used to make large-scale installations of inkjet prints in the gallery setting. Using the markup language of the web, Ashley’s art in The Odd Months works against the grid-bound nature of tables to make monthly-themed sets of images in response to various subjects.

Click here for more information about the exhibit.

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Jeffrey Meyers
"Johnson’s Friendships"

Thursday, September 17, 2009
5:00 pm | Geballe Room, 220 Stephens Hall

On the day before the 300th anniversary of Samuel Johnson’s birth, Jeffrey Meyers will deliver a lecture focusing on the author’s friendships with Sir Joshua Reynolds, Edmund Burke and Oliver Goldsmith.

Jeffrey Meyers graduated from the University of Michigan and received his doctorate from UC Berkeley in the 1960s. He is the recipient of a Fulbright fellowship and a grant from the Guggenheim Foundation. Mr. Meyers is the author of over 47 books, among them biographies of Katherine Mansfield, Joseph Conrad and F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Co-sponsored by the Department of English.

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Up the Yangtze (2008)
Directed by Yung Chang

Monday, September 21, 2009
7:00 pm | Geballe Room, 220 Stephens Hall

Chinese-Canadian director Yung Chang tells the story of Yu Shui, one of the 5.3 million people who will be displaced with the completion of the Three Gorges Dam along China’s Yangtze River. The film captures the stunning natural landscape that will soon be underwater while documenting the people whose way of life will disappear with it.

Part of the Depth of Field Film + Video Series: Adaptology.

Click here for more information about Up the Yangtze.

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Archives and Libraries: Online Researching, Zotero and More

Wednesday, September 23, 2009
12:00 pm | Geballe Room, 220 Stephens Hall

The Townsend Center reinstitutes the Speculative Lunch series in 2009-2010 with a focus on Digital Technology in Humanities Scholarship. This is an informal brown bag lunch series with beverages provided by the Townsend Center.

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Una's Lecturer, 2009
Bill Viola, Video Artist

“The Movement in the Moving Image”
Monday, September 28, 2009
7:00 pm |Sibley Auditorium

 

Follow-up panel discussion with Bill Viola
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
4:00 pm | Morrison Room, Doe Library

Over the past 35 years, Bill Viola’s pioneering work has been instrumental in the establishment of video as a form of contemporary art. Rooted in modern life yet often evoking age-old religious philosophies and visual iconography, his work addresses universal human experiences such as birth, death, and the unfolding of consciousness. Viola’s videos, architectural video installations, sound environments, electronic music performances, and flat panel video pieces are often presented as total environments, enveloping viewers in image and sound.

Click here for more information about Bill Viola.

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The Unforeseen (2007)
Directed by Laura Dunn

Monday, October 12, 2009
7:00 pm | Geballe Room, 220 Stephens Hall

Despite the recent economic meltdown of real estate development, Laura Dunn’s film reminds us that the true cost of unchecked land development has yet to be paid, at least in environmental terms. Chronicling a land use dispute in Austin, Texas, the film quickly spins a local concern into a global issue.

Part of the Depth of Field Film + Video Series: Adaptology.

Click here for more information about The Unforeseen.

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Academic Writing and Publishing 2.0: eJournals, Blogs, Wikis, Tweets

Wednesday, October 21, 2009
12:00 pm | Geballe Room, 220 Stephens Hall

The Townsend Center reinstitutes the Speculative Lunch series in 2009-2010 with a focus on Digital Technology in Humanities Scholarship. This is an informal brown bag lunch series with beverages provided by the Townsend Center.

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Human Rights Advocacy: Mobilizing Action in the Visual Age

Tuesday, October 27, 2009
3:00 pm | Seaborg Room, Faculty Club

Human rights advocates and political communicators have long used a “shame and blame” strategy to shape public opinion, affect policy or legal issues and steer public life. The tremendous impact of imagery in this media-saturated world is not in dispute, but how modern photography, film, Internet, YouTube and 24-hour news channels have changed human rights documentation and advocacy is ripe for discussion. In this participatory dialogue, Thomas Keenan, Trevor Paglen, and Edwin Okong’o will trace the impact of imagery and media on public events and pose questions for small group discussions among those in attendance. A reception will follow.

Sponsored by the Human Rights Center.

For more information, visit http://humanrightsadvocacy.eventbrite.com/
or email mcarnay@berkeley.edu.

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T. J. Clark: Picasso and Truth
A Special Lecture Series

Still Life in Front of a Window
Introduced by Kaja Silverman
Monday, November 2

Three Dancers
Introduced by Judith Butler
Tuesday, November 3

Guernica
Introduced by Anthony Cascardi
Wednesday, November 4

All lectures at 7:00 pm in the Museum Theater, 2621 Durant Avenue, Berkeley (access via sculpture garden)

Three lectures by renowned art historian, author, and professor T. J. Clark, extracted from a series of six lectures delivered as the Mellon Lectures in Fine Art last spring at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C.

Registration for all three lectures has reached capacity. A limited number of “rush” tickets will likely become available the night of each lecture. A “rush line” will form on a first-come, first-served basis starting at 5:30 pm each evening. For more information, visit http://bampfa.berkeley.edu/tjclark.

Co-presented with the Department of Art History, The Program in Critical Theory, and BAM/PFA.

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Darwin's Enduring Legacy

Wednesday, November 4, 2009
7:00 pm | Maude Fife Room, 315 Wheeler Hall

The Friends of the Bancroft Library and the Townsend Center present a special panel presentation in conjunction with Bancroft Library's Darwin and the Evolution of a Theory (on display August 13 - December 22, 2009 in the Bancroft Library Gallery, Room 278).

Presentations will include:

"Darwin's Delights: Darwin's View on Positive Emotions"
Dacher Keltner (Psychology)

"Darwin's Enduring Legacy...and Some Enduring Myths"
Kevin Padian (Paleontology & Co-Curator of the exhibition)

A reception and viewing of the exhibit will follow the program. For more information about the exhibit or the panel presentation, visit: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/

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Vijayalakshmy Rangarajan
"The Impact of the Non-vedic Religions on the Tamils"

Thursday, November 5, 2009
4:00 pm | Geballe Room, 220 Stephens Hall

Dr. Vijayalakshmy Rangarajan is Associate Professor Emeritus at the International Institute of Tamil Studies in Chennai, India. She obtained her Ph.D. from the University of Oxford in 1972 for a study on “the interaction between Tamil and Indo Aryan in the Civakacintamani.” Dr. Rangarajan specializes in Comparative Indian Literature, Women’s Studies and Jaina and Buddhist studies.

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Encounters at the End of the World (2008)
Directed by Werner Herzog

Monday, November 16, 2009
7:00 pm | Geballe Room, 220 Stephens Hall

Traveling to the world’s most inhospitable environment, director Werner Herzog documents the bizarre community of eccentric scientists who live and work on the South Pole. Nominated for an Academy Award, the film captures the icy, fiery depths these people travel—beneath glaciers and inside volcanoes—to study a breathtaking landscape that is quickly melting around them.

Part of the Depth of Field Film + Video Series: Adaptology.

Click here for more information about Encounters at the End of the World.

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The Humanities Collaboratory: New Work at the Townsend Lab

Wednesday, November 18, 2009
12:00 pm | Geballe Room, 220 Stephens Hall

The Townsend Center reinstitutes the Speculative Lunch series in 2009-2010 with a focus on Digital Technology in Humanities Scholarship. This is an informal brown bag lunch series with beverages provided by the Townsend Center.

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Richard Sennett, Sociologist
"The Decline of the Skills Society"

Friday, December 4, 2009
4:00 pm | Maude Fife Room, 315 Wheeler Hall

A renowned social critic known best for his studies of class and urban society, Richard Sennett is the Centennial Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics, the Bemis Adjunct Professor of Sociology at MIT, and Professor of the Humanities at New York University. His scholarship focuses on social inequality, the effects of urban growth on the individual, and the interconnection between authority, modernism and public life. Professor Sennett has been described as “one of the great urban enthusiasts of our age.”

Part of the Forum on the Humanities and the Public World.

Click here for more information about Richard Sennett.

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