Instructor: Soraya Murray
The Art and Globalization Working Group is an ongoing collective of makers and thinkers exploring new media in relation to an era of rapid economic, cultural and political globalization.
Few contest the idea that advanced computational and communications technologies play a definitive role in today's global economic, social, cultural, political, and even ecological orders. The evidence of this exists in technologies used to implement the internationalization of management, the globally shifting labor pools, transnational banking, and other such signs of economic globalization. It lives as well in social, political, and cultural manifestations of globalization such as the social-media fueled Arab Spring.
Art and Globalization explores, through individual and collaborative projects, the articulation of emergent subjectivities, innovative approaches to diasporic community-building, techniques for social inclusion, and creative activity that responds to or engages with experiences of this particular context.
Candidates are encouraged to consider the stated theme in the broadest possible sense, however, areas of special interest include: globalization and shifting notions of space and place, travel, mobility, diaspora, creolization, postcoloniality, cosmopolitanism, global citizenship, translation, memory and history, hospitality, tolerance / intolerance, the locational, and relational. In keeping with the research focus of the Participatory Culture collaborative area, students will work together on projects that exploit the potential of new technologies to address social problems and facilitate broader participation in culture and politics, within the context of globalization. Participants will be asked to work on individual and collaborative projects, while engaging in regular critiques, seminars and workshops that foster a collective critical sparking of innovation around art, technology and the global.
Outcomes of the working group will vary dependent upon participants selected, however, it will culminate in presentation of selected works, and/or publication in the form of printed catalogue, online catalogue or journal. Ideal candidates for the project group will hail from a variety of disciplines and may engage forms such as, but not limited to: interactive media and installation, digital photography, projected and screen arts, sound art, online works and games.
Priority will be given to those applicants who demonstrate a sustained engagement with thematic topics outlined above, and who show strong evidence of the ability to articulate projects well in writing.
Those wishing to join this project group must indicate Participatory Culture in the area of study (drop down menu) of their application. Please specify ART AND GLOBALIZATION in your statement of purpose.