Radical Ephemeralities
41st annual symposium of the Art History Graduate Student Association (AHGSA) at UC Santa Barbara
Friday, April 22, 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
UCSB Library, Room 1312

The 41st annual symposium of the Art History Graduate Student Association (AHGSA) will take place on April 22nd on the topic of “Radical Ephemeralities.” The conference will examine concepts related to loss and recuperation across varying time periods and disciplines, with particular emphasis on ephemerality as a site of contestation against dominant cultures and privileged material forms. The keynote address for this year’s symposium will be delivered by Dr. Homay King, Associate Professor of Art History at Bryn Mawr College and editor of the journal Camera Obscura. The address and keynote response by UCSB’s Dr. Jenni Sorkin (dept. History of Art and Architecture) will take place from 1:30 – 3:00.

The conference aims to facilitate an interdisciplinary discussion on the various ways in which ephemeral media and phenomena may be analyzed within different historical, cultural and political contexts.

Program:

8:30
Welcome and Coffee

9:00-10:30
Panel: The Body / Performativity
Moderator/Respondent: Ginny Reynolds, University of California, Santa Barbara

Andrew Johnson, The George Washington University, “Read My Lips: Potentiality in Gran Fury’s Same-Sex Kiss Graphics”

Emily Baker, University of California, Santa Barbara, “Re-homing Athleticism: Channeling Muscle Memory into Traces, Sculpture, and Performance”

Misty De Berry, Northwestern University, “Zombie Affects: Ephemeral Temporalities and the Breaking and Remaking of Felt Gesture”

10:30-11:00
Coffee Break

11:00-12:30
Panel: Hidden Transcripts / Recuperation
Moderator/Respondent: Maggie Mansfield, University of California, Santa Barbara

J.V. Decemvirale, University of California, Santa Barbara, “Because Night Time Is the Right Time: Tactics, Popular Resistance and the Formation of the Black Arts Council”

Anastasia Amrhein, University of Pennsylvania, “Mapping Resistance Across the Neo-Assyrian Empire: Clay Figurines as Indices of Subaltern ‘Hidden Transcripts’”

crystal am nelson, University of California, Santa Cruz, “ ‘Black Is, Black Ain’t’: Racecraft and the Production and Distribution of Blackness”

12:30-1:30
Lunch

1:30-3:00
Keynote Address
Dr. Homay King, Bryn Mawr College, “Notes on Some Forms of Repetition"
Moderator/Respondent: Dr. Jenni Sorkin, University of California, Santa Barbara

3:00-3:30
Coffee Break

3:30-5:00
Panel: Media / Materiality
Moderator/Respondent: Sarah Bane, University of California, Santa Barbara

Fabian Offert, University of California, Santa Barbara, “Re-enactment as Pre-enactment: The State of Emergency and the Theatrical Contract in Artistic Practices of Reenactment”

Matthias Pfaller, University of Edinburgh, “Versions of Ephemerality in Digital Photography”

Charlotte Healy, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, “Material Change as Materialgerecht: The Manifestations of Josef Albers’ Teaching in Robert Rauschenberg’s Elemental Paintings”

For more information about the symposium, please see the program or contact the symposium organizers via radicalephemeralitiesgmail.com.