GRID + Flow : Philadelphia and Beyond

Mapping and Reimagining Urban Ecologies through the Arts and Humanities

An Interdisciplinary Symposium hosted by Temple University, April 7-8, 2011 Kiva Auditorium, Main Campus, Philadelphia (USA)

Keynote Speaker: Timothy Morton, author of The Ecological Thought (2010), Ecology without Nature (2007).

The symposium will highlight emerging interdisciplinary currents in environmental history, ecocriticism, cultural geography, environmental media studies, and environmental ethics. Speakers will address various topics concerning the urban ecology of Philadelphia, including: the use of historical maps to interpret environmental transformation over time; changes in riparian ecology and the development of Fairmount Park; visual representations of aquaculture, zoology, and comparative biology; the impact of rail networks and restaurants on urban life and the built environment; narratives of place in toxic remediation; panoramic navigation and digital information flows; and imagining new flood zone infrastructures in anticipation of rising river levels. Organized by Alan C. Braddock (Department of Art History), Peter d’Agostino (Department of Film and Media Arts), and Andrew Isenberg (Department of History).

The symposium will begin on Thursday, April 7, at 7:00 pm in Kiva Auditorium with a keynote address by Timothy Morton, Professor of English (Literature and the Environment) University of California, Davis. The title of his keynote address is: Ecology and Philosophy in the Time of Hyperobjects.

The lecture will be followed by a reception and a preview exhibition of a new digital art project, World-Wide-Walks / between earth & water / Rivers by Peter d’Agostino. A full day of presentations by other speakers will follow on Friday, April 8, beginning at 9:00 am and ending at 5:00 pm.

Click here for the full schedule

(Re-posted from Temple University website & ecoartscotland.net)

By Sacha Kagan

Research Associate at the ISCO - Institute of Sociology and Cultural Organization (ISKO - Institut für Soziologie und Kulturorganisation), Leuphana University Lueneburg, Sacha Kagan founded the International level of Cultura21, Network for Cultures of Sustainability, as well as the International Summer School of Arts and Sciences for Sustainability in Social Transformation (ASSiST). The focus of his research and cultural work lies in the trans-disciplinary field of arts and (un-)sustainability. Doctor in Philosophy (Leuphana University Lueneburg) with a thesis on the subject of culture, the arts and sustainability under the perspective of complexity ; M.A. in Cultural Economics (Erasmus University Rotterdam) ; and Graduate of Sciences Po Bordeaux (political sciences). For Cultura21, Sacha is also coordinating the eBooks series, the regular updates on our multi-lingual website, the English section of our webmagazine and the work of our Lueneburg-based interns.