The 2024-25 GEM Seminar in Media and Political Theory explores historical and ongoing transformations in developmental media(tion), paying close attention to problems concerning colonial modernity, racial capitalism, plantation corporations, labor and logistics, ambient and affective technologies, engineered ecologies, degrowth politics, and the fourth machine age – especially as seen from the perspective of the Global South, among other asymmetrical relations. In particular, the working group examines emergent frictions between 20th century underdevelopment and contemporary modes overdevelopment, reconsidering hegemonic projects to modernize, improve, and assimilate. Across lectures, screenings, and reading groups, the seminar engages a wide range of contemporary scholars and scholarship, asking how developmental projects and modes of extraction, value creation, and subjectification have changed or consolidated in recent decades. From mobile cinema units, electrification, and extractive media to logistics industries, communication infrastructures, and emergent technopharmacologies, the series examines the critical role of media forms and platforms in shaping the experience, aspirations, and politics that undergird (and sometimes undermine) development projects.

 

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Fall Schedule (events are in-person at the lab unless otherwise indicated)

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September 26th (5:30pm)

"Colonial Cinema in the Open Air: Ambient Governmentality and “Atmosphere of Mind”"
Nadine Chan (University of Toronto)

 

October 24th (5:30pm)

"Tales of Speculative Energies"

Mia Yu (Beijing-based artist, curator, researcher)

 

November 4th (5:30pm)

"The Political Aesthetics of Light"
Brian Larkin (Barnard College, Columbia University)

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November 27th (5:30pm)

Media+Development Reading Group Meeting
TBA

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Winter Schedule (events are in-person at the lab unless otherwise indicated)

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January
TBA
TBA

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February
TBA
TBA

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March 20th (5:30pm)

"The Logistics Counter-revolution: Fast Circulation, Slow Violence, and the Transpacific Empire of Circulation"
Charmaine Chua (UC Santa Barbara)

April
TBA
TBA

 

May 1st-2nd (5:30pm)

CTS - Mediation Workshop
TBA