It’s February and it is time for the annual College Art Association annual conference, this year held in New York City Wednesday 2/11 through Saturday 2/14 at the Hilton Midtown Hotel. Below are the department highlights, with InterArts students, alumni, and faculty taking their turns driving the academic discourse that is CAA.
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COLUMBIA COLLEGE CHICAGO RECEPTION
Thursday, February 12
6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
The Drawing Center
35 Wooster Street
Speaker: Kwang-Wu Kim, D.M.A.
President and CEO of Columbia College Chicago
Open to current and prospective students, alumni, & faculty
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CAA EVENTS @ NEW YORK HILTON MIDTOWN HOTEL
1335 Avenue of the Americas
Wednesday, February 11
9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
CAA COMMITTEE ON WOMEN IN THE ARTS
WOMEN IN THE MARKETPLACE: THE RISE OF THE ARTISAN COOPERATIVE
3rd Floor, Triannon ballroom
Faculty: Melissa Potter (co-presenter), Miriam Schaer (co-presenter)
Craft Power: Enhancing the Power of Women through Traditional Arts
Conference registration required
Melissa Potter and Miriam Schaer are presenting their project from the Republic of Georgia that they worked on in 2013. They are in the process of creating a catalog about part II, from the June portion of the residency.
2:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
SURVEILLANCE AS ART PRACTICE
2nd Floor, Murray Hill Suite
Alumnus: Leo Selvaggio (presenter)
URME Surveillance: Transforming Expression into Function
Conference registration required
From the artist:
“URME Surveillance” transforms my identity into a defense technology for the public’s protection against facial recognition software. This project encourages the public to substitute their identity for my own by wearing a 3d printed prosthetic mask made in my likeness.
This paper will begin by examining our relationship to surveillance and identity through an analysis of Roy Ascott and Bruce Nauman’s work. Using the surveillance system in Chicago as a case study, I will then discuss the work of Adam Harvey and Zac Blas as two contemporary artists working with identity recognition technologies. My position is that though several of their projects offer effective strategies against cameras, they fail to take into account the social component of surveillance as it pertains to “passing” in public. I will then use their work as a jumping off point for my own, discussing the strategies that lead me to “URME Surveillance”.
Thursday, February 12
11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
THE BOOK & TRADE FAIR
Americas Exhibit Hall, Levels I and II
Faculty: Niki Nolin, Miriam Schaer
Conference Registrant: FREE Admission with your conference registration badge
Member: $15, with credit card, check, or cash
Nonmember: $25, with credit card, check, or cash
Niki Nolin & Miriam Schaer will be at the Interdisciplinary Arts Table in the book fair area to answer any questions about the program.
Friday, February 13
9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
MEDIA LOUNGE: ALTERNATIVE ECONOMIES
2nd Floor, Gibson Room
Faculty: Mat Rappaport (liaison)
Student: Sid Branca (committee member)
Free & open to the public
In an effort to present a diverse yet telling picture of the current practices around alternative economies in new media, the New Media Caucus (NMC) invited its membership to submit models, frameworks, solutions and/or questions that reflect, in an unrestricted way, the Media Lounge theme, “alternative economies.”
Two dominant themes emerge from this open-ended query. The first is a focus on topics of identity in the consideration of groups that exist outside of a mainstream. The second manifests itself around the establishment of new economies. The two experimental sessions being presented have been curated around the above themes and utilize a diverse set of unconventional presentation/performance/discussion forms in the consideration of alternative economies.
Morning Session: 9:00 a.m. – Noon
Identity, Configurations of Outsiders in Economic Order
Afternoon Session: 1:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Explorations of Alternative Economies
***More NMC events: click here.***
5:30 – 7:30 p.m.
ARTexchange
3rd Floor, East Ballroom Foyer
Faculty: Miriam Schaer (participant)
Free & open to the public
Miriam Schaer will be at table 35. ARTexchangeis a social event that provides an opportunity for artists to share their work and build affinities with other artists, historians, curators, and cultural producers. Cash bar.
