Tuesday, November 15, 12:30-1:45PM
NOTE LOCATION: Women’s Studies Multimedia Studio, 0135 Taliaferro Hall, University of Maryland
“Everything is Animated: Pervasive Media and the Networked Subject” by BETH COLEMAN
In a world of pervasive media and ubiquitous computing, this talk asks what happens as everything (objects, subjects, and actions) moves toward animation across a network. How does media and mediation affect our sense of agency? I use the example of A Scanner Darkly (dir. Linklater 2006) to discuss the effects of pervasive media and how it affects the parameters of self-reflection and agency. I look at issues surrounding mediated presence (copresence) and the threat to face-to-face engagement that pervasive media implies. The question I
ask is: if as a society we are subjected to a pervasive mediation, how may we imagine modes of agency within an animated world?
This talk is co-sponsored by the Department of Women’s Studies, and will be held in the Women’s Studies Multimedia Studio, 0135 Taliaferro Hall.
Dr. Beth Coleman’s work focuses on the role of human agency in the context of media and data engagement. She is currently a Harvard University Faculty Fellow at Berkman Center for Internet and Society and a visiting professor at the Institute of Network Cultures, Hogeschool van Amsterdam. From 2005-2011, Coleman has been an assistant professor of comparative media studies at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she is the primary investigator of the Pervasive Media/City as Platform research and design lab. Her book Hello Avatar: Rise of the Networked Generation is published by the MIT Press. She received her B.A. in literature from Yale University and her Ph.D in comparative literature from New York University.
Coming up @MITH 11/29: Beth Bonsignore, Ann Fraistat, Kari Kraus, Amanda Visconti, “It’s not a game to me:” ARGs, Game Design, and Secret Agents in the Schoolroom
A continuously updated schedule of talks is also available on the Digital Dialogues webpage.
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All talks free and open to the public. Attendees are welcome to bring their own lunches.