Join us at Of Swallows, their deeds, and the winter below, at 283 College Street, Toronto.

Monday February 28th, 7:00pm
“New York/New York – New American ‘Smart’ film and its Nostalgic New York Cities”
Tom Dorey
PhD Candidate, Communication and Culture, York/Ryerson University
New York City has, since some of the earliest American films, played and continues to play a
variety of versions of itself in the cinema, varying in historical and geographical veracity and
fitting the desires of any number of directors. With their films The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) and
The Squid and the Whale (2004), Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach present two contrasting
versions of a nostalgicized New York City. This paper focuses on the construction and
navigation of these directors’ New York Cities, interrogating the narrative roles fulfilled by each.

Tuesday March 15th, 7:00pm
“User Unknown: 4Chan, Social Media and Online Politics”
Lee Knuttila
PhD Candidate, Cinema and Media Studies, York University
Over the last eight years, 4Chan.org has grown from a message board in which a few dozen
friends traded Japanese animation to one of the fifty top accessed websites, the origin point for
a huge number of popular memes and home to the self-designated group ‘Anonymous’. Highly
problematic for its racist, sexist and homophobic discourse, the website has also orchestrated
mass protests and using unique online tactics, taken down major government and corporate
websites. In “User Unknown”, Lee Knuttila will work through 4Chan, Anonymous, social media
and the ties between the Internet and Liberalism.

Monday March 28th, 7:00pm
Local History and Site Specificity in Bridge of One Hair
Maggie Hutcheson
PhD Candidate, Environmental Studies, York University
This paper discusses Bridge of One Hair (Jumblies Theatre, Toronto, 2007), a community theatre
project that explored site-specific memories, local histories and contemporary relationships
in the Dundas/Islington area of Etobicoke. Bridge of One Hair was the result of a partnership
between Montgomery’s Inn, a City of Toronto museum, and Jumblies Theatre, a community arts
company specializing in long-term residencies in Toronto neighbourhoods. The paper examines
the project’s artistic methodology and, drawing on critical theories of place, participation, and
community, reflects on the challenges of researching and presenting place-based history in the
transnational city.

Hosted by the Visible City Project + Archive & York University

You are invited to participate in waste luxury knot: an experiment in organized curiosity. Via a series of intimate workshops & public addresses with Franco Berardi (bifo), Jeanne Randolph, Allan Stoekl, and Robert Hullot-Kentor. Across the months of March, April, and May. To wonder about the gravy train, post-fordist luxury, austerity measures waste and - where has luxury gone, the luxurious, the wasteful, in crisis. Enrollment is now open for the first two workshops: March 2 & 3 with bifo; March 12 & 13 with Jeanne Randolph.

More information here.

Co-organized by LOT, Visible City Project + Archive, and Of Swallows, their Deeds, & the Winter Below.

The Urban Field Speakers Series, now in its sixth season, centres on the role of art in transforming the experience of the city. Through lectures, audio-visual presentations and discussions, it explores how creative practices can help improve the quality of urban life and planning in Toronto and around the world. This series of monthly events brings together an array of international and local participants, including artists, architects, curators, designers and scholars, who are working at the intersections of technology, communications and aesthetics. Reflecting a broad range of perspectives and practices, the events build upon each other to inspire dialogue on the role of the city in art, and art in the city.

The Visible City Project + Archive presents its fall Working Papers, beginning Thursday October 28^th. Working Papers will be held at OF SWALLOWS, their deeds, & and the winter below, 283 College Street.

Please join us for presentations and discussion.