Monday, November 12, and Friday, November 16, 2012
Whose Business is Risk? is a two-day event taking place on Monday, November 12, and Friday, November 16, which is co-sponsored by Media@McGill, the Institute for Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies (IGSF), Studio XX, and The HTMlles 10, as part of the RISKY BUSINESS feminist festival of media arts + digital culture on November 10-18, 2012. A talk by visiting artist Zach Blas, will be delivered at Studio XX, 4001 Berri Street, entitled, Encountering Risky Business, on Monday, November 12, from 2:00-4:00 p.m. On Friday, November 16, a full-day graduate conference, beginning at 9:00 a.m., will be held at Thomson House, 3650 McTavish Street, entitled, Whose Business is Risk? Both events are free and open to the public, with registration required.
Encountering Risky Business, Artist Talk and Tour with Zach Blas
Monday, November 12, 2:00-4:00 p.m., Studio XX, 4001 Rue Berri, Suite 201
Visiting artist Zach Blas will lead a talk and tour of the numerous installations at 4001 Berri, including his own work, the Facial Weaponization Suite. The Encounter is intended to create a contemplative space for personal reflection and facilitated discussion on the themes presented in the artworks.
The Facial Weaponization Suite is a response to studies that link determining sexual orientation through facial recognition and a growing culture of technologically-driven identification calculation. The suite provides sets of masks for public intervention. One mask, the Fag Face Mask, is generated from the biometric facial data of many gay men's faces, attempting to evade detection by mechanisms of capture and recognition-control.
Speakers include: Jason Behrmann, Goksen Can, Li Cornfeld, Emily Field, Max Haiven, Pamela Lamb, Sabine Lebel, Dr. Bertrand Lebouché, David Lessard, Katie MacEntee, Nancy Mauro-Flude, Dylan Mulvin, Rae Rosenberg, Rafico Ruiz, Dr. Réjean Thomas, Anne Vassal, Valerie Webber and Ardath Whynacht.
This interdisciplinary conference seeks to critically respond to current deployments of risk, the notion of risk society, and the conceptualization of “at risk” populations. It will explore the themes of the RISKY BUSINESS festival through panel presentations: Risking the Queer Body; Landscapes of Boom and Doom; Axes of Risk--Finance Capital, Waste, and the Gendering of Crisis; and The Carceral State and the Politics of Rebellion.