World of Matter: Resource Ecologies and Contested Territories, a two-day symposium, takes place at Concordia University, and opens the "World of Matter" exhibition at the Leonard & Bina Ellen Gallery (February-April, 2015).
Organized by Krista Lynes, Concordia University and Media@McGill member Darin Barney, the symposium is co-sponsored by Media@McGill and is the first World of Matter project held in Canada. Previous events and exhibitions have taken place in Dortmund, Germany, and New York, USA.
Confirmed speakers are: Adam Dickinson, Alain Denault, Amanda Boetzkes, Audra Simpson, Brenda Longfellow, Darin Barney, Eduardo Kohn, Gisele Trudel, Heather Davis, Helge Mooshammer & Peter Mortenböck, Imre Szeman, Krista Lynes, Lonnie van Brummelen, Mabe Bethonico, Nicholas Brown, Nicole Starosielski, Peter van Wyck, Peter von Tiesenhausen, Rafico Ruiz, Scott Morgensen, Shirley Roburn, TJ Demos, Ursula Biemann, and Zoe Todd.
Themes and issues addressed during the symposium include the relation between the political, economic and social aspects of resource extraction, the visualization of environmental devastation and industrial landscapes, and political action for social justice among indigenous activists (across the Americas) and environmental movements.
Both the symposium and the exhibition result from the work of the World of Matter research project, an international art and media project investigating the complex ecologies undergirding resource exploitation.