We are delighted to showcase the work of some of our most productive and creative faculty in this informal series of intellectually and spiritually invigorating presentations. You are invited to drop in when you can to learn about the exciting projects undertaken by our faculty.
11:00am-11:45am: Brett Kaplan, CAS Associate 2023-24, Comparative & World Literature
Epiphany’s Lament
Epiphany’s Lament is a novel about looted art, failure, loss, intersecting displacements, and love. Poppy (a piano refinisher), and Max (an FBI Art Crime special agent) search for a looted Velázquez which may or may not have been hidden in a Vietnamese Refugee Center by a mysterious Belgian charmer with quite an elaborate past.
Noon-12:45pm: Ben Grosser, CAS Associate 2022-23, Art + Design
Finite Social Media, Degrowth Aesthetics, and Reimagined Digital Futures
What if social platforms didn’t need—or want—our endless attention? How are cinematic narratives reflecting and reinforcing the techno-optimist’s devotion to growth and scale? Does TikTok’s feed algorithm really cater to our interests, or does it just feel that way? This talk will present recent and in-progress art projects that deploy an aesthetics of degrowth, an intentional practice of investigating, manipulating, and recomposing the digital landscape in ways that recapture a feeling of the finite in the face of our digital infinite.
