Symposium Explores the Moving Image in Culture
February 28, 2006Print-Friendly Version
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By Ryan Call and Tara Laskowski
The third annual George Mason University Visual Culture Symposium, titled “The Moving Image,” will occur on Thursday, March 2, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Johnson Center Cinema. The symposium will focus on time-based and moving-image media in a variety of cultural contexts, such as popular television.
As part of its activities, the symposium will feature a number of discussion panels, films, a dance performance and presentations of research papers by students from George Mason as well as other universities such as the University of British Columbia, Georgetown University and Syracuse University.
During the morning session at 9:30 a.m., a panel discussion on moving images and identity will open the symposium. At 12:15 p.m., a screening of “ZIZEK!” will be shown. “ZIZEK!” is a project of the Documentary Campaign, an organization founded in 2002 to combine progressive politics with artistic filmmaking. In the afternoon, a panel on video art in society will take place at 2:30 p.m.
In addition to the symposium, a juried exhibition of student work called “It Moves/It Moves Me” will show in the Johnson Center art gallery beginning this week and will run through Thursday, March 2. The gallery will present student art, video and animation submitted specifically for the symposium. Contributors to the gallery will discuss their work at a reception from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. on Thursday.
Edgar Endress, assistant professor of art and visual technology, will jury the exhibition. Endress has shown his work in many international venues, and he recently received the Creative Capital grant for “Carry On,” a collaborative video project with anthropologist Lori Lee.
The symposium is sponsored by a number of departments and organizations: University Life, English, Cultural Studies, Women’s Studies, Art and Visual Technology (AVT), New Century College, History and Art History and Film and Media Studies. For more information, contact Lynne Constantine, AVT associate chair, at lconstan@gmu.edu or go to the AVT web site at www.avt.gmu.edu.