Who can see what we share? Does our email belong to us? How is technology changing the ways we communicate? Two faculty members from the College of Fine and Applied Arts will address such questions at the college’s Uncorked and On Topic event at 5:15 p.m. Oct. 15 in the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts Tryon Festival Theatre Foyer.
The event will explore the theme “Mail” through the experiences of Ben Grosser and John Randolph. Both scholars explore the connections between art and communication technology in their work – themes they will discuss at the event. The moderator will be Kevin Hamilton, a professor in the School of Art and Design.
The event, now in its second year, features faculty members from different disciplines discussing the arts. Future programs are scheduled for Nov. 15 on “Mobilities,” Feb. 4 on “Memory,” March 3 on “Mastery” and April 14 on “Mega (Cloud Sharing).” The events are free and open to the public.
Grosser, a professor in the School of Art and Design, focuses his work on the cultural, social and political effects of software on humans and systems, examining how it affects behavior and changes people. His work has been exhibited in major venues, exhibitions and festivals across the globe including Eyebeam in New York, The White Building in London and Telecom Italia Future Centre in Venice, Italy. His work also has been featured in Wired, The Atlantic, The Guardian and the Los Angeles Times, among others. He was awarded first prize in VIDA 16, a Net Art Grant and Commission from Rhizome, and the Expanded Media Award for Network Culture.
Randolph, a professor of history, specializes in the history of the Russian Empire, 1650-1850. He is writing a book about how this massive state used horse relays – similar to the short-lived Pony Express in the American West but for centuries longer – to move people, things and information between Poland and the Pacific Ocean. Behind the work stands a question relevant today: How do societies maintain the communications networks on which they depend and at what cost? Randolph is the author of “The House in the Garden: The Bakunin Family and the Romance of Russian Idealism,” which won the W. Bruce Lincoln Book Prize for best first book in Russian history in 2008. He is helping the department of history develop a new digital publishing program called SourceLab, which will allow undergraduates to create critical, open-access editions of historical materials for use in the classroom and research.
