Workshop on Media Ecologies:
December 1-3, 2016
Concordia and McGill Universities
The Workshop on Media Ecologies revisits thinking around the conjunction of media, ecologies, and ecosystems in order to come to terms with the enduring relevance and usage of “media ecologies.” It brings together realms as distinct as business, logistics, and critical media theory. In short, it will examine the political, biological and medial “logics” behind the term media ecologies. It does so, moreover, with an eye to modalities of its use in different contexts and geographies. We will pay particular attention to the role it has played in Japanese media studies and political theories of media. From its role as a justification for the expansion of colonial empires, to its use to account for the intersection of media apparatuses and forms, to its deployment as an explanation for economic viability – this workshop will read and discuss both contemporary and classic articulations of the concept, and hear new research presented around it. Media ecologies as a term – with all its contradictions, obfuscations, and complicities – nonetheless continues to live with us, and focuses our attention. This workshop will provide the space to read, think and discuss the why, how, and whereto of this conceptual framework.
The Workshop brings together two distinct projects: a reading group on Readings Around Media in Japan, launched at Harvard University in May 2013 by Tomiko Yoda and Alexander Zahlten, with this follow-up event at Concordia planned as the second event in the series; and the Seminar in Media and Political Theory, an ongoing seminar bringing together interdisciplinary scholars to discuss key themes at the intersection of media and political theory, organized by Joshua Neves and the GEM Lab at Concordia. The workshop is organized by Yuriko Furuhata (McGill University), Joshua Neves, and Marc Steinberg.
The Workshop begins with a keynote lecture by Akira Mizuta Lippit, “Toward an Ecology of the Super Flatline: Murakami Takashi at the End of History,” Thursday, December 1, 17:00-18:30, Wendy Patrick Room, Wilson Hall, 3506 University Street (McGill University)