What can contemporary artists do? The question is a vague and obvious one, but remains unanswered amidst the splintering profusion of ideals and artistic practices. Has the recent infinitude of socially conscious art been liberating, or has it been constrictive? Do artists hope to regain the dissipating public, or withdraw from it? Do artists resist the culture industry which encroaches upon it and devise alternate utopia’s, or liquidate into it and bring about change from within popular culture? What is at stake with artist collectives – singular isolation, or global revolution? Has postmodern and contemporary art moved beyond modernism, or has there been regression to pre-modernity? Most importantly, what purchase does art have on the present moment for augmenting change on a broader political level?
Three panelists working at the intersection of art and politics will attempt to answer these, and other questions from different perspectives – as historians, practitioners, and theorists. We hope that this conversation will aid in understanding the bewildering present by uncovering the implicit hopes of contemporary art.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
6:00pm – 9:00pm
280 S Columbus Dr.
Chicago, IL 60603
Featuring:
Claire Pentecost (artist, writer, SAIC)
Chris Cutrone (Critic, Platypus, SAIC, U. Chicago)
Stephen Eisenman (Art History, Northwestern)
www.platypus1917.org
http://platypus1917.org/2010/04/08/an-interview-with-hal-foster/
General
The Platypus Affiliated Society at Loyola University present…
Adorno’s political relevance today
When: Wednesday, April 21, 2010. 7-8:30pm.
Where: Loyola University – Crown Center Room 530.
The German Marxist critical theorist Theodor W. Adorno (1903-69) is known, along with his friend and mentor Walter Benjamin, for the critique of mid-20th century art and culture. What is less well understood is the specific character of Adorno’s Marxism, how his political perspective related to his philosophical concerns. This workshop will address several aspects of Adorno’s Marxism that relate to his critique of Leftist politics, in both periods of his early and late life, in the Old Left (1920s-40s) and New Left (1960s), and how Adorno remains relevant to issues and problems of Leftist politics today.
Recommended background readings:
Max Horkheimer, “The Little Man and the Philosophy of Freedom” (1926)
Adorno, “Imaginative Excesses” (1944)
Adorno, “Marginalia to Theory and Praxis” (1969)
Adorno, “Resignation” (1969)
Adorno and Herbert Marcuse, correspondence on the German New Left (1969)
Cosponsored by Pi Sigma Tau, STAND, and SAF.
General
From left to right: Gabriel Gaster, Chris Mansour and Ian Morrison
Platypus’s own Chris Mansour and Ian Morrison were recently interviewed by Mitchel Cohen on “Steal this Radio.” The show will be broadcast on Friday, April 2, 2010 at 11 a.m. (New York time). Steal This Radio can be heard only over the internet, not on regular radio.) To hear it, go to http://nytalkradio.net at that time and click on Listen Live.
If you are not able to catch it live, just click on the link below:
http://www.healthytipsradio.com/podcasts/03.30.10.STR.106.mp3
Chris and Ian did an excellent job representing the group, and I would recommend anyone even remotely interested in Platypus to tune in!
General
