Tues 21 Nov 06 Godard film "band a part"

Band a part - Cinema Goldsmiths 6pm tues 21st Nov. All welcome.

"Jean-Luc Godard’s seventh feature is, arguably, his final purely joyous New Wave film before moving on to his more formally abstract and politically radical works of the late sixties and early seventies" - Donato Totaro, OFF SCREEN.

Dec 1 2006 - Mao CCS 1-6pm

Centre for Cultural Studies presents:

Mao workshop - Friday 1st Dec - Goldsmiths 1-6pm cinema - all welcome.

Why Mao? Why Now?

Why have a conference on Maoism in a heart of 21st century post-industrial post-colonial European Capitalism? What interest would Maoism hold for anUrban Bourgeois Institution of Intellectuals in an era in which Communismhas been historically 'surpassed'? Two decades after China itself began its 'De-Maoification'? And why Maoism in particular out of all forms ofMarxist-Leninism? Why does Maoism continue to inspire theory and revolutionary struggle far beyond the bounds of China and Chinese Culture,beyond the divisions of East and West, North and South? This small dayconference attempts to address those and other questions by looking at different currents of Maoist thought and practice in the US, France,India, China and Nepal.


Here is the draft schedule for 1 December (but some speakers are still to be confirmed. The venue will be Goldsmiths Cinema):

1pm welcome - Intro/framing - Maude Colville

1.25 - Alpa Shah and George Kunnath on the state and struggle in Jharkhand, India - anthropological studies and the People's War

2.05 - . Sukant Chandan on the 40th anniversary of the Black Panther Party and Influence of Maoism

2.45 - break

3.05 - Michael Dutton on the Mao museum and memorial village in ... Mao badge museum, trinkets etc.

3.45 Alberto Toscano - Learning with Mao: Revolutionary Pedagogy in Post-Althusserian Thought

4.25 Break

4.35 - Bill Martin - Maoism and the call of the future: Bob Avakian and the next synthesis

5.55 - Final Discussion.

6.15pm - end (local refreshments)
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Alphaville Tuesday 14 Nov 2006

Godard Sci Fi
Alphaville
6pm Goldsmiths Cinema
all welcome.
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Godard Autumn term tuesdays 6-9

At Goldsmiths on tuesday nights all Autumn term I am going to show Godard films. Cinema - 6-9 tuesdays, in something like this order (tbc):

Oct 3 - a bout de Souffle
Oct 10 - no film/Dutton inaugural lecture in IGLT at 5.30
Oct 17 -KP Koepping presents Sembene's Xala
Oct 24 - Stephen Muecke talk at 6.30 (after Bev Skeggs inaugural 5.30 IGLT)
Oct 31 - Two or three things I know about her
Nov 7 - reading week (film tbc - possibly Les Mempres??)
Nov 14 - Alphaville (tbc)
Nov 21 - band a part
Nov 28 - La Chinoise (link to 1 Dec Mao event)
Dec 5 - Godard on TV (if I can get it) or Historie du cinema

These dates/films are subject to change, but seem pretty solid for now.

All welcome.
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Dis-Orient X - friday 17 November

Dis-Orient X - friday 17 November 3-6pm

Ten years after the book Dis-Orienting Rhythms: the Politics of the New Asian Dance Music (zed books 1996) we've decided to have a party (or a wake) and discuss, and dance, about the new world disorder...

3pm start - Goldsmiths Cinema
speakers - Sonia from ADFED, Anamik Saha of Goldsmiths, Sanjay Sharma, Aki Nawaz showing the new Fun-da-mental video, & panel discussion chaired by Ash Sharma...
finish 6pm

Then...

From 7.30pm (after hungry folks have eaten at a local diner):

Dis-Orient X club night 17 November 7.30 - 12pm.

@ New Cross Inn (on New Cross Rd opposite the venue)
with Aki Nawaz from Fun-da-mental and friends on the decks
- a benefit for the 1857 Indian war of Independence Commemoration Committee
(donation at door - and auction of John's old South Asian vinyl)

All welcome
(special discount offer on the F-D-M album ALL IS WAR on the night)
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Taussig - Tuesday 7 November

GOLDSMITHS
University of London

DEPARTMENT OF POLITICS

Centre for Postcolonial Studies

Public Seminar

Michael Taussig

Zoology, magic and surrealism in the war on terror

Tuesday 7 November 2006 in RHB 308 at 2.00pm

ALL WELCOME

Further details available from Professor Michael Dutton – tel: 020 7919 7751 email:m.dutton@gold.ac.uk

Tues Nov 7 Le Mepris 6pm Cinema

Tuesday Nov 7 Le Mepris - 1963 by Godard, stars Jack Palance, Brigit Bardot and Michel Piccoli
6pm Cinema Goldsmiths College - All Welcome

Sumanyu Satpathy - Friday 3 Nov @ 5pm

The Media and Communications Dept, the

Centre for Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths and

the Politics Department

present a talk by

Professor Sumanyu Satpathy (Delhi University)

The Indian Queer, Media and the Arts

The paper examines media coverage of the vexed subject of same-sex love in India by way of responding to specific news-worthy events such as sex-related murders, harassment, films, and even suicides, elopements and murders. More recently, the call for the repealing of article 377 has also featured in the popular print and electronic media. In these debates conducted through the media certain issues related to India’s “traditional” moral and ethical values are invoked by the proponents and opponents of the legislation. These media events are as much representations of same-sex love as any artistic ones.

How it that questions of ethics and public morality are are invoked as transcendentalist, universalist categories, without any clearly formulated ideas of what constitutes the ethical or moral in the Indian context? Does morality or ethicality pertain to the private or public domain? There is a criminal code to punish deviance from what is natural etc. Does the legal involve the moral or ethical? How can a matter of personal choice be debated in the public sphere? What is the relationship between the private and the public in questions of the moral or ethical? How much of the ethicality of one’s sexual choice is of public consequence? How is it that a case of crime and punishment being taken to the sphere of the sexual orientation of the victim, and becomes and occasion for public debate on the ethicality of a gayman’s personal life?

These are some of the questions that the paper seeks to address making use of news paper clippings, film clips and scanned paintings and sketches.

Friday 3 November 5pm-7pm
Goldsmiths Cinema (RHoggart Building)

All Welcome

Stellarc - Thursday, 2nd November 2006

The Department of Media and Communications at Goldsmiths is pleased to
invite you to a talk by the international performance artist STELARC:

FRACTAL FLESH/ PHANTOM BODIES: The Prosthetic, the Plastinated, the
Partial and the Printed

Date: Thursday, 2nd November 2006
Time: 5 pm
Venue: Media Research Building (new building at the back of the campus
field, near the studios), Screen 1, Goldsmiths College, University of
London, New Cross

The event is free but places need to be booked by emailing Joanna
Zylinska <j.zylinska@gold.ac.uk>. They will be allocated on the first
come, first served basis.

FURTHER DETAILS
Stelarc is an Australian artist who has used prosthetics, robotics, VR
systems, the Internet and biotechnology to explore alternate, intimate
and involuntary interfaces with the body. Some of his projects include
the THIRD HAND, the STOMACH SCULPTURE, EXOSKELTON, the EXTRA EAR and the

PROSTHETIC HEAD. Recently he has performed and exhibited in
“Transfigure” (ACMI, Melbourne); the “Clemenger Contemporary Art Award”
(NGV, Melbourne); the Yokohama Triennale; the “Microwave Media Arts
Festival” (Hong Kong); and “Ars Electronica”. In 1997 he was appointed
Honorary Professor of Art and Robotics at Carnegie Mellon University. In

2002 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate and was artist-in-residence in

the Faculty of Art and Design, Monash University, Caulfield. He is
currently Chair in Performance Art, School of Arts, Brunel University.
He is a recipient of a New Media Arts Fellowship from the Australia
Council for 2005-2007. His artwork is represented by the Sherman
Galleries in Sydney.

The talk will focus on Stelarc’s recent projects, which tentatively and
imperfectly explore alternate anatomical architectures that incorporate
physiologically plausible structures and re-wirings. They also postulate

hybrids of biology and technology and actual-virtual chimeras, i.e.
operational and living systems as mixed and augmented realities. In so
doing they raise questions about the obsolescence of the body and its
present form and functions. The Prosthetic Head, the Partial Head, the
Extra Ear and the Walking Head are indicative of virtual, partially
living and hybrid robotic systems that exhibit varying degrees of
liveness.

Stelarc’s website: http://www.stelarc.va.com.au

Tuesday Oct 31 06 "Two or Three Things I Know About Her"

Two or Three Things I Know About Her (Deux ou Trois Choses que Je Sais d'Elle) directed by Jean-Luc Godard. France. 1966.

Cinema, Goldsmiths 6pm

Nigel Watson started his pretty stupid review with a comment on the great coffee scene, a scene which could be the greatest cinematic coffee of all time.

"As the Time Out Film Guide, Eighth Edition 2000 puts it: 'Despite some time-bound concerns and irritating concepts, the sheer energy of Godard's dazzling sociological fable is enough to commend it.' Here I will look at some of these irritating concepts. A voice-over stating that language limits and constrains our view of the world accompanies a close-up of swirling coffee in a cup.... "

So come make up your own mind. The Godard 'season' continues with this film on Tuesday October 31 in the Goldsmiths Cinema at 6pm - and then in the weeks to come we might get to mock other great Watson miosconstruals. For example, when we get to Alphaville our Nige will tell us: "In Alphaville he [Godard] has a soul-less and inhumane computer ruling the city with rational and unwavering logic; those people who express love or poetic feelings are killed or brainwashed"... you kind of got the point, but missed it at the same time Nige. We will just have to decide for ourselves on the day...

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Samarendra Das - Friday 27th October

CCS presents a feature length documentary by Samarendra Das on the Adivasi and Dalit resistance to Alcan in Orissa, India.

The director will attend the screening and answer questions on the campaign..

Friday 27th October - 3.30pm Goldsmiths Cinema RHB (124 minutes)

All welcome.

In a recent review of the film, Felix Padel wrote: "This is a documentary made with and for the indigenous people of Orissa, whose speech, song, dance, demonstration and gesture comes alive here in a way that is only possible because film-maker and camera have entered this indigenous world, and surrendered to the intention of serving them, becoming a medium for their expression.

What Adivasis and Dalits actually say is rarely heard in the media within or outside Orissa – a subtle form of censorship which is also tragic – especially on the subject of mining. In this film, as in their daily life, they speak with a clarity and vividness that pulls blinkers off our eyes, and brings us back to a reality grounded firmly in nature.

Running through the film is the commentary of one of the leaders of the Kashipur movement, Bhagavan Majhi, who narrates events before and after the Maikanch police killings of December 2000, and articulates a critique of mainstream ideas about "development" which should be heard by everybody concerned about Orissa’s future.

Basically the film interweaves a number of separate stories around resistance to mining and metal factory projects, and the big dams which supply them with hydro-power and water.
The Kashipur story involves 13 years of resistance to the "Utkal" project, where Alcan is the dominant partner (Aluminium Canada, a key supplier to Britain and its arms industry). Resistance centres in the Kond village of Kucheipadar, where Bhagavan and several other leaders live, alongside Salo Majhi, a blind singer and story-teller, whose songs start and end film, "from Genesis to Genocide".

Events reached crisis in Maikanch six years ago, and culminates again today, when Kucheipadar is virtually under police siege as the authorities try to force-start construction work on Utkal’s refinery next to the village. ..."

October 7th 2006: International Day of Action on Migrant Rights

Details for the London demonstration on October 7th 2006
assemble at 12.00pm at the Imperial War Museum (Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park), Lambeth Road, London SE1 6HZ.

In an echo of recent actions in the US, the UK's migrants are coming out of the shadows and demanding that their rights are recognised. Saturday October 7th 2006 will see a march through London demanding equal rights for all. The organisers are calling on migrants, asylum seekers and their friends, families and colleagues to join the demonstration and build a movement to change conditions for migrants for the better.

The march on October 7 2006 will start at 12 noon from the gardens of the Imperial War Museum (Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park) and proceed through south London towards the city. On Sunday October 8 2006 10am-5pm a conference will be held at Queen Mary University where migrant communities, activists and specialists in the field will discuss the possibilities and implications of a regularisation in the UK.

Tuesday 24th October - Stephen Muecke

The Centre for Cultural Studies presents:

a guest lecture by Professor Stephen Muecke - University or Technology, Sydney

"Science Studies and Cultural Studies: Ideas from Latour, Stengers and other 'radical empiricists'"

If critique is indeed 'running out of steam' (Latour), what would a post-critical cultural studies look like? Doing science studies means writing ethnographies of what scientists do, and in the process delving into their 'black boxes'. So maybe CS should observe what its practitioners do as opposed to listening to, then judging, their familiar critical positions. The subsequent analysis should give us a clearer idea of what such practitioners are capable of doing in their real empirical relations.

Venue, Goldsmiths Cinema, 6.30pm, Tuesday 24th October - all welcome.

(pic by Tom Carment, Sydney artist)
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