“The Desert on the Doorstep,” a talk by Professor Dick Hebdige (UCSB)

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Please join us this Friday, Nov. 6th 1:00 in South Hall 2623 (the Sankey Room) for a talk by Dick Hebdige (UCSB, Film & Media Studies) entitled “The Desert on the Doorstep.”Professor Hebdige is the author of several important monographs including Subculture: The Meaning of Style (1979) and Cut ‘n’ Mix: Culture, Identity and Caribbean Music (1987). The talk will draw upon research conducted through the “Desert Studies Project” (2007-15) run under the aegis of the UC Institute for Research in the Arts.

Figured simultaneously as eternally remote yet all too close to home, the Desert in the era of intensifying crisis in the Middle East and the longest drought in California’s recorded rainfall history refuses to stay put. The deserts east of LA, easily accessed via the arterial sprawl of Interstate -10 serve as home to a growing number of permanent Inland Empire residents and as weekend getaway destinations for second homesteaders, tourists, off-road vehicle enthusiasts, Burners and boulderers alike.  Hubs for agribusiness, the military-industrial complex, the casino, resort and waste disposal industries, the desert hinterlands form the literally overlooked outer- rim components of trans-nationally networked metropolitan ecologies. Drawing on the archive of the Desert Studies project a UC system wide  interdisciplinary arts-centered research initiative centered in southern California’s arid zone this talk addresses the desert’s  problematic placement within the imaginary of  21st century West.

 

Film screening of Werner Herzog’s “Where the Green Ants Dream” (1984)

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Friday, Oct. 16th at 1:00 in SH 2635 Please join us as we open our 2015-16 series, “In The Desert of the Real” with a screening Werner Herzog’s first film in English. The screening and discussion will be held onFriday, Oct. 16th at 1:00 in SH 2635. Set in the Australian desert, Where the Green Ants Dream (1984) stages a confrontation between environmental activism and modernization as local Aborigines fight a mining company searching for uranium mining sites. Blending documentary and feature film, Herzog explores the legal and philosophical issues behind neocolonialism and the extraction of local resources. The screening will be followed by discussion, and food will be provided.

COMMA’s 2015-16 Theme: “The Desert of the Real”

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As decided at the organizational meeting on Thursday, Oct. 1, COMMA’s 2015-16 theme will be “The Desert of the Real.” The series will investigate the desert’s arid affordances and apocalyptic imaginaries. As sites of political and aesthetic revolution, deserts solicit alternative modes of viewing, thinking, and being. Please join us all year for featured a film series, reading groups, and talks by scholars who traversed terrains both rich and desolate. Our first event will be a screening and discussion of Werner Herzog’s Where the Green Ants Dream (1984) on Friday, October 16th. Wine and snacks will be provided as we kick off our year long series!