Co-Sponsors:
This event is co-sponsored by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and the Institute of East Asian Studies at UC Berkeley.
ABOUT
The symposium brings together artists, activists and scholars for a series of conversations on the 3.11 disasters and the effects of anthropogenic change. The conversations will explore how people in northeastern Japan are living with the consequences of the 3.11 disasters and how different communities with varying livelihoods and vulnerabilities have responded to and invented tactics to survive them. While the works we discuss will provide attention to details that help contextualize the disasters and their aftermath within Japan, they will also reveal new contours for knowledge production and call forth forms of community existing in the commons of matter, survival and invention.
Symposium events are open and free to the public. No registration necessary.
LOCATION
Banatao Auditorium (310 Sutardja Dai Hall)
Nearest address: 2594 Hearst Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94720 at the intersection of Hearst Avenue and LeRoy Avenue.
The Banatao Auditorium at 310 Sutardja Dai Hall is located on the main level/third floor just past the building entrance on Hearst Avenue. The Kvamme Atrium is adjacent to the Banatao Auditorium.
SCHEDULE
Day 1 - Friday, February 14 | 9:00am-6:00pm
9:00-9:15am Coffee and Pastries
9:15-9:30 Opening Remarks
9:30-11:00 Panel 1: Ethnographies of Everyday Life
- Paper #1 (9:30-10) Dylan Hallingstad O’Brien
- Paper #2 (10-10:30) Man-Kei Tam
- Moderator (10:30-11) Jon Pitt
11:00-12:20pm Break
12:30-2:30 Roundtable #1: A Conversation on “Gender, Knowledge Production and Food Politics” with Mayumi Fukunaga and Junko Habu, and Aya Kimura
- Moderators (2-2:30) Tomoe Otsuki and Roddey Reid
2:30-2:50 Break
3:00-6:00 Film Screening: Fukushima wa kataru (2018) Conversation with Toshikuni Doi (director), Mimi Long and Mitsuyo Wada-Marciano
Day 2 - Saturday, February 15 | 9:00am-7:30pm
9:00-9:20am Coffee and Pastries
9:30-10:30 Film Compilation Screening
10:30-11:30 Keynote Address: Livia Monnet, Envisioning Contaminated and Post-Extinction Futures in Recent Moving-Image Works by Asian Women Artists
11:30-12:50pm Break
1:00-3:00 Panel #2: Nuclear Futures: Documentary Cinema and Speculative Fiction
- Paper #1 (1-1:30) Mimi Long
- Paper #2 (1:30-2) Hideaki Fujiki
- Paper #3 (2-2:30) Toshiya Ueno
- Moderators (2:30-3) Saeko Kimura and Shelby Oxenford
3:00-3:10 Break
3:10-5:50 Film Screening: A2-B-C (2013) Conversation with Ian Thomas Ash (director) and Hideaki Fujiki
6:00-7:30 Roundtable #2: Extending the Conversation on Anthropogenic Climate Worlds: Lisa Bloom, Rebecca Hogue and Greg Levine with Anne-Lise Francois (moderator)
KEYNOTE ABSTRACT
Envisioning Contaminated and Post-Extinction Futures in Recent Moving-Image Works by Asian Women Artists
Livia Monnet, University of Montreal
Building on two forthcoming projects, the talk examines the aesthetic and philosophy of the future in the recent work of three Asian women artists: Almagul Menlibayeva (Kazakhstan-Germany), Larissa Sansour (Israel/Palestine-Denmark), and Seto Momoko (Japan-France). Menlibayeva’s three-part installation Transformation (2013-2016) posits a continuum between Kazakhstan’s Soviet past, its neoliberal present and (what the government advertises as) the country’s high-tech knowledge economy of the near future through futuristic imagery and the highlighting of the legacies of the Soviet-era nuclear tests as well as the risks of nuclear fusion energy. Sansour’s installation Heirloom (2019) envisions a post-disaster future where life is lived in an underground bunker where scientists have developed posthuman clones and artificial gardens from salvaged DNA. In contrast to the installations of Menlibayeva and Sansour, Seto’s experimental VR film Planet ∞ (Planet Infinity, 2017) looks unflinchingly into a post-extinction future where humans and most other living species have vanished, and mutated giant mushrooms, mold, and giant tadpoles are the only embodiments of life.
While the moving-image works I will discuss, articulate and practice/enact a critical eco-aesthetic and eco-politics in a hybrid speculative mode – a mode that, rather than simply revisiting time-honored tropes of (Euro-American) science fiction, mobilizes the subversive potential of what Donna Haraway has described as speculative fabulation – they differ in their respective approach to yet another SF imaginary, that of speculative futures. Zooming in onto a series of tropes and concepts that structure both the historical and the speculative worlds imagined by Menlibayeva, Sansour and Seto – alterlife (defined as “life already altered (but) …also life open to alteration”(M.Murphy)), immanence, memory and the infra-world of toxicity – I will show that the (im)possible, seemingly dystopian futures staged or looming in the work of the three artists are, variously and tentatively, hopeful. The (counter)speculation visualized by the three artists through specific techniques and strategies, I argue, works against current modelizations and decodings of planetary anthropogenic crisis and the defuturing tendencies of neoliberal finance capitalism by seeding a tenuous, yet potentially empowering, magical image of a (decolonial) new Earth.
SPEAKERS
Panel #1
| Name | Affiliation |
| Dylan Hallingstad O’BRIEN | UC San Diego |
| Man-Kei TAM | Hong Kong |
| Jon PITT | UC Irvine, moderator |
Roundtable #1
| Name | Affiliation |
| Aya Hirata KIMURA | University of Hawai’i at Manoa |
| Mayumi FUKUNAGA | University of Tokyo |
| Junko HABU | UC Berkeley |
| Tomoe OTSUKI | UC Berkeley, moderator |
| Roddey REID | UC Berkeley, moderator |
Film Screening and Q/A #1
| Name | Affiliation |
| Mitsuyo WADA-MARCIANO | Kyoto University |
| Toshikuni DOI | Filmmaker |
Keynote
| Name | Affiliation |
| Livia MONNET | University of Montreal |
Panel #2
| Name | Affiliation |
| Mimi LONG | UC Irvine |
| Hideaki FUJIKI | Nagoya University |
| Toshiya UENO | Wako University |
| Saeko KIMURA | Tsuda University, moderator |
| Shelby OXENFORD | Randolph-Macon College, moderator |
Film Screening and Q/A #2
| Name | Affiliation |
| Ian Thomas ASH | Filmmaker |
Roundtable #2
| Name | Affiliation |
| Lisa BLOOM | UC Berkeley |
| Rebecca HOGUE | UC Davis |
| Greg LEVINE | UC Berkeley |
| Anne-Lise FRANCOIS | UC Berkeley, moderator |
SPEAKER BIOS
DIRECTIONS
FROM SAN FRANCISCO AIRPORT (SFO)
Public Transit
BART operates rapid rail service to Berkeley from SFO. The SFO BART Station is located on the Departures/Ticketing Level of the International Terminal (Boarding Area G side). BART is easily accessed from any terminal by riding SFO's AirTrain to the Garage G/BART Station stop.
Take the Pittsburgh/Bay Point Line to 19th St/Oakland, transfer to the Richmond Line, and exit at Downtown Berkeley.
$10.30 (with Clipper Card) or $10.80 (with paper ticket), one way
Ridesharing
Transportation Network Companies, such as Uber and Lyft, are allowed to pick-up and drop-off at SFO. Currently, you can expect to pay as little as $35 for a one-way trip to Berkeley with shared rides like Pool or Line when there is no price surging due to increased demand.
At the International Terminal, Ride App drivers pick up and drop off on the center island of the Departures-level roadway. App-Based Rides can also drop off on the Arrivals level curbside, and passengers are encouraged to request Arrivals-level drop-offs to avoid traffic on the Departures level during peak times.
At the Domestic Terminals, Ride App drivers pick up at Level 5 of the Domestic Parking Garage.
When requesting a ride, check your app to confirm your designated pick-up location.
At the domestic terminals, App-Based Rides can drop off curbside on the Departures or Arrivals levels, or on Level 5 of the domestic garage. Passengers are encouraged to request Arrivals-level or garage drop-offs to avoid traffic on the Departures level during peak times.
Taxi
Taxis depart from the designated taxi zones located at the roadway center islands, on the Arrivals/Baggage Claim Level of all terminals. $80-100
FROM OAKLAND AIRPORT (OAK)
Public Transit
BART operates rapid rail service to Berkeley from OAK. The OAK BART Station is located just across from the Terminal 1 baggage claim area and a short walk from Terminal 2.
Take BART from OAK to Coliseum Station. From Coliseum Station, board the Richmond-bound train to Downtown Berkeley Station.
$9.30 (with Clipper Card) or $9.80 (with paper ticket), one way
The AC Transit (bus) Line 73 connects OAK with the Coliseum/Oakland Airport BART station every 15 minutes between 4:56 a.m. and 12:06 a.m. Local bus fare is $2.50.
Ridesharing
Transportation Network Companies, such as Uber and Lyft, are allowed to pick-up and drop-off at OAK. Currently, you can expect to pay as little as $12 for a one-way trip to Berkeley with shared rides like Pool or Line when there is no price surging due to increased demand.
Shuttles, Taxis, Limos
Please check the Oakland International Airport website for a full list of all companies that offer shuttle, taxi, and limo service to and from Berkeley.
FROM DOWNTOWN BERKELEY BART TO VENUE
Sutardja Dai Hall is roughly .7 miles from the Downtown Berkeley BART station. It takes about 18 minutes by foot.
You can also take the Perimeter Line Campus Shuttle from the corner of Shattuck Avenue and Addison Street to the Cory Hall at Hearst and LeRoy stop, and Sutardja Dai Hall is about a 2 minute walk. Fare is $1.