In Visible Crisis: A Collective Visioning of Militant Research
New York University
http://www.visualculturenow.org/

Venue: Hemmerdinger Hall, Silver Center, NYU (this is a large space that will allow for break-outs if we want to do that)

This one-day participation event brings together teams of activists, artists and academics from Los Angeles, Madrid and New York. The goal is to set a collective agenda for militant research practice in the year ahead. At this event we will all be there to learn from each other and to share ideas and insights. There is no “audience.”

Militant research is carried out with social movements to think about social change. It questions the nature, practice, formats and outcomes of research. We intend to merge ongoing and new projects into a collaborative mutual aid project.

The global financial “crisis” is already five years old, perhaps permanent. In its name, we are told, all other issues must disappear. How can we visualize the crisis of the 99%, from personal debt to the climate, and recovery from disasters like Fukushima and Sandy? What still remains out of sight, concealed or overlooked?

Four sessions will set these questions into specific contexts. The day will be facilitated by Suzanne Collado, Christina Daniel and Marisa Holmes.

9.30 AM   Coffee

10 – 10.30 AM  A report-back from Observatorio Metropolitano, a militant research organization from Madrid, who have been investigating the spectacular growth and subsequent crash of their city since 2006.
Isidro Lopez (Observatorio Metropolitano, Madrid)

10.30 AM  - 12.30 PM  “In and Beyond Visible Crisis: West Coast Perspectives.”
We will hear report-backs from a set of projects from California ranging from drone warfare, to feminist spaces, art and anarchism, housing activism in LA, critical theory and popular education, and the collective story of those in poverty. Different projects are working in social media, as apps, online, using film and in alternative education.
Participants: Natalie Bookchin (Film, Cal Arts), Alexandra Juhasz (Filmmaker/Media Studies, Pitzer College), Kara Keeling (Cinema Studies, USC) and Lisa Parks (Film and TV, USCB).

12.30 – 1.30 PM   Lunch

1.30 - 3.30 PM  The Debtor’s Movement in New York
We’ll have a video, slide-show and oral presentations on the debtor’s movement in New York. Participants will talk about their own experience with debt and how debt offers a framework for analysis across academic, economic and political divides. There will be breakouts to work on developing this analysis in small groups.
Participants: Amin Husain (International Center for Photography/Tidal: Occupy Theory), Yates McKee (Stony Brook University/Tidal), Nitasha Dillon (International Center for Photography/ Tidal), Andrew Ross (Social and Cultural Analysis, NYU), Joan Saab (Visual and Cultural Studies/U. Rochester)

3.30 - 4.00 PM   Break

4.00 - 5.00 PM  Concluding Assembly
In the final assembly, we will discuss how to create a network of these and other militant research projects. People can create workgroups and we will write a collective agenda going forward.
Organizing and Research Workshop led by Nicholas Mirzoeff (Media, Culture and Communication, NYU) and Marina Sitrin (Center for Global Justice, CUNY Grad Center) 

5.00 PM   Reception