transmediale Marshall McLuhan Lecture by Sara Diamond: Anxious to see change…

Abstract

The artistic appropriation of the term "Age of Anxiety" emerged as a critique of the modernist era. Adapted by W.H. Auden in his famous 1947 poem The Age of Anxiety, it was taken up in the post-war west by social theorists as well as other artists. The term re-emerges with regular ferocity in the context of rapid social change and economic turbulence. It was also a consistent theme in the post-war era of the United States and Canada, as popular psychoanalysis diagnosed women's “anxious” experience within the confines of domestic labor. Drawing from her work as a historian of society, technology, and media, as well as a collaborator with science and new media artists, for the 2016 Marshall McLuhan Lecture Dr. Sara Diamond will provide a wide-ranging think piece on shifting definitions in the understanding of anxiety that have informed feminist concerns. This presentation will both reflect back on her career and examine current developments, exploring the challenges and the possibilities for interdisciplinary work between art, science, and technology today. In particular she will consider the role of women in media art and research, including the revival of critical discussion on the topic with projects such as FemTech. She will end with her own anxieties about the value of the historical record and the loss of specific histories, which we need to preserve in order to more effectively navigate present and future.