Living Maps III: Grounding Knowledge

Indigmaps
Five Dreamings, painter – Michael Nelson Jakamarra, assisted by Marjorie Napaljarri, Papunya, Central Australia, 1984 acrylic on canvas, 122 x 182 cm.

Next Tuesday will see the third seminar in the Living Maps series. After ‘Mapping the Field’ and ‘Hidden Histories’, ‘Grounding Knowledge’ will see Øyvind EideIain Boal and David Pinder tackle issues of power and politics. I will be travelling down to London from Manchester for it myself.

Hosted this time at QMUL, the seminar will aim to interrogate the epistemological bases for mapping in the modern world. Questions such as “how are maps situated?”, “how do they tell specific stories?” and “how do they propose new ways of existence?” all pertinent.

Content from seminar’s ONE and TWO can also be viewed over at the Living Maps website. Tickets for each seminar are priced at £5 for students/unwaged and £20 for professionals/academics. They can be purchased individually from here. It will run from 18.00 – 20.30.

Activism II

Another exciting looking event coming up on activism, this time at QMUL on May 1st-2nd. Let’s hope it doesn’t clash with any possible demonstrations, as is common on May Day. Entitled ‘Power and Resistance: Theory and Imaginative Activism’, the conference will look to discuss three themes:

  • New opportunities and possibilities for political interventions and resistance
  • The relationship between theory and practice in the spheres of political struggles
  • New forms of activism on new digital platforms of communication capable of generating radical resistance against hegemonic powers

There is a call for contributions out now, with a requirement to forward a 500 word abstract to powerandresistance2014@gmail.com before March 31st. Based on these three themes there will be three panels:

  • ‘Disobedient Theory: Interventions into Normality’
  • ‘The Agony of Power: Politics and Resistance’
  • ‘Technopolitics: Activism and Subversion in the Digital Age’

For more details on each of these, head over to the Power & Resistance conference website.