Upcoming Events
Dr. Charles Menzies
Our Grandmothers' Garden: Participatory Film in Gitxaala Nation
November 4, 2009, 12 – 1.30 pm | 310 – 2125 Main Mall, Scarfe Building
Digitally recording our lives has become ubiquitous. The family albums of a few short decades ago have morphed into kilobytes of data in a myriad of types of storage mediums. Videos are posted to Youtube and then shared through social utilities like Facebook or Bebo; photos are uploaded onto sites like Flicker or Snapfish or Picasa and then shared within families, friends, or strangers with common interests. All of these visual mediums are complemented –perhaps complicated? - by the proliferation of blogs and webpages that salt commentary with image and sound. This is the context for visual anthropology today whether one is working in the urban centres or along the margins of late capitalist society. This paper examines the place of collaborative video research through the lens of a decade long research programme of cooperation between UBC and Gitxaala Nation on the north coast of British Columbia. Our Grandmothers’ Garden is an example of combining research, film, and community practice that produces formal documentaries and informal Web 2.0 products.
A selection of video clips related tot his talk have been set up in a variety of social networking sites for viewing:
Dr. Charles Menzies is an Associate Professor of Anthropology (UBC-V). Charles’ primary research interests include the production of anthropological films, and the study of natural resource management (primarily fisheries and forestry related), and contemporary First Nations' issues. Charles has conducted field research in, and has produced films concerning, north coastal BC, Canada; Brittany, France; and Donegal, Ireland. Charles’ key projects include founding and directing the Ethnographic Film Unit at UBC, authoring a weblog in support of public education, establishing an online journal, New Proposals, and acting as the coordinator of an ecological anthropology research group at UBC, Forests and Oceans for the Future. Charles is currently working with his home community, Gitxaała Nation, as a special advisor on cultural heritage resources and the documentation of Gitxaała rights and title.
Event organised by the Centre for Cross-Faculty Inquiry in Education (CCFI) and co-sponsored by College for Interdisciplinary Studies CFIS), Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), and School of Library, Archival and Information Studies (SLAIS)
Dr. Siva Vaidhyanathan
The Googlization of Everything
October 5, 2009, 12 – 1.30 pm | 103 – 2008 Lower Mall, Ponderosa F
In little over 10 years since its search engine first appeared, Google has utterly changed our lives. In this unique analysis of the company that has recently infiltrated our culture more than any other, academic and media star Siva Vaidhyanathan examines Google’s extraordinary rise. Is it a benevolent force, or are we at its mercy? This smart, bold book shows how Google is taking on governments and entire industries – and the unforeseen impact of this still-growing force. One of the great attractions of Google is that it appears to offer so many powerful services for “free”. But there is a non-monetary transaction at work between Google and its users that may not be immediately apparent. We get Web search, email and YouTube videos; Google gets our habits and predilections so it can more efficiently target its advertisements. Google knows a tremendous amount about us; we know far too little about it. The Googlization of Everything redresses this imbalance, considering everything from Google’s role as the anti-Microsoft and the diversification of its interests into books and mobile phones to life as an employee at the company. Vaidhyanathan also addresses the challenge Google poses to big media, its engagements and conflicts with countries such as China and India, and what we as consumers can and should do in the face of this remarkable company.
Dr. Siva Vaidhyanathan is a cultural historian and media scholar at the University of Virginia. He has written two books: Copyrights and Copywrongs: The Rise of Intellectual Property and How it Threatens Creativity (New York University Press, 2001) and The Anarchist in the Library: How the Clash between Freedom and Control is Hacking the Real World and Crashing the System (Basic Books, 2004). His third book, The Googlization of Everything (University of California Press) is forthcoming in 2010. Vaidhyanathan has written for many periodicals, including American Scholar, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The New York Times Magazine, MSNBC.COM, Salon.com, openDemocracy.net, Columbia Journalism Review, and The Nation. After five years as a professional journalist, Vaidhyanathan earned a Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin in 1999. He is an associate professor of Media Studies and Law at the University of Virginia. Vaidhyanathan is also a fellow at the New York Institute for the Humanities and the Institute for the Future of the Book.
Event organised by the Centre for Cross-Faculty Inquiry in Education (CCFI) and co-sponsored by the Digital Literacy Center.
