USI’s Historic New Harmony will co-sponsor the inaugural Summer Forum for Inquiry + Exchange, a text and discussion-based residency program, July 21-28 in New Harmony, Indiana. Thirty-five residents from a variety of fields will spend the week discussing a selection of texts and the theme Community, Utopia, and the Individual.
Five guests, including Linh Dinh, Lucky Dragons, Dr. Timothy McCarthy, Marisa Olson,and Randall Szott, will provide evening programming and address the residency theme from their unique areas of expertise. The event will also publish a new print and digital journal, Dilettante, to document the residency and facilitate new contemporary cultural production.
All events are free and open to the public and will take place at 8 p.m. at The Atheneum/Visitors Center, 401 N. Arthur Street, Thrall's Opera House, 612 E. Church Street, or the Granary, 413 Granary Street.
The schedule of events includes:
Saturday, July 21
Screening of “Somewhere to Disappear”
“Somewhere to Disappear” is a documentary in which Alec Soth, an American photographer, searches for men who live on the margins of society in order to write a guide that provides tips on how to disappear in America. His project began during the last month of George W. Bushʼs era. It captures the country during a unique period of historical change that is mixed with the torment created by the financial crisis and the hope emerging from the election of Barack Obama. (Atheneum)
Sunday, July 22
Presentation by Timothy McCarthy
Dr. Timothy McCarthy is a lecturer in history and literature and public policy at Harvard University and the director of the Sexuality, Gender, and Human Rights Program at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. A historian of social movements, media culture, and the American radical tradition, Dr. McCarthy has most recently published The Radical Reader: A Documentary History of the American Radical Tradition. A national leader in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community, Dr. McCarthy is a founding member of Barack Obama's National LGBT Leadership Council. (Atheneum)
Monday, July 23
Presentation by Linh Dinh
Linh Dinh was born in Vietnam in 1963 and came to the United States in 1975. He's the author of stories, poems, and the novel, Love Like Hate. His work has been anthologized in many publications, including Best American Poetry. Addressing our nation in crisis, his political essays have been published in Common Dreams and Counterpunch and Dissident Voice. He has also traveled across the country to take photos for his ambitious blog, State of the Union. A book of his photos and political writing is scheduled for release in 2013. (Thrall's Opera House)
Tuesday, July 24
Interview with Randall Szott
Randall Szott has been cooking professionally for around a decade and has prepared everything from Thanksgiving dinner for over 300 to multi-course wine tasting menus for 12. His life is a series of three-week cycles on land and three at sea working as a cook aboard the largest United States owned hopper dredge. (Atheneum)
Wednesday, July 25
Presentation by Marisa Olson
Work by Marisa Olson combines performance, video, net art, sound, drawing, and installation to address the cultural history of technology, politics of participation within pop culture, and the aesthetics of failure. The Whitney Museum of American Art, Centre Pompidou-Paris, New Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Sundance Film Festival have recently presented her work. She is also a founding member of the Nasty Nets "internet surfing club." Her critiques of contemporary art and digital visual culture have extended to writing for various publications and curating exhibitions and programs at several institutions. (Granary)
Thursday, July 26
Presentation by Lucky Dragons
Lucky Dragons is an ongoing collaboration between Los Angeles-based artists Sarah Rara and Luke Fischbeck. Active as a band since 2000, the duo is known for their participatory approach to making music, radically inclusive live shows, and sprawling catalog of digital sounds crafted in playful humanism. They have presented performances and installations at the Whitney Museum of American Art, 54th Venice Biennale, Walker Art Center, Centre Georges Pompidou, and more. (Atheneum)
For additional information, contact Sara Knox Hunter, Chicago artist and founder and director of Summer Forum for Inquiry + Exchange, at sara@summerforum.org.
Historic New Harmony is a unified program of the University of Southern Indiana and the Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites. By preserving its utopian legacy, Historic New Harmony inspires innovation and progressive thought through its programs and collections. Its office is part of USI′s Division of Outreach and Engagement.