A Baker-Nord Faculty Works-in-Progress
City space is fast becoming the central playground for the experiential, political and ideological forces shaping lives and discourses both within the specific boundaries of urban centers, and across the globe. Schifani’s ongoing research explores ways of creating and participating in contemporary urban space, with a particular focus on the new media technologies and ecocritical tactics that urban dwellers use to engage, and change city space. In this talk, she will present her work on contemporary urban ‘do-it-yourself’ art and intervention practices, looking at the intersection of technology, ecology and biopolitics.
About the speaker
Allison Schifani
Allison Schifani received her PhD from the Graduate Program in Comparative Literature at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her work explores literatures, media art, and urban intervention in the 20th and 21st Century Americas. Her dissertation, Biotechnical Ecologies: Urban Practice and Play in Buenos Aires and Los Angeles focused on extra-institutional ways of shaping the experience of the city and speculating on its digital futures. She is currently writing on emerging DIY media and art practices in Cleveland.