Note: the Symposium weekend has come and gone, but the work is ongoing!
To see what Feverish World was like, read the feature article from our local alternative news weekly, take a look at our slideshow of the TentWorks art pieces that were installed around town, or browse the program to see the catalogue of wonderful events that took place.
To join us in shaping what comes next, visit the blog and subscribe to our listserv!
FEVERISH WORLD
2018-2068: Arts AND Sciences of Collective Survival
A Symposium and Convergence in Burlington, Vermont, October 20-22, 2018
Fifty years after the widespread international protests of 1968 challenged institutional norms, and some sixty years after C. P. Snow lamented the gap between academia’s “two cultures,” those of the arts and the sciences, it is time to ask whether educational institutions have changed in ways that help us address the world’s intensifying crises.
What are the cultural divides that fracture our world today -- both in academia and in the world at large? How can we build "cosmopolitical" bridges between "coastal elites," the populist movements of "flyover country," and the growing global precariat of refugees, climate victims, Indigenous Peoples, and others? How do we prepare for the feverish world of the next 50 years?
More specifically, how can we draw on the creative imagination of the arts, the wisdom and critical insight of the humanities, and the know-how and know-what of science and technology to develop practices for collective coexistence and even flourishing in the climate-destabilized world of our likely future?
This 3+day symposium and art event will explore these questions through panels and roundtables, talks and presentations by invited speakers, art and performances by local and invited artists, and open forums including a "Tent City Commons" at the University of Vermont campus and at other area locations.
Invited speakers and artists include anthropologist and philosopher of science Bruno Latour, Brazilian sculptor and installation artist Néle Azevedo, visual artist Torkwase Dyson, artist/engineer Natalie Jeremijenko, musician and eco-philosopher David Rothenberg, eco-art theorist and educator Linda Weintraub, dancer and performance artist Pauline Jennings, digital artist Jonathan Harris, religion and environment scholar Bron Taylor, NPR “To the Best of Our Knowledge” co-hosts Anne Strainchamps and Steve Paulson, archaeologist and Abenaki historian Fred Wiseman, poet laureate of Vermont Chard deNiord, New Orleans-based heavy drone band Weather Warlock, cellist and sound artist Anne Bourne, and others (please see Speakers and Featured Guests page).
FEVERISH WORLD is organized by the EcoCulture Lab and is generously supported by the Gund Institute for Environment, the Steven Rubenstein Professorship, the UVM Humanities Center, the Dan and Carole Burack Distinguished Lecture Series, and the Molly Ruprecht Fund for Visual Arts. Collaborating institutions include Champlain College, St. Michael’s College, Burlington City Arts, and the Shelburne Institute, as well as University of Vermont programs and departments in Environmental Studies, Global and Regional Studies, Art and Art History, and the UVM Fab Lab. Feverish World is part of Vermont Arts 2018, a project of the Vermont Arts Council.
The event is free and open to the public.
For further information, please email ecoculture@uvm.edu.