[URBANTH-L]ANN: The Wall-mart Phenomenon: Resisting neo-liberalist power through art, design and theory

[Angela Jancius]

THE WAL-MART PHENOMENON:
Resisting neo-liberalist power through art, design and theory

A one-day colloquium on:

POWER and RESISTANCE following Robert Greenwald's film,
WAL-MART The high cost of low price.

Where: Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht, The Netherlands
When: Friday 3 November 2006

Robert Greenwald's film "WAL-MART The high cost of low price" will be used 
as critical platform to discuss the workings of neo-liberalist power and 
possible strategies of resistance during a one-day colloquium. The focus 
will both be on the media used to reflect upon these phenomena and the 
actual socio-political and economic processes underlying them.

The following issues will be addressed:

1. the nature of neo-liberalist power and the possibility of resistance from 
a philosophical point of view;
2. its various incarnations in and effects on the social and urban landscape 
(built environment and public space);
3. the effects of economic processes on spatial development from the 
perspective of social geography; and
4. the complexity of documentary approaches in visual arts production.

10:00 Registration
10:30 Introductory lecture by BENDA HOFMEYR, organizer and researcher, 
Theory Department, Jan van Eyck Academie: The Wal-Mart Phenomenon: 
Power/Knowledge/Resistance
11:00 Film showing: Robert Greenwald's documentary film: WAL-MART. The High 
Cost of Low Price (short version: 20")
11:20 Coffee Break
11:30 Lecture by HITO STEYERL, filmmaker and theoretician: The Role of the 
Documentary Film Today: From Art to Politics and Back
12:30 Lunch Break
13:30 Lecture by ERIK SWYNGEDOUW, social geographer: Assessing the Wal-Mart 
Phenomenon from the Perspective of Social Geography
14:30 Lecture by Matthias Pauwels & Gideon Boie (BAVO)
It's about Taking the Utopian Promise of Shopping Seriously, Stupid! On 
Walter Benjamin, Wal-Mart and Creative Destruction
15:30 Coffee Break
16:00 Lecture by DANIËL VAN DER VELDEN (advising researcher, Design 
Department, Jan van Eyck Academie)
Can a Creative Engagement with Present Day 'Public Space' also be Critical?
17:00 Discussion
17:30 Drinks & Snacks
19:00 Dinner

Admission: Free
Language: English
Organization: Benda Hofmeyr
bhofmeyr at janvaneyck.nl mail

Advance booking and online registration are recommended.  For info and 
bookings please contact Madeleine Bisscheroux

madeleine.bisscheroux at janvaneyck.nl
+ 31 (0)43 350 37 29
Jan van Eyck Academie
Academieplein 1
6211 KM Maastricht
The Netherlands
www.janvaneyck.nl