Attention! Provocations on the Culture of Canadian Visual Forms

This international Canadian studies symposium examines the histories and forms of Canadian visual culture and discusses the manner in which attention is generated, sustained, manipulated, or relinquished by visual forms that are either produced in Canada or have this nation as its primary topic. Specifying a “problem” in this field of theory – rather than recapitulating the work of particular artists, schools of thought, or formal trends – the speakers present short provocations on photography, television, film, and issues of intermediality and raise the question how these forms are implicated in and at odds with the contemporary social, political, and economic forces of Canada.