GRID + Flow : Philadelphia and Beyond
Mapping and Reimagining Urban Ecologies through the Arts and Humanities
An Interdisciplinary Symposium hosted by Temple University, April 7-8, 2011
Kiva Auditorium, Main Campus, Philadelphia
Keynote Speaker:
Timothy Morton, author of The Ecological Thought (2010), Ecology without Nature (2007).
The symposium will highlight emerging interdisciplinary currents in environmental history,
ecocriticism, cultural geography, environmental media studies, and environmental ethics.
Speakers will address various topics concerning the urban ecology of Philadelphia, including:
the use of historical maps to interpret environmental transformation over time; changes in riparian ecology and the development of Fairmount Park; visual representations of aquaculture, zoology,
and comparative biology; the impact of rail networks and restaurants on urban life and the built environment; narratives of place in toxic remediation; panoramic navigation and digital
information flows; and imagining new flood zone infrastructures in anticipation of rising river
levels. Organized by Alan C. Braddock (Department of Art History), Peter d'Agostino (Department
of Film and Media Arts), and Andrew Isenberg (Department of History).
The symposium will begin on Thursday, April 7, at 7:00 pm in Kiva Auditorium with a keynote
address by Timothy Morton, Professor of English (Literature and the Environment) University
of California, Davis. The title of his keynote address is: Ecology and Philosophy in the Time
of Hyperobjects.
The lecture will be followed by a reception and a preview exhibition of a new digital art project,
World-Wide-Walks / between earth & water / Rivers by Peter d'Agostino.
A full day of presentations by other speakers will follow on Friday, April 8, beginning at 9:00 am
and ending at 5:00 pm.