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Diversions: Detroit-Windsor Conversations on Borders Traffic Circulation

Friday, March 8, 2013 | 10:30 am – 5 pm

Betty F. Wilkinson Gallery, 3rd floorThird Floor

While Detroit's urban legacy is widely recognized, the city is rarely regarded as a part of a cross-border metropolitan environment. Across the US-Canadian border, Windsor's urban character has been closely tied to Detroit's rise and fall. With continual changes in the security and economic climate, these two cities are increasingly separated, subject to border policies imposed from their respective national security mandates. Nevertheless, the Windsor-Detroit region is largely absent within the rich discourse on borders that has emerged from the US-Mexico borderlands and regions elsewhere in the world. Likewise, the substantial artistic and intellectual artistic activity from Detroit focuses on the city's internal divisions, yet the international boundary on its southern edge remains ignored. This symposium seeks to change the conversation about borders in the Windsor-Detroit region through inviting prominent artists and researchers to consider the obstacles and mobilities that have emerged in this urban locale.

Diversions is organized by: The Art Gallery of Windsor, IN/TERMINUS: Media, Art, and Urban Ecologies (University of Windsor), The Border Bookmobile (Windsor-Detroit) and Media and Urban Life in Montreal (McGill University)

9:30 am: Doors open
10 am: Opening Remarks by Catharine Mastin
10:15: Indroduction by Lee Rodney, Mike Darroch and Srimoyee Mitra

Spheres of Circulation: 10:30 am - 12:00 pm
Moderator: Srimoyee Mitra, Curator of Contemporary Art, Art Gallery of Windsor
Panelists: David J. Taylor, Ali Kazimi, Richard Fung and Natalie Casemajor Loustau

12 pm - 1pm: lunch break

Bordered Spaces: 1:00 - 3:00 pm
Moderator: Lee Rodney, Associate Professor, Media Art Histories & Visual Culture, Director Border Bookmobile Project
Panelists: Janine Marchessault, Justin Langlois, Phil Hoffman and Marcos Ramirez ERRE

3 - 3:30 pm: coffee break

Imagined Geographies: 3:30 - 5:00 pm
Moderator: Michael Darroch, Assistant Professor, Media Art Histories & Visual Cultures, Director of IN/TERMINUS research collective
Panelists: Christopher McNamara and members of Media and Urban Life in Montreal: Anouk Bélanger, Louis Jacob, and Will Straw

Admission is FREE!