A Theory of Web Enhanced Protest

Professor McKenzie Wark, The New School NY, will speak on the implications of the Occupy Wall Street movement in "From thought as an occupation to some thoughts on the occupation" at the University of Sydney 6pm, 18 October 2011 and at the University of Canberra, 11am 19 October 2011 (Room 2B02).

From thought as an occupation to some thoughts on the occupation

Professor McKenzie Wark, New School for Social Research in New York City

Co-presented with the Department of Gender and Cultural Studies at the University of Sydney

Twenty years ago McKenzie Wark coined the term 'weird global media event' to describe the then-recent events in Tiananmen Square. While hardly on the same scale, the Occupy Wall Street movement shares with it certain characteristics as an event. In this presentation, Wark sums up the trajectory of his research on media, culture and politics, with particular reference to his new book The Beach Beneath the Street (Verso). The book offers a timely reminder of the relevance in the twenty-first century of the Situationist International. The last of the great aesthetico-political avant gardes, their work foreshadows in many respects the rise of the Occupy Wall St movement, which spread from New York to over sixty American cities, and is itself an echo of the politics of space that took place in Egypt and Tunisia earlier this year.

McKenzie Wark is Professor of Liberal Studies at the New School for Social Research in New York City. He is the author of Virtual Geography (1994),A Hacker Manifesto (2004), Gamer Theory (2007) and various other things.