More Perfect

Future Perfect: Picturing the Anthropocene is at the University Art Museum through the Fall 2016 semester.

ALBANY, NY (Oct. 6, 2016) – If you haven’t already seen the University Art Museum’s major exhibit, Future Perfect: Picturing the Anthropocene, you still have time. The museum is free, and the exhibit will be up through the rest of the Fall 2016 semester.

And if you want to join the conversation about the Anthropocene, there are plenty of opportunities to do so.

The exhibit itself the work of over 20 visual artists to explore humankind’s relationship to the natural world. Anthropocene is a term proposed for a new geological period defined by the impact of human actions on the planet’s ecosystems, geology and climate.

That heady concept is being explored not just through the art, but by an extensive calendar of speaker events, performances, conversations and readings. Here are some of the upcoming events sponsored or co-sponsored by the museum, along with the Performing Arts Center, the Office of Sustainability, the New York State Writers Institute and other University departments and organizations. Unless otherwise notes, all events are at the museum.

Exhibition Tour and Gallery Talk: Saturday, Oct. 8, at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.

Museum Director Janet Riker, co-curator of the exhibition, will lead a tour and discussion of Future Perfect.

Artist Talk: Exhibition Artist Tommy Hartung: Tuesday, Oct. 18, 7 p.m.

In his film The Bible, Hartung uses stop-action animation, found footage and made-up news to reinterpret the Old Testament through current events. Join Hartung for a discussion of his work and current projects.

The University Art Museum is hosting and co-sponsoring a variety of events and discussions around the concept of the Anthropocene, a proposed geological period defined by the humankind's impact on our planet.

Film Screening: Snowpiercer, with commentary by screenwriter Kelly Masterson: Oct. 21, 7 p.m., Page Hall, Western Avenue, Downtown Campus.

Based on a French graphic novel, Snowpiercer is widely hailed as a classic of “cli-fi” — the genre of climate fiction. Survivors of a future Ice Age live out their lives on a train traveling in a continuous loop around the globe.

Conversation: Noa Wertheim and Mary Ellen Mallia: Oct. 25, 7 p.m.

Join Mallia, director of the University’s Office of Sustainability, and Wertheim, co-founder Vertigo Dance Company, which has won international acclaim for its community-centered and environmentally conscious approach to dance.

Performance: Vertigo Dance Company: Oct. 26, 7:30 p.m., Performer Arts Center.

The contemporary Israeli dance company presents “Vertigo 20,” weaving together 20 years of the company's creations.

Brown Bag Talk: Eleanor Stein: Oct. 26, Noon – 12:45 p.m.

Stein, who teaches Law of Climate Change at Albany Law School and the Power Dialog at the UAlbany, will discuss “Climate Change and Human Rights,” noting that the right to a livable climate is being recognized by treaties and courts.

Artist’s Talk: JoAnne Carson: Nov. 1, 7 p.m.

Join UAlbany Professor of Art, Guggenheim Fellow, and exhibition artist JoAnne Carson for a discussion of her work and work from the University’s Fine Arts Collection in Future Perfect.

Performance: Ethel/Documerica: Nov. 3, 7:30 p.m. Performing Arts Center

This post-modern, indie-classical quartet presents a multimedia concert melding music by some of today’s top composers with 1970s-vintage photographs from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Project Documerica, connecting that era to today’s ecological and social issues.

Brown Bag Lunch Talk: Danny Goodwin: Nov. 10, Noon – 12:45 p.m.

Goodwin, an associate professor in the Department of Art and Art History and a co-curator of Future Perfect, will discuss works in the exhibition and the role of art and the humanities in our shared future. With Q&A.

Reading/Discussion: Jeff Goodell and Jennifer Haigh: Nov. 10, 7 p.m.

Goodell is the author of Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America’s Energy Future (2006) and How to Cool the Planet: Geoengineering and the Audacious Quest to Fix Earth’s Climate (2010). Novelist Jennifer Haigh’s new, Heat and Light (2016), focuses on fracking.

Artist’s Talk: Exhibiting Artist Letha Wilson: Nov. 15, 4:30 p.m.

Wilson’s artworks are amalgamations of photographic images and spray paint, lumber and concrete, derived from Wilson's own color landscape photos. Join her for a discussion of her work.

Ecopoetics Today: Evelyn Reilly and James Sherry: Nov. 29, 7 p.m.

A reading and discussion with “eco-poets” Reilly and Sherry, moderated by Assistant Professor Michael Leong, Department of English. Reilly’s books Styrofoam (2009) and Apocalypso (2012) attempt to manifest a poetics of the Anthropocene. Sherry’s latest book, Entangled Bank (2016), is a series of poems emerging from Darwinian language and structures.

Brown Bag Talk: Jill Schneiderman: Dec. 1, Noon – 12:45 p.m.

Schneiderman, professor of Earth Science at Vassar College, will discuss her research on microplastics in Cape Cod sand dunes as it relates to debates about divisions of geologic time in the 19th century and today.

Lecture on climate change: Radley Horton: Dec. 6, 4 p.m. – 5 p.m.

Horton, a research scientist at the Center for Climate Systems Research at Columbia University, will discuss climate change, heat waves, and the impacts on health to residents of New York City, the Northeast and the United States.

Brown Bag Talk: Mathias Vuille: Dec. 8, Noon – 12:45 p.m.

Vuille, associate professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, will discuss climate change and its consequences in the Andes, highlighting efforts to advance adaptation toward a sustainable future in this unique mountain environment.

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