In the face of reductive narratives of Africa and Blackness, and in the face of intellectual erasure, it is an act of emancipation and resistance to create stories centering decolonial «counter-imaginings» and «counter-archives». In this keynote address, Ainslee Alem Robson will introduce her practice and present a few recent projects that emphasize her methodology of combining speculative histories with emerging technologies in storytelling and digital art to create emancipatory futures.
Ainslee Alem Robson is an award-winning Ethiopian-American director, writer and media artist. She pushes beyond reductive narratives of Africa, and her background in philosophy renders a critical approach to her emancipatory storytelling strategies. Her afrosurreal experience, Ferenj: A Graphic Memoir in VR, world premiered at Tribeca Film Festival in 2020. Her non-fiction writing has been published by eFlux and Guggenheim, and she is a credited artist on David Hartt’s film created for MoMA’s Reconstructions exhibition (May 2021). Ainslee deconstructs identity, hierarchy and colonial legacies using film and emerging technologies in digital art.
Keynote speaker:
Ainslee Alem Robson
When?
November 10th, 2021
5:30 to 6:00 pm
Where?
Kino Toni, 3.G02
Toni-Areal
Zurich University of the Arts
Websites:
ainsleealemrobson.com
Ticket:
Get your ticket here.
