Utopia and Psychopathology: A Symposium in Honor of Anthony Vidler

Thursday, November 7, 6pm / Friday, November 8, 10am–5pm at Betts Auditorium. Organized by Beatriz Colomina, Spyros Papapetros, and Mark Wigley.

This symposium celebrates the thinking and teaching of Anthony Vidler around the first anniversary of his death. Beginning on Thursday evening, November 7, a group of speakers will offer some reflections on Tony’s teaching at Princeton across six decades in the context of a pop-up archival exhibition of his syllabi and notes. Continuing all day on Friday, November 8, another group of speakers will treasure his work–not by addressing it directly, but by continuing to think together about a couple of the major themes that obsessed him: “utopia” and “psychopathology.” The symposium is polemically anti-melancholic, honoring a great colleague by continuing the work.

Free and open to the public; no RSVP necessary.

Thursday, November 7 
5:15pm: Pop-Up Exhibition Walk-Through
6pm: Welcome and Introduction
Organizers Beatriz Colomina, Spyros Papapetros, and Mark Wigley

Tributes: Mónica Ponce de León, Wallis Miller, Rodolphe el-Khoury, Sophia Rosenfeld, Michael Steinberg, Joan Scott, Alan Chimacoff, Emily Apter.

Friday, November 8 
10am: Welcome and Introduction
Organizers Beatriz Colomina, Spyros Papapetros, and Mark Wigley

Morning presentations
10:10am: Barry Bergdoll “Dystopian Ruins and Political Ambiguities: Building with Paint in the Work of Anselm Kiefer”
10:30am: Giuliana Bruno “The Home Screen: Projection Beyond Psychopathology”
10:50am: Beatriz Colomina “The Scars of War”
11:10am: Arindam Dutta “Decolonization; Antidepressants.”
11:30am: Keller Easterling “Mad”
11:50am: Hal Foster “Utopianism of the Will, or What Would Tony Do?”
12:10pm: Discussion
12:40pm: Lunch

Afternoon presentations
1:30pm: Francesca Hughes “Trouble in Paradise”
1:50pm: Lydia Kallipoliti “Fallen Myths”
2:10pm: Sylvia Lavin “Utopia on Fire”
2:30pm: Spyros Papapetros “Utopia: From Kiesler to Vidler (and Back)”
2:50pm: Mark Wigley “The Psychic Life of Micro-Organisms”
3:10pm: Mabel O. Wilson “Scenes of F Street, Washington City”
3:30pm: Closing discussion
4pm: Reception