This year’s symposium examines the ways in which plastic infiltrates our lives, landscapes, and bodies, causing—as Rob Nixon illuminates—gradual and invisible damage. We are pleased to host a variety of speakers that interrogate this theme through art, science, and ethnographic performance. Our final session will be a screening of the 2017 documentary Albatross, which calls us to witness the slow, yet devastating, impact of plastic and other waste in the heart of the Pacific.
9:00 to
9:50 a.m.
CB-511
10:00 to
10:50 a.m.
CB-511
11:00 to
11:50 a.m.
CB-511
1:00 to
1:50 p.m.
CB-511
Student Poetry Reading
"TBA"
2:00 to
3:40 p.m.
CB-511
Film Screening
"Albatross"
The documentary Albatross by artist Chris Jordan is a visual exploration of the devastating impact of plastic pollution on albatrosses, particularly on Midway Atoll, where the film was shot. Through the birds' life cycles of birth, life, and death, the film presents a profound metaphor for our relationship with the environment, contrasting the breathtaking beauty of the natural sanctuary with the horror of plastic-filled corpses of baby albatrosses. The documentary is a call to awareness and a catalyst for reflection on our consumption and its consequences.
