{"id":15197,"date":"2018-01-31T19:37:02","date_gmt":"2018-01-31T19:37:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.golive.clarku.edu\/news\/2018\/01\/31\/higgins-school-of-humanities-spring-symposium-opens\/"},"modified":"2025-04-04T14:32:55","modified_gmt":"2025-04-04T18:32:55","slug":"higgins-school-of-humanities-spring-symposium-opens","status":"publish","type":"story","link":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2018\/01\/31\/higgins-school-of-humanities-spring-symposium-opens\/","title":{"rendered":"Higgins School of Humanities spring symposium opens"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Clark University<\/a> Higgins School of Humanities<\/a>’ spring symposium opens Thursday, Feb. 1, with the theme of “Analog and Digital Conversations,” addressing the ongoing conversation between analog and digital technologies.<\/p>\n

“Analog processes convey a sense of craft and authenticity, suggesting a more direct relationship between maker, artifact and beholder, but they may also be perceived as quaint and fetishized, rarified precisely because of labor intensive exclusivity,” says Meredith Neuman<\/a>, director of the Higgins School of Humanities. “By contrast, digital processes can simultaneously appear efficient and overwhelming, progressive and impersonal, radically accessible and avariciously monetized.”<\/p>\n

The series kicks off at 7 p.m. Thursday with a conversation and opening reception featuring the work of Boston-based photographer Lou Jones. In this new series of African-American portraiture, Jones highlights the descendants of Worcester residents photographed by William Bullard from 1894 to 1917. Bullard’s formal portraits are on display through Feb. 25 as part of the Worcester Art Museum<\/a>’s exhibition, “Rediscovering an American Community of Color: The Photographs of William Bullard<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

Last fall, Jones was on hand to document the gathering of descendants at the Bullard exhibition. Now, his work will be on display in “Descendants: An Exhibition by Lou Jones,” running through May 20 in Dana Commons’ Higgins Lounge. The exhibition commemorates the reunion not only of families but also of analog and digital technologies, evolving photographic aesthetics, and a historic Worcester community.<\/p>\n

Undergraduates in Problems of Practice<\/a> (POP) courses at Clark have been involved with both the Bullard and Jones exhibitions. Students in a spring 2017 POP course, “Public History: Race, Photography and Community<\/a>,” taught by Janette Greenwood<\/a>, professor of history<\/a>, worked with descendants to research their family histories; the students wrote labels accompanying photographs in the Bullard exhibition. This spring, students in a “Gallery Culture and Practice” POP class, taught by Elli Crocker<\/a>, professor of studio art<\/a>, designed the exhibition and hung Jones’ photographs.<\/p>\n

The remaining events in the “Analog and Digital Conversations” series — all in Dana Commons’ Higgins Lounge — include:<\/p>\n