Conference

The Revolution Recodified is a three-day conference at The New School and New York University about the impact of digital technology in Cuban culture and society. It is organized by Coco Fusco and Chris Stover and supported by the Vera List Center for Art and Politics, among others. For more than a decade, Cuban artists, musicians, independent journalists, and librarians have teamed with computer scientists and engineers on the island and in the diaspora to foment a socially engaged and politically independent culture using digital technology. The conference explores the ways that digital technology is transforming Cuba’s cultural and political landscape by challenging the state’s longstanding monopoly on communications media and its hegemonic control of cultural production and distribution.

Program

Friday, March 15
New York University, Hemmerdinger Hall
100 Washington Square East

4:00 p.m.
Introductory Remarks

4:30 p.m.
Keynote: Yoani Sánchez 

8:00 p.m.
Video program
Despertar (2011) and Operacion Alfa (2012), Ricardo Figueredo Oliva Screening at Juror Lecture Hall, Silver Center
100 Washington Square East

Saturday, March 16
The New School, Tishman Auditorium, 66 West 12th Street

12:00-2:00 p.m.
The Internet and Social Media in Cuba: Their Relevance and Impact
Panelists: Ted Henken, Ariana Hernandez-Reguant,
Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo
Moderator: Coco Fusco

3:00-5:00 p.m.
Cuba in a Global Context: Social Media and Political Change
Panelists: John Kelly, Yoani Sánchez, Nitin Sawhney, Thomas Werner

Moderator: Sean Jacobs

7:00 p.m.
Direct from Havana, Cuba
Pablo Menendez and Mezcla NYC
Musical Performance

Sunday, March 17
The New School, Theresa Lang Community and Student Center
55 West 13th Street, 2nd floor

12:00-2:00 p.m.
The Development of Autonomous Cultural and Public Spheres in Cuba Today
Panelists: Odette Casamayor-Cisneros, Ana Dopico, Pablo Menendez, Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo
Moderator: Chris Stover

3:00-5:00 p.m.
Plenary Session: What’s Next? Cuba’s Evolving Political and Cultural Landscape

Participants
Cuban-born scholar and writer Odette Casamayor-Cisneros is Assistant Professor at the University of Connecticut-Storrs. Her work focuses post-Soviet Cuban Literature and Blacks and Blackness in Contemporary Cuban Cultural Production.

Ana Dopico teaches in the Department of Comparative Literature and the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at New York University. She works on the literature, culture, and politics of Cuba, the Americas, and the Global South.

Ricardo Figueredo Oliva graduated from the International School of Film and Television in San Antonio de los Baños. He has produced over 20 short films, as well as working as a producer for musical theater and the celebrated Danza Abierta group directed by Marielena Boan.

Coco Fusco is a Cuban-American interdisciplinary artist and writer and Associate Professor at Parsons The New School for Design. She is a 2013 Fulbright Scholar and a recipient of a 2012 United States Artists Fellowship and a 2003 Herb Alpert Award in the Arts.

Ted A. Henken runs the Cuba-themed blog “El Yuma” and teaches Sociology and Latin American Studies at Baruch College, CUNY. His research focuses on Cuban micro-enterprise and the emergent Cuban blogosphere

Ariana Hernandez-Reguant is a cultural anthropologist and has published widely on Cuban music, media and visual arts. She runs the cultural blog EthnoCuba as well as the associated Facebook interest group.

Sean Jacobs is a scholar of media and international affairs and an Assistant Professor at The New School. He was born and grew up in apartheid South Africa, where he finished college before studying for a master’s in political science at Northwestern University on a Fulbright Scholarship.

John Kelly is the founder and lead scientist of Morningside Analytics. His research blends social network analysis, content analysis, and statistics to solve the problem of making complex online networks visible and understandable.

Pablo Menendez was born in Oakland, California, the son of blues and jazz singer Barbara Dane. Living in Cuba since 1966, he has been an indelible part of many Cuban music scenes over the past decades.

Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo began work as a free-lance writer, photographer and dissident blogger in 2000. In 2010, he founded the independent opinion and literary e-zine Voces, which is Cuba’s first digital magazine.

Yoani Sánchez is a Cuban blogger who has achieved international recognition for her critical portrayal of life in Cuba under its current government.

Nitin Sawhney, Ph.D. is Assistant Professor of Media Studies at The New School and affiliated with the MIT Center for Civic Media. His research, teaching and creative practice engages the critical role of technology, artistic interventions and DIY cultures among communities in contested spaces.

Chris Stover is an Assistant Professor at The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, where he teaches Music Theory, Composition, and World Music, and coordinates the Music Theory curriculum.

Thomas Werner is an Assistant Professor at Parsons The New School for Design. His research is Russian based, focusing on the introduction of contemporary education methodologies and the development of creative cultures within the country.

This event is made possible thanks to support from The New School’s Academic Events Fund, Parsons Cross School Funds, Eugene Lang College, The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, the Vera List Center for Art and Politics, New York University’s Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, NYU’s Department of Spanish and Portuguese Literature and Culture, NYU’s College of Arts and Sciences, NYU’s Department of Comparative Literature, and The Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy.

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