Dear all,
I am delighted to announce the 7th and final instalment of our special Covid-19 Seminar Series: The World, Two Meters Away. This week's guest is Zhang Zhen, Associate Professor and Director of Asian Film and Media Initiative, New York University. Please note that this final talk will take place at a different time to our previous sessions as the speaker is based in the United States. The talk will be broadcast live this Saturday 18th July at 3pm UK time and 10pm China time via bilibili at the following link http://live.bilibili.com/22288382.  Please see below for a biography of our speaker. 

I am also most pleased to report our previous videoed sessions with English subtitles are gradually being uploaded to our youtube channel. Previous sessions with Xiang Biao, Zhang Peili and Pi Li are already available at the following link: 
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFhISVpn3_iQSeJeU7u8c4Q 
We hope that as many of you as possible would like to watch and I will send a final email once all seven videos are available. 

Best wishes,
Lauren Walden.
(Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Contemporary Chinese Art). 

Zhang Zhen has taught in the department of Cinema Studies in the Tisch School of Art, New York University since 1999. She is the founding director of the Asian Film and Media Initiative since 2012. She is the author of " An Amorous History of the Silver Screen: Shanghai Cinema 1896-1937" (English and Chinese translation), " The Urban Generation: Chinese Cinema and Society at the Turn of the Twenty-first Century" (English and Chinese Translation), "DV-made China: Digital Subjects and Social Transformations after Independent Film" (University of Hawaii Press 2015) and many journal articles. She is also the founder and the main curator of the biannual Reel China Documentary Festival since 2001. She has co-organized and guest-curated film programs related to early classic films in Shanghai, Chinese contemporary independent films and women directors’ series for Museum of Modern Art in New York, Film Society at Lincoln Center of Performing Arts, and the Women Make Waves Film Festival in Taipei.

张真自1999年起任教于纽约大学Tisch艺术学院电影学系，2012创立并担任亚洲电影媒体研究计划主任。著有《银幕艳史：都市文化与上海电影1896-1937》（英文和中译版）、《城市一代：世纪之交的中国电影和社会》（英文和中译版）、《DV制造中国：独立电影之后的数码主体和社会变迁》（夏威夷大学出版社2015年）以及众多期刊文集论文。纽约大学真实中国影像双年展（2001-至今）创始人和历届主要策划，曾为纽约当代艺术馆、林肯中心电影协会、台湾国际女性影展等机构策划有关上海早期经典、中国当代独立电影和女性导演系列
 

THE WORLD, TWO METERS AWAY:  CCVA COVID-19 SPECIAL SEMINAR SERIES 

At the end of 2019, or the beginning of 2020, when the coronavirus first emerged, Wuhan became the first city worldwide affected by this deadly disease. It then rapidly spread to the entire country, and further on to Europe, America and the rest of the world. Restrictions of travel, instructions of keeping social distance, and finally the lockdown of districts, towns and cities were enforced to help slow down its transmission. We are all facing this challenge of experiencing life at distance of two meters away from others.

In light of the global coronavirus crisis and the unprecedented scale of disruption it has caused, this series of virtual research seminars explores the role of contemporary arts and related fields through critical and creative discussions surrounding present-day experiences, aiming to assist future community building and cross-cultural understanding. This seminar series provides an urgent platform to obtain first hand materials of participants’ experiences, perceptions and reflections on the pandemic. This collaboration between the Centre for Chinese Visual Arts (CCVA), Birmingham City University and the Academy for International Visual Arts (AIVA), Shanghai invites leading figures in the subject areas of anthropology, architecture, art, art museums, curating, design, film and photography from the Chinese-speaking world and different intellectual perspectives. Seminar discussions will explore a myriad of relevant issues stemming from the pandemic including the notions of distance and spatialisation, separation and isolation, communication and mobility, discipline and surveillance, and community and collectiveness. Our eight distinguished guests will contribute in the series of weekly seminars starting from 6 June (Saturday) 2020. These screen-recorded interviews will also be edited and subtitled as documentary available online to a wider audience.

This seminar series forms part of a wider response to the Covid-19 epidemic by CCVA which also includes a special conference and journal edition on the subject, details of which can be found here: https://www.bcu.ac.uk/research/-centres-of-excellence/centre-for-chinese-visual-arts/conferences.  We hope that many of the conversations hosted as part of the seminar series will in turn, be published in Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art (Intellect) in order to provide a polyvocal archive of lived experience of speakers from both academic and practice-based backgrounds.

The BiliBili stream will take place on Saturdays 3pm UK time and 10pm Chinese time.  The talks will be in Mandarin Chinese only but translated into English at a later date. You can access the meetings via the following link:

http://live.bilibili.com/22288382



Please see below for our schedule and list of guest speakers:

6 June 2020
Xiang Biao
Professor of Social Anthropology, University of Oxford

13 June 2020
Zhang Peili
Artist, Professor at China Academy of Art (Hangzhou), Director of OCAT (Shanghai)

20 June 2020
Pi Li
Sigg Senior Curator, M+ (Hong Kong)

27 June 2020
Zhang Zikang
Director of CAFA Art Museum, Central Academy of Fine Arts (Beijing)

4 July 2020
Gu Zheng
Professor, School of Journalism, Fudan University (Shanghai), photography theorist

11 July 2020
Li Lin 
Chief Creative Director and Co-Founder, JNBY

18 July 2020
Zhang Zhen
Associate Professor, Director of Asian Film and Media Initiative, New York University

Chaired by Jiang Jiehong
Professor, School of Art, Director of Centre for Chinese Visual Arts, Birmingham City University

两米以外的世界：CCVA新冠疫期特别研讨系列

2019年的年末岁初，新型冠状病毒来袭，武汉成为了世界上第一个承受了这种疫病之灾的城市。病毒很快也影响了整个中国，又在随后的几个月里，迅速侵袭了欧洲、美国及世界的其他国家和地区。旅行限制、保持社交距离的指令，以及最终对省市的封锁都在强制阻断疾病的传播。我们正经历着一种与他人保持两米以上距离的特殊日常。

鉴于新型冠状病毒在全球范围内造成的严重破坏，此次系列线上研讨将就疫期经验进行批判性和创造性讨论，进而探索当代艺术、文化及相关领域在当下扮演的角色，旨在协助未来的社区建设和跨文化理解。此次系列研讨会将为疫期经验的观察思考以及信息、资料的收集提供一个及时有效的平台。伯明翰城市大学中国视觉艺术中心（CCVA）与上海AIVA国际视觉艺术教育合作邀请了来自中文世界的诸位嘉宾，包括人类学、建筑、艺术、美术馆、策展、设计、电影和摄影，从不同专业角度共同参与研讨。研讨会将探讨由流行性疾病引起的众多相关问题，比如距离与空间化、分散与隔离、交流与迁移、训诫与监控、以及社区与集体等多重的概念。从2020年6月6日（星期六）开始，我们的八位评论嘉宾将加入每周一次的系列线上研讨。录制的视频影像也将在编辑后配以字幕呈献于互联网广大观众。

此次系列研讨会将与今年同一主题的特别年会和期刊共同组成CCVA对此次新冠疫情的学术响应。我们希望借此次系列研讨展开诸多对话，遴选编辑后在我们的学术刊物《中国当代艺术研究》上发表，让来自不同学术和实践背景的发言者们提供多样化的经验记录。有关年会和期刊的更多详情请见：https://www.bcu.ac.uk/research/-centres-of-excellence/centre-for-chinese-visual-arts/conferences

讲座时间：22点北京时间 15点伦敦时间
链接：http://live.bilibili.com/22288382

请参阅以下时间表和嘉宾名单：

2020年6月6日
项飙
牛津大学社会人类学教授

2020年6月13日
张培力
中国美术学院教授，艺术家，上海OCAT美术馆执行馆长

2020年6月20日
皮力
香港M+ 美术馆希克资深策展人

2020年6月27日
张子康
中央美术学院美术馆馆长

2020年7月4日
顾铮
复旦大学新闻学院教授，摄影评论家

2020年7月11日
李琳
江南布衣集团创始人，设计总监

2020年7月18日
张真
纽约大学副教授，亚洲电影与媒体研究所总监


主持：姜节泓
英国伯明翰城市大学艺术学院教授，中国视觉艺术中心总监。

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