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You are here: Home / LACE / 2020-Current Year / Tactical Biopolitics: A talk on (un)disciplinary collaborations by Kavita Philip

Tactical Biopolitics: A talk on (un)disciplinary collaborations by Kavita Philip

Tactical Biopolitics: a talk on (un)disciplinary collaborations with the late Beatriz da Costa by historian of science and technology Kavita Philip.
Moderated by Andrew McNeely

October 30, 1pm–3pm PDT
Online Talk via Zoom

This event is organized as part of the research phase of the upcoming exhibition, Beatriz da Costa: (un)disciplinary tactics, Getty PST initiative Art and Science 2024 with A Preemptive Study: Session II, organized by Andrew McNeely, Daniela Lieja Quintanar, and Ana Briz. Kavita Philip is part of the advisory team for the research project and exhibition Beatriz da Costa: (un)disciplinary tactics.

This talk contemplates the place of technology, science, and the arts within decolonial thought by bringing these concerns to bear on the life and work of the late artist Beatriz da Costa (1974–2012). As a former colleague and close collaborator of da Costa’s, Kavita Philip will share her experience developing experimental inter- and un-disciplinary research projects between the humanities, the arts, and the sciences, giving special attention to their co-edited book Tactical Biopolitics (2008) with MIT Press. A book that delves into important political issues that raise questions of race, gender, and nation around historical changes such as decolonization and neoliberalism. This talk will also take a broader look at the history of technoscience in the history of South Asia and its diasporas to connect it with da Costa and Philip’s migration experience and heritages.

In preparation of this program, we encourage you to read the following texts by Kavita Philip:
Philip, Kavita – The Internet Will Be Decolonized (2011) and Philip, Irani, and Dourish – Postcolonial Computing (2010).

Kavita Philip is a historian of science and culture, and the President’s Excellence Chair in Network Cultures and a Professor of English at the University of British Columbia (UBC) Department of English Language and Literatures. She is author of Civilizing Natures (Rutgers University Press), and co-editor of five volumes curating interdisciplinary work in radical history, political science, art, activism, gender, technology studies, and public policy. Previously Philip taught as Professor in History at the University of California, Irvine. She was also an affiliated Faculty in Informatics, and the Director and co-founder (with Du Bois scholar Dr. Nahum Chandler) of the research group in Science, Technology and Race. During her time at UC Irvine, she also served as the Director of the Critical Theory Institute, Director of the Graduate Feminist Emphasis, and Director of Graduate Studies in History. Philip holds a PhD in Science and Technology Studies from Cornell, an M.A. in History and Philosophy of Science and Technology from Cornell, an M.S. in Physics from the University of Iowa, and a B.Sc. in Physics (with Chemistry and Mathematics minors) from Stella Maris College (University of Madras, India).

SUPPORT

Tactical Biopolitics: a talk on (un)disciplinary collaborations with the late Beatriz da Costa is made possible with support from Getty through its PST ART: Art & Science Collide initiative and the Department of Cultural Affairs, Los Angeles.

 

Filed Under: 2020-Current Year, LACE Tagged With: ana briz, Andrew McNeely, beatriz da costa, Daniela Lieja Quintanar, Kavita Philip, PST Art x Science, undisciplinary tactics

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PRESS RELEASE: Announcing LACE’s Next Emerging Curators

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“Beatriz da Costa: (un)disciplinary tactics” named Best Art by The New York Times

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On Saturday, August 2 from 2–7pm, join LACE for On Saturday, August 2 from 2–7pm, join LACE for this year's Artists’ Film International (AFI'25) at the Philosophical Research Society (@philosophical_research_society).

This touring film program is collectively curated and presented by 16 international arts organizations and convened by Forma (@formaartsmedia). AFI’25 introduces the work of talented moving image artists to worldwide audiences, and will be live over 300 days, with exhibitions, screenings and public programs hosted across 4 continents.

LACE’s selection for AFI’25 is "Leymusoom Garden: New Sun" (2024) by Heesoo Kwon (@leymusoom). Kwon’s oneiric visual language and unique animation style allow her to create memoryscapes of personal and community liberation. The film rewrites mythical matrilineal histories through utopian and whimsical abstractions of time, space, and memory to ultimately bring forth healing and transformation. 

Admission is free! RSVP at the link in our bio.

Image caption:
Still from Heesoo Kwon, Leymusoom Garden: New Sun, 2024. Courtesy the artist
Join LACE for “Obsidian Reflections” happening Join LACE for “Obsidian Reflections” happening Saturday, July 19, 2–5 PM at the Philosophical Research Society (@philosophical_research_society).

Curated by Selene Preciado and Andrea Acuña, this film program presents a selection of video works that integrate ancestral knowledge and indigenous storytelling, imagining futures where the past and present connect through the power of ruins and resilience. Followed by a musical performance with multimedia NeoCumbia artist El Keamo (@el_keamo).

Learn more and RSVP at the link in our bio!
We are excited to announce LACE's 11th Emerging Cu We are excited to announce LACE's 11th Emerging Curator! Meet Semaj Peltier (@horsebreath87) and pom*pom (@__pom____pom__), collaborators in a curatorial collective and experimental film archive organizing community-based events since 2022. For the Emerging Curator Program, Semaj Peltier and Pom Pom curate "No Loneliness Like This," a film and food event showcasing experimental films that traverse the many manifestations of state-sanctioned isolation.

Peltier, a projectionist, archivist and filmmaker, brings a praxis shaped by her studies at the University of Amsterdam’s Preservation and Presentation of the Moving Image Masters program, specializing in ephemeral histories shaped by coloniality and otherness. pom*pom, developed by Russell Hartling and Crystal Dawana, is an experimental food collective whose sensory-driven dining experiences intersect with film programming to evoke memory, storytelling, and connection. Together, they build worlds where film and food become tools of resistance—rituals that evoke memory, incite dialogue, and nurture solidarity through shared sensation and subversion. 

This year’s panel included Jheanelle Brown (@jheaneeeeeelle), faculty member at CalArts and Curator of Film at REDCAT; Carrie Chen (@carriechen01), artist, curator, and educator; and Heber Rodriguez (@hebereatschips), Coordinator for the City of Lancaster’s Parks, Recreation and Arts Department in the Arts and Museums Division. 

Read the full press release in our bio!
If you missed “ENDURANCE” or want to relive th If you missed “ENDURANCE” or want to relive the experience, head over to the LACE website to watch a selection of the performances with more to come soon!

“ENDURANCE” presented performance art and interdisciplinary work by elder artists. These artists use their practices to share wisdom, knowledge, and experiences that they have gained throughout their lives. This series is a companion program to LACE’s 2024 performance series, “ABUNDANCE”, both featuring often invisibilized bodies.

This program was held at L.A. Dance Project (@ladanceproject) from May 16–17, 2025.

The online presentation of “ENDURANCE” is supported by the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles (@culture_la). 

Photos by Angel Origgi (@angeloriggi).

Image captions in order:
Barbara T. Smith, OWB, 2025
Ulysses Jenkins and his band “Who Dat!,” Ethnic Cleansing, 2022/2025
Hirokazu Kosaka, Shoot Yourself, 2025
The Dark Bob, Beirut, 1982/2025
Kamau Daáood, Griot notes: Poem in Invisible Ink
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