Modernist Studies Association/ MSA 14: Modernism and Spectacle
October 18-21, 2012
The Flamingo Hotel, Las Vegas, NV

Ravi Shankar

Tiffany Higgins

I was invited by Tiffany Higgins, with whom I collaborated on the animation “You bear the scar at the base of your spine, where lies the shadow of the moon”, to participate in the 14th Conference of the Modernist Studies Association in Las Vegas. I talked about the images I created for different towns in the context of the Billboard Art Project.
It was quite an experience to go there and stay at the Flamingo Hotel. I enjoyed the panel and I even got the chance to go to Death Valley National Park, which was the perfect place to be after having experienced the ultimate spectacle that embodies Las Vegas!
The panel was an hour long and then we had 30 mn for the questions.

Here’s the information about our panel:

Ecospectacle and Spectacular Ecology: Spectacle in a
Time of Economic and Environmental Crisis

Organizer: Ravi Shankar (Central Connecticut State University)
Chair: Marianne DeKoven (Rutgers University)
Ravi Shankar (Central Connecticut State University) “The Spectacle and the
Sublime: How the Artificial Manifests Differently than the Natural in Modern Art and Human Perception”
Michele Guieu (Multimedia Artist) “Poétique de la Route: Détournement and Repurposing of the Billboard for Nonconsumerist Spectacle”
Tiffany Higgins (Diablo Valley College) “Ecospectacle and the Collapse of the Real”