Franklin Street Works Presents Media Studies Event

From Franklin Street Works:Franklin Street Works, a not-for-profit alternative art space, presents a free, public media studies panel exploring alternative facts, false flags, and more at the Ferguson Library Main Branch on Sunday, Dec. 2, 4-5:30 pm. It will be followed by a wine reception at Franklin Street Works from 5:45-7:00 pm where people can see the exhibition "False Flag: The Space Between Paranoia and Reason."

For the panel — moderated by New Haven artist and Franklin Street Works guest curator Jeff Ostergren — artist Alexandra Bell, scholar Jack Bratich, and journalist Alexandria Neason will explore media studies topics that connect to some of the themes in Ostergren’s exhibition, “False Flag: The Space Between Paranoia and Reason.” The group show is on view at Franklin Street Works through Jan. 6.
Bell is a Brooklyn-based artist whose work explores media bias; Bratich is an Associate Professor in Journalism and Media Studies at Rutgers University and the author of "Conspiracy Panics: Political Rationality and Popular Culture" (2008); and Neason is a Columbia Journalism Review staff writer and former Village Voice reporter.
The panel aims, in part, to explore the way in which the 'media' — in its various iterations of television news, talk radio, and social media — foster and in many cases actively create paranoia. This is of particular interest to Ostergren in that “the media, despite all indications of the opposite, still is often understood as objective. No matter the format, news is filtered through corporate agendas, personal perspectives, and latent or overt biases."
The panelists will bring an on-the-ground perspective to the panel while Ostergren will connect larger themes to his curation of "False Flag" and discuss how contemporary art can bring alternate perspectives to dominant narratives.
Citing exhibiting artist James Benning, Ostergren adds, “Benning’s two-channel video piece, ‘Two Cabins,’ which features replicas of Henry David Thoreau and unabomber Ted Kaczynski's cabins, speaks to the double-sided nature of how ideas such as environmentalism and isolationism can go in very different directions in terms of action and portrayal by history.”
“Franklin Street Works is excited to partner with the Ferguson Library on this timely event,” Franklin Street Works creative director Terri C Smith says. “I believe all of our exhibitions show the relevance of contemporary art in daily life, but this show does so tenfold with themes such as alternative facts, Internet fueled paranoia, and prepper culture. This panel will explore some of the topics in our current exhibition ‘False Flag’ through a multidisciplinary lens that includes art, journalism and media studies.”

RSVPs are not required but are appreciated for planning purposes. RSVP: info@franklinstreetworks.org.

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION:
“False Flag” features videos, sculptures, paintings, and photographs that utilize paranoia as a visual representation and a means of production. The works and the way they are installed produce a kind of looping paranoid state of multiple voices, perspectives, and possibilities, leaving the viewer to establish their own position within this continuum. “False Flag” opens at a time when conspiracy theories -- Deep State cover-ups, denials of the Holocaust, 9/11, or the Sandy Hook shooting -- have taken an increasingly stronger hold on the popular consciousness.
In contemporary contexts, the term “false flag” is used to describe a situation where a segment of the population believes that the government, seeking to increase their power or to push through specific agendas, has staged a traumatic event – such as a mass shooting or terrorist attack – and pinned the blame on an individual or terrorist cell.

Image via Franklin Street Works