John Freeman Public Talk

Seeing Things
On the ethics of place and space in the era of Instagram

What does it mean to be where we are, to see it, and to capture and disseminate it? How does seeing things deal with vectors of power, and what stories can’t we see? What kinds of experience needs to be told rather than shown, and how do we incorporate this into our own narratives? In a world of granular detail on reporting, and ever shifting planes of politics, this talk will address issues of sight and empathy, and how literature operates in a world driven by the I/eye. What parts of language have we forgotten?