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How does a screening of the 1987 classic RoboCop fit in with the overall theme of the Crisis of Beauty? Culture Lab Detroit returns this week with panels of artists, inventors, filmmakers, architects, and more to tackle these themes.
According to a release, the Crisis of Beauty programs, “will explore how beauty intersects with multiculturalism, the intricacies of gentrification, gender politics, and unbounded assimilation of technology to offer novel or previously suppressed perspectives.”
Free to the public are two panel discussions and a film screening. RoboCop will show at the Senate Theater Wednesday, October 10 at 8 p.m. The following day, a panel discussion on the Aesthetics of Tomorrow asks “how is technology shaping the future and what is the role of beauty in those processes?”
The discussion will feature Dr. Peter Weller, art historian and star of RoboCop; plus Mark Pauline, performance artist and founder and inventor of Survival Research Laboratories; Eyal Weizman, architect and director of Forensic Architecture; and conceptual artist Anicka Yi. The panel will be moderated by Yesomi Umolu, artistic director of the 2019 Chicago Architecture Biennial.
Friday evening, a dialogue on Seeing and Being Seen features three noted artists “whose work shows how identity is both formed and performed, and how this process can be obscured, embraced, and exalted to create a culture of possibility.”
The panel will feature painter Amy Sherald, who most notably painted Michelle Obama’s official portrait; filmmaker, writer, and organizer dream Hampton; and conceptual artist, writer, performer, and musician Juliana Huxtable. The dialogue will be moderated by New York Times Magazine associate editor Jazmine Hughes, with Reverend Barry Randolph as a special guest.
Seeing and Being Seen will take place at the Church of the Messiah, 231 East Grand Boulevard starting at 6 p.m.
This is the sixth year for Culture Lab Detroit, which aims at connecting local artists with global artists and thinkers through dialogues and creative partnerships. Many of its programs go outside the typical cultural center of Detroit and reaching into the neighborhoods.