Sparks of Life: Electricity, Animality, and Film

Environmental Humanities Series:
Sparks of Life: Electricity, Animality, and Film
A Lecture by Anat Pick

“Sparks of Life: Electricity, Animality, and Film," a Lecture by Anat Pick. From cinema to electroshock therapy to the electric chair, electricity has always exuded ambivalent powers as both animator and killer. Focusing on the story of the condemned Topsy in Thomas Edison’s Electrocuting an Elephant (1903), this talk explores the intersections of electrical and political power in the age of visual spectacle.

NYU Center for the Humanities
20 Cooper Square, Fifth Floor

Thursday, October 6
6:00 PM

This event is cosponsored by the NYU Center for Humanities, the Department of Environmental Studies, the Department of Cinema Studies and the Animal Studies Initiative.

Anat Pick
Professor of Film, Queen Mary's College, University of London, UK

Moderator:
Una Chaudhuri
Professor of English, Drama, and Environmental Studies