<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>Dear All,</div><div><br></div><div>This is just a reminder about Laura Marks' talk that is taking place at UTS next Monday.</div><div><br></div><div>Everyone is welcome.</div><div><br></div><div>Best wishes,</div><div>Tara.</div><div><br><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br></div><br><div>(Sorry for cross posting)</div><div><b><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></b></div><div><b>The Writing and Society Research Group, UWS, and Transforming Cultures, UTS present </b><b></b></div><div><b><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></b></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;"><b><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#800000">Laura Marks (Simon Fraser University, Vancouver)</font></b></span></font><b><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#800000"> </font></b></div><div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><br></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; "><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;">DATE: Monday 27 October</span></font></font></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; "><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;">TIME: 5.30 for 6.00pm</span></font></font></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;"><br></span></font></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; "><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;">VENUE: Room 2.4.11 (Building 2, Level 4, Theatre 411), UTS city campus, Broadway</span></font></font></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; "><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;">campus map: </span></font></font><a href="http://www.uts.edu.au/about/mapsdirections/bway.html"><font style=""><u><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;">http://www.uts.edu.au/about/mapsdirections/bway.html</span></font></font></u></font></a></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;"><b><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#800000">Baroque Fascination in Casino Movies and Safavid Carpets</font></b></span></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; "><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><b>Abstract:</b> Nature is not the source of beauty in either Islamic art or digital media. Rather beauty consists in the delight of artifice. Conventionally, Islamic art should not invent but show connections among parts of God's creation. Similarly, digital media, particularly what Sean Cubitt calls the neo-Baroque cinema, creates an algorithmic world like the closed world of contemporary corporate capitalism.</font></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; "><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000">As eleventh-century Iranian literary theorist and theologian Abd al-Qahir Al-Jurjani wrote, aesthetic pleasure results from the revelation of hitherto unseen relationships: "Human nature is so created, and human instinctive and innate qualities are such, that when something appears whence it is not usually expected to appear, and when it emerges from a source that is not its usual one, the soul feels deeper fondness of, and greater affection for it." The genre of casino films depicts a world of baffling complexity whose internal relationships are fascinating to comprehend but impossible to master. In the development of casino movies from the original "Ocean's Eleven" (1960) to "Croupier" (1998) to the genre's masterwork, Scorsese's "Casino" (1995), we observe a gradual shift in focus from human and moral issues to the complex network of relationships between the casino's financial system and the underworld and criminal systems interlaced with it. In the neo-Baroque film cycle "Ocean's Eleven" (2001) to "Ocean's Thirteen" (2007), moral questions and narrative openness drop out in favor of an amoral yet pleasing closed system.</font></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; ">I compare these films to the development of carpet styles in fourteenth to sixteenth-century Safavid Iran. Fourteenth-century carpet weavers developed a method of layering up to four decorative schemes for a three-dimensional effect. This "stratigraphic" method culminates in late-sixteenth century Persian carpets. Organic relationships are foregone in favor of a baffling complexity. A beautiful Persian carpet appeals to both intellect, in the complexity of its pattern, and senses, in its textures and colors, and so does a good neo-Baroque film.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><br></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><b>Biography:</b> Dr. Laura U. Marks is a scholar, theorist, and curator of independent and experimental media arts. Always interested in intercultural art and experience, she is currently researching relationships between classical Islamic art and new media art for a book prospectively titled "Enfoldment and Infinity: An Islamic Genealogy of New Media Art." She is the author of "The Skin of the Film: Intercultural Cinema, Embodiment, and the Senses" (Duke UP, 2000), "Touch: Sensuous Theory and Multisensory Media" (Minnesota UP, 2002), and many essays. She has curated programs of experimental media for festivals and art spaces worldwide. Dr. Marks is the Dena Wosk University Professor of Art and Culture Studies at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver. </font><font style=""><u><a href="http://www.sfu.ca/~lmarks"><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000">www.sfu.ca/~lmarks</font></a></u></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#0000F0"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;"><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#0000F0"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; "><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000" style=""><b>All welcome. </b></font></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; "><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000" style=""><b>RSVP and information:<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></b></font><a href="mailto:writing@uws.edu.au"><font><u><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: none;">writing@uws.edu.au</span></font></u></font></a><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000" style=""> or </font><a href="mailto:a.rutherford@uws.edu.au" style="text-decoration: none;"><font style=""><u style="text-decoration: underline;text-decoration: none; "><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000" style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;text-decoration: none; ">a.rutherford@uws.edu.au</span> or tara.forrest@uts.edu.au</font></u></font></a></font></div><div style="text-decoration: underline;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; "><u><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><a href="http://www.uws.edu.au/writing_society/">www.uws.edu.au/writing_society/</a><div style="text-decoration: underline; display: inline !important; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; display: inline !important; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"></font></div></div></font></u></font></div><div style="text-decoration: underline;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; "><u><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><div style="text-decoration: underline; display: inline !important; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; display: inline !important; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">www.transforming.cultures.uts.edu.au/news_events/Laura_Marks.html</font></div></div></font></u></font></div><div style="text-decoration: underline;"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br></div></div></span></span></font></div></div><div><div> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Dr. Tara Forrest</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Senior Lecturer, Cultural Studies</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">University of Technology, Sydney</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">PO Box 123 Broadway NSW </font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Australia 2007</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Phone: +61 2 95142182</font></div></div></span></span></span></span></div></div></blockquote></div></body></html>