BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk//
X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Taking Place: 'The Distributed Unconscious: what happens in Vegas?
  (Prof. Steve Pile) - Prof. Steve Pile (Human Geography\, The Open Univers
 ity)
DTSTART:20131113T170000Z
DTEND:20131113T190000Z
UID:TALK48817@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Jesús Cháirez
DESCRIPTION:\nIn this paper\, I will explore the relationship between the 
 city\, people's experiences of urban spaces\, and affect. Cities are\, fam
 ously\, as much states of mind as states of government\, infrastructure\, 
 economies and so on. Grasping the city as 'a state of mind' has often focu
 sed upon their discourses\, representations and imaginaries – and\, in d
 oing so\, treated the city as a text that can be "read" as a forest of sig
 ns and symbols. The affect turn in the social sciences has\, alternatively
  asked that nonrepresentational aspects of city life and experiences be ta
 ken into account. Commonly enough\, affect is found in the ordinary experi
 ences\, interactions and etiquettes of urban life\, much as Simmel might h
 ave wanted. In this paper\, I would like to come at the question of city l
 ife and urban experience from a slightly different angle – through the r
 ecent film\, The Hangover (2009). Set in Las Vegas\, it follows three men 
 as they attempt to reconstruct the night before. The movie plays heavily o
 n Las Vegas' reputation as a sin city\, in which not only anything can hap
 pen\, but where it is somehow OK that it happens because "what happens in 
 Vegas stays in Vegas". The question is whether this film\, contrary to thi
 s injunction\, actually has something to tell us about people's experience
 s of cities and their affectual life. In part\, the movie highlights the o
 rdinary surrealism of city life. But\, perhaps as importantly\, also how u
 rban experiences need to be reconstructed in face of an over-hanging knowl
 edge of their absurdity and of our inability to determine what has actuall
 y happened.
LOCATION:CRASSH\, SG2\, ground floor\, Alison Richard Building
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR