The presentation was part of "An Iconology of Time," a virtual lecture series hosted in the summer of 2021 by the University of Southern California’s (USC) Visual Studies Research Institute. The broader academic series was conceived by renowned theorist Professor W.J.T. Mitchell of the University of Chicago and co-convened alongside USC postdoc Dr. Ruth Ezra.
Kholeif's lecture explores and argues for a contemporary, globally felt "age of emotion". It analyzed how we construct, perceive, and visually represent time through images in an era defined by overwhelming internet connectivity.
Post-Digital Anxiety: The lecture expanded heavily on themes from Kholeif’s major Sharjah Art Foundation exhibition and anthology, Art in the Age of Anxiety.
Collaborative Link: W.J.T. Mitchell was a core contributor to that same project, authoring a dedicated text titled "Art in the age of anxiety: for Omar Kholeif
Their collective work investigates the constant bombardment of information, data flow, online grieving, and how consumer technology alters human consciousness.
SYNOPSIS:
What does it mean to look at time? Most of you will be holding time in your very hands in the instance that you read these words. But what happens when the image of time jumps out of your phone and starts to take on its own life? How do we attribute meaning to images, define their identity, understand their agency in an era of seemingly free-wheeling chaos?
This hybrid lecture by Dr. Omar Kholeif, writer, curator and historian of visual culture explores these themes in relation to issues of social justice, violence and sexuality.
This lecture forms the opening talk to the series, An Iconology of Time, conceived by Professor W.J.T. Mitchell, Gaylord Donnelly Distinguished Service Professor, University of Chicago and convened with Dr. Ruth Ezra, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Southern California.