> 4 P.M. / Monday, April 22 / Free
> McCune Conference Room
> 6020 Humanities and Social Sciences Building

"As the cold war gave way to the Gulf War and the New World Order, America found itself refashioning its imaginary other. A growing fear of the political unknown yielded infowar and aliens invading the American bedroom. Once we were "skyjacked" in planes; now we are spacenapped in UFOs or cyberjacked on the 'Net. Comet Hale-Bopp beams thirty-nine members of San Diego's technosect over the stars. All wore Nike shoes saying: Do It! Larry King Live goes live with presidents and alien abductees alike. A recent poll stated that UFO believers in the US outnumber the voters who put Reagan, Bush, and Clinton in office. Put differently: more people believe in aliens than the american president. If anything, on that fateful morning of September 11, America's political unconscious came haunting back through Hollywood's imagination, and symptom (flying saucers beaming out of nowhere to demolish the trade towers) met reality (the dark underside of repressed world politics struck back at the first world)."

Johan Grimonprez, Belgian filmdirector (dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y, 1997) and curator (Beware! In playing the phantom, you become one 1994-2000) will present excerpts of his videotapes. Mr. Grimonprez attended the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program (1993) in New York. He has been part of numerous, international festivals and exhibitions, including Documenta X, (Kassel, 1997). Published INFLIGHT with Hatje/Cantz last year. He is currently lecturing at the School of Visual Arts in New York, while researching a new media project on the history of film endings and the zapping behavior with the television remote control.

For more information, visit: http://www.mat.ucsb.edu/