Sights and Sounds of the AKML and Creating the Future Symposium

So, I know I already blogged about it, but what the hey, time for some photographs, courtesy of Robert Francos, some of which he already posted on his blog, FFanzeen: Rock 'n' Roll With Integrity, along with some commentary about the event, in his recent post entitled, Douglas Rushkoff at General Semantics/Media Ecology Association Dinner, 11/14/2008, and of course you can click on that title to read what Robert wrote. But first let's look at some pictures, ok?

OK! So first, here's me greeting Doug Rushkoff before the AKML, with IGS Vice-President/Treasurer Jackie Rudig in the center:



Now, here's me giving my welcoming remarks:



Looking pretty snazzy, if I do say so myself. Now here's IGS President, Marty Levinson:


And on to the main event, here are a couple of shots of Doug delivering his Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture:








Pretty cool, huh? And finally, after it was all over, time for a hug:


And this has come up before, but to listen to Doug's talk, once again, here's a link to get an MP3 that also get's a bit of me introducing him, just click here. Another version that entirely omits my introduction can be downloaded from here. And there's a version that can be streamed from a third site (this may be the same recording as the first one): Douglas Rushkoff: Don't Change Your "Self", Change The World.

These audio links, and related blog posts, including my previous posts on the topic, were collected by Institute of General Semantics Webmaster Ben Hauck, and included on the Institute of General Semantics website, as the November 17, 2008 entry on the Recent News from the Institute of General Semantics page--many thanks, Ben. Ben also posted a number of pictures taken by Robert Francos, including the ones I already showed you. And here are some more from the AKML:




That's my graduate student, Pamela Miller, behind the table, handling registration and book sales. And there's Stephanie Bennett of Palm Beach Atlantic University on the right, she's a member of the Media Ecology Association's Board of Directors. Now here's a photo of the new editor of the IGS journal, ETC: A Review of General Semantics, Bill Petkanas of Western Connecticut State University, and like me a graduate of the dearly departed media ecology program at New York University.



And now this, another shot of Marty Levinson:


And here is another IGS Trustee, holding the office of Secretary, all the way from Paris, France, Vanessa Biard-Schaeffer:




And another of our Trustees, IGS Ambassador-At-Large, Milton Dawes from Montreal:



And yet another Trustee, Allen Flagg, who is also the President of the New York Society for General Semantics:



And we're not done yet, here's IGS Trustee George Barenholtz:



After my welcoming remarks, and before I introduced Rushkoff, Marty Levinson presented Allen Flagg with the 2008 J. Talbot Winchell Award in recognition of his lifelong service, accomplishments and time-binding efforts:



And here's a photograph of IGS Honorary Trustee Harry Maynard:



Now, how about a few more shots of Rushkoff, as this was his lecture after all:








And why not a close-up? Here goes:



And an audience shot featuring IGS Trustee Jerry Nierenberg:



OK, so that was all about the AKML on November 14, now on to the Creating the Future Symposium, and photos from the first day, November 15. Here's Pamela Miller again, at the registration area and book exhibit, set up this time in Fordham's Law School building, in the Atrium outside of McNally Auditorium:







That last is the view looking up, and here are some crowd shots from the Atrium:








OK, now let's go inside McNally Auditorium where I am introducing the morning's speakers:


And here they are, more or less, starting with Kathleen Sweeney from the New School:



Author David Berreby:



Tom de Zengotita from the Dalton School and NYU:



Author and NPR digital media maven Dick Meyer:



Information Architect for the New York Times, Alex Wright:



Biologist from NYU, Tyler Volk:



And author and Alfred Korzybski biographer, Bruce Kodish:



Unfortunately, there aren't photos everyone participating, in part because we had concurrent sessions, but here are some shots from the afternoon, from sessions taking place over in McMahon Hall. Here's philosopher Jerry Erion from Medaille College in Buffalo:



General semanticist Phil Ardery:


Media ecology program graduate Zhen-bin Sun, a professor of communication from Fairleigh Dickinson University:



Marty Levinson with his latest book:



And my colleague from Fordham, Margot Hardenbergh:



And a group shot:



Here's Stephanie Bennett again:



And Fordham and MEA's Janet Sternberg:




And this is Robert Berkman of the New School, my friend from Twitter:




And my old classmate from graduate school, Paul Lippert of East Stroudsburg University:




Now for the evening sessions back in McNally Auditorium. First, here's David Walczyk of Pratt Insitute standing, along with seated Alicia Gibb, and St. Louis activist Paul Guzzardo:




And here is author Andy Postman:



This audience shot features Shelley Postman, Neil's widow and Andy's mom, along with Terry Moran, a founder with Neil of the dearly departed media ecology program at NYU:


And here's Terry giving his address on media ecology as general semantics writ large:



Another shot of the audience:



And now Allen Flagg introducing Milton Dawes, and then Milton giving his talk:






And finally, me wrapping things up for the night:



And on to the second day, November 16, in McMahon Hall. And here I am again:



And media ecologist Brian Cogan from Molloy College:



Thom Gencarelli is a fellow founder of the MEA, and now a Trustee of the Institute:




The brilliant and hilarious Bob Blechman of model media ecologist fame:



My MA student Jessica Crowell, who did her thesis on prison policy towards media use:



And now some audience shots:














So, next are some shots from a session on Science Fiction. Here's my colleague and friend, Meir Ribalow:


And now, a couple of photos of John C. Wright, author of The Null-A Continuum, a sequel to the Null-A books of A. E. van Vogt:





In this second picture, he's holding a copy of Alfred Korzybski's Science and Sanity, the general semantics Ur-text, which I had just given to him as a present. Anyway, here's feminist science fiction critic Marleen Barr:


And my colleague and great friend, Paul Levinson on his own, and with Marleen:



And now some more crowd shots:















And now this, Eric Goodman doing his multimedia thing:



Which earned him a round of applause from me and Jackie Rudig, and everyone else of course:




And then I took the opportunity to introduce Peggy Cassidy, who earned her MA degree with us at Fordham, before getting her PhD with Neil Postman in the dearly departed media ecology program at NYU, and is now chair of the communication department at Adelphi University:






And here is a photo of general semantics educator Frank Gastner:



And Frank had Ben Hauck and Jackie Holtzman act out a little skit for him:



And then we have Bill Petkanas again:



And here's Renée Cherow-O'Leary, from the first graduating class of the dearly departed media ecology program, now teaching at Columbia University's Teachers College:




And once more, our Parisian representative, Vanessa Biard-Schaeffer:




And Ben Hauck:



And this is psychologist Lloyd Gilden, emeritus at Queens College, and the founder of the Lifwynn Foundation for Social Research:


And general semantics maven Hillel Schiller:




And who better to have the last word than Allen Flagg? Here he is:





And that is a fragment of a map of a much greater territory that you really had to experience first hand to fully appreciate. If you weren't able to make it, make it a point to be there next year! Could all of these smiling faces be wrong?