Dissolve Unconference: A Summit on Inequality

Full info at mitdissolve.com. Overview…

Come join a wide-ranging discussion of inequality featuring faculty and students from MIT and Harvard.

This unconference asks: How can we dissolve the structures of power that produce today’s inequalities?

This summit will feature 10-minute ignite sessions (talk/discussion) on central topics of our time:  climate change; civic media; black lives matter; gender inequality; society and economy from anthropological and humanist perspectives; community activism and co-design; affordable DIY health solutions; and more.

The final hour will focus on open discussion and networking, including art and light food.  Cambridge-based Toscanini’s owner Gus Rancatore will also unveil a new ice cream flavor called  “This is what democracy tastes like.”

The goal is to identify common themes and to suggest possibilities for driving systemic change.  We will focus on bottom-up approaches that can circumvent or transform today’s political dysfunction and economic inequalities to move us towards a more inclusive social and economic future.

In the evening, the Dissolve participants will join with local art collective Illuminus for an immersive light and sound event, including DJ Wayne&Wax (Prof. Wayne Marshall, ethnomusicologist at Berklee College of Music) and MIT’s DJ IanC.

Speakers include anthropologists, media theorists, activists, and more, including:

• Ethan Zuckerman (MIT, Center for Civic Media) rejecting politics, embracing civics
• Jose Gomez-Marquez (MIT, Little Devices), affordable, DIY medical technology
• Chelsea Barabas (MIT), tech jobs and diversity
• Christine Walley (MIT, Anthropology), Exit Zero filmmaker, US deindustrialization
• Tomiko Yoda (Harvard, EALC), gender inequality in media
• Alex Zahlten (Harvard, EALC), inequality and media theory
• Stefan Helmreich (MIT, Anthropology), wave culture, technology, inequality
• Fossil Free MIT, climate change activism
• Ed Bertschinger (MIT), Institute Community Equity Officer, diversity in higher ed
• Sasha Costanza-Chock (MIT, Center for Civic Media), co-design and activism
• Black Lives Matter, race and violence in the US
• Ian Condry (MIT), Billionaire Action Lab Network @ MIT (baln.mit.edu)

The event is organized by the Creative Communities Initiative (ccimit.mit.edu), a lab Ian Condry co-directs with Prof. T.L. Taylor.  The event is produced in collaboration with the MIT Solve Conference (solve.mit.edu) and HUBweek (hubweek.org), a celebration of technology, art, and innovation in the Cambridge / Boston area.

We also acknowledge the generous support of MIT Global Studies and Languages and the department of Comparative Media Studies / Writing.

The Dissolve team is seeking groups who would like to have designated tables for sharing information. There is no fee for use of a table, but please pre-register.

For more information, or to get involved, please contact: 

Prof. Ian Condry

condry@mit.edu