ARC Conversations: The Power of Language to Shape the World
About this Event
Newspeak, Oldspeak and the Unspoken? The Power of Language to Shape the World
In 1984, Orwell imagined a world in which language was used to narrow thought and limit what people could imagine.
This ARC Conversations panel explores how language shapes the worlds we inhabit - from the language of data and policy to literature, art and public discourse. Bringing together academics and practitioners from different fields, the discussion will examine how knowledge is produced, whose voices are heard, what remains unsaid and how language can both constrain and expand our collective futures.
The session
Chair: Dominic Paterson, Professor of History of Art
Panel:
- Annette Hastings, Professor of Urban Studies at the University of Glasgow
- Ana Basiri, Professor of Geospatial Data Science at the University of Glasgow
- Chris Hannan, Award-winning Playwright and Adapter of Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four
After the panel session stay for drinks, networking and take the opportunity to visit the accompanying visual art installation in the ARC - a sculpture, a library, a museum, a curiosity, a venue, consisting of 1,984 copies of George Orwell’s iconic novel ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’, donated and sourced from around the world. ‘The Library’ forms a living, touring artwork and a forum for creativity, curiosity and conversation - on show at the ARC from 2nd-20th September.
Agenda:
16:00 -16:30 – Welcome and panel discussion
16:30 -17:00 - Audience discussion and Q&A
17:00 -17:30 - Drinks
About the panel:
Dominic Paterson is Professor of History of Art and Curator of Contemporary Art at the University of Glasgow. He has written widely on contemporary art and art theory: recent publications include the monograph Neil Clements: Fellow Traveller and essays on Ilana Halperin in Felt Events (2022), on Ulrike Ottinger in Ulrike Ottinger: Film, Art, Ethnography (2024) and on Phil Collins for Feelings / Sensors (European Media Arts Festival, 2024). Recent curated exhibitions include Flesh Arranges Itself Differently (2022, with the Roberts Institute of Art), Elizabeth Price: UNDERFOOT (2022), The Trembling Museum (2023, co-curated with Manthia Diawara and Terri Geis), Cathy Wilkes (2024), and Digging in Another Time: Derek Jarman’s Modern Nature, (2024). Prof. Paterson has been awarded grants including the Art Fund Moving Image Fund for Museums, Imperial War Museum 14-18 NOW Legacy Fund Major Commission, and Creative Scotland's Open Fund.
Ana Basiri is a Professor of Geospatial Data Science and the Director of Centre for Data Science and AI at the University of Glasgow. Ana leads research group that finds meaning in what’s missing—transforming gaps, absences, and biases in data into powerful insights about why and what are missing to understand the world around us. From incomplete GPS signals to underrepresented voices on social media, Ana’s work turns the data we don’t have into clues about real-world systems, behaviours, and challenges.
Annette Hastings is Professor of Urban Studies and Head of Urban Studies and Social Policy in the School of Social & Political Sciences. She has degrees in English from the University of Cambridge and in Urban Policy from the University of Glasgow. Before joining the University in the 1990s, Annette worked in local government and in the community-based housing association movement. Her research and teaching interests centre on inequality in cities, inclusive public services and the role of narrative and discourse in policy processes. She served as Independent Chair of the North Lanarkshire Fairness Commission and has had various advisory roles including for the Scottish Government’s Local Government and Communities Committee and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. She is currently an Expert Advisor to SURF (Scotland’s Independent Regeneration Forum) and Vice Chair of the Whiteinch Centre in Glasgow. She is on the Editorial Board of Local Government Studies and was previously on the Boards of Critical Discourse Studies and Urban Studies Research.
Chris Hannan’s plays have been produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Old Vic, Shakespeare’s Globe and the Lyceum, among many others. His 2026 adaptation of 1984 opened at the Citizens’ Theatre Glasgow to multiple 5 star reviews. His 2016 play What Shadows, about Enoch Powell’s « River of Blood » speech and identity politics, was described by the Daily Telegraph as « the most provocative theatrical act of the decade». Shining Souls opened at the Traverse in 1996 and played the Old Vic in 1997, with the Guardian calling it a "funny and serious postmodern masterpiece." His contemporary classic Elizabeth Gordon Quinn, first performed in 1985, was re-staged in 2006 by the National Theatre of Scotland in its inaugural season. The Guardian hailed Elizabeth Gordon Quinn as « a Marie-Antoinette of the slums » and a « monstrous and magnificent heroine ».
This November, POLART and the ARC brings together three weeks of research, conversations, engagement and activity centred around the thought-provoking art installation, the Winston Smith Library of Victory & Truth.
Together, these events ask how art can create spaces for dialogue, challenge established ways of thinking and contribute to important conversations about issues that shape the world and our future. Taking place across several weeks, the POLART ‘Re-ARTiculating Policy’ events offer different opportunities to encounter the project and its research- from the exhibition and film screening to conversations with artists, researchers and policymakers.
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This event is free, but ticketed.
There will be drinks available after the event, while stocks last.
Please enter the ARC via the main entrance, as indicated on the map below.
If you have any specific access requirements, please contact [email protected]
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
USD 0.00
