In this lecture, Kazmi will discuss Beyond the Seas Blue alongside earlier projects that connect contemporary technologies to histories of science, material transformation, and knowledge production in the Middle East and South Asia.

Asma Kazmi is an interdisciplinary artist whose work explores the relationships among art, technology, history, and power. Through installations, video, sculpture, virtual environments, and collaborative research, she examines how contemporary technologies emerge from longer histories of science, extraction, trade, and knowledge production. Her work centers connections between the Middle East, South Asia, and the West, often using archives, material culture, and speculative storytelling. Her newest project, Beyond the Seas Blue, traces lapis lazuli from the mines of Badakhshan through histories of pigment making, museums, colonial collecting, and digital infrastructure. Kazmi is associate professor of art practice at the University of California, Berkeley, and teaches at the Berkeley Center for New Media.

If there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact us. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.