Join artists, researchers, and art professionals for a symposium that uses the exhibition Rayyane Tabet / Alien Property as a starting point to challenge the concept of the universal museum—a place to see the whole world under one roof—and its relationship to material and digital cultural heritage.

Session 1: Front End / Back End: Power, Narratives, and Naming
This panel explores how curatorial, research, and archival practices relate to power and agency in museums and archives. The aim of the conversation is to think critically about the seeming divide between the front end (onsite or online display, access, and narrative construction) and the more invisible systems of the back end (collecting and institutional policies, classifications, and metadata). The panel raises the following questions: How can engaged practices challenge and repair historical power structures and restore agency? What archival and curatorial strategies can center care and communities to bridge practices on the front and back ends?

Speakers
Wayne Modest, Director of Content, National Museum of World Cultures, Wereldmuseum, Rotterdam
Safiya U. Noble, Associate Professor, Department of Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles
Temi Odumosu, Senior Lecturer, Cultural Studies, Malmö University
Moderated by Kristine Khouri, independent researcher

Session 2: Institutional Frameworks and “Capturing” Readymade Culture
This panel explores the architectural, art historical, and archaeological narratives that arise from certain kinds of excavations, both physical and digital. Panelists think critically about institutions and the ways they have “captured” cultural heritage, whether through images, war, plunder, art markets, black markets, or digital colonialism. Panelists also discuss representations of cultural heritage through the lens of Orientalism, how assessments of damage, destruction, and “at-risk” valuations are made, and how histories are lost or rewritten through the circulation and display of tangible cultural heritage, starting with a geographic focus on the Middle East.

Speakers
Jananne Al-Ani, artist and Senior Lecturer in Photography, University of the Arts, London
Nasser Rabbat, Aga Khan Professor and Director, Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Trinidad Rico, Associate Professor, Department of Art History, Cultural Heritage and Preservation Studies, Rutgers University
Moderated by Saima Akhtar, independent scholar

Session 3: Networked Culture and the Decentralized Museum
Digital technologies and practices have both blended dimensions of the White Cube (the modern gallery and museum space) and Black Box (the digital and physical spaces outside of it) and enabled them to operate independently of each other. At the same time, digital reproduction, intellectual property law, repatriation, and open access initiatives raise concerns around replicating the universal museum in digital spaces and places far removed from it. This panel explores the potential of the decentralized museum, networked heritage, and narrative equities made possible by open access, while also reflecting on the new risks posed by the Black Box.

Speakers 
Heba Y. Amin, Professor of Art, State Academy for Fine Arts, Stuttgart 
Sarah E. Bond, Associate Professor of History, University of Iowa 
Sonia Katyal, Codirector, Berkeley Center for Law and Technology, and Distinguished Haas Chair 
Moderated by Andrea Wallace, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Exeter

Session 4: Closing Conversation
The artist and curators of Rayyane Tabet / Alien Property join the symposium organizers for a conversation that considers the symposium as both part of and an outgrowth of the exhibition.

Speakers 
Kim Benzel, Curator in Charge, Ancient Near Eastern Art, The Met 
Clare Davies, Assistant Curator, Modern and Contemporary Art, The Met 
Rayyane Tabet, artist 
Saima Akhtar, independent scholar 
Kristine Khouri, independent researcher 
Andrea Wallace, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Exeter