the Cooper Union School of Art Interdisciplinary Seminar
Liberty Square
Occupy Wall Street
This lecture took place on October 6th, 2011 at 7:00 pm in the Zuccotti Park (Broadway between Liberty and Cedar Streets) at the Cooper Union
Lecture introduction
On September 17th thousands of people gathered in the financial district of lower Manhattan in order to occupy Wall Street. The occupation settled in Zuccotti Park indefinitely, with hundreds sleeping in the park each night and many more passing through each day to take part in general assemblies, marches, working committees, informal discussions, and meals.
The Interdisciplinary Seminar has, in the last twelve years, been a space for open dialogue between invited speakers and the Cooper community. This dialogue has taken a variety of forms, from individual presentations followed by Q&A, to organic conversations, and performative interventions. The occupation at Zuccotti Park is one of many gatherings, beginning with the Arab Spring and spreading across public squares throughout Europe, in which large numbers of people are re-imagining what it means to speak to one another. In the process such spaces have become the means for experimentation in conversational forms at a scale unprecedented in the lifetimes of many of the participants. The Interdisciplinary Seminar will take place at the occupation on Oct 6th as a way of participating in this experiment.
About Liberty Square
Liberty Square is the name Zuccotti Park has been given by the people currently occupying it. It designates the heterogeneous space created by each of its shifting inhabitants.