This talk was a key note address for the 2016 Photography.Ontology symposium that took place at the University of Sydney in June 2016. Professor Smith considers Frederick Douglass’s propositions about the social power of photography. Looking back at Douglass’s lecture “Pictures and Progress” through the lens of contemporary artist Rashid Johnson’s homage to the nineteenth-century orator, the talk examines Douglass’s surprising celebration of photography as an objectifying medium. Douglass saw the persistence of photographs as both a conserving and a conservative force, and Johnson’s self-portrait after Douglass testifies to that doubled dynamic. But Douglass also found progressive power in the technology’s capacity to alienate the self, an unexpected position for the formerly enslaved. The talk explores Douglass’s complicated embrace of photography as a medium of objectification as well as progress, as a link to the past as well as the future.

Scientists have long thought that the adult brain is unchangeable, but new evidence is emerging to challenge this belief by revealing that the brain is capable of lifelong change and adaptation. This adaptability - or neuroplasticity as it is commonly known - shows the mature brain can reorganise or ‘rewire’ itself in response to experience, disease or injury. University of Sydney researchers are at the forefront of brain and mind research. In this fascinating forum our experts will share what neuroplasticity means for degenerative conditions like Alzheimer’s, regaining speech after disease or injury, and the implications for all of us in terms of maintaining a healthy brain. Presenters: Associate Professor Michael Valenzuela, Head of the Regenerative Neuroscience Group, Brain and Mind Centre Professor Leanne Togher, Professor of Communication Disorders following Traumatic Brain Injury, Faculty of Health Sciences Dr Michael Lee, Clinical Neurophysiologist and Physiotherapist, Brain and Mind Centre and Faculty of Health Sciences Professor Simon Lewis, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience and Clinical Director of the Ageing Brain Clinic, Brain and Mind Centre

Constructed, neglected, rebuilt and expanded over the course of nearly a century, the Qing imperial park of Bishu shanzhuang played a central, but constantly changing, role in the history of the Manchu dynasty for nearly two centuries. Scholars of the site have focused on its final form at the end of the 18th century, taking a single vision of its design and use as descriptive of its entire history. In this talk, Stephen Whiteman explores the park’s early history under the Kangxi emperor, from its original conception as an imperial retreat to its representation through text and image, and considers the legacy of this history not only in later iterations of the landscape, but also in collective memories of the rise and fall of the dynasty itself.

Panel discussion with audience Q&A on the topic of Wiser Healthcare We all want to be able to get good healthcare when we need it. But what would it mean to provide and consume healthcare wisely? This panel discussion with Dr Iona Heath considers a radical idea: that sometimes wiser healthcare means less healthcare. Or at least, less healthcare for people who don’t need it, so we can give more healthcare to people who do.

Music’s power to form, sustain and present social identities is especially relevant in today’s changing and increasingly networked world. A panel of Indigenous researchers and performers from Australia and overseas discuss: how songs can support language revitalization; how music can help us to understand our history and our communities; and how Indigenous youth today are using Rap music to share their cultural knowledge and their lived experiences. A Sydney Ideas event on 27 May 2016. http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2016/music_and_contemporary_indigenous_identities_forum.shtml

Economic Modelling now plays a significant role in the development of public policy development and the conduct of public debate in Australia. Modelling has been central to the case for and against the carbon tax, the mining tax and industrial relations reform. But the widespread use of economic modelling is not matched with widespread understanding of its strengths, weaknesses and vulnerabilities. When used well economic modelling can help policy makers understand the existence, and magnitude, of likely interrelationships; when used poorly it can conceal those same linkages; and when use dishonestly it can be used as a tool to dress up the self-interest of advocates as national interest. In this address Richard Denniss outlines the use and abuse of economic modelling in Australia and argue the case for a Code of Conduct for economic modelling.

Since the global food crisis of 2007, agricultural land has become an attractive asset for large private corporations and state-owned entities wanting to secure food supplies. These investments have had varying effects. At times, they have been associated with forced removals of pre-existing landholders with weak tenure rights. On other occasions they have driven up local property prices and altered production priorities towards export markets. Either way, they have been implicated in creating a more vertically integrated food system aligned to global markets. This panel discusses these issues from international and Australian perspectives. PANEL: Emeritus Professor Geoffrey Lawrence, University of Queensland Dr Sarah Sippel, Senior Researcher, Centre for Area Studies, University of Leipzig, Germany Professor Bill Pritchard, Human Geography, School of Geosciences, University of Sydney A Sydney Ideas and Sydney Environment Institute event in the Food@Sydney series http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2016/food@sydney_series_2016.shtml

To celebrate National Archaeology Week 2016 we present two talks on the topic of archaeology and heritage in the Pacific. Wasteland and Wonderland: Bikini Atoll - from atomic bomb testing ground to World Heritage Dr Steve Brown, Lecturer in Archaeology, Master of Museum and Heritage Studies program Sydney’s Missionary Connections to the New Hebrides (Vanuatu) in the 19th Century James Flexner, Lecturer in Historical Archaeology and Heritage, Department of Archaeology More info: http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2016/archaeology_heritage_tropical_pacific.shtml

It is now well established that digital media has given rise to new forms of political speech. Just as importantly though, the new media environment has also created space for new types of listening. Media scholar Dave Karpf discusses the role that digital listening, measurement, and experimentation play in shaping the contours of ‘analytic activism’. More info: http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2016/david_karpf.shtml

A look into how bottles are impacting on tap water provision and the implications of accumulating plastic waste on environments and bodies. SPEAKERS: Professor Gay Hawkins, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University; Assoc Professor Kane Race, Gender and Cultural Studies, the University of Sydney; and Kylie Yeend, Education, Engagement and Partnerships Manager at Sydney Water.