Using contemporary Western life as a point of departure, Douglas Coupland–along with a panel of astute observers of the challenges and conditions of our current world–contemplates the future and what it might hold.

This lively conversation will touch on issues explored in the exhibition Douglas Coupland: everywhere is anywhere is anything is everything, presented by the TD Bank Group. We’re bringing together global thinkers who are not afraid to take on the 21st-century condition, Canadian cultural identity, the power of language and the pervasive presence of technology in modern life. And, of course, ask what it all means for our future selves.

Moderated by Sara Angel, visual arts journalist and founding director of the Art Canada Institute.

This event includes the panel discussion and a post-event reception.

At the reception, we’ll feature the Toronto launch of the new book by Shumon Basar, Douglas Coupland and Hans Ulrich Obrist: The Age of Earthquakes: A Guidebook to the Extreme Present. The book will be available for sale.

Location

Royal Ontario Museum
100 Queen’s Park
Signy and Cléophée Eaton Theatre
Level 1B

Purchase Tickets

The evening

6:30  Doors open
7:00  Panel discussion starts
8:15  Panel discussion ends; reception begins
8:45  Bar closes
9:30  Doors close

Contributors

Douglas Coupland is a Canadian novelist, visual artist and designer. His first novel in 1991 was Generation C: Tales for an Accelerated Culture. He has published thirteen novels, a collection of short stories, seven nonfiction books, and a number of dramatic works and screenplays for film and television. Coupland`s novels and visual work synthesize high and low culture, web technology, religion, and change in human existence caused by modern technologies. Douglas Coupland’s everywhere is anywhere is anything is everything can be visited at MOCCA and the Royal Ontario Museum.

Jessica Allen is best known from CTV’s THE SOCIAL, as a regular contributor and Digital Correspondent. Allen was previously an assistant editor at Maclean’s, writing arts and culture-related stories fro both the website and magazine. Her coverage of TIFF earned a National Magazine Award nomination.

Adam Sternbergh is a contributing editor atNew York magazine and Vulture, and former culture editor of The New York Times Magazine. His first novel Shovel Readywas a Newsweek Favorite Book of 2014, and nominated for a 2015 Edgar Award for Best First Novel by an American.

Michael J. Prokopow Michael J Prokopow is an historian, critic and curator.  He writes about material culture, art, aesthetics and the built environment.  He is an Associate Professor at OCAD University where, among other things, he teaches in the graduate curatorial practice and criticism program and the interdisciplinary program in art, media and design and serves as the associate dean of graduate studies.  Currently he is working on a project about middle class taste in North America between 1940 and 1975 and he is writing a book about the house that Arthur Erickson designed for Gordon and Marion Smith House in 1964.  He serves on the boards of the Arthur Erickson Foundation, C Magazine, the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario and Craft Ontario.He is a contributor to the exhibition catalogue Douglas Coupland: everything is anything is anywhere is everywhere.

Sara Angel is the Founding Executive Director of the Art Canada Institute at Massey College. She holds a Trudeau Doctoral Scholarship, the most prestigious award of its kind in Canada, given for innovative ideas that will help solve issues of critical importance to Canadians. One of the country’s leading arts journalists, Angel writes regularly on contemporary visual culture for Maclean’s, Canadian Art, The Walrus, and The Globe and Mail.

This event is co-presented by ROM and MOCCA (the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art).

ROM Speaks: Beyond Our Contemporary World is a complement to the exhibitionDouglas Coupland: everywhere is anywhere is anything is everything. For the full exhibition experience, visit both the ROM and MOCCA.

Douglas Coupland: everywhere is anywhere is anything is everything is organized and circulated by the Vancouver Art Gallery and curated by Daina Augaitis, Chief Curator/Associate Director. The exhibition is presented in Toronto by the Royal Ontario Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art and is being held concurrently at both institutions. This exhibition was made possible with the generous support of The Keg Steakhouse + Bar, and The Artworkers Retirement Society.