The earth’s subterranean layer has long been an object of fascination to artists, archaeologists, and technologists as a meeting point of the planet’s past and future. This lecture addresses contemporary video art’s habitation of the underground—as a space of enclosure and exclusivity, and of capitalist extraction—redefining it as one of radical inclusivity and commonality, and as a site through which to explore the material histories and futures of media.

Leo Goldsmith is a writer, curator, and teacher based in Amsterdam and Brooklyn. His writing has appeared in Artforum, art-agenda, Cinema Scope, and The Brooklyn Rail, where he was film editor from 2011 to 2018. He is currently writing a book about the filmmaker Peter Watkins with Rachael Rakes. Goldsmith has lectured on media and film at New York University, Brooklyn College, Harvard University, and the New School.