Event Blog 3 - John Halpern talk at UCLA: 'LEVERAGING COMMUNITY & MEDIA ASSETS: A Look In and Out'

John Halpern’s lecture, “Leveraging Community & Media Assets: A Look In and Out,” offered a unique perspective on how media can be used to engage, provoke, and connect. Instead of relying on fast edits or dramatic visuals, Halpern slowed things down. He opened the talk with an original film of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge which was quiet, steady, and almost meditative. It felt more like a space to think than a typical art film.


Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge: Screenshot of John Halpern talk at UCLA April 23, 2025

Later, he showed a clip where he referenced a “fat chair” from 1964 and a “rubberized box.” At first, these sounded random, but they’re actually tied to major conceptual art movements. The “fat chair” comes from Joseph Beuys, who covered a basic chair in fat and wax to challenge what we expect from everyday objects. The “rubberized box” recalls Eva Hesse’s industrial, tactile sculptures that used materials like rubber to evoke emotion and unpredictability. Both pieces resist easy interpretation as they make you think and feel instead of just consuming.


"Fat Chair": Screenshot of John Halpern talk at UCLA April 23, 2025

During the Q&A, a student asked if our online life has started to define what happens in our real life, and that really stood out to me. It reminded me of Sherry Turkle’s writing about how technology shapes identity and relationships. Halpern’s metaphor of “pollution in a snow globe” worked the same way as it didn’t show stats but instead made you feel the problem. As Stephen Duncombe argues, activist media “does not just represent reality but attempts to change it.”


"Pollution in a Snow Globe": Screenshot of John Halpern talk at UCLA April 23, 2025

This talk made me rethink my final project. Instead of over explaining, I want to design something that gives people space to discover meaning for themselves. Halpern’s work is a great example of how slowing down and being vulnerable as both an artist and viewer can lead to deeper connection.



Works Cited

Beuys, Joseph. Fat Chair. 1964. Mixed media. Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Duncombe, Stephen. The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Democracy, the Internet, and the Overthrow of Everything. Verso, 2007.

McLuhan, Marshall. Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. McGraw-Hill, 1964.

Turkle, Sherry. Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other. Basic Books, 2011.



Zoom Registration email/Proof of attendance




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