Today marks the start of the 2010 College Art Association (CAA) Conference, the annual conference for college professionals working in the field of visual arts. If you’re in town for the event, don’t miss Duncan MacKenzie and Richard Holland presenting in person on Friday on the topic of “meta-mentors” and the role they play as producers/founders/meta-mentors of the entire Bad at Sports universe! Their panel, titled Meta-Mentoring: Opt Out of Obscurity, will take place on Friday February 12th at 12:30 pm at Columbus GHIJ, Gold Level, East Tower, Hyatt Regency Chicago. Duncan and Richard will be talking about the history of Bad at Sports, the process of putting the show together, the role they play as artists and cultural producers, and so! much! more! So come armed with your questions, your autograph books and 8 x 10 black and white glossies…and get ready to be meta-mentored by Bad at Sports!

Be sure and check out some of the panels listed below, featuring B@S’ fellow contributors, friends, and other groovy folks of note. (For the full schedule of panels at CAA, click here.) PLUS: Students at Columbia College are blogging the entire conference! So we don’t have to! Thank you Columbia College Students! Without further ado, let the academic hob-nobbing commence!

On Thursday:

Futures of Criticism
Thursday, February 11, 9:30 AM-12:00 PM
Grand B, Gold Level, East Tower, Hyatt Regency Chicago
Chair: Lane Relyea, Northwestern University

Criticality, Critique, Critical Practice
Gail Day, University of Leeds
The Critique of the Incitement to Discourse and the Basic Problems of Phenomenology: Two or Three Critical Models in/around Tino Sehgal
David Lewis, Graduate Center, City University of New York
Who Needs an Art Critic: Law and the Space of Writing
Sergio Munoz Sarmiento, Clancco: Art and Law
Historicizing Contemporary Art: The Living, the Dead, and the Undead
Simone Osthoff, Pennsylvania State University
Criticisms, Publics, Communities
Frazer Ward, Smith College

Recent Research in Chicago Architecture
Thursday, February 11, 9:30 AM-12:00 PM
Grand A, Gold Level, East Tower, Hyatt Regency Chicago
Chair: David Theodore Van Zanten, Northwestern University
The Skyscraper Street and Design for the Crowd ca. 1900
Joanna Merwood, Parsons the New School for Design
Marketing the Movies: Chicago Picture Palace Movie Theaters
Rachel Remmel, University of Rochester
A Preliminary Survey of the Chicago Courtyard Apartment Building: The North and West Sides
Michael Rabens, Oklahoma State University
From PWA to CHA: Chicago Architecture and the American Public-Housing Debate
Alison Fisher, Art Institute of Chicago and Northwestern University
The Inland Steel Building Inside Out
Amanda Douberley, University of Texas at Austin
Aspects of the Civic: Chicago’s Daley Center and Plaza
Sharon Irish, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

New Challenges for Art Criticism: Relational Aesthetics, Social Collaborations, and Public Interactivity
Thursday, February 11, 12:30 PM-2:00 PM
Regency A, Gold Level, West Tower, Hyatt Regency Chicago
Chair: Kathryn Hixson, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Michelle Grabner, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Joseph Grigely, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Joao Ribas, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Object of Nostalgia
Thursday, February 11, 2:30 PM-5:00 PM
Columbus GHIJ, Gold Level, East Tower, Hyatt Regency Chicago
Chairs: Rene J. Marquez, University of Delaware; Lance Winn, University of Delaware
Installation and Nostalgia: Landscape of Desire

Marlene Alt, Southern Oregon University

Try a Little Tenderness

Pamela L. Fraser, University of Illinois, Chicago

Ah, but It Was Good

Elaine B. Rutherford, College of Saint Benedict and Saint Johns University

The Interstice between the Sentimental and Cynical Act of Painting
Brian Bishop, Framingham State College
***There is an exhibition titled The Object of Nostalgia running concurrently at Columbia College’s A+D Gallery, curator’s talk and reception on Thursday night at 5:30pm.
On Friday:

***Meta-Mentors: Opt Out of Obscurity***
Friday, February 12, 12:30 PM-2:00 PM
Columbus GHIJ, Gold Level, East Tower, Hyatt Regency Chicago
Chairs: Sabina Ott, Columbia College Chicago; Reni Gower, Virginia Commonwealth University
Curator’s Perspective
Michelle Grabner, School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Suburban
Critic’s Perspective
Corey Postiglione, Columbia College Chicago and “Artforum”
Gallerist’s Perspective
Gosia Koscielak, Koscielak Gallery
Producer’s Perspective
Duncan MacKenzie, Bad at Sports: Contemporary Art Talk
Richard Holland, Bad at Sports: Contemporary Art Talk
On Saturday:

Comics in Art History, Part I
Saturday, February 13, 9:30 AM-12:00 PM
Grand CD South, Gold Level, East Tower, Hyatt Regency ChicagoChairs: Andrei Molotiu, Indiana University, Bloomington; Patricia Mainardi, Graduate Center, City University of New YorkJames Boaden, University of York: Dick Racy and Nance: The Comic Collages of JessAndrei Molotiu, Indiana University, Bloomington: Kirby after Lichtenstein

John P. Hogan, independent artist, Los Angeles: Comic Conceptualism and Critical Comedians: Two Sides of a Wooden Nickel

Simon Grennan, University of the Arts London: Reading Seth through Appropriation Theory
Mark Staff Brandl, University of Zurich: Posthysterical: The Study of Comics Advances a Plurogenic View of Art History

Claudine Isé