Author Meets Readers invites Carleton students and the community to join an informal discussion on new books published by members of the Carleton University Faculty of Public Affairs.

About the Book

General Idea: Life & Work  tracks how an artists' group arrived on the scene in Toronto in the 1960s and became visual and countercultural pioneers, creating a personal mythology and rhetoric that ran throughout their oeuvre. It illustrates how General Idea’s works playfully and unabashedly address queer identity, despite this facet being ignored by critics until the mid-1980s. Through mimicry, General Idea played with viewer’s expectations, reworking familiar formats and aesthetics, such as Pop Art, magazines, and talk shows, in order to prompt critical reflection.

About the Author

Sarah E.K. Smith is an Assistant Professor in Communication and Media Studies, and affiliated faculty in the Bachelor of Global and International Studies (BGInS) program. Her research is focused on modern and contemporary visual and material culture in North America, and is grounded in visual methodologies and critical theory.