MoMA R&D
Salon 22 New Aging
Introduction: Paola Antonelli
Bethann Hardison
Carly Dickson
Liz Agbor-Tabi
Linda Montano
Ashton Applewhite
Q&A
The last decades have seen unprecedented progress in human longevity – known as the the “longevity revolution” – and corresponding variations in the age composition of the world population. In the last sixty years, life expectancy in the more developed countries has almost doubled – from just over 40 to nearly 80 years – while the percentage of populations aged 60 and above has doubled, from around 8 percent to around 16 percent. Such rates of growth, the UN says, are without parallel in history, and are anticipated to continue in the future. As societies grow older, common understanding of what it means to age becomes elusive; and this, in turn, has profound implications for the lives of every men and women across the globe: from the way we conceive of the space we inhabit, to changing conceptions of the meaning of authority, leisure, health and mortality. In this salon, we unpacked some of the challenges associated with one of the most elusive phenomena faced by contemporary society.
Among the questions that we tackled: What is the meaning of the demographic transformation the world is undergoing? Is it a threat or an opportunity? What are its social, psychological, aesthetic, and ethical implications? How does this global trend force us to negotiate novel conceptions of intergenerational obligations and expectations for a well-lived life? Do we need a philosophy of aging? Are we correct to be worrying about the world’s population aging? What is the role of art in all of this? What will be the impact of a demographic tectonic shift for world politics? What is the longevity economy? How does the beauty industry exploit ageist myths and stereotypes? Are there countries in which it is easier to get old? How does the pressure to stay young forever play out in different global contexts? How and where will we live as we age? What an all-age-friendly world would look like?
This salon took place on January 22nd, 2018.
Speakers
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Bethann Hardison
Bethann Hardison was a supermodel-cum-entrepreneur, who became a household name when she took her turn on the catwalk at the Battle of Versailles, a historic fashion show that took place in Versailles and put American fashion on the map. With that moment, she became one of the first Black models to walk a European runway. She has since turned her efforts toward fashion activism, starting her own agency (Diversity Coalition) to increase diversity in the fashion industry and expose racial prejudice.
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Carly Dickson
Carly Dickson is a Fellow of the Harvard Graduate School of Design, an affiliate of the MIT AgeLab, and this year’s recipient of the KPF Paul Katz Fellowship. She is currently based in London, where is is pursuing her research around aging and the built environment. Her focus is on designing strings of public spaces between the home and the destination to enable physical access to services and social access to society that engage people of all ages.
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Liz Agbor-Tabi
Liz Agbor-Tabi is Associate Director, City Relationships at 100 Resilient Cities, an initiative pioneered by the Rockefeller Foundation. Liz helped develop and implement health system programs in Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and Latin America. She served as a Health Policy Analyst and Presidential Management Fellow at the US Department of Health and Human Services, where she developed and implemented Emergency Preparedness policies for vulnerable populations.
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Linda Montano
Linda Montano is a seminal figure in contemporary feminist performance art, whose work since the mid 1960s has been critical in the development of performance and video by, for, and about women. Attempting to dissolve the boundaries between art and life, she continues to actively explore her art/life through shared experience, role adoption, and intricate life altering ceremonies. Her work has been featured at museums including The New Museum in New York, MOCA San Francisco, SITE Santa Fe and the ICA in London.
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Ashton Applewhite
Ashton Applewhite is a leading spokesperson for a movement to mobilize against discrimination on the basis of age. She blogs at This Chair Rocks, has written for Harper’s, Playboy, and The New York Times, and is the voice of Yo, Is This Ageist? She has been named as a Fellow by the Knight Foundation, The New York Times, Yale Law School, and the Royal Society for the Arts. In 2015, Ashton was included in a list of 100 inspiring women who are committed to social change in the inaugural issue of Salt magazine.
Reading Resources
REPORTS AND MAPS
He, Wan, Goodkind, Daniel and Kowal, Paul, An Aging World: 2015, International Population
Jacobsen, Linda, Kent, Mary, and Mather, Mark, America’s Aging Population, Population Reference Bureau, vol.66, no1 (February 2011)
Aging in cities survey: 2017 Report, WellTower (2017)
Data from the new face of New York’s Seniors, Center for an Urban Future (July 2013)
Population ages 65 and above (% of total), The World Bank (2017)
Reports, United States Census Bureau (March 2016)
World Population Ageing: Highlights, UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (2017)
AGING IN HISTORY
de Beauvoir, Simone, The Coming of Age, André Deutsch Ltd (1970)
Stein, Herbert, On Rereading “De Senectute”, Slate Magazine (11.27.1998)
Sontag, Susan, The Double Standard of Aging, The Saturday Review (09.23.1972)
Thane, Pat, A History of Old Age, J. Paul Getty Museum (2005)
THE TIME-DEMOGRAPHIC BOMB, THE SILVER TSUNAMI AND OTHER AGING MYTHS
Barret, Katherine, The Taxing Problem Due to an Aging Population, Next Avenue (12.05.2016)
Camp, Hanna, Glimpses of a Graying World: The Demographic Challenges of 2030, Atlantic Council (01.01.2013)
Chan, Szu Ping, Mapped: how a demographic time bomb will transform the global economy, The Telegraph (01.02.2016)
Gil, Natalie, Loneliness: a silent plague that is hurting young people most, The Guardian (07.20.2014)
Poon, Linda, How Should We Prepare for a Rapidly Aging Global Population?, 100 Resilient Cities (09.16.2015)
Ridgeway, James, The myth of the greedy geezer, Al Jazeera(09.28.2011)
Silverstein, Michael, Meeting the challenges of an aging workforce, American Journal of Industrial Medicine, vol.51, no4, pp.269–280 (2008)
Vinik, Danny, America’s government is getting old, Politico (09/27/2017)
The silver tsunami, The Economist (02.04.2010)
AGAINST AGESIM
Applewhite, Ashton, This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism, Networked Books (2016)
Blaine, Bruce Evan, Understanding Age Stereotypes and Ageism, in Understanding the Psychology of Diversity, SAGE Publications, ch.9 (2013)
Friend, Tad, Why Ageism Never Gets Old, The New Yorker (11.20.2017)
Leland, John, In ‘Sweetie’ and ‘Dear’, a Hurt for the Elderly, The New York Times (10.06.2008)
Lyons, Dan, Disrupted: My Misadventure in the Start-Up Bubble, Hachette Book Group (2016)
Morganroth Gullette, Margaret, Ending Ageism, or How Not to Shoot Old People, Rutgers (2017)
Gaining Momentum: A FrameWorks Communications Toolkit, FrameWorks Institute (2017)
AGING OUTSIDE THE WESTERN WORLD
Hodin, Michael, How China Can Deal with Its Rapidly Aging Population, The Fiscal Times (11.03.2015)
Kandanga, Marie-Josée, and El-Bushra, Judy, A Lost Generation - Young People and Conflict in Africa, ACCORD (2017)
Williams, Stephen, Africa’s youth - The African Development Bank and the demographic dividend, New African, pp. 30-31 (March 2012)
AFFORDING TO GROW OLD
Hamzelou, Jessica, A cure for ageing is near but you probably can’t afford it, New Scientist (01.04.2017)
Misra, Tanvi, Prisons Are Facing Aging Populations, Too, CityLab (09.10.2014)
Semple, Kirk, Immigrant Struggles Compounded by Old Age, The New York Times (07.25.2013)
Shades of grey, The Economist (02.04.2016)
AGING AS AN OPPORTUNITY
Anzilotti, Eillie, Our Aging Population Can Be An Economic Powerhouse–If We Let It, Fast Company (03.13.2017)
Kenny, Charles, An Aging Population May Be What the World Needs, Bloomberg (02.07.2013)
Jansen, Tiffany R., The Nursing Home That’s Also a Dorm, CityLab (10.02.2015)
Laterman, Kaya, Getting a Roommate in Your Golden Years, The New York Times (01.12.2018)
Levy, Becca R., Age-Stereotype Paradox: Opportunity for Social Change, The Gerontologist, vol.57, no2, pp. 118-126 (August 2017)
I Need You, You Need Me: The Young, The Old, and What We Can Achieve Together, Generations United and The Eisner Foundation (2017)
ARTS AND AGING
Brody, Jane, Using the Arts to Promote Healthy Aging, The New York Times (03.07.2016)
Farago, Jason, ‘Aging Pride’ Challenges the Cult of Youth, The New York Times (02.08.2018)
Frank, Priscilla, 8 Artists Who Explore The Beauty Of The Ageing Body, Huffingtonpost (04.24.2015)
Montano, Linda Mary, THE STORY OF THE GEL WRIST BRACELET (2017)
Raschke, Heidi, The Arts And Aging: 5 Surprising Insight on Creativity, Next Avenue (10.03.2016)
Rosenberg, Francesca, Introducing Prime Time at MoMA: A Celebration of Creativity and Aging, Inside/Out (05.01.2015)
Walker, Alan, Understanding and transforming ageing through the arts, in The New Science of Ageing, Policy Press at the University of Bristol, ch.3 (2014)
AGING ACROSS CULTURES
Ajala, Aderemi Suleiman, The Changing Perception of Ageing in Yoruba Culture and Its Implications on the Health of the Elderly, Anthropologist, vol.8, no3, pp. 181-188 (2006)
Fisher, Madeline, Study to examine impact of culture on aging process, News, University of Wisconsin-Madison (05.30.2007)
Fung, Helene, Aging in Culture, The Gerontologist, vol.53, no1, pp.369-377 (2013)
Karasawa, Mayumi, Curhan, Katherine, and Carol, Ryff, Cultural Perspectives on Aging and Well-Being: A Comparison of Japan and the U.S., The International Journal of Aging and Human Development, vol.73, no1, pp.73–98 (2011)
Onishi, Norimitsu, A Generation in Japan Faces a Lonely Death, The New York Times (30.11.2017)
A QUESTION OF ATTITUDE
Dovey, Ceridwen, What Old Age Is Really Like, The New Yorker (10.01.2015)
Grierson, Bruce, What if Age Is Nothing but a Mind-Set?, The New York Times (10.22.2014)
Leland, John, Want to Be Happy? Think Like an Old Person, The New York Times (12.29.2017)
Kain, Debra, Paradox of Aging: The Older We Get, the Better We Feel?, UC San Diego Health (12.07.2012)
Kaiser, Sharon, It’s mind-set: Oldest seniors refuse to accept the stereotype of growing feeble, News OK (11.29.2017)
Kinsley, Michael, Old Age: A Beginner’s Guide, Tim Duggan Books (2016)
MARKETING TO THE AGING CONSUMER
Coughlin, Joseph F., The Longevity Economy: Unlocking the World’s Fastest-Growing, Most Misunderstood Market, Barnes&Noble (2017)
Data Team, Over 60 and overlooked, The Economist (08.08.2002)
Hess, Amanda, The Ever-Changing Business of ‘Anti-Aging’, The New York Times Magazine (09.12.2017)
Jacobs, Emma, Advertiser’s ageing dilemma, Financial Times (10.29.2014)
URBAN AGING
Buckley, Christopher, Boomsday, Hachette Book Group (2007)
D’oca, Daniel, Studio Report: The Good Old Days, *Urban OmnibusV (01.23.2013)
Handler, Sophie, An Alternative Age-friendly Handbook, RIBA (October 2013)
Luxenberg, Stanley, Rethinking the Traditional Retirement Community, The New York Times (05.30.2014)
Simpson, Deane, Young-Old: Urban Utopias of an Aging Society, Lars Müller Publishers (2015)
AGING AND BEAUTY
Friedan, Betty, Fountain of Age, Simon & Schuster (1993)
Nussbaum, Martha, Sex, Love and the Aging Woman, The New York Times (10.30.2017)
Twigg, Julia, How Does Vogue Negotiate Age?: Fashion, the Body, and the Older Woman, Fashion Theory, vol.14, no4, pp.471-490 (2010)
Weintraub, Arlene, Selling the Fountain of Youth: How the Anti-Aging Industry Made a Disease Out of Getting Old And Made Billions*, Perseus Books Group (2010)
Wolf, Naomi, The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women, Chatto & Windus (1990)
ETERNAL POSTPONEMENT
Anthony, Andrew, The island of long life, The Guardian (05.31.2013)
Buettner, Dan, The Secrets of Long Life, National Geographic (November 2005)
Loder, Natasha, How medical science hopes to slow down ageing, The Economist (08.15.2016)
Weintraub, Karen, The Anti-Aging Pill, MIT Technology Review (02.03.2015)
THE ETHICS OF LONGEVITY
de Magalhães, Joao Pedro, Should We Cure Aging?, Senescence.info (2004)
Gawande, Atul, Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End, Malcolm Gladwell (2014)
Gems, David, Tragedy and delight: the ethics of decelerated ageing, The Royal Society, vol.366, pp.108-112 (2011)
Than, Ker, The Ethical Dilemmas of Immortality, Live Science (05.23.2006)
Sunrise, sunset: A meditation on aging, The Economist (11.16.2013)
WATCH
Applewhite, Ashton, Let’s End Ageism, Ted Talk (April 2013)
Anderson, Michael, Logan’s Run, Metro–Goldwyn–Mayer (1976)
Briggs, Evan, The Growing Season, Stephanie Wang-Breal (2017)
de Grey, Aubrey, A roadmap to end aging, Ted Talk (July 2005)
de Wijn, Wannie, A Good Death, PRN Films (2012)
Haneke, Michael, Amour, Les Films du Losange (2012)
Aging and Dying in America–NYU’s Love & Let Die symposium, New York Institute for the Humanities at NYU (June 2013)