Columbia University’s Committee on Global Thought and New York University co-hosted ‘Presence and Absence in the City’, the first public conference of the Theatrum Mundi / Global Street project. Five panel sessions – ‘State of the Street’, ‘Technological Space’, ‘The Global Street’, ‘The Trade of Ideas and Goods: From Artifacts to Citizenship’ and ‘Theatrical Space’ explored the difference between presence and absence in the city.