A not-quite round table: apophatic artistic research at risk
🗓️ Thursday, 25 June — 10:10am
- 11:10am
(60 mins)
Presenters
Image
Abstract
In a time when complex, nuanced human experiences are increasingly reduced to data points, categories, and optimized outputs, we consider this an urgent gathering for artistic researchers. Like no other, they know how to mediate liminal, precarious knowing that may counter the aesthetic harm we're witnessing in the news, in schools, at work. Artistic research has unique capabilities for preventing the erasure of ineffable human experiences from everyday life — those profound, unsayable dimensions of meaning, embodied knowledge, and consciousness that resist codification.
This not-quite round table provides a platform for all who engage with the ineffable through apophatic artistic research. We respond to contemporary crises by discussing artistic research in the context of a field that has studied the ineffable for decades: apophatic studies. We explore apophatic artistic research that honors, rather than colonizes or erases, the ineffable. Apophatic approaches have shaped artistic practices for centuries, yet contemporary artistic researchers rarely invoke apophatic thought as a lens. Apophatic studies thus occupies a precarious, minoritized position, its rich conceptual knowledge at risk of being lost — and with it, a valuable resource for artistic researchers. Participants will engage with unique apophatic concepts such as excess, propensity, indirectness and maturation through artistic research.
This not-quite Round Table sits with an ongoing project that tries to do the impossible — bring apophatic artistic research into view. A multimodal, curated publication and exhibition, we circle an ongoing project — a multimodal, curated publication and exhibition on apophatic artistic research, spanning visual art, performance, media and time-based art, and hybrid practices including bioart, land art, and conceptual art; spaces where naming often falls short. Discussants are contributors and members of the www.apophatic.art initiative.
This not-quite round table provides a platform for all who engage with the ineffable through apophatic artistic research. We respond to contemporary crises by discussing artistic research in the context of a field that has studied the ineffable for decades: apophatic studies. We explore apophatic artistic research that honors, rather than colonizes or erases, the ineffable. Apophatic approaches have shaped artistic practices for centuries, yet contemporary artistic researchers rarely invoke apophatic thought as a lens. Apophatic studies thus occupies a precarious, minoritized position, its rich conceptual knowledge at risk of being lost — and with it, a valuable resource for artistic researchers. Participants will engage with unique apophatic concepts such as excess, propensity, indirectness and maturation through artistic research.
This not-quite Round Table sits with an ongoing project that tries to do the impossible — bring apophatic artistic research into view. A multimodal, curated publication and exhibition, we circle an ongoing project — a multimodal, curated publication and exhibition on apophatic artistic research, spanning visual art, performance, media and time-based art, and hybrid practices including bioart, land art, and conceptual art; spaces where naming often falls short. Discussants are contributors and members of the www.apophatic.art initiative.
Biography
Merel Visse (www.merelvisse.com) is a scholar, visual artist, editor, and educator whose interdisciplinary work is grounded in apophatic thought, artistic research, and political care ethics. She serves as faculty at Drew University, where she chairs a Graduate Program, and worked at the University of Humanistic Studies for over a decade. Merel is the co-editor of Visual Arts Research and co-founded the Meaningful Artistic Research Ph.D. Program in the Netherlands, and co-chairs the Art & Care Platform Series. Merel is one of the initiators of the apophatic.art initiative.
Ryan Woodring (ryanwoodring.com) is compelled by a bilateral relationship with invisibility wrought by chronic illness and a decade+ of visual effects experience making things disappear. Woodring (he/they) serves as Assistant Teaching Professor of Digital Media at Drew University. He has exhibited and spoken internationally in various contexts such as The Museum of the Moving Image, New York, Rochester Art Center, Minnesota, Sunaparanta Goa Centre for the Arts and elsewhere. He founded the Soft Data/Base curatorial project and is a member of Blockbusters New Media and Video Collective. Ryan is one of the initiators of the apophatic.art initiative.
Ryan Woodring (ryanwoodring.com) is compelled by a bilateral relationship with invisibility wrought by chronic illness and a decade+ of visual effects experience making things disappear. Woodring (he/they) serves as Assistant Teaching Professor of Digital Media at Drew University. He has exhibited and spoken internationally in various contexts such as The Museum of the Moving Image, New York, Rochester Art Center, Minnesota, Sunaparanta Goa Centre for the Arts and elsewhere. He founded the Soft Data/Base curatorial project and is a member of Blockbusters New Media and Video Collective. Ryan is one of the initiators of the apophatic.art initiative.
