another OOO-inspired art show

Curator Manuela Moscoso sent this. It’s at Bard College.

The action of things

Rubén Grilo, João Guzmão & Pedro Paiva, Cristóbal Lehyt, Trevor Paglen and Jorge Satorre.

The action of things is a group exhibition presenting work that investigates inanimate things–more specifically, stones and stars–while challenging the passivity commonly attributed to such objects.
“Things” are often understood as objects that neither carry agency nor affect the world. The artists in this exhibition, Rubén Grilo, João Guzmão & Pedro Paiva, Cristóbal Lehyt, Trevor Paglen, and Jorge Satorre, all look at inanimate materials and challenge their supposed passivity. This approach rejects the division between a world of the inert things, on the one hand, and a world of animate beings, on the other. Thus, it grants us the possibility of re-experiencing the world, as populated by things with agency. The action of things considers temporary networks of relations between human and non-human actors. It investigates the ways that things mediate, construct, or sustain assemblies and, as a result, have agency similar—or at least comparable—to that of human beings. Their viewers are propelled into an uncertain universe that undoes taken-for-granted perceptions of nature. The action of things pushes things towards a theory of objects themselves, where things are actors within a system rather than only bystanders.

March 27 – April 17, 2011________Opening: Sunday, March 27, 1:00 – 4:00 p.m. _______ Center for Curatorial Studies and Hessel Museum of Art

email burden

My boss the new provost told me he spends 2 hours per day just opening his email and reading it. (After hearing that, I decided to communicate with him only in person, since he’s just down the corridor.)

I just spent 45 minutes myself responding just to the emails that came in while I was asleep, and there are still a few left.

But not to grumble here… most of the mail was really nice.

interview with Dan Zahavi

And here Laureano Ralon INTERVIEWS DAN ZAHAVI of Husserl studies fame, who is as prolific a scholar as you’ll ever encounter.

interview with Joseph Pitt

Laureano Ralon INVTERVIEWS JOSEPH PITT, who is the editor-in-chief of Techné.