Laura Knott
Alumni
The fall 2017 ACT Lecture Series invites renowned artists and philosophers to help us challenge our habits of perception and expand our margins of thought. Artistic intelligence is drawn to the fertile edges of knowledge, engaging radically anticipatory modes of being, thinking, creating, and acting without certainty. The series will offer models for un-knowing science and technology as a way to dislocate and re-articulate knowledge production in proximity to technologies of planetary threat: how to navigate the camouflaged, the unknown, the deceptive, the trumped.
Sep 11 | Trevor Paglen | The Planet is a Sensor
Trevor Paglen is an artist whose work spans image-making, sculpture, investigative journalism, writing, engineering, and numerous other disciplines. Among his chief concerns are learning how to see the historical moment we live in and developing the means to imagine alternative futures.
Sep 25 | Cristina Ricupero | Don’t Believe A Word I Say
Following Cristina Ricupero’s special interest in the mechanisms of contemporary secrecy, she will focus on espionage, a topic she has been currently developing for an exhibition project with Alexandra Midal (independent curator and professor at the design program at HEAD-Haute Ecole d’Art et Design Geneva). With examples from contemporary art and design, sociology, philosophy, the spy novel, film and pop culture, Ricupero will show how espionage has evolved throughout time and played a major role in the political sphere of every country.
Oct 20 | David Reinfurt | A Post-Industrial Postscript
David Reinfurt, an independent graphic designer in New York City, will report on his last six months in Rome as a fellow at the American Academy interrogating Bruno Munari’s Tetracono, a small, industrially produced artwork-product from 1965.
Nov 13 | Postcommodity | The Repellent Fence and Beyond
Postcommodity will discuss their 2015 land art installation and socially engaged artwork Repellent Fence, and the implications of this work on their art practice, their future work, and the field of contemporary art as we approach the year 2043 (when the US transitions to a non-white majority).
Dec 4 | Judith Barry | A Discussion of Several Research-Based Projects
Judith Barry utilizes a research-based methodology to explore a wide range of topics. Both the form and the content of her work evolve as the research proceeds. She often makes use of installation, in various forms and including exhibition design, as a way to combine many of her disparate interests. These immersive environments are based on experiments incorporating architecture, sculpture, performance, theatre, film/video/new media, graphics, and interactivity.
About the ACT Lecture Series
ACT’s lecture series draws together artists, scholars, and other cultural practitioners from different disciplines to discuss artistic methodologies and forms of inquiry at the intersection of art, architecture, science, and technology.
ACT’s Fall 2017 series is conceived by Gediminas Urbonas, ACT Director, and coordinated with Marissa Friedman, Senior Communications and Public Programs Assistant, and Laura Knott, Consulting Curator.
This series is made possible with the generous support of The Council for the Arts at MIT (CAMIT).
