We began to create projects to bring focus to the AIDS pandemic over 20 years ago. Born out of feelings of loss and rage, these projects challenged us to abandon our long held beliefs about art. Rejecting notions of artist personality and artwork as commodity, … Continue readingICI Technic: The Gift
Follow this rhizomatic project of the ICI as nine visual researchers help us to theorize some of art’s (untheorizable) processes. The project began on April 12, 2016 and will continue in 2017. A catalog is planned to coincide with the completion of the project. … Continue readingWITH EVERYTHING BUT THE MONKEY HEAD
Over the last decade, many thinkers have attempted to diagram the interlocking processes of studio-based research in an attempt to clarify the need for a PhD degree in studio art (http://thinkingpractices.wordpress.com/theories-of-art-practices-as-research/). We have been inspired by these attempts to chart what we do fairly naturally … Continue readingDiagram of Visual Research at the ICI
Discovery is the cornerstone of all we do here at the ICI but is especially important to our processes of visual research. Almost all our projects have emerged from a small disruption or an accumulation of slips – in vision, in speech, in word, thought, … Continue readingICI Technic: Discovery
The Searching for Sebald project was a landmark event for the ICI because it opened the door to a whole new toolbox for doing creative research. Sebald’s bricolage gave us permission to “play” more than we usually do. In this case, we transcribed an interview … Continue readingInterviewing the Dead: Sebald’s Words
Images from W. G. Sebald’s Rings of Saturn, refashioned into traveling postcards.
In a memorial service for one of our founding associates, cigars, food, money, and a healthy shot of whiskey were used to conjure up Papa Legba, the spirit guardian of the Crossroads. Incantation derives from Middle English, from the Anglo-French enchanter, reminding us that the casting of spells … Continue readingICI Technic: Incantation
As Susan Stewart has proposed, the miniature operates at the place of origin—the childhood of the self—creating an “interior temporality of the subject,” a place for private contemplation. When the physical dimensions of material ideas are decreased, so too are the roles of hierarchy and narrative. Miniaturization … Continue readingICI Technic: Miniaturization
During the research phase of Searching for Sebald, we developed a number of technics that have been easily adapted to other ICI projects. One of the most playful takes the visual material of the project at hand and refashions it into a deck of cards. … Continue readingICI Technic: Shuffling
Data Collection is sometimes undertaken before a research ‘question’ is in mind. Some materials are collected because their physical presence is absorbing and compelling. Other times we encounter objects or their fragments that disrupt our current belief systems even when the relationship of their content … Continue readingICI Technic: Data Collection