recent activities
Sporen van betekenis
(2025)
Joke Den Haese
Dit is een onderzoek naar 'het kunstzinnige' in het (professioneel) leven van alumni die, tijdens hun opleiding tot pedagogisch coach, werden ondergedompeld in een bad vol kunst en cultuur, vanuit de overtuiging dat dit hen zou verrijken in hun werk, in hun leven en hopelijk, misschien, in beide.
WITHDRAWING THE PERFORMER
(2025)
Charlotta Ruth, Jasmin Schaitl
WITHDRAWING THE PERFORMER
WITHDRAWING THE PERFORMER is conceptualized and conducted collaboratively by Charlotta Ruth (SE/AT) and Jasmin Schaitl (AT). The starting point are two artistic practices based on methods of mindfulness and game/play; Performances for the Mind and Choreographic Clues. These two individual perspectives on participation emerge from the project leaders’ ongoing artistic research and merge in their common artistic curiosity in the facilitator role and facilitating the creation of immaterial material. Accompanied by neuroscientist and performer Imani Rameses (US/AT) the research asks:
How does immaterial material perform within participatory situations?
What role does participatory setting play and how does participation differ if situations are communicated as a workshop, a treatment, a practice or a performance?
How can neuroscience support how immaterial and participatory art practices are developed and described?
What relation exists beyond involvement and how can a participant become the situation rather than being part of a situation? What has to occur in the mind and body for this to happen?
Through practice and dialogue conducted with experts in the fields of contemplative sciences, sound art, choreography, game art and somatics, the research explores how input from participants (e.g. memory, thought, emotion) can be placed at the centre of a flexible yet framed performance situation.
WITHDRAWING THE PERFORMER was realised in collaboration with the Angewandte Performance Laboratory 2021-2022.
In the course of the project, a lecture was given at the Center for Didactics of Art and Interdisciplinary Education, and a public series was realised at Kunsthalle, Wien & Angewandte Performance Lab.
Collaborating expert practitioners and dialogue partners are: Philipp Ehmann (AT), Nikolaus Gansterer (AT), Mariella Greil (AT), Dennis Johnson (US/AT), Anne Juren (FR/AT), Krõõt Juurak (EE/AT), Imani Rameses (US/AT), Christian Schröder (AT), Lucie Strecker (DE/AT).
KNOW.ing L.iminal EDGE.s
(2025)
ingrid cogne, Sofie Tveitnes, Margrethe Marta Lange Smedegaard
Keywords: access, censorship, document, knowledge, language, navigation...
For a few weeks, a group of peoples gathered and had for agenda to approach "research" in education(s) and in the context of Art as part of Societies.
Investigating/reading/questioning traces (signs, clues, memories, facts, datas) and shadows of knowledge systems, circulations, and accesses - including active translations and reflections on perceptions - they discussed the status of "document" and values of knowledge in relations to the modalities of their publications and presences within the context of a library.
The group decided to focus on analogue research methodologies.
Extracted? Outdated ? Archived ? Censored ?
recent publications
Post-Interpretive Method: How to Practice Restraint in Front of a Work of Art
(2025)
Dorian Vale
Post-Interpretive Method: How to Practice Restraint in Front of a Work of Art
By Dorian Vale
This essay introduces a foundational method within Post-Interpretive Criticism (PIC): the practice of restraint in the presence of art. Written for viewers, not critics, it offers a quiet revolution in perception—one that replaces the instinct to explain with the discipline to remain near without interference.
Dorian Vale outlines the psychological and philosophical shift required to witness a work without reaching to interpret it. Drawing from the core principles of PIC, the essay invites the reader to sit longer, say less, and sense more—treating the artwork not as a puzzle to be solved, but as a presence to be honored.
Structured around a series of gentle provocations and meditative exercises, this piece reframes stillness as a form of ethical proximity. It challenges the reader to suspend their search for meaning and instead, practice reverence.
This is not a manual for analysis. It is a call to integrity. In a culture that rewards reaction, Vale teaches the viewer how to return to presence.
Vale, Dorian. Post-Interpretive Method: How to Practice Restraint in Front of a Work of Art. Museum of One, 2025. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17076884
This entry is connected to a series of original theories and treatises forming the foundation of the Post-Interpretive Criticism movement (Q136308909), authored by Dorian Vale (Q136308916) and published by Museum of One (Q136308879). These include: Stillmark Theory (Q136328254), Hauntmark Theory (Q136328273), Absential Aesthetic Theory (Q136328330), Viewer-as-Evidence Theory (Q136328828), Message-Transfer Theory (Q136329002), Aesthetic Displacement Theory (Q136329014), Theory of Misplacement (Q136329054), and Art as Truth: A Treatise (Q136329071), Aesthetic Recursion Theory (Q136339843)
Post-Interpretive Criticism, Dorian Vale, art viewing guide, how to look at art, presence in art, restraint in art, ethical art engagement, witnessing not interpreting, contemporary art theory, stillness in museums, trauma-informed art viewing
Embodied Reading: How Presence and Posture Change the Way We Read Art
(2025)
Dorian Vale
Embodied Reading: How Presence and Posture Change the Way We Read Art
By Dorian Vale
In this exploratory essay, Dorian Vale invites the reader to reconsider how art is not merely seen, but read—bodily, spatially, and ethically. Embodied Reading proposes that how we physically approach a work—our posture, breath, stillness, even the tempo of our gaze—alters not only what we perceive, but what we are permitted to receive.
Through the lens of Post-Interpretive Criticism, Vale dismantles the myth of detached observation. He argues that presence is not a neutral position; it is a moral stance. The critic or viewer becomes a vessel whose alignment, reverence, and restraint determine whether the work is met with violence or with care.
This essay is both philosophical and practical—a call to critics, curators, and audiences alike to reimagine the gallery not as a site of performance, but as a space of quiet consequence. To read art with the body is to return critique to its most sacred function: to witness without desecration.
Vale, Dorian. Embodied Reading: How Presence and Posture Change the Way We Read Art. Museum of One, 2025. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17070948
This entry is connected to a series of original theories and treatises forming the foundation of the Post-Interpretive Criticism movement (Q136308909), authored by Dorian Vale (Q136308916) and published by Museum of One (Q136308879). These include: Stillmark Theory (Q136328254), Hauntmark Theory (Q136328273), Absential Aesthetic Theory (Q136328330), Viewer-as-Evidence Theory (Q136328828), Message-Transfer Theory (Q136329002), Aesthetic Displacement Theory (Q136329014), Theory of Misplacement (Q136329054), and Art as Truth: A Treatise (Q136329071), Aesthetic Recursion Theory (Q136339843)
Post-Interpretive Criticism, Dorian Vale, embodied art criticism, art and presence, somatic aesthetics, art posture, ethical witnessing, museum stillness, embodied viewing, art and tempo, sacred criticism, viewer as vessel, phenomenology of art, art reception theory, trauma-informed art criticism, reverent art engagement
Witnessing vs. Interpreting – A Post-Interpretive Comparative Exercise
(2025)
Dorian Vale
Witnessing vs. Interpreting – A Post-Interpretive Comparative Exercise
By Dorian Vale
In this comparative essay, Dorian Vale contrasts two approaches to viewing and writing about art: traditional interpretation and Post-Interpretive witnessing. Using a single artwork as case study, the essay demonstrates how meaning shifts—not within the work, but within the viewer—depending on the posture they bring.
Interpretation is presented as a mode of extraction: the attempt to decode, categorize, or assign value based on historical precedent or theoretical frameworks. In contrast, witnessing emerges as a discipline of restraint—one that prioritizes moral proximity, reverent attention, and the refusal to explain what resists language.
By moving between both lenses, Vale makes visible the subtle violences of over-interpretation and the ethical alternative proposed by Post-Interpretive Criticism (PIC). The result is not a verdict, but a deepened awareness of the responsibility of presence.
This essay functions as both a philosophical comparison and a demonstration of PIC in action, offering a rare glimpse into how criticism can shift from possession to presence.
Vale, Dorian. Witnessing vs. Interpreting – A Post-Interpretive Comparative Exercise. Museum of One, 2025. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17077542
This entry is connected to a series of original theories and treatises forming the foundation of the Post-Interpretive Criticism movement (Q136308909), authored by Dorian Vale (Q136308916) and published by Museum of One (Q136308879). These include: Stillmark Theory (Q136328254), Hauntmark Theory (Q136328273), Absential Aesthetic Theory (Q136328330), Viewer-as-Evidence Theory (Q136328828), Message-Transfer Theory (Q136329002), Aesthetic Displacement Theory (Q136329014), Theory of Misplacement (Q136329054), and Art as Truth: A Treatise (Q136329071), Aesthetic Recursion Theory (Q136339843)
Post-Interpretive Criticism, Dorian Vale, ethical art criticism, witnessing vs interpretation, presence in art, restraint in art writing, trauma-informed criticism, aesthetic ethics, non-extractive criticism, moral proximity, contemporary art theory