New tools this week for the advancement of your art as it makes its way into the world. This is your weekly newsletter. This collection of free resources can realize your potential or simply plant an idea.
This week we enter into a perspective so radical that it does not fall within the human spectrum. I invite you to ponder the grander organism of the universe from outside the familiar apparatus – the human mind.
In her mesmerizing interview, biologist, anthropologist, psychologist, and artist Marion Laval-Jeantet recalls being the subject of her own experiments and attempting to connect to a universal, organic force. Upping the ante in performance art and technological application alike, Laval-Jeantet experienced firsthand the instinctual skittishness of horses by gradually introducing specialized equine blood into her body.
Those intrigued by the notion of an animal cosmology are encouraged to fill the University at Buffalo’s open call, “The Measure of All Things: Rethinking Humanism through Art.” Entries are due August 19th; exhibition begins October 13th.
The globalized world has brought with it a bottomless repository of theory, inspiration, and raw data. Faced on one end by a romanticized history of surviving the natural world, and on the other end tantalized by the idealistic evolutionary milestone known as transhumanism, we presently find ourselves capable of constructively uprooting and replacing entire systems of thought. Naturally, considering the state of things from a nonhuman perspective is not out of the question. “The Measure of All Things” seeks applicants unafraid to rethink the unquestioned value of human existence from the viewpoint of a tarnished river or the daydream of a mushroom.
Free to apply and with no medium restrictions, the University at Buffalo Department of Art welcomes the politically charged, the emotionally acute, and especially, the unflinchingly ambitious.
As always, here are the links to the interview archive and free resource page.
Sincerely,
Brainard