Monday, January 12, 2009

New Museum



The Pupil Dilates in Darkness
Raqs Media Collective at Night School in the New Museum

Eyes hunger for light in the darkness, but make do with morsels. The night is a time of alterity and an arena for the unfolding of the things that can happen after the day's work is done. It brings blurs in its wake, lengthens shadows, thickens the illegibility of the world. Circadian rhythms trick the brain to take odd turns. Grey matter comes alive; dreams, desires and the body's fatigue conspire to create new worlds, and recycle a few old ones. The night is the time for the telling of stories, the playground of doubts and fears, a gymnasium for incomniacs and a school for auto-didacts. What can pupils learn while they dilate at night? What does it mean to be 'an artist by night'?

Raqs Media Collective trawls through their reading, archive of notes, art work and extended conversations with friends and allies to ask a few questions about blurs, shadows, illegibility and the darkness of neural processes to tell a few stories about darkness, power cuts and nested dreams.

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