Raqs Media Collective 01.15.09
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.
Program Schedule:
Thursday, January 15, 7:00 PM
An Illegible Signature: Featuring a Raqs lecture-performance on the question of legibility, stammering and shadows, based on the recent rext by Raqs for the first issue of the e-flux journal:
http://www.e-flux.com/journal/view/14
Friday, January 16, 7:00 PM
The Watches of the Night' Raqs weaves considerations on time, visibility and what can be learnt from darkness into a presentation with stories, film fragments, dreams and textual marginalia.
Saturday, January 17, 3:00 PM
The Darkness of Grey Matter': a conversation on darkness and grey matter, neural conundrums, forensic dilemmas and the wiring of the imagination between Raqs, and Dr. Arani Bose, neurosurgeon, and Dr. Steven Pacia, neurologist.