from the DeepMind of Josh Plough

Bring me back to the Collective DeepMind

39.

It means we would do away with the aura of the exhibition as a space of reverence. No more mood lit spaces overseen by enigmatic curators. This is reserved for the canonical: an inherently conservative process. It beggars belief that we apply the same approach to the display (that we even consider it to be display in the first place…) of ancient artefacts and contemporary-future oriented design project(ion)s. Unless we resign ourselves to be perennial exhibition fodder we will be always be stuck in the loop of intention. Because regardless of what curators say their reach is, they only really put a full stop behind a project. Instead of drawing it out, pushing it into a community, a local government, a bar…

If the artist is to affect the course of society’s perception and understanding of itself, then, on the one hand, investigation into our society’s composition by the artist is paramount, and on the other, areas of operation must be developed to function outside of an exclusive Art Environment.

At some point in its history the octopus lost what was historically common to most cephalopods, its shell. This exposed it to uncertainty, to predation and vulnerability. And, some scientists say, is the reason for its intelligence. It had to work out how to survive, to react intuitively and thoughtfully to its exterior world. After it sloughed its historic and I’m sure comfortable protection, it learnt anew. This is not a call for a Dominic Cummings’s style of chaos, but a request for us to question the things that we think support us. Things that may in fact be holding us back, and apart.