The Interdisciplinary Seminar presents a free, public presentation by Victoria Sobel A'13 and Casey Gollan A'13.

From the artists:

Consider the obliquessence, consider the walk, consider the incidental inconceivability of knowing the full scope of possibility. What’s provocative these days? None of this being "acceptable." Unethical opportunism. Let’s make sure to raise the questions. Let’s. Writing being looked over, repeatedly being overlooked. Trying to reproduce the world. What’s really unthinkable these days? Relative autonomy or autonomy in spite of a shell breaking out of context, desperate and self aware. A turtle breaking out a shell breaking out an egg. The person who loses control of the consequences. People usually don’t build a ship while sailing.

Can we stop?                                                                         I felt that I would act again, I'm not unclear about whether or not I'm in control of not acting again. Relative autonomy or autonomy in spite of a       as a thing to be witnessed,                                            as understood by           . At the risk of incoherence...something people worry about, the means are in place for this to be actualized, the impossibility-possibility of actualizing is quantum sufficient. (          ). Failure to recognize that your sources are constantly narrowing. Who can afford to view you as expendable? At what point can’t you        ? When is life worth living? Simple          conversations:                                                                    . Activated knowledge that requires no additional pretense. Non-instrumentalized knowledge! Anti-aspirational—Having no 5 year plan and I’m not smiling. What were we thinking?                                       Feeling compelled despite constant anxiety and self-doubt, fear of process, fear that it might work, fear of disappointing, it’s inconceivable to me. The unknowable disaster is preferable. “Redefine” something that hasn’t been “defined,” look back on desired future (outcomes) experience,                destabilization of pre-figured, past catalyzed for non-determining future irony, metanarrative, non-truth, blind spots, sentience, double self-awareness.                                                                         But who are you, what about in 5 years, what about weself?              I can scarcely tell if I’m old or        these days and I’m betrayed by articulating intentional incoherence, incoherence/non-aspiration: the realization that        narratives are arbitrary regardless of the past.          all talk, we both think you are all talk, we are not indomitable! Is there even a thing anymore? Empty minds in a time of sunsets.

The Interdisciplinary Seminar, sponsored by the The Cooper Union School of Art, presents a series of free, public lectures reflecting a broad range of contemporary art issues. Speakers include artists, writers, and thinkers currently engaged in a variety of practices. The emphasis is on interdisciplinary approaches, presenting new voices, international perspectives and scholarship across multiple fields. The series constitutes a lively forum for the exchange of ideas between practitioners, students, faculty and the public.

The Fall 2015 Interdisciplinary Seminar is part of the Robert Lehman Visiting Artist Program at The Cooper Union. We are grateful for major funding support from the Robert Lehman Foundation, Inc.