2027-2027Apophatic

Art Practice and Research

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For submitted proposals, we will be in touch soon about acceptance and next steps.

This hybrid project, including publications, exhibitions, and an intensive Fall seminar, is intended for artists, art educators, curators, philosophers, contemplative studies scholars, and researchers interested in exploring the significance of apophatic studies for their art practice and research. We invite both paper proposals and project statements for completed or in-progress works that examine art research and artistic research projects through the lens of apophatic thought.

In this moment of fracture, apophatic practice — approaching what cannot be said or captured directly — is a way to meet contemporary pressures without premature answers. It honors the most intricate human experiences — love, grief, solidarity, the slow erosion of certainty, the thing that shifts in a room just before something changes.

Download the CFP (expired on May 1. We will be in touch with everyone who submitted work shortly, PDF)

Hybrid Low Residency:
Connecting with the Ineffable and Unsayable

(Two-day Hybrid Intensive + Extended Practice on Apophatic Art & Research, open to all)

This Intensive seminar, building towards a Fall 2026 exhibition at Drew University’s Korn Gallery and potential publication, combines artistic practice and apophatic inquiry to approach the profoundly unsayable, ineffable, and unquantifiable experiences endemic to human existence. In the age of AI, where complex, nuanced, ambiguous human experiences and expressions are at risk of being flattened into optimized data, and in this moment of fracture, this course is a timely call to students across disciplines to conduct independent and collaborative artistic research in the apophatic tradition; which recognizes that some realities exceed description and can only be approached through indirection, experimentation and negation. Apophatic practice — leaning into what cannot be said or captured directly - is a way of meeting these pressures, including how to engage with AI, through critical-creative practice, without premature answers. It honors the most intricate human experiences — love, grief, solidarity, the slow erosion of certainty, the thing that shifts in a room just before something changes.

This intensive, consisting of both individual and collaborative art projects and critiques, as well as readings, experiments and discussions, will introduce students to methodologies and frameworks for grappling with and materializing responses to the unsayable dimensions of experience, embodied knowledge, and consciousness that resist codification. A collaborative effort between Professor Merel Visse, author of “Sometimes, Indirect is More Direct” and Professor Ryan Woodring, founder of the Soft Data/Base, enriched by contributions by affiliated partners such as the Center for Apophatic Thought and Culture, the Vision Lab Collective, and others, course readings and screenings will pull from Humanities scholarship, Visual and Performing Arts, Data Science, Philosophy and more. Students can engage directly with the instructors' publication and exhibition project on Apophatic Art Practice and Research—a unique opportunity to participate in active research.

Details

This Intensive has two parts, both fully available online, with optional in-person activities on Drew's campus, culminating in an exhibition at the Korn Gallery (Drew University) this Fall. We begin with two full hybrid days — Saturday, August 29, and Sunday, August 30 — running from 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM EDT (open to all, whether joining on campus or via Zoom). Campus participants are invited to share dinner and an optional evening program on Saturday. Following the opening weekend, the Intensive continues with synchronous Zoom sessions every Tuesday evening from September 8 through October 27, 7:05–9:35 PM EDT, complemented by instructor-led asynchronous activities, including personalized mentorship from the instructors.

Audience

Artists, scholars, art researchers, art educators across the globe
Degree and non-degree students

Building blocks

Opening Intensive: August 29–30, 10:00 AM–7:00 PM (hybrid)
Weekly Sessions: Tuesdays, September 8–October 27, 7:05–9:35 PM (online, synchronous)
Along with instructor-led asynchronous activities, including personalized mentorship
Optional: Publication, Exhibition at various satellite locations.

Pricing

For degree-seeking applicants who want to take the course for credit and receive a transcript, and for non-degree-seeking applicants who want to take the course without credit, please contact Professor Merel Visse or Professor Ryan Woodring via email.