Learning

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, Vision Lab, 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 applicants who want to take the course without credit, please fill out this pre-registration form. Questions? Contact Professor Merel Visse or Professor Ryan Woodring via email.