Dear Chris, Dehlia, Kristi, and Tamara,
(Hi Katie, Omar and JA, who know this well!)
Here are some texts that describe more completely how I envision what Synthesis is about, and how I would like it to be a home for radically empirical, ethico-aesthetic play. I have developed a progressively more nuanced notion of play over the past decade of institutional experiment, funded thanks to the Canada and Quebec's more generous attitude toward experimental cultural work.
(1) The opening chapter of Poiesis, Enchantment, and Topological Matter (MIT Press 2013):
gives a sense of how I see philosophical inquiry (which is not the same as philosophy as practiced conventionally in the United States academy) comes out of and feeds back into poetic, speculative practice.
(2) The second part of Chapter 7 gives an analysis of the political economy of the amodern atelier that I established in 2001 at Georgia Tech (in the Graphic Visualization and Usability Center, and the School of Literature Communication and Culture), but then moved to Montreal in 2005 with a Chair in critical studies of media arts and sciences in the Fine Arts and Computer Science. My key meta-goal for the past 15 years has been to create an alternative ecology of practices based on
collective, poetic knowledge practices. I regard
FoAM to be the lovelier sister to the Topological Media Lab.
With the Synthesis Center I want to extend both the TML's central research streams and its model for how to go about doing that sort of transdisciplinary work. To be very clear I came back to the States not to slip back into more conventional interpretations and practices of technology, art or humanities, but to harness Yankee enterprise to the much more radical work of ethico-aesthetic improvisation. (I use radical both in its political sense and in the sense of William James’ radical empiricism.)
(3) Here are two one-page letters written at the invitation of the President of Concordia University about art practice versus art research. They are not the same. Many confusions abound here at Herberger as well.
(4) Here’s the Synthesis Center pitch. I invite your help to polish it before sending it up to the Provost and Engineering Dean. --- in the coming week
(6) And finally, a letter that I share with people who want to study or work with me.
Hope this gives you a more complete and substantial understanding of what I would like us to do, and why I would like to do it in certain ways.
I sincerely hope that after mulling this over, and considering that this has already actually flourished in two contexts, you will feel inspired to help me realize a third and even more beautiful atelier here at ASU.
Looking forward to working with you!
Xin Wei
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