We are delighted to announce that work has begun on two very significant projects which take CIRCA’s archive of texts and projects into new dimensions: Laurence Counihan: an archaeology of the future and Brian Curtin: Travelling South, In Theory. The results will be appearing on this site over the next two years.
Following an open call in summer 2022, two projects were chosen:
Laurence Counihan: an archaeology of the future
“With the unrelenting pace of technological acceleration continuing its lurch forward to encircle every aspect of contemporary reality, the question of mapping the future becomes one of increasing uncertainty, seared equally with hopes of utopian delirium and overwhelming anxiety. The question as to what kind of future we will inhabit and how we may hope to build it (or resist its construction) appears now as that which is irredeemably bootstrapped to developments in digital computation and network technologies.This shift towards what is sometimes referred to as information societies aligns with CIRCA’s original print-run from 1981 to 2010 — a period wherein it could be said that global society transitioned through various rungs of digitality, leading us to our present scenario of inhabiting a post-digital world. Accordingly, within the pages of the CIRCA archive there is present an, initially minute, but ever-expanding knot that charts the infiltration of digital and new media technologies within the Irish and global artworld. In response to this an archaeology of the future is an editorial project which seeks to directly reflect upon themes, concepts, half-threads, speculations, ruminations, and ideas on the ever-changing relationship between art, technology, and society that emerged throughout the history of CIRCA. Taking form as a series of commissioned essays and artworks the intention is to look back in order to help plot the navigational trajectory of our digital futures.”
Brian Curtin: Travelling South, In Theory
“Travelling South, In Theory is a project that commissions two art writers based in Asia to engage the Circa archive with critical questions of South-South relationships. Over two years, Thái Hà and Carlos Quijon Jr. will carry out innovative, comparative work in research and writing to be published on Circa’s website. This includes smaller projects as well as final essays. Hà aims to examine how the language of opposition and resistance among artists in the Global South has transmuted over time and between continents. And Carlos studies both the geopolitics and geopoetics of South-South relationships, highlighting connections between Southeast Asia’s and Ireland’s artists away from the conventional methods of art historical scholarship.Their projects are respectively titled ‘Did you mishear me misspeak?’ and ‘Errant Affinities: Ireland and Southeast Asia.’ Hà is a curator and translator based in Vietnam and Carlos is an art historian, critic, and curator based in the Philippines. Both are widely published and work internationally.Travelling South, In Theory was initiated by Brian Curtin, an Irish-born art critic based in Thailand.”
More on Travelling South, In Theory here.