Workshop on Secret Societies and the Limits of Transparency
Oct. 5-10, 2016 ACT Program in Art, Culture and Technology, MIT
In this two-part program, Cristina Ricupero casts light on “secret societies” through the prism of contemporary art and focuses on them as a fruitful locus of resistance to the excesses of today’s “open society.” Artists have always been fascinated by the obscure and the occult, and by the visual representation or transmission of secret knowledge and hidden identity. With examples from sociology, philosophy, art history, and film, as well as from her own practice as a curator and critic, Ricupero will reframe and expand our conception of the secret and the secret society in order to question the relationship between knowledge and power, exposure and protection, in relation to art and its broader social context. She invites participants to explore ways in which artists can work with and around the mechanisms of secrecy.