The Visual Archive

Pitch: Final Archive

1. Statement:
   I am archiving _______ because I want to _______ in order to ________
   
   This framing helps articulate not just what you are collecting, but why it matters and what you hope it will generate—conceptually, critically, or affectively.
   
2. Methods: 
   What do you record? 
   – People, branches, rocks, found images,
   – pieces of …
   How do you record? Be specific!
   – Tools, instruments, camera, ask people,
   – use social media, …
   What is the rhythm/routine of your recording? 
   – Every morning I take a picture of …,
   – I use social media to …,
   – Over three weeks …, …
   
3. Visuals: 
   Include three sample records from your archive, ideally presented in the medium you intend to use for your final work (printed, as physical objects, etc.). Each sample should be captioned to give context or insight into why it is part of the archive.
   
   This pitch is not about having everything figured out. It’s about defining a clear direction, articulating your framework, and receiving feedback that can push your thinking further.

Workshop: #FalsePredictions

1. #SpeculativeSeeing
   (What are we doing?)
   In this experimental workshop, you will train an AI model using visual material related to your research inquiry. The aim is not to generate final outcomes, but to open up unfamiliar visual directions and challenge your existing representational habits.
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2. #WhatTheModelSaw, #GeneratedDoubt
   (Rationale)
   By working with a machine that “learns” from your collected images, you engage a kind of speculative visual research. The AI does not understand your object, your context, or your politics—it only sees patterns. What it generates might be inaccurate, strange, or surprisingly resonant. The results are not the point; rather, we are interested in what these visual predictions reveal about your image set, your visual assumptions, and the constraints of your chosen language.
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3. What to bring:
   Consider the visual culture or language that surrounds your research inquiry. What kinds of objects, textures, surfaces, spaces, or landscapes do you associate with your exploration? What visual elements—whether material, environmental, or symbolic—seem to resonate with the themes you’re investigating?
   Prepare a folder with 20–50 images in JPG or PNG format. These should be your own photographs or visual records, ideally unified by a visual logic: for example, 20 images of rocks, 30 images of window details, 40 pictures taken from a specific vantage point, or 25 cropped textures of one material.
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4. #TheMachineForgetsNothing
   Don’t use highly personal material, images you want to/ need to protect. You are feeding an (unknown) apparatus that will store, transform, misread, and remix what you give it—this is part of the exercise.

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On April 9, we will meet individually on Zoom to discuss your “Archive-Pitch.” Sign up here and add slides with the following content to your research document:

1. Statement:
   I am archiving _______ because I want to _______ in order to ________
2. Methods:
   What do you record?
   (people, branches, rocks, found images, pieces of …, …)
   How do you record? Be specific!
   (tools, instruments, camera, ask people, use social media)
   What is the rhythm/routine of your recording?
   (every morning I take a picture of …, I use social media to …, over three weeks, I will …)
3. Visuals:
   3 sample records (images, …) of your archive with captions.
4. How could you train an AI model to better understand your research inquiry?

→ Your Final Archive
Your final archive must include:
(1) at least 100 visual recordings;
(2) each recording needs to have a caption;
(3) your introduction of at least 500 words incorporating references to at least two sources (articles, books, or the works of artists/designers that have served as inspiration for your project).

Schedule:
4/9 – Archive Pitch (Individual Zoom Meetings)
4/16 – Sharing Prototype in class
4/23 – Studio
4/30 – Studio
5/7 – Final Presentation

e – flux Criticism, by Arnaud Gerspacher
tarynsimon.com

Sophie Calle, Take Care of Yourself @ Paula Cooper
Sophie Calle: Because—The Blind @ The Art Institute of Chicago
Sophie Calle, “LES FANTÔMES D’ORSAY” AT MUSÉE D’ORSAY @ YouTube

Consider training a model to learn more about your research inquiry — we will discuss details in class including possible funding for this (don’t sign up, we’ll do this as a class if there is interest).

We will meet in front of David Zwirner (537 West 20th Street) at 12.45pm and visit the galleries below. Field School will be a mix of shared and individual exploration—leaving room for you to visit the gallery of your choice. We will end at Printed Matter (231 11th Ave) with time to look at experimental publications or additional exhibitions.

Itinerary

• Dieter Roth
  Gallery: Hauser & Wirth, 443 West 18th
• Anni Albers, Josef Albers, Paul Klee 
  Gallery: David Zwirner, 537 West 20th Street
• Meg Hitchcock [Gabriela]
  Gallery: Kathryn Markel, 179 10th Avenue
• Joan Jonas
  Gallery: Gladstone, 530 W 21 St
• [Julian Opie
  Gallery: Lisson, 504 W 24th St]
• Tatsuo Miyajima [Vivian]
  Gallery: Lisson, 508 24th St
• Hiroko Takeda
  Hunter Dunbar, 524 W 24th St
• Printed Matter
  231 11th Ave

Field School Observations:

• Before we go, click through the galleries/exhibitions and find things that resonate with you.
• Bring a camera/phone and make sure you document the day, including the work inside the galleries and things you come across on your way. Take at least 100 pictures.
• Focus on the methodologies of the artists. For example, what would their instructions be if they gave you an assignment to create the next ten images for your archive?
• At home, look at all images and select the ones (5-10) that speak to your research inquiry (directly or indirectly) and add them to your research document.
• Add a short paragraph to describe how these are meaningful to your research process.

Field School Prep
(until Friday, March 21, 6pm)

On March 26th, we will visit selected galleries in Chelsea. Each student will propose an exhibition that resonates with the themes of our class (archives, typologies, form-making) or aligns with their individual research topic.

Include a link to the gallery in this document, along with a brief explanation for why you chose it. I will share the final itinerary early next week.
See Saw Gallery Guide — APP (recommended)
GalleriesNow — Website

Reading & Making
(until April 2)

1. Remember to select at least one reading from the list below. Add at least three quotes from this reading to your research document.

2. Finalize your typology: Through the lens of your research inquiry, identify one attribute to create a collection of at least 18 recordings. The shared attribute can be found within the “subject” (form, color, size, …) or the recording methodology (stencil printing, photographed from a specific perspective, material rubbings).

Details on how to present next week!

Making
After our class discussion this week, choose one direction for your project and develop it through two perspectives: human and AI.

1. Human Perspective: Write a prompt for yourself to create a single recording for your typology—something you could repeat 18 times to complete your project. Use less than 50 words.
   
2. AI Perspective: Write a prompt for AI to generate a recording. This could closely mirror your own approach, take an opposing stance, or offer an entirely new perspective. Perhaps the AI prompt even prompts you—be playful and experimental in your interaction with AI. Use as many words as you like.

Bring both prompts and 3–4 visual recordings for each prompt with captions to class on March 19.

Reading
Over the next three weeks, choose at least one of the readings below. As always, take notes in your research document. I will provide brief introductions in class.

• Bad Archives
  Paul Soulellis
  Soulellis critiques traditional archival structures by exploring how digital and queer archives resist fixed narratives, embracing impermanence, fragmentation, and alternative modes of knowledge preservation.
• Third Nature – Science in the Archives
  Lorraine Daston
  Daston examines how scientific archives shape knowledge production, emphasizing the ways data collection, classification, and preservation influence what is considered valid scientific inquiry.
• The Big Archive, Introduction
  Sven Spieker
  Spieker introduces the archive as a bureaucratic system that artists have both engaged with and subverted, demonstrating how archival practices intersect with power, memory, and artistic critique.
• DUST, The Archive and Cultural History, Chapter 4: The space of memory: in an archive
  Carolyn Steedman
  Steedman reflects on the material and metaphorical dimensions of archives, arguing that dust serves as both a physical remnant and a symbol of history’s accumulation and loss.
• Archive Fever: A Freudian Impression
  Jacques Derrida
  Derrida deconstructs the concept of the archive through a psychoanalytic lens, revealing how the desire to preserve knowledge is entangled with power, repression, and the limits of memory.

Next week, we will meet in class to discuss your ideas and progress on the typology project. Please prepare the following:

→ 1 | Further refine two distinct directions for your typology and bring visual representations to illustrate each approach. For each direction, prepare a set of 4–6 sample recordings that demonstrate the potential outcome of your final visuals. These are drafts or sketches and can take the form of mock-ups, speculative designs, or compositions using found materials. Additionally, consider the following questions: What is this typology-archive about? What are you looking at and why? What is your methodology to make recordings and create visuals? What role does time play in this investigation?

→ 2 | Readings
This week’s readings are less centered on archives and instead introduce broader questions that may inspire your research inquiry.

• Mandatory:
  Are We Human? Notes on an Archaeology of Design by Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley.
  
• Optional:
  Material World by Ed Conway

Taryn Simon is an artist whose practice spans text, sculpture, performance, and photography. Her work explores themes of categorization and classification, driven by in-depth research, which she considers to be the core of her creative process. Specifically, take a look at these two installations:

• Contraband
• A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters I – XVIII

We are still in the process of defining research questions. As we work through this, use the explorative nature of the initial experiments to discover which methodologies resonate with you.
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Read:
The Agency of Objects by Ron Richardson
Write a brief reflection on the role objects play in your creative process and research practice. Additionally, select three quotes from the reading that resonate with you—these will be useful later in the semester when reflecting on your archive. Add both your reflection and the quotes to a slide in your research document.
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Prepare for next week:
Form — Exhausting an Object
Choose one object to focus on. This can be from this week’s collection or an entirely new object, but it should connect to your research interests and be physically present with you.
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While the project will result in 12 unique visuals, the emphasis is on the act of making—both as a creative practice and a means of inquiry. Approach this process as an open-ended exploration.
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Create 12 visual recordings of your object—photography, rubbing, stencil, or other techniques—but limit your final images to black and white. Print them on tabloid-size paper (or two letter-size sheets if needed). Additionally, create and print four text-based recordings, which can include your own reflections, AI-generated text, excerpts from the object, or sourced material.
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Create a Research Document:
Create a Google Slide document following the sample in our shared folder. Add all images from last and this week’s class. Optional: Use speaker notes for reflections—these questions may help revisit the Everyday Objects Workshop:

• How do these 12 everyday objects represent your narrative but also a research interest?
• What research questions arise from these objects? What larger themes are these objects pointing to?
• How does categorization shape the way you see and value objects?
• How do other objects change the way you perceive your objects?
• How might the absence of objects highlight systemic inequalities?

Richard Long, Rock Drawings

Yunqi Peng, Rain Duplicate

This class explores the relationship between form and content: How is meaning constructed and communicated through visual language?
    Through observing, collecting, analyzing, writing, and form making, students apply design processes involving visual research, concept generation, and craft skills.
     Driven by research interest, you will use digital and analog means to build visual archives. These collections are approached as a resource of critical inquiry and to respond to current socio-political issues.
    So, what is your research interest?

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Reading & Making I

• Archive as Method. Screening. (password on Canvas). After the lecture, write a short summary (around 200 words) outlining your interest in archives. Use at least one example from the screening to support your perspective.
  Additionally, think about the role of AI in the context of archives. Go beyond the technical aspects, like algorithms organizing or analyzing data—consider experimental possibilities. What new forms of archives might AI create in the future? How could these archives reshape how we think about memory,
  storytelling, or the preservation of culture? Use the Google Doc “Archive ⇄ Interest” in our shared Google Drive and submit by by Tuesday, 1/28, 6pm ECT
• John Berger: Ways of Seeing, pages 7-10 (min)
• Hillary Collins: What makes a good research topic?

Prepare for next week:
Everyday Life Archive (12 Objects)

Choose 12 objects from your everyday life that can fit into the bag distributed in class. Use the collaborative mind map we created as a starting point for inspiration. These objects can be:

• Meaningful: Representing something personal or emotional.
• Mundane: Ordinary items from your daily routine.
• Thematic: All related to one idea (e.g., 12 leaves, 12 corn flakes, or a torn letter split into 12 pieces).
• Diverse: Reflecting various aspects of your life.

Think of this as building a small, portable archive of your daily life. Bring your collection to class for discussion and analysis!

→ In the 1920s, the historian of art and culture Aby Warburg (1866-1929) created his Bilderatlas Mnemosyne tracing recurring visual themes and patterns across time. Last fall, an exhibition at HKW Berlin restored the last documented version of this atlas.

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Objects ⇄ Archives

• herman de vries
  “I wish to transmit an increased awareness what nature presents and what is our primary reality.”
• Christian Boltanski
  Photographs as a memorializing agent, to make a record of an individual life.
• Yuji Agematsu
  Micro-Sculptures using New York trash
• Taryn Simon
  Contraband (2010) comprises 1,075 photographs taken at both the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Federal Inspection Site and the U.S. Postal Service International Mail Facility at John F. Kennedy International Airport