VISUAL ARTS

The MIT List Visual Arts Center is pleased to present In the Holocene, a group exhibition on view from October 19, 2012, to January 6, 2013, that explores art as a speculative science, investigating priniciples more commonly associated with scientific or mathematical thought. Through the work of an intergenerational group of artists, the exhibition will propose that art acts as an investigative and experimental form of inquiry, addressing or amending what is explained through traditional scientific or mathematical means: entropy, matter, time (cosmic, geological), energy, topology, mimicry, perception, consciousness, et cetera. Sometimes employing scientific methodologies or the epistemology of science, other times investigating phenomena not restricted to any scientific discipline, art can be seen as a form of inquiry into the physical and natural world. In this sense, both art and science share an interest in knowledge, realism, and observable phenomena, yet are subject to different logics, principles of reasoning, and conclusions.