Research Catalogue

At this time of exception, in these extra-ordinary times there seems to be no limit to the limit: Once an extreme, excessive and acute experience, the limit has become an all-inclusive, continuous condition that coincides with a lack of language and other forms of expression and connection. Aiming to collaboratively inhabit and investigate this border experience, the objective of this project is to create contemporary vocabularies and related contextualizations of/for/at the limit. In order to do so, the project’s design for 36 months will develop 3 arts-based research programs exploring 3 select limit-experiences: The Unknown, The Beyond, The Abyss. Each of the interrelated programs includes a score of 5 formats: banquet, symposium, exhibition, podcast and performance collaborations with Saint Genet, Tianzhuo Chen and Marina Abramović.

This page is under construction It contains material created for and in the context of the research project Gifts from the Sentient Forest at the University of Lapland. See https://www.sentientforestproject.com

This project aims to develop transcultural approaches of inspiration (which we regard as mutually appreciated intentional and reciprocal artistic influence based on solidarity) by combining approaches from contemporary music composition and improvisation with ethnomusicological and sociological research. We encourage creative (mis)understandings emerging from the interaction between research and artistic practice, and between European art music, folk and non-western styles, in particular from indigenous minorities in Taiwan. Both comprehension and incomprehension yield serendipity and inspiration for new research questions, innovative artistic creation, and applied follow-ups among non-western communities. The project departs from two premises: first, that contemporary western art music as a practice often tends to resort to certain degrees of elitism; and second, that non-western musical knowledge is often either ignored or merely exploited when it comes to compositional inspiration. We do not regard inspiration as unidirectional, an “input” like recording or downloading material for artistic use. Instead, we foster artistic interaction by promoting dialogical and distributed knowledge production in musical encounters. Developing inter­disciplinary and transcultural methodologies of musical creation will contribute on the one hand towards opening up the—rightly or wrongly supposed—“ivory tower of contemporary composition”, and on the other hand will contribute towards the recognition of the artistic value of non-western musical practices. By highlighting the reciprocal nature of inspiration, creative (mis)understandings will result in socially relevant and innovative methodologies for creating and disseminating music with meaning. The methods applied in the proposed project will start out from ethnographic evidence that people living in non-western or traditional societies often use methods of knowledge production within the sonic domain which are commonly unaddressed or even unknown among western contemporary music composers (aside from exotist or orientalistic appropriations of “the other”). The project is designed in four stages: field research and interaction with indigenous communities in Taiwan with a focus on the Tao people on Lanyu Island, collaborative workshops in Vienna, an artistic research and training phase with invited indigenous Taiwanese coaches in Vienna, and feeding back to the field in Taiwan. During all these stages, exchange and coordination between composers, music makers, scholars and source community experts will be essential in order to reflect not only on the creative process, but also to analyse and support strong interaction between creation and society. Re-interaction with source communities as well as audience participation in the widest sense will help to increase the social relevance of the artistic results. The University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (MDW) will host the project. The contributors are Johannes Kretz (project leader) and Wei-Ya Lin (project co-leader, senior investigator) with their team of seven composers, ten artistic research partners from Taiwan and six artistic and academic consultants with extensive experience in the relevant fields.

Language as a Blade The Ethics of Precision in Post-Interpretive Criticism A Treatise by Dorian Vale Language reveals. But it also wounds.** In this incisive treatise, Dorian Vale turns his attention to the sharpest tool in the critic’s arsenal — language — and the quiet violence it enacts when left unchecked. Language as a Blade explores the ethics of writing in the context of Post-Interpretive Criticism (PIC), exposing how words can either guard a work’s sanctity or slit its meaning wide open. Vale develops the central premise that all criticism leaves a mark — but not all marks are made in reverence. The essay introduces critical concepts such as The Interpretive Incision, Lacerated Presence, and Forensic Reading, arguing that even well-meaning interpretations can displace, distort, or dominate the very thing they claim to witness. Through this lens, the work becomes not a subject to be carved open, but a body to be held — with care, clarity, and ethical precision. Language as a Blade is not a rejection of criticism, but a reframing of it as custodial labor. Vale calls for a new art-critical vocabulary that replaces spectacle with stewardship, analysis with attention, and cleverness with moral proximity. This treatise is a foundational text within the Post-Interpretive Movement, sharpening the very language we use to approach art, and reminding critics: every word is a blade. Use it as if the wound remains. Vale, Dorian. Language as a Blade: The Ethics of Precision in Post-Interpretive Criticism. Museum of One, 2025. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17052152 Dorian Vale is a chosen pseudonym, not to obscure identity, but to preserve clarity of voice and integrity of message. It creates distance between the writer and the work, allowing the philosophy to stand unclouded by biography. The name exists not to hide, but to honor the seriousness of the task: to speak without spectacle, and to build without needing to be seen. This name is used for all official publications, essays, and theoretical works indexed through DOI-linked repositories including Zenodo, OSF, PhilPapers, and SSRN. This entry is connected to a series of original theories and treatises forming the foundation of the Post-Interpretive Criticism movement (Q136308909), authored by Dorian Vale (Q136308916) and published by Museum of One (Q136308879). These include: Stillmark Theory (Q136328254), Hauntmark Theory (Q136328273), Absential Aesthetic Theory (Q136328330), Viewer-as-Evidence Theory (Q136328828), Message-Transfer Theory (Q136329002), Aesthetic Displacement Theory (Q136329014), Theory of Misplacement (Q136329054), and Art as Truth: A Treatise (Q136329071), Aesthetic Recursion Theory (Q136339843) Language as a Blade, Dorian Vale, Post-Interpretive Criticism, ethics of art writing, language and trauma in art, art and violence, descriptive precision, critical restraint, moral aesthetics, semiotics in art criticism, ethics of naming, language as wound, poetic accuracy, reverent writing, critical interpretation ethics, witness-based criticism, presence in criticism, aesthetic linguistics, post-linguistic art theory, interpretive violence, art writing and harm

Formal Defence of Post-Interpretive Criticism By Dorian Vale Philosopher of Aesthetics & Founder of the Post-Interpretive Movement This treatise offers the first formal philosophical defense of Post-Interpretive Criticism (PIC) as a distinct and necessary alternative to both traditional interpretation and its later reactionary forms, such as Post-Criticism. Dorian Vale articulates the foundational divergences between PIC and its predecessors, positioning it not as a negation, but as a restorative framework—one that centers restraint, reverence, moral proximity, and the ethics of witnessing. While Post-Criticism often celebrates ambiguity, play, and the dismantling of authorial intent, PIC counters with a sacred custodianship: refusing to exploit the unspeakable, flatten the traumatic, or aestheticize grief. It champions an art criticism that stands beside the work, rather than extracting from it. This defence establishes PIC as a rigorous intellectual position grounded in ontology, ethics, and the philosophy of presence. It is both a doctrine and a declaration—staking its claim in the contemporary critical field as a movement of radical restraint, critical mercy, and aesthetic consequence. Dorian Vale is a chosen pseudonym, not to obscure identity, but to preserve clarity of voice and integrity of message. It creates distance between the writer and the work, allowing the philosophy to stand unclouded by biography. The name exists not to hide, but to honor the seriousness of the task: to speak without spectacle, and to build without needing to be seen. This name is used for all official publications, essays, and theoretical works indexed through DOI-linked repositories including Zenodo, OSF, PhilPapers, and SSRN. Dorian Vale, Post-Interpretive Criticism, PIC doctrine, post-criticism response, contemporary art theory, moral proximity, restraint in criticism, ethical aesthetics, art criticism philosophy, sacred presence, viewer as evidence, ontology of art, witnessing in criticism, custodial criticism, non-extractive theory, aesthetics of mercy, trauma and art writing, art ethics manifesto, contemporary criticism debate, art as presence, art and ontology This entry is connected to a series of original theories and treatises forming the foundation of the Post-Interpretive Criticism movement (Q136308909), authored by Dorian Vale (Q136308916) and published by Museum of One (Q136308879). These include: Stillmark Theory (Q136328254), Hauntmark Theory (Q136328273), Absential Aesthetic Theory (Q136328330), Viewer-as-Evidence Theory (Q136328828), Message-Transfer Theory (Q136329002), Aesthetic Displacement Theory (Q136329014), Theory of Misplacement (Q136329054), and Art as Truth: A Treatise (Q136329071), Aesthetic Recursion Theory (Q136339843)

A Philosophical Departure from Post-Criticism By Dorian Vale — A Treatise in the Post-Interpretive Movement A Philosophical Departure from Post-Criticism is a pivotal treatise that distinguishes Dorian Vale’s Post-Interpretive Criticism (PIC) from the broader and more diffuse field of Post-Criticism. Where Post-Criticism often aims to relax or abandon evaluative frameworks, Vale’s work insists on restraint, reverence, and ethical responsibility in the act of reading art. This departure is not merely stylistic—it is ontological. Post-Criticism, as commonly practiced, often flattens interpretation into ambivalence, collapsing the critic’s task into a commentary of gestures. By contrast, Post-Interpretive Criticism is a call to presence over analysis, silence over spectacle, and custodianship over commentary. In this treatise, Vale dissects the shortcomings of Post-Criticism—its lack of moral proximity, its addiction to cleverness, its occasional nihilism—and presents Post-Interpretive Criticism as a re-sacralization of the critic’s role. It is a return to witnessing as method, anchored not in detachment, but in moral and metaphysical alignment with the unspeakable truths embedded in art. This work is a formal clarification of genre boundaries, philosophical ethics, and aesthetic posture. It enshrines Post-Interpretive Criticism as a new discipline, separate from—and more rigorous than—the interpretive loosening that preceded it. Vale, Dorian. A Philosophical Departure from Post-Criticism. Museum of One, 2025. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17057756 Dorian Vale, Post-Interpretive Criticism, Post-Criticism, philosophy of art, ethics of criticism, witness-based aesthetics, moral proximity, silent criticism, aesthetic restraint, art theory treatise, post-structural criticism, new art movements, metaphysical aesthetics, art and presence, slow criticism, reverent art writing, non-performative critique, theory of witnessing, art and ontology, contemporary aesthetic movements, departure from postmodernism This entry is connected to a series of original theories and treatises forming the foundation of the Post-Interpretive Criticism movement (Q136308909), authored by Dorian Vale (Q136308916) and published by Museum of One (Q136308879). These include: Stillmark Theory (Q136328254), Hauntmark Theory (Q136328273), Absential Aesthetic Theory (Q136328330), Viewer-as-Evidence Theory (Q136328828), Message-Transfer Theory (Q136329002), Aesthetic Displacement Theory (Q136329014), Theory of Misplacement (Q136329054), and Art as Truth: A Treatise (Q136329071), Aesthetic Recursion Theory (Q136339843)