recent activities
EXPERIÊNCIA SENSORIAL DIRECIONADA: Sons do Buriti, Escutar, Sentir e Criar
(2025)
Eunice Maria de Oliveira
Esta pesquisa propõe uma instalação com foco em aprofundar uma experiência sensorial, para despertar a sensibilidade das pessoas, em São Bernardo/MA, no Balneário Rio Buriti. São abordados elementos da escuta sensível e consciente, como forma de valorização dos sons naturais e culturais do local. Para a execução da prática, realizamos algumas etapas, como: determinar local, dia e o horário da atividade; elaboração de um mapa mental contendo todas as ideias; retomada da leitura do mapa mental com novas impressões individuais, pessoais, subjetivas, objetivas; decidir sobre a ação em si. Nos desdobramentos desta ação, que envolve escutar, sentir e criar, observamos que a paisagem sonora, termo criado por Schafer (2009), possui todos os componentes para a criação e sensibilização das pessoas em relação aos seus próprios territórios. O autor demonstra sua preocupação com a qualidade da escuta, que está cada vez mais ameaçada pelo problema da poluição sonora, por isso a necessidade de que a população tenha consciência dos sons que nos rodeiam.
877 Beaivvi (lohket) / 877 Days (count them) -- in progress
(2025)
Svea Vikander
877 Beaivvi (lohket) / 877 Days (Count them) er en kunstnerisk videoeksponering om samenes rettigheter, tid, dokumentasjon og repetisjon. Gjennom 360°-opptak fra Ginalvárri (Guovdageaidnu fjellet), protester (Oslo), språklæring (Guovdageaidnu) og kreftbehandling (Oslo sykkehuser) undersøker prosjektet forholdet mellom evidens, traume og kolonial makt.
Image as Site: Apartment Portraits
(2025)
Ellen J Røed
With Apartment Portraits contemporary music ensemble Lemur and artist Ellen J Røed investigates the rooms we live in through a series of sound and video works for living environments, musicians, microphones, cameras and videographer.
Through video art and contemporary music they explored three apartments in Oslo: The oldest of them is a 1970s apartment at Hovseter, the other two are more recent. One is located on Teaterplassen in Grønland, and was built in the early 2000s, while the last one is in Sørenga, built in 2016.
In the resulting portraits of apartments, subtle and slow panoramic camera strokes through the apartments explores and portrays the relationship between performed sound and living environments. It tells the story both of the rooms, their owners, the performers’ actions as well as those the videographer. Leilighetsportretter is part study, part concert, part installation, part site specific intervention and part architectural field trip in Oslo apartments.
The project is one of four elements in 'Samtaler om rom' – Spatial conversations, where Lemur works in and around the at The National Museum – Architecture´s exhibitions on Norwegian housing architecture. As such the work is part of an interdisciplinary effort to explore new strategies for the presentation of architecture. It is developed within the overlapping research framework Image as Site at Stockholm University of the Arts. Project is supported by The Swedish Research Council, Stockholm University of the Arts, and Norwegian Art Council.
The project was presented at The National Museum – Architecture, Oslo in the framework of
Ultima festival of contemporary music and Kulturnatt Oslo, at Bomuldsfabrikken Kunsthall
and at SKH Research Week 2021.
recent publications
Five Principles of Post-Interpretive Criticism: A Study Guide
(2025)
Dorian Vale
This concise study guide introduces the foundational framework of Post-Interpretive Criticism (PIC)—a new aesthetic philosophy that centers presence, moral proximity, and restraint in the practice of art criticism. Developed by Dorian Vale, the guide breaks down PIC into five core principles:
Restraint over Interpretation
Witness over Commentary
Moral Proximity over Objectivity
Viewer as Evidence
Rejection of Performance
Each principle is accompanied by a brief case study, reflection exercise, and ethical commentary, making this guide suitable for students, educators, curators, and critics seeking to apply PIC in the field. Instead of decoding the artwork, this framework encourages a posture of reverent presence, allowing the artwork to retain its autonomy and moral gravity.
This resource is designed to be taught, discussed, and practiced. It supports classrooms, curatorial programs, writing workshops, and museum education—inviting a new generation of viewers to approach art with humility, silence, and philosophical depth.
Vale, Dorian. Five Principles of Post-Interpretive Criticism: A Study Guide. Museum of One, 2025. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17077734
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)
Post-Interpretive Criticism, study guide, art education, critical theory, Dorian Vale, aesthetic philosophy, viewer as evidence, slow looking, ethical criticism, trauma in art, art pedagogy, witness-based art criticism, art classroom resource, art and ethics, moral proximity, presence over interpretation, contemporary criticism, museum education, poetic criticism, art curriculum
The Living Lexicon: Post-Interpretive Criticism – First Edition
(2025)
Dorian Vale
The Living Lexicon: Post-Interpretive Criticism – First Edition
By Dorian Vale
Museum of One | Written at the Threshold
The Living Lexicon is the official glossary of Post-Interpretive Criticism — a literary movement that displaces interpretation in favor of presence, restraint, and custodial witnessing. It is not written to standardize, but to protect. These entries are not mere definitions; they are ethical and poetic coordinates. From Threshold to Witness, from Stillmark to Felt Proof, the lexicon outlines the sacred vocabulary of a genre committed to reverence over reading, and presence over performance.
This document anchors the critic’s posture, language, and responsibility. It guides without fixing. It names without claiming. It orients those entering the terrain so they do not mistake silence for absence, or discipline for detachment. In a critical culture flooded with noise, The Living Lexicon restores the weight of words.
Vale, Dorian. The Living Lexicon: Post-Interpretive Criticism – First Edition. Museum of One, 2025. DOI: doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17111649
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.
Post-Interpretive Criticism, Aesthetic Theory, Art Criticism, Philosophy of Art, Ethical Criticism, Literary Movements, Witnessing, Silence in Criticism, Contemporary Aesthetics, Poetic Philosophy, Witness, Threshold, Restraint, Stillmark, Hauntmark, Silence, Viewer-as-Evidence, Ethical Proximity, Custodianship
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)
Absential Aesthetics Theory: On Ghosts, Absence, and the Afterlife of Art A Complete Theoretical Framework
(2025)
Dorian Vale
Absential Aesthetics Theory
On Ghosts, Absence, and the Afterlife of Art
A Complete Theoretical Framework by Dorian Vale
What happens to a work of art after it disappears — and why does it linger?
In this seminal treatise, Dorian Vale unveils the full theoretical scaffolding of Absential Aesthetics, a core pillar of the Post-Interpretive Movement. This framework reconceives absence not as a void to be filled, but as a residue that haunts, instructs, and remains.
Drawing from metaphysical inquiry, trauma studies, and post-structural aesthetics, Vale argues that absence is not the opposite of presence — it is a continuation of it. From lost artifacts and sealed objects to erased histories and unspeakable memories, this theory reframes absence as aesthetic substance. The missing becomes legible through its consequences, not its form.
Across three theoretical movements — Erasure, Afterlife, and Hauntmark — Vale introduces critical constructs such as The Aesthetic Ghost, Negative Presence, and Lingering Witness. These ideas challenge visual primacy, proposing that what art does after it vanishes may be more ethically potent than what it does when it is seen.
Absential Aesthetics Theory is not a speculative musing — it is a structured philosophy of art’s most elusive force: what remains after it is no longer there. A vital contribution to contemporary art theory, this treatise opens a door for curators, critics, and philosophers who seek to engage art not just through its objecthood, but through its departure.
Vale, Dorian. Absential Aesthetics Theory: On Ghosts, Absence, and the Afterlife of Art A Complete Theoretical Framework. Museum of One, 2025. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17052070
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)
Absential Aesthetics, Dorian Vale, Post-Interpretive Criticism, theory of absence in art, aesthetic ghosts, art afterlife, disappearance in art, witness and erasure, trauma and aesthetics, art and memory, aesthetic haunting, art as residue, invisibility in art theory, negative presence, art criticism and absence, disappearance as ontology, art of the unseen, sacred erasure, ethics of loss in art, non-object based aesthetics, hauntmark theory, afterlife of the artwork