Discursive Documents

Discursive Documents: Performing the Catalogue

Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA GA), Education/Resource Center + Project Space

October 2, 2010-January 8, 2011

The word discursive refers to a manner of philosophizing by way of reason and argument, but the word also means digressive and rambling. In Discursive Documents: Performing the Catalogue, John Q explores the idea of discursive documents, a contemporary cataloging practice that takes the forms of printed matter, exhibition, programming, and digital scholarship. By creating links between these various forms of documentation, the material itself takes on different forms and occupies different kinds of spaces. What if the catalogue were not simply the printed text and image, but also a dialogic process through which the meaning of past events is continually negotiated? Catalogue essays will take the form of essays in Southern Spaces online journal, as well as programming at MOCA GA. Printed matter will take the form of a specially curated issue of The JOSH published by Arts & Sciences PROJECTS.