BICA School Lab | 30 Essex Street
Open to All | Free to Join | No Registration Required
Join us at BICA School for a casual, come-as-you-are reading group that welcomes everyone—whether you’ve read the text cover to cover or just want to hear what others have to say. We’ll explore critical and curious texts together in a space that values open conversation, listening, and learning.
Read ahead if you can, but there’s no pressure to be an expert— bring your thoughts, questions, and curiosity.
Who gets to be seen — and what does art have to do with it?
This essay takes the form of an interview, which makes it one of the more approachable entry points into Rancière's thinking. He's working through a deceptively simple question: how did photography and film come to be recognized as arts? His answer turns the usual story on its head — it wasn't the technology that made them art. It was a prior shift in who and what was considered worthy of being seen at all. Anonymous people, ordinary objects, everyday life: once these became legitimate subjects, the camera could follow. A short, generative read for anyone thinking about what contemporary art is for and who it's made with in mind.