talkPOPc's Podcast

Justin points out that we find ourselves through thinking and we find ourselves through thinking about art. Everyone has a different interpretation - a different fingerprint. Ergo cogito sum. Subjectivity is everything here: Justin uses the examples of basketball and being black. The subjective experience is hard to hand over to someone else so that they might know what we experience. We know thin...

A software engineer and a mathematician, Aaron argues that empathy is a central part of art, both on the part of the artist and on the part of the viewer. In order for the artist to be able to convey something they have to have empathy for how other people experience the world. But he also says that sometimes "art doesn't have to conform to well-described experiences" and that the v...

Stephen, who worked until recently at David Zwirner Gallery, discusses the differences in the audience experiences in a gallery as opposed to a museum, arguing that museums give people a greater diversity of experiences. RP Flores asks the fundamental question: why should people go to museums? Stephen points out that they are re-designing themselves and that there is a thought-shift in museums abo...

The fashion designed Hoover Chung speaks to Resident Philosopher Carolina Flores  about his interest in gender-fluid fashion. He points out that it's not just feminine clothing on men's body, but it is something that "we are all experimenting with". RP Flores asks Hoover if he thinks that because fashion is consumed and worn by people, is it the case that clothing and garments...

Arion references the book The Undercommons: Fugitive Planning & Black Study, by Stefano Harney and Fred Moten, which criticizes and tries to reform one's relation to the state and avoid being categorized specifically for the ends for state power. Identity is important, and Arion draws on his love of free-form jazz to make the point that we can be in the state of "being unresolved&quo...

The artist Bogyi Banovich explains creativity as where the body is trying to "catch up" to what the mind has wanted and designed. Bogyi discusses how art is setting up a goal and then the body tries to make the goal real, but with each physical step we re-imagine the mental goal and the two get merged: now we want this version. The important part is the material fact of trying, of making...

In a fascinating conversation about theatre and acting, the actor Kaya Simmons explains both why people act and why people go to see others act. "We act to tell stories, and we act to tell other people's stories, and to live those stories, and to live those truths and to tell those truths." The distinct quality is the actor's willingness to be vulnerable, to try things that mig...

As an urban planner, Beth notes how the city is now reclaiming the public arena: the visual experience of the urban experience during the times of COVID show the nature of the social dimensions that have happened: the protests, the demands to give over some of the streets back to the public both for bikes and restaurants, etc. She explains how the  Barclay center protests forced the corporate enti...

Will, another one of our Participants who just happened to be wandering by and kindly stopped into the tent and had a conversation, is from South Carolina and likes both country and rap music because they talk about their pain and pleasures, and because they can tell you about how you were already feeling, but just couldn't really talk about it. "Music puts you in the mood you already wa...

Charles gives an extremely interesting viewpoint on the naturalness of aesthetics, drawing from the way ants build symmetrical ant piles, birds flying in perfect symmetry and order, and the great cognitive powers of octopus, making the argument that perhaps our divide between instinct and consciousness of behavior is false. He discusses how much is inherited, including the African aesthetic, which...

As a life-long practitioner in theatre, Steven articulates how it is that we use the journey as described by the playwright: we "exercise" our empathy, sympathy, ability to see things from another's point of view. He also discusses the interesting phenomenon of how it is a group exercise in viewing, as we respond to - either in agreement or not - the fellow audience-member's re...

Art makes people do this introspective work. He discusses the civil war monuments in the south (in Richmond, VA) that glorify the confederate side, and notes the emotion that the pieces evoke in people. What does that art do the people who see it and how does it resonate to the collective? Richard and RP Shottenkirk discuss how the original subjective experience of the individual, which is both de...

Robert discusses the relationship of looking at art, listening to music, and eating: saying yes to those things that we like, figuring out why, and the essential part of enjoyment. As a language teacher, Robert thinks that understanding art is much like learning a language, and (as the ancients said) how similar painting and poetry are, as they are more "cryptic" than the literary arts o...

George gives an architect's view on the relationship between the social function of buildings and how it is that we aesthetically experience them as a result of their social functions. Support the show Website: talkpopc.org Instagram: @talkpopc Email: info@talkPOPc.org

Ulysses discusses looking at art without the preconceptions of gallery owners or museum directors; he and Resident Philosopher Shottenkirk explore the value of bewilderment in art, feeling vulnerable in initially not knowing and the pleasure found in figuring it out.   Support the show Website: talkpopc.org Instagram: @talkpopc Email: info@talkPOPc.org

Dan Durso, artist and PhD student at the University of Illinois, talks about art as evolutionarily adapting, how it helped early humans to bond and work together as a unit, and how it allows us access into others' minds. He also discusses why it's a problem that contemporary art is without philosophical theory. Support the show Website: talkpopc.org Instagram: @talkpopc Email: info@talkP...

Jeremy Barker, a performance critic, joins Resident Philosopher Carolina Flores for the seventh and final installment of our Postmasters Gallery series. Jeremy engages in art differently from the layman. He speaks of immediate entertainment value versus the long term process of art. You either grow with the work and evolve, or you engage with art for hedonistic pleasure. Nothing wrong with either,...

Beth Evans joins Resident Philosopher Carolina Flores for the sixth part of our postmasters series. They discuss visual art, in particular performance art as it gives more room for thought. There's a feeling in the moment that's not found in two dimensional art. You become a part of the environment and it changes the way you see the non art world. Ordinary things can become objects of ar...

John McCarten joins Resident Philosopher Vincent Peluce for the fifth part of our postmasters series. John discusses photography as seeing through the viewfinder rather than seeing an artistic picture. He sees good light, a silhouette and composition rather than a creative energy. It's a mechanical process of capturing an image rather than expressing emotion.  Support the show Website: talkpo...

Caron Shapiro joins Resident Philosopher Vincent Peluce for the fourth part of our postmasters series. They discuss Hebrew music and the spirituality behind it. Nigunim are spiritual songs that don't necessarily involve cognition. It's a "direct shot to your soul" and the more spiritual a song, the less melody and lyrics it contains. Caron also discusses how art differs from th...

Jesi Taylor Cruz joins Resident Philosopher Vincent Peluce for the third part of our postmasters series. As they discuss art as cognition, Jesi points to the restrictive nature of creating art for others/an audience. We make choices more carefully when others will see what we do. This raises a question of authenticity. Are we more willing to take risks and artistic liberties without an audience? I...

Nicholas Accetura joins Resident Philosopher Vincent Peluce for the second part of our postmasters series. When discussing art, Nicholas denotes a significant difference in our minds. When we create art, at least for Nicholas, we are free. We don't think about things and instead engage the body to materialize art. When we consume art, we are actively thinking about what's in front of us...

João Enxuto joins Resident Philosopher Vincent Peluce as they kick off the first part of our Postmasters series. They discuss art as cognition, and João thinks of it as a medium for cognitive faculties, yet art is a text one reads. Art represents exceptionality, it doesn't just communicate raw facts, it goes beyond. But we still have to operate within the constraints of our world. We live in...

Keith Moss, a management consultant from the UK, and is speaking to the Resident Philosopher Martina Botti. Keith, on a business trip, is visiting the bar and having a drink; he steps over to have a philosophical conversation. They discuss what makes something art, and after Keith suggests it is when a reaction is triggered, Martina suggests that maybe our brain doesn’t have a general definition o...

The art historian and art critic Gilles Heno-Coe, who was the former Associate Director of Matthew Marks Gallery, speaks with Resident Philosopher Martina Botti. The conversation ranges between issues of meaning in art to the role of the market in determining that meaning. Repeatedly in their conversation, Charles Sanders Pierce appears. A nineteenth century American philosopher, Pierce was semina...