Semiotic Uncertainty and Resonant Presence

In his presentation, Chris Dorsett will discuss presence as a key attribute of the value of artworks on display. For the past decade an expanding range of interdisciplinary literature has challenged the assumption that interpretation is the dominant mechanism by which value is attached to objects in museums and galleries. For example, the kind of thinking associated with the material turn in David Howes 'Empire of the Senses' (2004) or post-phenomenology in Jean-Luc Nancys 'Listening' (2007) suggests that representational and semiotic meanings inhibit important sensual interactions between the body, place and thing. Dorsett draws on his own practices as an artist, curator and PhD supervisor to explore the transformation of semiotic uncertainty into the experience of resonant presence in an art exhibition.