Institute of Cultural Inquiry

The ICI explores the visual methods used to document, categorize, expose, and conceal the events that define contemporary culture. Many ICI projects focus on long-standing mechanisms that through time have become lost, forgotten, or suppressed. Other ICI activities focus on current methods of thought that operate almost invisibly because they are so commonplace. Objects of interest to Institute Associates have included photographs taken by W.G. Sebald, newspaper articles about AIDS, a manual of lost ideas, found footage from a 1945 film, sound mirrors, the Narrenturm, mystic writing pads, and dream-dredging devices. Systems and methods of thought that have guided Institute research include excavation, curation, hypnotism, souveniring, animal and botanical revisionism, ventriloquism, divination, aerial navigation, and museum installation. We invite you to browse through some of the books from our library.