d. n. rodowick is Glen A. Lloyd Distinguished Service Professor in the Division of the Humanities at the University of Chicago, as well as the former Director of the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University. Known primarily for his work in philosophy and the visual arts, Rodowick is also an accomplished experimental filmmaker, video artist, and curator. Deeply influenced by filmmakers such as Ernie Gehr, Hollis Frampton, and Michael Snow, as well as minimalist composers like Steve Reich and Terry Riley, Rodowick’s moving image works are primarily concerned with process and performance in ways that explore fluid relations between stillness and movement, and figuration and abstraction. Many of the works are produced by setting into movement series of formal parameters and then letting them play themselves out (almost) automatically in relation to randomizing elements. Although conceptual in nature, Rodowick’s moving image work embraces affect through its hypnotic rhythms and a haunting, painterly beauty.
Rodowick’s most recent books are Philosophy’s Artful Conversation (Harvard University Press, 2014) and Elegy for Theory (Harvard University Press, 2014), which complete the trilogy that began with The Virtual Life of Film (Harvard University Press, 2007). With Victor Burgin, he was recently awarded a Mellon Collaborative Fellowship at the Richard and Mary L. Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry, University of Chicago, to produce new video work. His most recent book, What Philosophy Wants from Images, will be published by the University of Chicago Press in 2017.
For more information: studio bauleute.org
Selected exhibitions and screenings
2019
Filmanalytische Colloquium, Cinepoetics, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany, 4 July 2019.
“Philosophy by Other Means,” masterclass and screening, Zurich University of the Arts, Zurich, Switzerland, 27 March 2019.
2018
The Cinema Museum of Girona, Girona, Spain, 13 December 2018.
“Actes/espaces (métaphysiques)”, Light Cone, 13 June 2018, Paris France.
“Puissances esthétiques du virtuel : dispositif, forme, pensée,” IRCAV, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle-Paris 3, 28 March 2018, Paris, France.
L’école doctorale arts et médias, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle-Paris 3, INHA, Paris, France. 20 February 2018.
2017
Film-Philosophy Conference 2017, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK, 5 July 2017.
Arsenal – Institute for Film and Video Art, Berlin, Germany, 19 June 2017
Film Studies Center, Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, 6 January 2017.
2016
The Amie and Tony James Gallery, The Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York, New York, 13 Oct 2016.
The Wanderers, Campagne Première, Berlin, Germany 22 July-5 August 2016.
“Indefinite Visions,” Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK, 22-26 June 2016.
“Lucchiche (shimmering): A Video Art Symposium,” Ponte di Ferro, Carrara, Italy, 23-25 June 2016.
2015
“Think Tank,” Queen Mary University, University of London, London England, 3 December 2015.
“L’étrangeté technologique à l’ère du numérique,” with Christoph Girardet and Steven Jacobs, Université de Paris VII- Diderot, Paris, France, 27 November 2015.
Sound work selected for William Pope L.’s Cage Unrequited, 25 Hour reading of John Cage’s Silence. Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Illinois, 21-22 November 2015.
Birkbeck Institute for the Moving Image, London, England, 21 November 2015.
XIX Encontro da SOCINE, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, Brazil, 21 and 22 October 2015.
2014
Department of Film and Media Studies, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, 21 April 2014.
Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, Concordia University, Montréal, Québec, 1 March 2014.
Film Study Center and Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 7 February 2014.
Interval: recent video work by d. n. rodowick, Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, 10 January 2014.
2011
FAX, curated by João Ribas, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Main Gallery, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 1 March-10 April 2011.
Eflux Video Rental, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Sert Gallery, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, February-April 2007. Touring program presented at venues in Amsterdam, Berlin, Frankfurt, Seoul, Paris, Istanbul, Canary Islands, Austin, Cali, Budapest, Boston, Antwerp, Miami, Lisbon, Lyon, and Rome. Since 2011, located permanently at Moderna Galerija in Ljubljana.
1985
London Filmmakers' Co-op, "Distribution Preview Show," April/May 1985.
1982
Athens International Film and Video Festival, Athens, Ohio, May 1982.
“Fear of Art,” Writers’ Workshop and Theatre Department, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, 9 April 1982.
20th Ann Arbor Film Festival, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 9-14 March 1982.
4th Annual San Francisco Art Institute Film Festival (Judges' Screening), San Francisco, California, 6-7 February 1982.
Film Harvest Festival, 14 November 1982, Austin, Texas.
1981
5th Atlanta Independent Film and Video Festival (Director's Choice Program), Atlanta, Georgia 8-12 April 1981.
Athens International Film Festival, Athens, Ohio, May 1981.
London Video Arts, AIR Gallery, London, England, 1981.
Association for Independent Film and Video, New York, New York, 1981.
Curating
2012
Unreal Memories, sound installation created by Hans Tutschku for the roof of the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University, December 2012-June 2013.
Sooni Taraporevala, Parsis: The Zoroastrians of India, Sert Gallery, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University, 25 October-20 December 2012.
Christian Boltanski, 6 septembres, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Main Gallery, Harvard University, 4 November-20 December 2012.
Circa 1963, Sert Gallery, with works by Josef Albers, Albert Alcalay, Eduardo Chillida, Dmitri Hadzi, György Kepes, Sol LeWitt, Roy Lichtenstein, Morris Louis, George Maciunas, Peter Moore, Yoko Ono, Bridget Riley, Ben Shahn, Aaron Siskind, George Sugarman, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University, 30 August-7 October 2012.
Jesse Aron Green, Paranoia Places Its Faith in Exposure, and Michael Wang, Differentiation Series, Main Gallery, 13 September-7 October 2012.
Matt Saunders, The movies that were secret remain secret somehow and a nation forgets its pleasures, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts and the Harvard Film Archive, 27 September-4 November 2012.
Ernie Gehr, Picture Taking, three channel video installation, Sert Gallery, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University, spring 2012.
2007
Victor Burgin, The Little House, Sert Gallery, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University, 12 March-13 April 2007.
Aleatory Movie Mix, E-FLUX Video Rental, Sert Gallery, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University, 4 April 2007.
2006
Advisory Board, “Super Vision,” Institute for Contemporary Art, Boston, Massachusetts, 17 September through 31 December 2006.
1998
Co-curator (with Dudley Andrew), Premises: French Cinema since 1958, Centre Georges Pompidou/Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, New York, 1998-1999.