Glass Bead is a research platform and a journal concerned with transfers of knowledge across art, science and philosophy, as well as with their practical and political dimensions.
It was conceived and is run by Fabien Giraud, Jeremy Lecomte, Vincent Normand, Ida Soulard and Inigo Wilkins. We are artists, art historians and theorists based in Paris and London.
Glass Bead’s project is defined by its two distinct yet interconnected activities: Journal and Research.
Research comprises the organization of private and public Events (workshops, conferences), an Audio Research Program (made of the recording of the talks of the events and of special interviews), and a Research Platform, in which the community of participants to the events is invited to share elements of their current research.
Each issue of the Journal is dedicated to the exploration of the theoretical, political or aesthetic dimensions of a specific “site”, and can be seen as a point of synthesis in the activity of Research.
Donations
Glass Bead is an independent project operating as a non-for-profit organization. We depend on the support and commitment of institutions as well as on the generosity of private donors.
Please consider supporting our work by making a donation. We don’t have much to offer in return, we don’t make tote bags or artist editions, but we will make sure to invite you personally to all our events and to save you a seat at the conversation table! You will have the possibility to decide whether to be named as an individual donor on our website or not.
If you use Paypal, you can address your donation using the Donate button below, or email us at info@glass-bead.org to receive more details on other payment modes.
2017: Centre National des Arts Plastiques, ZKM – Center for Art Media Karlsruhe, Andrew Bennett, Grégoire Henrion
2015: Centre National des Arts Plastiques, Les Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers, Pierre Huyghe, Extra City Kunsthal
2014: Les Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers, Ambassade de France à New York
Workshops
The workshops are organized on the occasion of Glass Bead’s public events and are a particularly important part of the research platform since they offer the chance to put our methodological approach into practice, to make dynamic transits between different epistemic contexts, and to deepen our understanding of the issues involved. For each workshop we choose a limited number of participants, curated in order to provide a diverse group of theoretical and practical backgrounds. These participants then become part of the extended community of the research platform and we encourage them to submit the fruits of their encounter to the platform. The workshop’s methodology is very much based on processes of cognitive mapping achieved through several stages of group separation and reintegration involving discussion, explanation, diagrammatic thinking, and presentation at each stage.