talkPOPc’s Story

talkPOPc began, accidentally so to speak, in 2012 with an exhibition I did at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. It differed from the usual exhibition in that I devoted one additional room to philosophers: they were the first talkPOPc Resident Philosophers, though we didn’t know it at the time. Noël Carroll (the well-known philosophy of film expert from CUNY’s Graduate Center), Lindsay Fiorelli (another aesthetician now at Claremont), David Post (the law professor and former clerk for Ruth Bader Ginsburg) and a few PhD students from UPenn milled around and answered questions from those who had come to the opening. The exhibition was work I’d done around the topic of nominalism and Nelson Goodman. I had also just published a book (with Springer) on Goodman, and it was part of the exhibition. There were drawings (depicting the whole of ontology broken apart into individual qualia), a video (about Goodman), and an artists book (about the problem with Goodman’s metaphorical exemplification). All in all, a bit heady. Therefore, (clearly!) the need for The Philosophers.

Amazingly so, the conversation room was buzzing with people. Milling around, everyone was asking one or another of the philosophers questions about nominalism, or Goodman, or platonism, etc. People engaged with one another. I thought, “how amazingly cool just to focus on people’s conversations.”

And so talkPOPc was born.

I knew even then that this focus on conversation was something more than just tapping into a basic human need, more than a remedy for what’s wrong with today’s society. It was also a confirmation of my belief that art and philosophy are both just fundamentally about conversation. They are the two most important ways we have to take our first-person experiences of the world and give them over to someone else. Art and philosophy are conversation. And talkPOPc is the union of them. I corralled a few other enthusiastic and kind-hearted philosophers, notably Adam See and Kate Pendoley, and we began, in the winter of 2012-13 and on through 2014 to hold conversation sessions back in NYC on the topic of nominalism, platonism, and how we come to identify our ontology. Primarily in bars, we met in Brooklyn at HappyFunHideaway, at Flowers For All Occasions; and at the Cipriani club (on 42 nd street), and Harry’s Bar in Manhattan.

In 2015, we had grown to several organizing volunteers and even more kind-hearted philosophers, and we moved on to the next topic/project. talkPOPc is topic based, and the topics shift according to what I’m working on - both as a philosopher and as a painter. By that time, I had published a book (with Cambridge Scholars) on censorship as well as making a body of artwork on the topic. Many, many conversations were had about this, especially since it overlapped with the presidential election. Hate speech, racism, the silencing suffered by victims of sexual assault, censorship in various countries, personal experiences and political thought. People said the most amazing things.

Our current topic is Art as Cognition (with a related book “Cognition, Perception, and Aesthetics” published by Routledge). Craig Agule (Rutgers) has been one of our Resident Philosophers, and again the conversations have been shatteringly profound. We’ve met in bodegas, in parks in Bklyn, in front of City Hall in Philly. There are now nine of us who are regularly involved in the organization and design of the programs (this includes our mascot, PUPPET), assisted by varying and indispensable philosophers from many different institutions. We have delivered dozens and dozens and dozens of meaningful and intellectual conversations to many people – a great deal of whom would never have had an opportunity like this.

Change happens when people talk.

— Dena Shottenkirk

What We Do

talkPOPc strives to satisfy the natural urge to develop deeper, more intellectual thoughts. As an art project that exists in the interface between art and philosophy, talkPOPc gives not only the traditional voice of the individual artist, but broadens that discussion to include individual participants in one-to-one conversations with philosophers, emphasizing not just what we say but how we listen. talkPOPc reconstructs the ever-fluid and enjoyable social process of thought-acquisition.

Why We Do It

Pursuing the task of encouraging empathic listening, talkPOPc aims to build a community of participants, philosophers, and listeners. Our curated encounters spark individuals’ thoughts so they can speak, think, and listen to others. We want to help minds escape the mundane.