Mission:

talkPOPc is a multi-modal project of Dena Shottenkirk’s that engages the public in philosophical thought by inviting participants to explore the role of conversation in both art and philosophy, and to discover what they themselves think about a particular topic. Incorporating Shottenkirk’s published philosophy and her visual art, which has consistently focused on philosophical investigation, and public (one-to-one) philosophy, talkPOPc embraces empathetic dialogue. By activating public spaces for events and staged public philosophy, and by using galleries as activated stages, talkPOPc makes both art and philosophy accessible to the public and re-instills the role of listening within conversation - in art, philosophy, and everyday life.

Vision:

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, so that participants can to get know their own thoughts, to care about the thoughts of others, and to build empathic communities. 

Our Story:

talkPOPc began, accidentally almost, in 2012 with an exhibition I, Dena Shottenkirk, did at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. It differed from the usual exhibition in that I devoted one 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 (technically a professor of law who was also Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s clerk, but philosophically inclined!) 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 just a remedy for what’s wrong with today’s society (although that is true, too). 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 42nd 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 project that I had published a book on (with Cambridge Scholars) and also made artwork about, which was Censorship. Many, many conversations were had about this, especially since it overlapped with the 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 that I edited and is 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 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.

— Dr. Dena Shottenkirk

Change happens when people talk.