A Viscosity with a Will
Amelia Groom

In this lecture Amelia Groom explores the ways in which soft invertebrates (like cephalopods) and brainless slimes (like physarum polycephalum) invite new ways of understanding intelligence, embodiment and collectivity. As anthropocentric and neurocentric perspectives start to decompose, existing conceptions of language, attention, memory and learning are being rethought. Keywords: polycephalic, Vampyroteuthis Infernalis, ink, hive minds, suckers, tentacular thinking, feelers, goo.

Amelia Groom is a writer based in Amsterdam. She completed her doctoral studies in Art History & Theory at the University of Sydney in 2014, and she is currently undertaking postdoctoral research at the University of Amsterdam. Her writing has been published in various art journals, monographs and exhibition contexts, and in 2013 she edited the Whitechapel Gallery / MIT Press ‘Documents of Contemporary Art’ anthology on TIME. She teaches writing and theory at the Sandberg Instituut (Critical Studies and Master of Voice MFAs) and the Gerrit Rietveld Academie (Graphic Design department).