In anticipation of the 2012 dOCUMENTA (13), artistic director Carolyn Christov-Bakagiev commissioned a series of published notebooks containing essays, conversations, facsimiles of written ephemera and other debris surrounding the thematic concepts, scientific theories and organizing ideas of the exhibition. The series, 100 Notes - 100 Thoughts is named after the 100 days that is the length of the exhibition.
In the Fall of 2013, a seminar taught by Christov-Bakargiev in which the notebooks were used as primary texts led me to produce this text: a proposal for a notebook #101, an extension of the cacophonous conversation of the 100 notebooks in which I could situate myself. Not having visited the exhibition, issues of form, representation and spectatorship emerged as my primary concerns in a course in which my only means of access were these strange, ephemeral publications.
Since writing the notebook, I have learned that the series has already been continued beyond notebook 10 in the form of freely downloadable pdfs numbering up to at least notebook 105. It seems, however, that in the extended series number 101 was skipped over. Lucky for me, my notebook retains its place by way of this oversight.
All of the first 100 notebooks can be purchased in physical copies (while supplies last) or as pdf e-books from a link to the publisher on the official dOCUMENTA (13) website, which is an atrociously convoluted virtual thing:
dOCUMENTA (13): 100 Notes - 100 Thoughts
My notebook can be downloaded for free by clicking the cover image below:
