The Aimless Research Institute (ARI) pursues
open-ended artistic explorations as a counterpoint
to overly streamlined desires.
We ponder questions like:
Is the best thing we can imagine also the best we can do?
What can be found when looking for nothing in particular?
How to explore unimaginable possibilities?
What do the clear visions obscure?
How to tell what’s best without knowing everything?
How to engage with the world we cannot control?
Our quandaries may be casual, anthropological or philosophical, but we prefer to address them through artistic means: re-drawing the lines, re-presenting our perceptions and conceptions, re-playing scores and scenarios, and re-considering what the things may be or do. We are more interested in sensible ways to explore and co-inhabit our complex world than in concise, conclusive answers. However, we don’t shy away from the provisional answers, ideas, relations or objects that may emerge in the process.
The ARI superfiction provides a reference point, while Aimless Research Papers facilitate exchange and advance our explorations, occasionally reverse-engineering some aims for them. They are not meant as project tombstones, but invitations to engage: ARI is open to publishing responses to its past publications, as well as new editions with new contributions, or engaging in new projects we could not have envisioned ourselves.