Bio
dn rodowick is Glenn A. Lloyd Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago where he taught studio art, philosophy, and cinema studies. Known primarily for his work in philosophy and the visual arts, dn rodowick is also an accomplished experimental filmmaker, video artist, and curator. Rodowick’s moving image works are primarily concerned with process and performance in ways that explore fluid relations between stillness and movement, figuration and abstraction, and the inscription of time in space. Rodowick also makes multiscreen installation work with sculptural elements and print media including, photographic prints, cyanotypes, and unique edition artist books. Although conceptual in nature, Rodowick’s moving image work embraces affect through its hypnotic rhythms and haunting, painterly beauty. His more recent work investigates how remediations of images under different temporal aspects may affect our perception of time and processes of memory and forgetting. He is currently producing a series of new works inspired by sites of thinking in the history of philosophy, the first of which, Plato’s Phaedrus and Agora, or things indifferent, premiered in Berlin at the Arsenal Institute for Film and Video Art in 2017.
Rodowick’s most recent books are An Education in Judgment: Hannah Arendt and the Humanities (University of Chicago Press, 2021), What Philosophy Wants from Images (University of Chicago Press, 2018), Philosophy’s Artful Conversation (Harvard University Press, 2014), Elegy for Theory (Harvard University Press, 2014), and The Virtual Life of Film (Harvard University Press, 2007).
With Victor Burgin, he was awarded in 2016 a Mellon Collaborative Fellowship at the Richard and Mary L. Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry, University of Chicago, to produce new video work. He is also a member of the International Association of Art Critics and the Arts Club of Chicago.
rodowick is represented by the gallery Campagne Premère in Berlin, Germany.
rodowick's digital moving image works are distributed by Lightcone.
Some video work is viewable at vimeo.dnrodowick.
rodowick's analog film and video work is distributed by the Harvard Film Archive [USA] and Lux Distribution [Europe].
Selected exhibitions and screenings
Selected Publications
D. N. Rodowick in Conversation with Lisa Cartwright, Field Notes no. 75, Society for Cinema and Media Studies, July 22, 2022. https://www.cmstudies.org/page/fieldnotes.
“La philosophie par d’autre moyens,” Théorème (forthcoming in 2023).
“Idea and Image.” In Forms of the Cinematic: Architecture, Science, and the Arts. Ed. Mark E. Breeze. London: Bloomsbury (in press).
Ravetto-Biagiloi, Kriss and Martine Beugnet. "Vertiginous Hauntings: The Ghosts of 'Vertigo,'" Film-Philosophy 23.2 (2019): 227-246.
“The Force of Small Gestures.” In What Philosophy Wants from Images. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2018. 103-136.
Gill, Annie, “A Tissue of Non-Human Citations: meeting the artist, d. n. rodowick”
Exhibitions and screenings
“Color Corrections,” Film Studies Center, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 11 November 2022.
Exposition Scrapbook: 40 ans de Light Cone, 25FPS Festival, French Institute, Zagreb, Croatia, 22 September-9 October 2022.
“Sites of Thinking: recent work by d. n. rodowick,” Logan Center for the Arts, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 13 May 2022.
The Drawing Room, Arts Club of Chicago, Chicago, IL, Summer-Fall 2021.
“Making and Knowing in 21st Century Artistic Practices,” School of the Art Institute, Chicago, IL, 24 November 2020.
“Dramaturgies of Resistance: Collectivity, Performance, Dialectics,” Jackman Humanities Institute Program for the Arts, University of Toronto, 30 April 2021.
With Anna Ulrike Andersen, “"Following Thinkers: Place, Philosophy and Architecture Explored Through Filmmaking," Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo, Norway, 25 January 2020.Cinema Beltrade, Milan, Italy, 15 November 2019.
King’s College London, London, UK, 17 February 2021.
Mass Culture Workshop, the University of Chicago, Chicago, Il, 23 October 2020.
Campagne Première, Berlin, Germany, 27 July 2019.
Filmanalytische Colloquium, Cinepoetics, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany, 4 July 2019.
“Philosophy by Other Means,” masterclass and screening, Zurich University of the Arts, Zurich, Switzerland, 27 March 2019.
The Cinema Museum of Girona, Girona, Spain, 13 December 2018.
“Actes/espaces (métaphysiques)”, Light Cone, 13 June 2018, Paris France.
“Puissances esthétiques du virtuel : dispositif, forme, pensée,” IRCAV, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle-Paris 3, 28 March 2018, Paris, France.
L’école doctorale arts et médias, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle-Paris 3, INHA, Paris, France. 20 February 2018.
Film-Philosophy Conference 2017, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK, 5 July 2017.
Arsenal – Institute for Film and Video Art, Berlin, Germany, 19 June 2017
Film Studies Center, Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, 6 January 2017.
The Amie and Tony James Gallery, The Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York, New York, 13 October 2016.
The Wanderers, Campagne Première, Berlin, Germany 23 July-10 September 2016.
“Indefinite Visions,” Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK, 22-26 June 2016.
“Lucchiche (shimmering): A Video Art Symposium,” Ponte di Ferro, Carrara, Italy, 23-25 June 2016.
“Think Tank,” Queen Mary University, University of London, London England, 3 December 2015.
“L’étrangeté technologique à l’ère du numérique,” with Christoph Girardet and Steven Jacobs, Université de Paris VII-Diderot, Paris, France, 27 November 2015.
Sound work selected for William Pope L.’s Cage Unrequited, 25 Hour reading of John Cage’s Silence. Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Illinois, 21-22 November 2015.
Birkbeck Institute for the Moving Image, London, England, 21 November 2015.
XIX Encontro da SOCINE, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, Brazil, 21 and 22 October 2015.
Department of Film and Media Studies, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, 21 April 2014.
Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, Concordia University, Montréal, Québec, 1 March 2014.
Film Study Center and Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 7 February 2014.
Interval: recent video work by d. n. rodowick, Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, 10 January 2014.
FAX, curated by João Ribas, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Main Gallery, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 1 March-10 April 2011.
Eflux Video Rental, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Sert Gallery, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, February-April 2007. Touring program presented at venues in Amsterdam, Berlin, Frankfurt, Seoul, Paris, Istanbul, Canary Islands, Austin, Cali, Budapest, Boston, Antwerp, Miami, Lisbon, Lyon, and Rome. Since 2011, located permanently at Moderna Galerija in Ljubljana.
London Filmmakers' Co-op, "Distribution Preview Show," April/May 1985.
Athens International Film and Video Festival, Athens, Ohio, May 1982.
“Fear of Art,” Writers’ Workshop and Theatre Department, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, 9 April 1982.
20th Ann Arbor Film Festival, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 9-14 March 1982.
4th Annual San Francisco Art Institute Film Festival (Judges' Screening), San Francisco, California, 6-7 February 1982.
Film Harvest Festival, 14 November 1982, Austin, Texas.
5th Atlanta Independent Film and Video Festival (Director's Choice Program), Atlanta, Georgia 8-12 April 1981.
Athens International Film Festival, Athens, Ohio, May 1981.
London Video Arts, AIR Gallery, London, England, 1981.
Association for Independent Film and Video, New York, New York, 1981.
Curating
As principal curator
Unreal Memories, sound installation created by Hans Tutschku for the roof of the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University, December 2012-June 2013.
Sooni Taraporevala, Parsis: The Zoroastrians of India, Sert Gallery, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University, 25 October-20 December 2012.
Christian Boltanski, 6 septembres, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Main Gallery, Harvard University, 4 November-20 December 2012.
Circa 1963, Sert Gallery, with works by Josef Albers, Albert Alcalay, Eduardo Chillida, Dmitri Hadzi, György Kepes, Sol LeWitt, Roy Lichtenstein, Morris Louis, George Maciunas, Peter Moore, Yoko Ono, Bridget Riley, Ben Shahn, Aaron Siskind, George Sugarman, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University, 30 August-7 October 2012.
Jesse Aron Green, Paranoia Places Its Faith in Exposure, and Michael Wang, Differentiation Series, Main Gallery, 13 September-7 October 2012.
Matt Saunders, The movies that were secret remain secret somehow and a nation forgets its pleasures, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts and the Harvard Film Archive, 27 September-4 November 2012.
Ernie Gehr, Picture Taking, three channel video installation, Sert Gallery, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University, spring 2012.
Victor Burgin, The Little House, Sert Gallery, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University, 12 March-13 April 2007.
Aleatory Movie Mix, E-FLUX Video Rental, Sert Gallery, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University, 4 April 2007.
Advisory Board, Super Vision, Institute for Contemporary Art, Boston, Massachusetts, 17 September through 31 December 2006.
Co-curator (with Dudley Andrew), Premises: French Cinema since 1958, Centre Georges Pompidou/Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, New York, 1998-1999.
Under my direction as Director of the Carpenter for the Visual Arts (2010-2013)
Living as Form (The Nomadic Version), co-organized by Creative Time and Independent Curators International (ICI), assembled in collaboration with the Carpenter Center with Claire Grace as local curator, 7 February-6 April 2014.
Chris Marker: Guillaume-en-Égypte, curated by João Ribas, in cooperation with the Harvard Film Archive and the MIT List Center for the Arts, 18 October-22 December 2014.
Brute, curated by Katarina Burin and Amie Siegel, with work by Nairy Baghramian, Anna Barriball, Barbara Bloom, Katarina Burin, J. A. Gibson, Alexandra Leykauf, and Amie Siegel, Sert Gallery and Main Gallery, 14 February-7 April 2013.
Annette Lemieux: Unfinished Business, curated by Lelia Amalfitano, Sert Gallery and Main Gallery, 14 February-1 April 2012.
Laurel Nakadate: Say You Love Me, curated by Michelle Laumniere, Sert Gallery, 17 November-22 December 2011.
Measure for Measure, curated by Lisa Randall and Lia Halloran, with work by Zig Gron, Katrina McElroy, Felicity Nove, Barbara Parmet, Susan Sironi, Elizabeth Tobias, and Meeson Pae Yang, Main Gallery, 3 November-22 December 2011.
Pavel Schmidt: Franz Kafka--Verschrieben & Verzeichnet, curated by John Hamilton, Sert Gallery, 13 September-16 October 2011.
Mark Lewis: Three Cinematic Works, curated by Dominique Bluher, Sert Gallery, 20 September-22 December 2011.
Tomás Saraceno, Cloud City, part of The Divine Comedy, curated by Sanford Kwinter, with work by Olafur Eliasson, Ai Weiwei, and Tomás Saraceno, Third Floor Terrace, Spring 2011.
Muntadas, On Academia, curated by José Falconi, Sert Gallery, 3 March-7 April 2011.
Object Lessons: Liz Glynn, Meredith James, and Xiaowei Wang, curated by Annette Lemieux, Main Gallery, 27 January-20 February 2011.
FAX, curated by João Ribas, with work by Laylah Ali, Conrad Bakker, Kim Beck, Ashley Bickerton, Jennifer Bornstein, Matthew Brannon, Natalie Czech, Charles Goldman, Mathew Hale, Nate Heiges, William E. Jones, Matt Mullican, Nora Schultz, Amy Sillman, Mollly Springfield, Josef Strau, Megan Francis Sullivan, Andrew Witkin, Han Yu, and others, Main Gallery, 1 March-10 April 2011.
The Image in Question: War-Media-Art, curated by Antje Ehmann and Harun Farocki, with work by Peggy Ahwesh, Kota Ezawa, Harun Farocki, Jean-Luc Godard, William E. Jones, Lamie Joreige, Allan Sekula, Wael Shawky, and Fazal Sheikh, Sert Gallery and Main Gallery, 21 October-23 December 2010.