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How does matter think, and what does it mean to think with matter?
The second seminar in the Matter of Intelligence series invites inquiry into the nature of matter, exploring matter—and by extension, intelligence—not simply as substance but as process, dynamic, relational, and always in formation.
Long understood as the inert backdrop against which life unfolds, matter is increasingly recognized as agential and intelligent. What if intelligence itself is a material process, an emergent property of matter?
Of Matter considers how consciousness, sentience, and intelligence might arise from and within matter as the materialization of phenomena, while also troubling the line between the material and immaterial, the physical and the metaphysical. Drawing on physics, quantum mechanics, philosophy, feminist theory, and artistic practice, the seminar explores matter not as a passive entity, but as an active and relational one—a dense entanglement of forces, histories, affects, and possibilities. It is a seminar on matter as meaning, and meaning as mattering. To speak of matter is to ask what it does, how it moves, and how it matters—not only conceptually, but materially, ethically, and politically.
With Laura Tripaldi, a transdisciplinary researcher at the interface of science, technology, and speculative thinking, and Harpreet Sareen, designer, researcher, artist, and Associate Professor of Interaction and Media Design at Parsons School of Design, The New School. Hosted by Eriola Pira, Curator and Director of Programs, Vera List Center for Art and Politics.
Matter of Intelligence Seminar Series
Through modes of shared study, rehearsal, and iterative dialogue with invited artists, thinkers, and the public, the VLC Seminar Series develops and presents artistic and scholarly research centered on the Vera List Center’s 2025–2027 Focus Theme, Matter of Intelligence.
A multi-platform research program, Matter of Intelligence, explores the origins, manifestations, and implications of intelligence across species, systems, and societies through art and critical inquiry. Matter of Intelligence considers intelligence not just as an abstract concept, but as something that manifests with tangible, material implications—whether through human cognition, natural processes, or artificial systems—and actively shapes and impacts our understanding and relations with the immaterial and physical worlds.
The Matter of Intelligence Seminar Series—comprising twelve sessions convened from September 2025 through May 2027—is conceived as an open curriculum and a site for collective inquiry. The seminars, alongside other VLC programs and initiatives, aim to question, rethink, and unsettle received notions of what intelligence is, what it does, and what it might yet become. Each seminar examines how intelligence is defined, expressed, and mobilized across various domains, including biological, social, technological, ecological, institutional, historical, and others.
In a moment defined by the speculative promises of artificial intelligence and the pervasive undoing of intellectual life, these exchanges proposition and respond to emerging urgencies, shifting perspectives, and diverse modes of inquiry. Each seminar is paired with a curated reader on the Matter of Intelligence Are.na channel, grounding the dialogue and opening new paths for exploration.
The Matter of Intelligence seminars are presented as part of the Barbara Jordan Lectures: The State of Democracy series and are organized by Eriola Pira and Carin Kuoni.
Presented by Vera List Center for Art and Politics at Schools of Public Engagement.
The Vera List Center tries to share its programs as widely as possible, which means recording our programming and making it available on the Vera List Center and The New School websites. By attending the event, you consent to photography, audio recording, video recording and its/their release, publication, or exhibition. You can view past Vera List Center events at veralistcenter.org/events/past.
Committed to amplifying diverse voices, The New School offers more than a thousand public programs and events each year, providing fresh perspectives and unique learning opportunities. These lectures, exhibitions, concerts, and performances feature prominent and emerging artists, activists, and thought leaders.
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Launched to recognize the center’s 20th anniversary, the Jane Lombard Prize for Art and Social Justice (formerly known as the Vera List Center Prize for Art and Politics) honors an artist or group of artists who has taken great risks to advance social justice in profound and visionary ways. International in scope, the biennial prize is awarded for a particular project’s long-term impact, boldness, and artistic excellence.
The prize initiative unfolds across various platforms and over an extended period of time. It serves as a catalyst for activities that illuminate the important role of the arts in society, and strengthen teaching and learning at The New School in art and design, social science, philosophy, and civic engagement. More than a single moment of recognition, it represents a long-term commitment to the question of how the arts advance social justice, how we speak of, evaluate and teach such work.
An exhibition of the winning project, a conference, integration into classes, and a publication featuring select nominated projects complement a cash award and short-term New York City residency for the honoree. In the spirit of the center’s twenty-year history, the prize provides the opportunity for an ongoing public conversation on art and social justice as a global issue that engages audiences in New York City, nationally and around the world.
In gratitude to Jane Lombard, whose generous donations to The Vera List Center make possible the continuation of the aforementioned efforts and initiatives, the Vera List Center Prize for Art and Politics was renamed the Jane Lombard Prize for Art and Social Justice, starting with the 2018–2020 biennial prize cycle.
Ruth Estévez is a writer, performer, and curator focusing on the development of new artistic fields of knowledge through research and interdisciplinary initiatives. She is currently the co-director of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Previously, Estévez was the Artistic Director of Amant, an alternative art space in Brooklyn (2020–23), Senior Curator of the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University (2018–20), and co-curator of the 34th São Paulo Biennial (2021). She organized the performance festival Idiorrhythmic at MACBA in Barcelona (2017–20) and was the gallery director and curator of REDCAT/Calarts (2012–18). Estévez co-founded LIGA-Space for Architecture and Spatial Practices in Mexico City (2010–). She holds a BFA in Video and Performance by the UPV at the Basque Country and an MA in Art History from Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM). She is currently finishing her PhD in Art, Education, and Research at the University of Castilla–La Mancha, Cuenca, focused on the aesthetic, social, and political shifts of collective creation in performance art, architecture, and theater.
