The Brooklyn Rail presents a three-part conversation series in partnership with the Vera List Center for Art and Politics revisiting VLC’s 2022 publication Studies into Darkness: The Perils and Promise of Freedom of Speech (co-published with Amherst College Press), from February–May 2024 as part of the Rail’s daily Zoom series, the New Social Environment.

Building on the VLC’s Seminar Series Freedom of Speech: A Curriculum for Studies into Darkness, Studies into Darkness explores freedom of speech through the lenses of history, poetics, and social justice, bringing together the writings and ideas of dozens of contributing artists, activists, curators, and writers. Two years after its publication, its central questions have only become more urgent and timely.

Part I of the series, on Thursday, February 22 at 11 am EST on Zoom, features artist Amar Kanwar in conversation with curator and historian Rattanamol Singh Johal. Kanwar prompted Studies into Darkness with the question: “Is there an idea, concept, or social construct that would benefit from a retreat ‘into darkness’—into a space of profound reconsideration and rethinking?” In this dialogue, Kanwar and Johal discuss the potentiality of darkness as a mode of reconsideration and the role of text and image in Kanwar’s work. Through examinations of Kanwar’s artworks, including Such a Morning, The Torn First Pages, and The Peacock’s Graveyard, they reflect on the role of art in cultivating generosity and new imaginaries.

On May 9 at 1 pm EDT, Open Letter in the Dark brings together artist Emily Jacir and Studies into Darkness contributor Michael Rakowitz in a dialogue hosted by Rail contributor Jill H. Casid. The program explores the genre of letter writing, centering on the particularities of the open letter as “a space of radical exposure.”

Part III, Aberrating the Image, Archives as Surveillance, on May 29 at 1 pm EDT, brings together artist Maya Jeffereis and Rail contributor Ayanna Dozier. The conversation explores the aberrant image’s potential to unlock a surveillance “sight-based” discourse, connect related histories of exploitation and resistance, and contend with questions of sovereignty, solidarity, and criminality. Dozier and Jeffereis consider the archive’s relationship to surveillance, and how the aberrant image opens up speculative possibilities and discourse for evasion from institutional ownership.

Revisiting Studies into Darkness: Conversations on Freedom of Speech is organized by Chloe Stagaman in collaboration with Re’al Christian, Carin Kuoni, and Eriola Pira.