Parenthesis
The components of this website, an experimental online publication, are: NOTES FROM ART HISTORY and RESEARCH FRAGMENTS.
The NOTES follow a subjective reprise of the texts I read through undergraduate and graduate degrees in art history and curatorial studies that concentrated on contemporary art, critical theory among other things. Taking notes is a common part of the research process. I hope that sharing the process-oriented parts of research will inspire new ideas, make the texts and ideas more approachable and also legible in a very human way, because the resultant parts are more open-ended and intimate. Notes made during research are provisional; they contain room for exploration, (re)consideration, conversation, improvements and revisions. They may contain errors. (I am tempted to leave spelling errors as they occur to signify the same inclination toward demonstrating a human behind the machine. We’ll see, but where errors exist, I’m open to it.)
The FRAGMENTS are intended to be a visual diary of the same process as the NOTES and with the same goals in mind. I see them somewhat like tiny digital exhibitions, or visual essays. Both NOTES and FRAGMENTS are found by clicking through to links that contain PDFs.
Regarding the human. Art history is a subject of the humanities. Although it is an intellectual pursuit, it may be approached in an open, more humble way. More than this, a human-centered* orientation toward art historical research, here means *specifically, human-centered as in: to explore a counterpoint to artificial intelligence—which is something that is more digital, digitized, computer-minded and/or incorporative of artificial intelligences. Meaning that this website wants to include its flaws, its provisionality**, its temporality, something that may not strive for perfection but instead for transparency (?), for process, etc. We may know something is human is when it is incomplete, arrives at more questions than answers, stays open, as these are natural parts of the human experience. (**I guess “provisionality” is not a word. ***Maybe, not “transparency,” which has a strange connotation.)
Perhaps, most importantly, as it pertains to human-orientation, the contents of this site are created, prepared and written *without* the assistance of artificial intelligence. Although I think it’s extremely necessary to understand and experiment with these new technologies, it’s crucial to the sensibility of this publication that the focus is human to contrast other projects in which I endeavor into those spaces.
And, although the contents here are open-ended, provisional, process-oriented, they are created with deep care and attention. Close readings.
Beyond these initial projects, I can envision off-shoots from this work. Soon, I’ll look forward to making invitations for new criticism, jointly-written essays, other sorts of collaborative conversations.
A thing to say about the subjective reprise part (above)—the deepest reason for this project is that I love art history. I have loved it since I began studying contemporary art shortly after moving to Santa Fe, New Mexico when I was nineteen years old. (The rest is a much longer story.) Although I didn’t know that I would focus on contemporary art at that time, the goal of Parenthesis is to share this pursuit in keeping with the sincerest intent of the internet—to give knowledge away, to share it. I like the idea that,—in the face of arts organizations, art schools, and other types of institutions that proliferate this knowledge base, closing—we can carry these ideas forward, encouraging the internet’s most altruistic intent.
I imagine one parenthesis like a hand cupped around the ear to listen carefully. I also see it as a grammatical symbol that shares more intimate details, non-sequiturs perhaps, or subtexts—something like calling a friend over to share a small part of the story they don’t see or aren’t paying attention to at the moment, to whisper something important but that must be concealed from a pervading authority. I want to help, in part, keep the powerful ideas of art history going, wherever they need to live in order to continue, in an unorthodox educational kind of way.
Currently, all aspects of this site are created and written by Katy Crocker. But, I hope this is also temporary. I’ve experimented with many forms and formats for online publishing about art and I’ve been fortunate to be involved with early versions of digital publications, and other types of experimental exhibition-making practices—such that I hope different kinds of collaborations emerge as a result of the care we each have for this material.
More soon—…K
(I wrote this on 24 July 2026; I’ll try to update it soon with better details. There’s much more to say.)
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