The Fabula of Last Year’s Notebooks
Sher Doruff

How does speculative fabulation, a plank in Donna Haraway’s SF constellation (science fiction, science fact, string theory, so far) play a role in artistic practice? How might fictions fabulate from the everyday practice of artists’ notebooks? SF, Haraway’s storytelling as a “point of eruption,” the weaving of “wild facts.” In this lecture I’ll speak about prisms through which critical theory, process philosophy, studio practice, social engagement and activist agency converge in fantastic worldings. The topic of speculative fabulation will be approached through the lens of my recent novellas, Last Year at Betty and Bob’s in which theory and practice convolute. In which perceptual states and theoretical referencing are queered by somnabulisitic realities.

Sher Doruff works in the visual, digital, and performance arts in a variety of capacities. For the past twelve years her work has been situated in the expanded field of artistic research practice as an artist, writer, tutor, mentor, and supervisor. Her research practice currently explores fabulation and fictive approaches to writing in and through artistic research. She currently mentors 3rd cycle/PhD artist researchers at the DAS Graduate School (Amsterdam University of the Arts) and the Gerrit Rietveld Academy of Art and Design. She has published numerous texts in academic and artistic contexts.