Office of Experiments

No.1 The Thames (2023)

Since 2016, Office of Experiments has been testing the limits of independent artistic research  in The Deep Field Project (See An Atlas of Chronographic Things) within UK Higher Education, as well as working with curators, architects, activists and academics. Within the University of Westminster, we have joined forces with Professor John Beck, who interviewed Neal White about the Overt research in 2012 for the edited book; Cold War Legacies.

Office of Experiments are working with botanist Harry Smith at Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, and researchers at Westminster / Kingston, to explore the spatiotemporal control of nature, including the control and seizure of endangered plants travelling through nearby Heathrow Airport, and the environs of Heathrow as a site for a new Herbarium at Kew. This research at the herbarium also includes coordinating access for other artists, including recent trip for a UK iteration of The Court for Intergenerational Climate Crimes led by Jonas Staal (NL) and Westminster Professor of Law, Radha D’Souza.

In a recent development, and supported by Westminster Smithsonian Development Group, Office of Experiments will be working on a project that will explore the legacies of the US space program through  NASA Conference “Habitability’ that took place at artist Robert Irwin studio in 1972. This project brings together a project started by US based curator Boris Oicherman in 2018 and in its new iteration draws on substantial archive research undertaken by Beck in relation to environmental controls. Further remote and in person research in NASA archives is being facilitated by the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in December 2024.

Further information on these projects is available through direct correspondence.