During 8–19 April, the Graphic Design Department at Vilnius Academy of Arts will be hosting Theory Objects, a workshop and exhibition by Joshua Trees, Research Tutor at Royal College of Art and participating students.
Theory Objects investigates the open-source concept of a ‘theory object’* in celebration of the free movement of ideas.
*Historically Bruce Sterling has used the term to describe “shareable concepts” such as ‘Spime’ and ‘The New Aesthetic’, but Trees has adopted the term to refer to redistributable concepts designed to both initiate and facilitate their own modification, duplication and dissemination. Such concepts could be material (publications, posters, furniture, souvenirs...) or immaterial (downloads, workshops, rumours, algorithms, performances, videos, fonts…)

On 8 April at 16:00 Josh will deliver an open lecture titled ‘Unreliable Compass’ about navigating and situating experimental communication practices (between art and design) in contemporary culture. 

Joshua Trees is a publisher, researcher and educator working across the expanded field of Visual Communication. He is co-founder of Books From The Future, a London-based imprint/school that tests models of learning, reading and publishing. Recent titles include Performance Society, Model and Countermodel and Thought Experiments in Graphic Design Education. During 1999– 2009 Trees practiced under the name Fake I.D. in collaboration with Yvan Martinez. Their work has been exhibited widely and is part of the permanent collections of Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, Denver Art Museum, Design Museum, MoMA and SFMOMA. During 1995–1997 he was a co-founding member of the anarchic performance art collective CCSIS (Creative Community Seriously I Swear).