Adorno/Bueller; Theodor W. Adorno, Aesthetic Theory, 1977, ed. Gretel Adorno and Rolf Tiedemann, trans. Robert Hullot-Kentor, University of Minnesota Press, 1997, pp 243-244; Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, dir. John Hughs, 1986, minutes 4:36-5:47. Scott Cupper, Shariba Rivers, Ben Veatch, Shawn Pfautsch, Carolyn Defrin, Jason Economus, Jennifer Shin. Richard Hamilton, Towards a Definitive Statement on the Coming Trends in Men’s Wear and Accessories (c) Adonis in Y-Fronts, 1962 © Artists Rights Society (ARS); Agnes Martin, Untitled #12, 1977 © ARS; Robert Rauschenberg, Persimmon, 1964 © Visual Artists and Galleries Association Inc. (VAGA); Roy Lichtenstein, Mirror in Six Panels, 1971 © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein; Roy Lichtenstein, George Washington, 1962 © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein; James Rosenquist, Volunteer, 1963-4 © VAGA; Alex Katz, Vincent and Tony, 1969 © VAGA; Ed Ruscha, City, 1968, Custom Blur: Surface Blur radius 100 + threshold 2, Surface Blur radius 10 + threshold 203, Surface Blur radius 20 + threshold 85, Guassian blur radius 16.5; Brice Marden, Rodeo, 1971 © ARS; Frank Stella, De la nada vida a la nada muerte, 1965 © ARS; Sam Francis, In Lovely Blueness No. 2, 1955-56 © ARS; Sol LeWitt, Wall Drawing #111: Circle with broken bands of color, 2003 ©ARS; Adolphe-Joseph-Thomas Monticelli, Still Life with Fruit and Wine Jug, 1874; Georges Seurat, Oil Sketch for “La Grande Jatte”, 1884; Georges Seurat, A Sunday on La Grande Jatte – 1884, 1884-86; Jitish Kallat, Public Notice 3, 2010, unilluminated, courtesy the artist; Jasper Johns, Corpse and Mirror II, 1974-75 © VAGA; Mark Rothko, Untitled (Purple, White, and Red), 1953 © ARS; John Chamberlain, Toy, 1961 © ARS; Joan Mitchell, City Landscape, 1955 © Estate of Joan Mitchell; Willem de Kooning, Excavation, 1950 © ARS; Willem de Kooning, Untitled, 1948-49 © ARS; Jackson Pollock, Greyed Rainbow, 1953 © ARS; Robert Motherwell, Wall Painting with Stripes, 1944 © VAGA; David Smith, Tanktotem I, 1952 © VAGA; Lucio Fontana, Concetto spaziale (Spatial Concept), 1962 © ARS; Willem de Kooning, Untitled XI, 1975 © ARS. The Art Institute of Chicago: Modern Wing, designed by Renzo Piano, 2009; Gallery 240, designed by Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, 1893; Grand Staircase, designed by Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, 1910. Steadicam, Director of Photography: Carl Wiedemann; Assistant Director: Danièle Wilmouth, Adebukola Bodunrin; Sound recording: Alan Strathmann, ChiaLin Hsu, Matt Griffin, Balta Pena; Steadicam Assistant: Tommy Heffron, Gonzalo Escobar, Anthony Rizzo; Production Assistant: Jessica Hyatt, C. Jacqueline Wood, Crispin Rosenkranz, Michael Milano, Jordan Scrivner, Caylin Colson, Jason Economus; Hair and Makeup: Mark Bazant; Still Photography: Jesse Avina, Jill Frank, Yasamin Ghanbari, Christopher Keener; Production Support: Staff and Security at Art Institute of Chicago, Faculty and Staff at School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Frédéric Moffet, Warren Cockerham, Yoni Goldstein, Tiffany Joy Ross, Susaan Jamshidi, Emjoy Gavino; Sound Mixing: Alan Strathmann; Color correction: JWJ Ferguson; Digital Compositing: Brock Jolet; Funding: Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body, The Ian Potter Cultural Trust

This video is based around two scripts: one adapted from Aesthetic Theory (1970), Frankfurt School Philosopher Theodor Adorno’s epic, posthumously published thesis on aesthetics, and the other from John Hughes' legendary movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986), which follows the activities of three truants, led by Bueller, spending the day in downtown Chicago. Filmed on location in the public and gallery spaces of the Art Institute of Chicago, the looped video stages a dynamic encounter between both texts via a series of performances that presents and merges the two scripts in perpetual motion. Through this encounter, the video both rehearses and problematizes the categories of  ‘high’ and ‘popular’ culture as they are conventionally defined, and demonstrates the contradictions inherent within each text. Simultaneously dramatizing and destabilizing the categories that continue to inform and delineate our conceptions of social, cultural and artistic production, the video formally manifests the contradictions embedded in such categorical divisions and the possible ways in which they are necessarily maintained or dissolved.