Join us at The Poetic Research Bureau to celebrate the release of Miljohn Ruperto’s An Operational Account of Western Spatio-Temporality, our latest X Projects edition. Miljohn Ruperto will be in conversation with XAB author Mashinka Firunts Hakopian.

An Operational Account of Western Spatio-Temporality, an edition by Miljohn Ruperto, comprises three flipbooks and an accordion-fold booklet. The booklet presents an essay that examines three forms of time as philosophized by the Ancient Greeks—aion, chronos, and kairos—to map the boundaries of, and discern the influences of, Western spatio-temporality. The essay serves as a guiding narrative to help readers identify the source or the essence of Western subjectivity.

Each of Ruperto’s flipbooks depict a disembodied head in movement. “The Baroque Is a Geometric Imposition Upon Wild Nature” features the head of Medusa; “History Awaits Immanence,” the head of John the Baptist; and “Western Temporalities Incline Towards a Tripartite Structure,” a triface image of Christ. Each of these figures is drawn from classical art historical references.

Miljohn Ruperto (b.1971 Manila, Philippines) lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. Ruperto is interested in developing approaches to interrogating and expanding our conception of nature and history: e.g. historiography, the history of nature, and the nature of nature.

Artist, designer, and independent curator Margaret Tedesco has collaborated with artists, writers, choreographers, and filmmakers for over three decades. In 2007, she established 2nd Floor Projects, an artist-run exhibition and publishing imprint, and received the Southern Exposure Alternative Exposure Award.

Mashinka Firunts Hakopian is an Armenian writer, artist, and researcher born in Yerevan and residing in Glendale, CA. She is an Associate Professor in Technology and Social Justice at ArtCenter College of Design, and holds a PhD in the History of Art from the University of Pennsylvania. With Avi Alpert and Danny Snelson, she makes up one-third of the collective, Research Service. Her writing and commentary appear in Performance Research Journal, Los Angeles Review of Books, Meghan Markle’s Archetypes, and elsewhere. Her research focuses on practices that generate alternative imaginaries of the future.

X Projects, established in 2021, explores the creation of artworks, editions, and ideas outside the confines of traditional book publishing.