International Forum on Artistic Research
17th Conference of the Society for Artistic Research (SAR)
Submission Number: 25
Submission ID: 57
Submission UUID: 7f0d9802-45e5-415d-96f0-824404be6399

Created: Mon, 26 Jan 2026 - 18:27
Completed: Mon, 26 Jan 2026 - 18:47
Changed: Wed, 13 May 2026 - 08:12

Remote IP address: 185.195.232.155
Submitted by: Gavin Keeney
Language: English

Is draft: No
Current page: webform_confirmation
Given name Gavin
Surname Keeney
Email editionofone@proton.me
I understand that by submitting this form, I consent to the use of my data for the purposes of the 2026 Forum on Artistic Research'. Yes
I agree to the terms of service. Yes
Title Voice of Works
Format Roundtable contribution
Main language English
Abstract The roundtable will summarize and report on the Works for Works (W4W) transdisciplinary research project (2019-2023) and the subsequent emergence of the Edition of One (EO1) project, an international (borderless) literary agency for collectively produced works of literary-artistic scholarship. In terms of the “voice of works,” issues associated with both projects will be utilized to suggest that the elective abolition of intellectual property rights (IPR) is the ultimate protest against both censorship and the commodification of works. This analytic, in particular, will draw upon Kierkegaard’s dance with the role of polemic and its antithesis – “silence” (scare quotes required) via the competent “dead and transfigured personality.” The summary of the W4W project notably includes: collectively produced works of literary-artistic scholarship; a PhD dissertation; and two open-access monographs, Works for Works, Book 1: Useless Beauty (2022) and Works for Works, Book 2: “No Rights” (2026). The focus on works-based agency and the voice of works is, as developed performatively, the justification for the “No Rights” idiom, an idiom subsequently transcribed to “No Rights” in the EO1 agenda to indicate that the renunciation of authorial privileges does not mean that those rights may be subsumed by others, but, instead, open onto higher rights long hidden in the 500-600-year history of intellectual property rights and copyright. The presentation will utilize radical diagrammatics and lexical/linguistic markers (mathemes) to chart a path out of the auspices of the debauched contemporary, post-capitalist commons for authors and works toward a renewal/renaissance of the concept of the common good.
Image NOTES ON GRAPH (300 DPI).jpg
Short biographies of the presenter(s)
  • Gavin Keeney completed a research doctorate in Architecture, in 2014, on the subject of “Visual Agency in Art & Architecture.” Subsequent research projects include: “Knowledge, Spirit, Law” (2015-2017); “Lived Law” (2017-2019); and “Works for Works” (2019-2024). In 2024, he completed a second PhD entitled “Works for Works: ‘No Rights’” concerning the moral rights of authors in the age of cognitive capitalism, forms of scholarship that are also works of art, and editioning strategies for nominally useless works in the Arts and Humanities.
Previous presentations or iterations of the research RECENT + FORTHCOMING PUBLICATIONS

FORTHCOMING – “The Absolute,” w/ Amy Kellam, Amicus Curiae – The Journal of the Society of Advanced Legal Studies 7, No. 2 (March 2026)

FORTHCOMING – Works for Works, Book 2: “No Rights” (Earth, Milky Way: Punctum Books, 2026)

Works for Works, Book 1: Useless Beauty (Earth, Milky Way: Punctum Books, 2022)

“Illuminated Mirrors and ‘No Rights,’” International Journal for the Semiotics of Law: Religion & Subjectivities 37, No. 4 (December 16, 2023)
Additional information While proposing a way forward into the “wild blue yonder” of a No Rights idiom for works of literary-artistic scholarship, the presentation will draw on the long tail of the project’s backstory, inclusive of transmedia-base works from the multimedia archive of the OOI/MTA collective.
Spatial and technical requirements The multimedia aspects of the roundtable require a darkened room, plus projector and sound system. A seminar environment is also preferable to a lecture hall.
Potential risks or ethical concerns Not applicable.
Create a user account for SAR 2026 Yes
Create new user Gavin Keeney