DURATIONS: Meredith Graves & Offal Literary Salon present Philosophy and Magic with Simon Critchley, Elvia Wilk, Joseph Earl Thomas, Sasha Ravitch
About This Event
At Public Records, DURATIONS brings together Meredith Graves and Offal Literary Salon with philosopher Simon Critchley, electronic artists Elvia Wilk and Sasha Ravitch, and writer Joseph Earl Thomas. The program foregrounds text and structure—spoken thought and tightly paced electronic sets folded into a salon-style sequence that treats programming, room, and audience as components of a composed event.
About Philosophy and Magic
At Public Records, “Philosophy and Magic” folds electronic performance into a live forum for ideas. Meredith Graves, working between listening-room sets and sound as inquiry, is joined by Offal Literary Salon with philosopher Simon Critchley and writers Joseph Earl Thomas, Elvia Wilk, and Sasha Ravitch. The program treats the club as a lecture hall without abandoning the physical logic of bass, tone, and duration. In New York’s long tradition of downtown cross-genre salons, it reads as a contemporary study of how thinking happens in public and in sound.
About the Artists
Meredith Graves
Meredith Graves is a New York–based electronic artist whose work moves between performance, listening-room culture, and conversation. She has appeared at Brooklyn’s Public Records, including “The Old Way of Plants,” a public dialogue with composer Lauren Haynes that frames sound as research as much as entertainment.
Offal Literary Salon
Offal Literary Salon is a New York City–based group working at the seam between electronic performance and literary conversation, with appearances at Public Records. Their events often take the form of structured salons that place sound alongside live speaking and text, drawing on collaborators such as philosopher Simon Critchley and writers Elvia Wilk, Joseph Earl Thomas, and Sasha Ravitch, as well as Meredith Graves.
Simon Critchley
Simon James Critchley is an English philosopher and the Hans Jonas Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research in New York City, US.
Elvia Wilk
Elvia Wilk is an individual electronic artist whose work often sits between performance and inquiry. In New York City, she has appeared at Public Records in the DURATIONS program, joining Meredith Graves and Offal Literary Salon for “Philosophy and Magic” alongside Simon Critchley, Joseph Earl Thomas, and Sasha Ravitch.
Joseph Earl Thomas
Joseph Earl Thomas is a writer from Frankford whose work has appeared or is forthcoming in VQR, N+1, Gulf Coast, The Offing, and The Kenyon Review. He is the author of the novel God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer, and the memoir SINK.
Sasha Ravitch
Sasha Ravitch is an electronic artist whose work often sits between performance and inquiry, treating sound as a way to think in public. In New York City, Ravitch has appeared at Public Records in interdisciplinary contexts, including DURATIONS programs alongside Meredith Graves and Offal Literary Salon.