Duke University’s Center for Advanced Hindsight acquires our work

Installation View, BUREAU of CHANGE: Taking Care of Trees, 2012
Commissioned by Duke University Center for Advanced Hindsight for the exhibition Restraining Order: The Art of Self-Control, December 14th, 2012 – February 22nd, 2013

Duke University’s Center for Advanced Hindsight acquired work from BUREAU of CHANGE’s Taking Care of Trees project for it’s collection. Dan Ariely, behavioral economist, founder of the Center and also a popular TED talker and NYT best-selling author, explains the social implications BUREAU’s work:

“In this project, the artists challenge the buyers of the art with a self-control exercise. With a purchase, the buyers not only receive a piece of beautiful art, but they get to contribute to the earth by raising a tree. But with this comes accountability, as the artists require ongoing proof that the tree is alive and well. But, how long will the warm glow last? Will the exchange be as rewarding after four or five years? Long after the art has been lost or broken, the buyer may feel less enthusiastic about caring for their seedling as the initial joy of goodwill fades and the responsibility sets in.”

MORE ON TED: Dan Ariely shows how and why human brains are predictably irrational

About the Center for Advanced Hindsight:  The central goal of the Center for Advanced Hindsight is to develop great insights (in hindsight) about an extensive and diverse set of research projects. As a non-discriminating institution, its work examines published as well as unpublished work, and the work of researchers of all ranks. Of course, this involvement is restricted to work conducted by unaffiliated researchers, as this kind of intimate scientific inquiry by its members would be too dangerous. Needless to say, all aforementioned work is done retrospectively. One might even go as far as saying “in hindsight.” The sole responsibility of members is to critique the work of others and comment on the obvious intuitiveness and predictability of the results. In fact, there is no “ground-breaking” research that comes as a surprise to the brilliant minds of the Center. The initiation process to become an official member of the center requires an oath of commitment to apathy and absurdity.