Thijs Witty

Thijs Witty is a PhD fellow at the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis, University of Amsterdam. The object and problem of his research is the genre of the essay: a highly protean form that has been supporting the craft of writing ever since Sumerians first carved small notches in clay. Now that the essay form has regained traction in various post-medium conditioned turns towards provisional writing experiments, several questions become very interesting: how does the essay navigate between scepticism and speculation? What does it have to offer to the third person singular, if anything? And in what ways can its free-floating wander add precision to the new struggles with calculation in times of volatile sense perception?
Thijs has previously taught at the Amsterdam School for New Dance Development, the Master in Artistic Research at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in The Hague, and at the Media Studies department of the University of Amsterdam.