The Library of Not-knowing

Future Fragments is a series of events bringing together art, technology and science, dedicated to how our understanding of creativity and intelligence is changing today. During the second meeting in 2026, poet and researcher Dirk Vis will discuss his concept of the Library of Not-Knowing — a way of thinking and acting that may help us navigate an increasingly complex reality. Together, we will reflect on what knowing means in today’s world — saturated with digital technologies and marked by ecological crisis — and why not-knowing may now be more useful for achieving well and meaningful life on the planet. 

The Library of Not-Knowing understands knowledge as something that emerges through an open, intense and humble encounter with the unknown. It emerges from the realities of contemporary ruptures — from ecological breakdown to the rapid expansion of computational technology in everyday life. The Library draws on ecstatic traditions, theology, philosophy, advanced technology, ecological thought and artistic practice, asking how these traditions might inform debates around artificial intelligence, planetary systems and new forms of art-making. 

In his lecture-performance, writer Dirk Vis explores the fictional institution of the Library of Now Knowing, and the impossibility of systematising forms of not-knowing, through art and design works from widely different timeframes and cultures. As one Library visitor put it:

 

The lecture-performance is an early emergence from The Library of Not-Knowing: Devotional Writings for Research and Art, a forthcoming reader, edited by curator and researcher Lucia Pietroiusti and Dirk Vis, gathering historical, contemporary and new texts on the concept of not-knowing. The volume investigates traditions that treat mystery, uncertainty, receptivity, intimacy and extreme attention as the fundamental ground for the unfolding of thought, art and spiritual life. Here, not-knowing stands as a necessary and reparative condition for planetary thriving, and as the place out of which art, poetry, invention and ecstasy take shape together.

 

The event is organized with the support of the Embassy of the Netherlands.