Curators in Conversation: The "Thoughtography" of Ted Serios

Join IMC Director Paul Roth and Emily Hauver, Guest Curator of Mind’s Eye: The Psychic Photographs of Ted Serios, for a virtual talk exploring the photographic process of Ted Serios, a Chicago bellhop who claimed he could capture his thoughts on film. ABOUT THE EXHIBITION Mind’s Eye: The Psychic Photographs of Ted Serios January 25–April 1, 2023 Between 1964 and 1967, American psychiatrist Dr. Jule Eisenbud conducted experiments with Ted Serios, a man from Chicago with the purported ability to psychically transfer his thoughts onto Polaroid film in a process he named “thoughtography.” Questioning the limits of the human psyche, the supposed objectivity of photography, and notions of scientific neutrality, Mind’s Eye presents a selection of Serios’ mysterious photographs, along with ephemera and experimental data from the Jule Eisenbud Collection on Ted Serios and Thoughtographic Photography, a highlight of the Special Collections at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Organized in collaboration with the Albin O. Kuhn Library and Gallery, University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), United States. ABOUT THE CURATOR Emily Hauver is Curator of Exhibitions in the Library Gallery at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She holds a MS in Museum Studies from Johns Hopkins University and a BA in Visual Arts from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She has curated two exhibitions exploring the paranormal output of Ted Serios: Mind’s Eye: The Psychic Photographs of Ted Serios will debut at The Image Centre at Toronto Metropolitan University in 2023; Psychic Projections/Photographic Impressions was presented at UMBC’s Library Gallery in 2011. Her other curatorial projects are often situated at the intersection of contemporary photography and important social issues of the day, including Louie Palu: Distant Early Warning (2022) and Tom Kiefer: El Sueño Americano/The American Dream (2019). Emily is a contributing author of the forthcoming publication Ted Serios: The Mind's Eye (Atelier Editions, 2023). © The Image Centre, Toronto Metropolitan University No part of this recording may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior permission of The Image Centre, Toronto Metropolitan University. Every attempt has been made to attribute the original rights or intellectual property holders of the recorded materials. Errors and omissions can be brought to the attention of The Image Centre in writing.