Questions like &ldquo\;What does this mean?&rdquo\; are central to our encounters with art. &ldquo\;How are these signs connected?&rdquo\; or &ldquo\;Does every symbol fit into an unstated scheme?&rdquo\; are the foundational concerns of aesthetics. Yet\, when the same concerns crop up regularly in almost any other part of life\, we give the mode of perception a clinical\, pathological name: paranoia.
\nParanoia \;is an attempt to drag the dark\, suspicious\, paranoiac impulses that animate all artistic interpretation into the open. Via the time-honoured method of the symposium\, Verdurin \;becomes a meeting space for artists\, curators\, literary scholars\, philosophers\, and paranoiacs of all stripes\, to rehabilitate suspicion as an object of study and scrutiny. \;
\nWhy have so many artists and writers gravitated towards conspiracy and intrigue as a metaphor for aesthetics? Are art and literature exempt from the now constant &lsquo\;debunking&rsquo\; and &lsquo\;fact-checking&rsquo\; of every public utterance? And might our most paranoiac fantasies &ndash\; from shadowy conclaves controlling global events to monsters hiding under the bed &ndash\; be\, in their own way\, a kind of art?
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