Some Kind of Lab Project

Our Final Presentation

2008-03-16T08:01:00.001-07:00

food court musical

2008-03-12T12:16:00.000-07:00

http://www.boingboing.net/2008/03/09/food-court-musical-b.html

Sometimes we like to watch

2008-03-06T16:56:00.000-08:00

Debate at the Royal Festival Hall

2008-03-02T14:01:00.000-08:00

…surveillance, fragility, language as a weapon against unknown zones, norms of social belonging, camera as falsehood – filter – machine, mystification of images, focus on totalities and stereotypes, lack of a real picture, vulnerability, superiority, suspicion, paranoia, society without awareness, self-awareness, the other, lovability, survivability, ego, quantum theory…

Artist's exploration of post 9/11 state control/terror

2008-02-28T02:53:00.001-08:00

http://www.ikatun.org/evacuateboston/

Drawin'@Tate

2008-02-26T05:30:00.001-08:00

Yesterday we were at Tate Modern 4th Floor: Lara, Marianne, Claudia and me.
We have come out with these results of the attempts of drawing the negative space.

Debate at Fatos' flat

2008-02-25T16:12:00.001-08:00

Despite the multiple distractions, such as the setting for this debate, which happened to be a very lovely house with many interesting elements, delicious food on the table, and short digressions on various topics, this meeting was very productive. The topics included surveillance, the Internet, globalization, academia and social behaviour.

What I found very enjoyable was the seriousness of this gathering. There was an actual debate taking place! Criticality, exchange of ideas and opinions, and questioning were utilized to establish a new sense of identity for the group that happened to form at this particular time. We were no longer classmates/lab group b members/friends but also opponents and allies immersed in the challenge of the dialogue.

This meeting left me with further questions regarding the self-organization of our group, the roles of “settings”, and of course the structure of a network. In this case the kitchen table happened to be enough. Also, I found myself heard and able to listen carefully when operating within the number of four participants that day.

Valentine’s Day 3-legged Race

2008-02-24T14:01:00.002-08:00

a.k.a.
Sometimes You Learn More When Things Go Wrong.

When we appraised the turnout for our grand Valentine’s Day Three-Legged Race in Covent Garden and realised that the total head count came to a somewhat underwhelming three (Amy, Charlotte and myself), we had a sense that we were in for a challenge. We called an emergency meeting. We hid away and drank tea and deliberated as to the correct course of action. We had anticipated a bigger group, and had hoped they would help us persuade members of the public to join in. The sole condition of the race was that each competitor had to be tied to someone they had never met. Clearly, with three people, this was going to be tricky.

We considered going home. We considered doing shots. Then eventually we decided that we had to just get out there and give it a go. Surely someone, someone, would happen to think that hopping around in the freezing cold tied to a complete stranger for the chance to win a fun-size Mars bar sounded like a good time?

We stood around for what seemed like ages; sizing people up, always finding excuses as to why it would be a bad idea to ask that particular person if they wanted to join. Too old, too young, too boring, too ugly, too weird. Who exactly was the perfect candidate for an impromptu three-legged race?

I eventually settled on a mother with three kids in tow, thinking maybe we could rope in the whole family and have done with it.

“Excuse me, hi. Would you like to do a three-legged race with us?”

She looked at me incredulously, then with a softer expression. Clearly I had taken total leave of all my senses and deserved a little sympathy.

“No, thanks.”

“Oh. Are you sure?” I put on the most winning smile I could muster.

“Yes, quite sure.”

The softness disappeared and she shot me a stare, tugging her children away from the crazy lady.

We stood around for a while longer. There was a lot of nervous laughter. I think I stated approximately seventeen times that I was “Way Out of My Comfort Zone”. We nearly persuaded a charity fundraiser with a clipboard to join, but he wanted money for sick children first, and we decided that was against the spirit of the whole endeavour. And we almost managed to strap a young French boy to Amy, but then he realised what was going on and bolted. Finally, after several failed attempts and with no remaining credibility, we tied our own legs together and hobbled around the Piazza, laughing our heads off as Charlotte’s boyfriend took our picture. It was time to go to the pub.

………………………………………..

Sometimes You Learn More When Things Go Wrong.

So what exactly did we learn?

Clearly, we had misjudged a great number of things. We decided that if ever we were to attempt such a thing again (heaven forbid) that we would definitely be more organised. We had to publicise it better. We would need a stand, flyers, costumes to wear (hide behind), race numbers, a better prize. But then, of course, it wouldn’t be quite the same.

What we did agree on was that we would need to give people a reason to want to do it. Why would anyone want to do it? Why did we want to do it? In the beginning, it had all seemed so clear. We had wanted to create a private space in a public one, employing mechanisms of game play to raise questions regarding the nature of received modes of behaviour in public space. We had wanted to have fun, and make Not-Art. We had wanted to create fleeting interactions between strangers, spawning invisible networks that would stretch far beyond the here and now through recounts, exaggerated tales and the weaving of a new urban lore by word-of-mouth. We were all about extrospection. All of which was well and good until we were faced with standing around asking people if they wouldn’t like to have their leg tied to someone else for a bit, at which point it all felt distinctly silly. Our intentions may seem lofty to some, and inconsequential to others. But I think they still stand. We are feeling them out in a number of different ways, and some are more successful than others. And, of course, sometimes you learn more when things go wrong.

metaspy.

2008-02-24T09:00:00.000-08:00

From Liz's blog, a link to a website that lets you spy on what other people are searching for on internet search engines.

Updates every 15 seconds.

http://www.metaspy.com/info.metac.spy/metaspy/filtered.htm

The Big Freeze

2008-02-24T08:53:00.000-08:00

On Saturday 16th Feb “frozen in time” missions happened in both London and Toronto. They were inspired by the Frozen Grand Central mission and organized via Improv Everywhere Global.
http://improveverywhere.com/

The London event took place in Trafalgar Square at 3.30pm and had an estimated 1,000 participants.

We turned up at Trafalgar Square at about 3.25pm, quite aware of the tense expecation that chattered around the crowd. A bugle sounded - the sign for the freeze to start, and a quiteness fell over the Square, wrapping the participants in silence. 5 minutes was not long to be standing in a pose, and as we did, others walked around taking photographs, filming and looking at the giant tableaux. My favourite comments were "What is going on?!". "Why is everyone standing still?", "Ooooh - it's like that New York thingy!". Although requested to continue moving at 3.35pm when the signal was given to break, a large cheer went up from the crowd and it was hard not to join in. There was a definite feeling of elation - a post performance buzz. It had felt quite spiritual, and I was hit by a keen and rare sense of having taken part in a large group action, where our individuality was irrelevant, and the power was in the numbers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MS65a-RKTQk&feature=related

Giorgio Agamben. On Security and Terror.

2008-02-23T13:05:00.000-08:00

Have a look at this link; it's a text by Agamben about security / terror / society. http://www.egs.edu/faculty/agamben/agamben-on-security-
and-terror.html

Exquisite Corpse

2008-02-22T04:29:00.000-08:00

by Yves Tanguy, Man Ray, Max Morise and Joan Miró, 1926.

debate at the tate.

2008-02-21T13:55:00.001-08:00

More about play...

2008-02-20T04:43:00.000-08:00

There is a talk at the ICA on 29th February about play and games within the gallery context. I can't make it but it could be useful to the group. See link below for details.

http://www.ica.org.uk/Fun%20and%20Games%3A%20The%20Gallery%20as%20Adult%20Play%20Centre+15916.twl

Our presentation

2008-02-07T15:09:00.000-08:00

Art in times of post-production

2008-02-05T11:14:00.000-08:00

The technological advances and globalised economy have made digital technology readily available for large parts of the world population, regardless of geographic location. Meanwhile visual art is heavily dependent on digital equipment such as digital cameras, editing programs and means of projection. Yet in countries devastated by war (such as Iraq, Afganistan, Palestine) these means are extremely limited. So how does that influence the prodution of art in these countries? And the western perception of non-western art? I am going to work with the screening of a video work, by an afgan artist, that has been post-produced here in the UK, because the curator did not feel It was good enough for the museum it was intended to be shown in. Is there a western filter on contemporary art, that focuses on technical quality? Are economic limitations an impediment for producing art that deals with the division between first and third world? What disourses regulate the field of socially commited art? I would like to recieve some opinions on the matter, and possibly tips on how to approach the subject. The idea is basically to show the video piece simultaneausly in its "before" and "after" state, with an ensuing discussion.

"The Trap: what happened to our dreams of freedom" by Adam Curtis

2008-02-05T05:30:00.000-08:00

This link with the first episode of the series "The trap: What happened to our dreams of freedom" by Adam Curtis could be interesting for the debate in surveillance and the expectations one may have of a future society. What is the political concept of freedom nowadays? I hope this helps!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOEB05_3-p0&feature=related

Subjective projections on the imagined-to-be societ

2008-02-04T07:32:00.001-08:00

image: Dan Perjovschi
As tomorrow we are gathering to share our thoughts and ideas on the status quo of today and reflect upon our expectations of what to take place, I want to mention some lines of thought where we could base our debate on. These lines of thought can also be taken as triggering effects.
To be a proper member of a social group or community, one is asked to fullfill demands that have been traditionally or ritually accepted or expected. The forming of consent will be a far back discussion of how we got to form societies but maybe an interesting one to base our thinking. Despite the consent is an actualisation of (re)defining the freedom of act and speech as well as primordially defined status of social grounds.
Today, in London everything is mostly purchased in transparent bags and mobile phones can function as a transmitter in (defined) necessary conditions. Throughout all these and more to be added aspects, would be interesting to discuss the fragile circumstances or semi-virtual hints on subjectivities. Where does a correspondance or interaction take place? Where does the (re) / (over) locating of segragation stand? What is at stake with suspense and the suspect? Where is the thin line between a member and an enemy.
What kind of society to live in? Which are your demands and wishes to come true? Do you imagine such a society. Where do you wanna live, why do you think there would be better place to do so? How open do you want to be and how open can you be?
I subjectively do not believe in the duality of subject and society. Both shapes each other and influences each other and everything is dependant on experience. What kind of experiences do you foresee for everyone?

Flash mobbing in silence......

2008-02-03T14:51:00.000-08:00

Might be a very cool way of linking groups together.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DerK9VJKIpY&NR=1

Sousveillance

2008-02-03T03:26:00.000-08:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sousveillance

Could be useful for the debate

Lost and Found Tracing

2008-01-30T05:12:00.000-08:00

Moving along the with the idea of tracing, following, collecting, obsessing... I am proposing a treasure hunt of my own-one that we could all participate in.

Our mission would be to collect the lost (personal) items, which we find on our everyday journeys to work, school and/or to our daily activities (library, bookstore, cinema, theatre, etc..). Forms of transport can include: boat, walking, tram, train, tube, bus, taxi, bicycle, rickshaws, tour buses, car ferries....

These found personal items can include a number of things: ie, odd glove, letter, note, used/named envelopes, buttons, to do lists, pictures, train tickets, newspaper cutting, etc.

We can make our own ‘lost and found’ journey through London– by collecting items and then creating our own stories and narratives.

The overall aim would be to make a revised, malleable, interactive and very truthful Transport for London map – This visual map (much in the vein of my original serial killer map, but used in a much more inviting way :>) will be comprised of all of the lost items that we find on our numerous journeys through London!

At the same time we would also be entering into someone’s private space (unknowingly) within a public setting, and then creating a new private space...

another possibility?

2008-01-30T03:07:00.000-08:00

I have been thinking about changes we could make to the underground theatre idea and also to the ideas of following people in public spaces. Perhaps we could set up a situation that we dont necesarily participate in by putting a post on the flash mobbing (or similar if anyone knows any) website and then observing and documenting the results whilst not actually being directly involved. we could be participants but only from a distance. a kind of mediated, indirect interaction with others. it could be creating a private space for others to interact in within a public space. perhaps this is just creating relations/interactions for the sake of it, but it could be fun to see what happens. it could be an experiment to start off other things.

Vikki's - Part Deux

2008-01-29T06:13:00.000-08:00

to discuss...

2008-01-28T12:31:00.000-08:00

It's great to see so many projects evolving on our blog! I'm sorry I missed last week, as it sounded very productive, and I liked some of the ideas that I heard about from Margit, Maria and Fatos. Its interesting how both reports of the meetings and the blog represent a variety of different perspectives and concepts, and we should keep on with this multiplicity. I really enjoyed making the tent experiment with Margit on Friday, and think its essential that everyone tries out their ideas over the coming weeks, however large or small. It sure feels good being creative!

This week it would be great to thrash out some of the ideas that are coming up - think about our methods, originality, appropriateness, criticality etc.

Looking forward to it.

Follow Your Desire...

2008-01-28T11:01:00.000-08:00

http://followyourdesire.blogspot.com/

In contrast to 'Regent's Canal Memories', 'Follow Your Desire' can be carried out anywhere at any time. This project can be replayed countless times and in a huge variety of locations. 'Follow Your Desire' has been constructed around notions of obsession and surveillance - both of which we have discussed at some length.

It is through the writing and documentation submitted to the blog by each participant, that we can begin to explore these experiences, perhaps putting together commonalities, similarities... experiencing the situations in completely different, subjective ways. Our explorations located in a physical public space will be carried out within the personal space of our own consciousness.

The choice of 'desire' is open to personal interpretation. We may desire to be like someone (their expression, looks, language they speak); we may desire what someone has (a child, a bag, a coat),etc etc. This intended openness allows us to 'choose', yet confines us to our own definition of desire/obsession. The nature of the 'following' can be as short or as long as we want - maybe just sitting on a bus behind someone, or walking with our friends in the same direction without telling them.

At the end of the lab project, we will collect all the documentational evidence and assemble it in some kind of order - Karen suggested a large map with photos, drawings, notes and Claudia has discussed some kind of interactive mapping. Suggestions welcome as to how this could be extended. This project is intended to be non-intrusive.

Location: Anywhere

Instructions:

1. Choose a person that you 'desire'
2. Follow them for as long as your paths are the same
3. Try not let them know you are following them
4. Record the route (this can be any format eg. a line drawing, a tracing, sat nav, drawing on an AtoZ)
5. Document the event in whatever means you desire- photography, sound, film, drawings, writing etc
6. Add an entry to this blog titled with 'location/date/time' for each person you follow - add text and accompanying documentation
7. Keep all hard copies of evidence and file them carefully as they will be requested by admin artists at a later date.

Regent’s Canal Memories

2008-01-27T13:18:00.000-08:00

http://regentscanalmemories.blogspot.com/

As part of our ongoing investigations into public and private places; play; negotiation and interaction, we have constructed an event to explore these notions. The event can exist at multiple times and is an ongoing event in which everyone can participate and which could (and hopefully will) extend beyond the limits of the Lab. There is no set number of times it can be followed, yet – as with every experiment – the more it is carried out and the more evidence we collate, the more interactions, disruptions and challenges will be experienced.

The instructions are given as strict guidelines and are to be followed to the best of our ability. Within these guidelines, there is room for negotiation, interruption and play (there is a certain expectation of subjective twists to both application and outcome). The rules are as follows:

Location: Regent's Canal, London (from London Central Mosque to St Marks Square)

Instructions:

1. Approach a member of the public
2. Introduce yourself and the project
3. Ask participant for a 'memory' of Regent's Canal
4. Record the meeting by any means agreed to by both yourself and the participant (eg. photography, collect objects, sound, prints, drawings...)
5. Give participant this blog address written on the specially designed card as an invite for them to add their comments and links in response to your documentation of the event
6. Record each experience separately on the blog with photos etc of each meeting if available

Regent’s Canal was chosen as a location due to it’s references to transport and to it’s span across the city. We needed to find a public place within the city where people could be approached and would be likely to respond to the request. A busy road or train station are not likely to give the participant the confidence or time. The request is one of privacy – a personal memory of the canal. How the participant responds to this will depend on a number of factors.

The recording of the event should be agreed by both ourselves and the participant. There should be some kind of negotiation. Although not specified on the instructions, we will collect ALL documentation and use this to construct a large scale map with objects/ photos/ drawings/ rubbings/ prints and sound pieces. Please keep everything from each meeting. The map is a way for us to recreate some of the meetings/incidents/performances in a physical, interactive manner rather than purely through a blog. Cards with the blog address will be issued to all SKOLP members. The blog is intended to be a place for us to document each event, but also a place where participants are invited to respond, correct, add links etc, as a potentially ongoing dialogue, open to change…

Nedko Solakov

2008-01-27T11:12:00.000-08:00

At the BUREAU OF UNIVERSAL MERRIMENT (part of the Hayward’s 'Laughing in a Foreign Language' exhibition), Nedko Solakov gave a talk about his work. His stories - or interventions - are so minute, you really do have to get on your knees, stand on tiptoe and put some effort in to search out what's next. This gentle manipulation of the viewer, a humorous coercion perhaps, engages the viewer. Nedko's use of small toys, cartoons and writing to narrate his (absurd) stories of fictional characters is similar to that of a child when outplaying their intimate relations and desires.

The artists obvious enjoyment of 'Rivals' (2004), a competition played out on the gallery walls between himself and his curator to see which idea was to be shown (Ferran's favourite or Nedko's) was apparent in his explanation. The one who got the highest score would choose which project was to be done in the gallery (eventually). This idea of playing in the gallery, of game playing as art and for the competition itself to be the exhibition, appealed directly to me, especially within the context of our SKOLP approach to the Lab. There is a place for laughter!

http://nedkosolakov.net/content/rivals/index_eng.html#

The use of 'Play' as restored behaviour in Tino Seghal's This Success/This Failure

2008-01-27T11:02:00.000-08:00

I have posted some writing on 'Play' on my blog if anyone is interested....

http://vikkihill.blogspot.com/

Negotiating in Silence

2008-01-27T10:40:00.000-08:00

Starting from negotiations, commonly defined as ‘discussion aimed at reaching an agreement’, Marianne and I questioned communication in silence. Her initial text emphasizes the negotiation of ‘spaces, trains, people, machines and time’. We explored the feasibility of silent negotiations during the building of a shelter. We questioned the location, how to fix the fabrics, who is taking the photographs. Between flourishing camellias and green bushes, silently working, we re-enacted Marianne’s Moroccan childhood memory, the shelter, on a cold and windy Friday morning.

This installation and de-installation can be approached from different angles; as intervention in public space, even though the act of building the temporary shelter in a hidden corner of Victoria Park was not thought in terms of attracting public attention. It provided a windless, hidden space, which allowed for an unseen intimacy for drinking coffee and tea to warm our frozen bodies. Looking through the fluttering sheets, we sat silently next to each other and after a while Marianne’s expression was telling me, that she was thinking of de-installation and leaving.

Lines could also be drawn between Maria’s sound piece, contrasting last week’s conversation and the silence in the library, a knowledge production without any spoken word and small gestures are sufficient to understand. Yet the shelter could not have been built silently without careful preparation, spotting the place, providing a list of what was needed, sketching a draft, and setting a timeframe. Indeed, these prearrangements made all the single steps realisable: how to fix the fabrics, where to bind the shelter’s top etc.

Through the conversion of this experiment, the installation of the temporary shelter, we collectively addressed modes of inhabitation of various spaces and interrogated the borders of negotiation and production by operating in silence.

86 Elizabeth Road - Vikki's

2008-01-27T04:35:00.000-08:00

8 Manningtree street - Veronika's II

2008-01-27T03:21:00.000-08:00

Silent Shelters, Victoria Park

2008-01-25T06:36:00.000-08:00

It was strange at first, keeping quiet. What happens when you meet someone and don’t ask how they are? We waited for Claudia, awkwardly, motioning that we were cold or hungry, and eventually that maybe it was time to start. Picking up sticks through the park we walked to the spot I had found yesterday and put down our bags.

At first we laid the orange cloth down and looked at each-other. Then Margit decided on a different space between three small trees, and we began to tie the corners of the orange cloth to them with string.

Pegging and tying the other pieces of material to the roof of our tent, we battled with the wind and cheap clothes pegs that invariably popped open and sent the fabric flapping about. We cut lengths of string for each-other and took turns taking photographs. We became completely absorbed in our task, and so silent that I only spoke when a park warden came over and asked if we were taking it down: “yes” I nodded.

Sheltering in the tent we poured coffee and shared some food, and just relaxed looking at other people jogging by, the wind blowing all the dry leaves about. It was cold, but peaceful. More photos, coffee and cake. I took films of the floating walls, catching the moment when the blue blanket burst open like a sail.

When it was over, and our fingers were cold enough, we began to dismantle the tent, cutting the string and collecting the broken pegs, shaking out the cloths. I tried to catch the perfect picture of Margit as she folded them up, and failed each time. We walked to the park gates in silence, and gradually the thought of talking began to enter my head. The gates were our limit: “Shall we go to the pub?” I asked.

Playtime

2008-01-24T00:42:00.000-08:00

Hello SKOLPers!

Just quickly around the notion of play - there is an online journal STATIC and the first issue was on Play and Violence. There are some articles there that could be of interest, but for me Steve Connor's overview of the history of play from Aristotle to Kant to Modrenity and Adorno.... paragraph above... anyway it is at

http://static.londonconsortium.com/issue01/index.html

and the article is called Playstations or Playing in Earnest

best

Rachel

Underground Theatre

2008-01-22T07:06:00.000-08:00

A proposal building on the ideas of flash mobbing, game play and interventions in public space:

A group of us enter a public space separately, pretending not to know the other members of the group. If it’s a tube carriage for example, we could get on at different stops / through different doors. A member of the group creates a scenario to which the others, still pretending to be unrelated members of the public, join in. A drama unfolds, we see the reactions of the ‘real’ passengers, and perhaps they join in, not realising that they are involved in a performance. The scenario could be as simple or elaborate as we want. We can then diffuse it however we choose, perhaps improvised on the spot or using a plan made beforehand.

It would be simple, cheap, quick to do, and fun!

Amy and I are planning to try it out next week – does anyone fancy joining us? I think it would work better in a bigger group. Maybe we could discuss ideas for possible scenarios on Thursday?

Maman and the babies

2008-01-21T07:50:00.000-08:00

I went to see the Louise Bourgeois exhibition at the Tate Modern yesterday. There were too many people there! It was very difficult to see the art. The gallery floors were filled with strollers. There were babies everywhere - crawling on the floor, rolling out of their seats, crying on their parent's laps, screaming as they have dropped their toys onto the floor, hiding behind the free standing sculptures, bumping into my legs, cutting me off as I tried to walk, trying to touch the art with their little hands, yelling at the artworks, which were obviously not responding back to them. I was very distracted. Angry almost.

Bourgeois' body of work draws on the themes of motherhood, reproduction, domesticity, childhood and family life. I was trapped in the middle of art meets life situation. I didn't want to leave the space because it was the last day to view the exhibition. So there I was, strategically walking along the paths with the least amount of strollers in them, wandering about how my expectations of a gallery visitation ritual became betrayed by the presence of these little beings.

I guess I have always secretly thought of public art galleries as private spaces.

Privacy in a public space

2008-01-21T04:58:00.000-08:00

"There is no expectation of privacy in a public space" (www.wikipedia.org)

Since our last discussions and after reading Marianne and Amy's ideas I have been looking around on the internet for inspiration. The last time we met I mentioned I was interested in the differences between public and private spaces. I decided to look on wikipedia for a definition of a public space, which brought up some interesting points.

What constitutes a public space?

"Most streets, including the pavement are considered public space, as are town squares or parks. Government buildings, such as public libraries and many other similar buildings are also public space." (www.wikipedia.org)

The sentence "There is no expectation of privacy in a public space" also appeared within this explanation of public space. It seemed to particularly stand out and made me wonder how could we intervene and disrupt norms by bringing a sense of privacy to a particular public space. Considering the question: What makes a place feel private? Is it having your own belongings around you, being closed off from public view or somewhere that restricts who may enter? Any of these elements could be taken to one of the public spaces noted above, therefore bringing privacy into a public space. This could be an interesting activity to undertake.

Another statement I came across whilst searching on wikipedia was: "Measures are taken to make the public space less attractive to homeless people and young people, including the removal or design of benches to restrict their use for sleeping and resting, restricting access to certain times, locking indoor/enclosed areas. Police forces are sometimes involved in moving 'unwanted' members of the public from public spaces. Also, by not being provided suitable access, disabled people are excluded from some spaces." (www.wikipedia.org)

Maybe an interesting activity could be to make a public space such as a town square or a park more inviting to homeless, young or disabled people by creating a comfortable resting place (this could tie in with Marianne's idea) or an area for socializing or even transforming a popular area of London which is difficult for disabled people to visit into an easily accessible site. For example, when visiting Trafalgar Square many people climb up to the base of Nelson's Column to gain a better view of the square or to have a rest, as far as I am aware there is no disabled access here. There are ramps into Trafalgar Square from the side of the National Gallery however this is where the disabled access stops. Placing a ramp at the foot of Nelson's Column so that disabled people would also be able to view the site in the same way as others would open this public place up to more people, and give us an interesting day out.

READING

2008-01-21T04:06:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone
In response to Marianne's post last week, I would also suggest to read Claire Bishop's article "Antagonism and Relational Aesthetics". I can bring a copy to the lab next week and we can discuss it the week after.
Veronika

2008-01-21T04:02:00.000-08:00

Jimmy Robert
Figure de Style
at CUBITT, 18/01/2008

Jimmy Robert’s performance at Cubitt gallery London invited the audience to remove pieces of whitish tape applied to the body of the artist. Dressed in a pair of jeans, the artist sat barefooted on a couple of white sheets of paper, outspread on the stone floor. Next to his hands, on each side of his body lay another piece of paper with what looked from the distant like a poem or a reminder of his script or even the script itself. I had enough time to count the exact number of people that had come to witness Robert’s performance. Robert himself looked down to avoid the glances of the audience, while the sloppily applied tape was bit by bit removed from his body. Now and then Robert commented a rip off by reading out a sentence from his script. I can’t refer in detail to what it said, but I remember names at the end and 1966 at the beginning. Now from a distance it could have been extracts from a review on Yoko Ono’s Cut Piece. Relating to the tradition of participatory performances Robert’s performance unveiled more about the audience than about the artist.
As nothing extraordinary exciting was performed, the beholders started to observe each other ripping of tape from Robert’s body. Some went twice, others didn’t even once. Some smiled, some concentrated, some grinned, others spilled their beer and wine. Some remained motionless on the floor observing the artist. Some smiled a knowingly smile while others smiled a painful smile, in empathy with the victim and in awareness of the power of a gaze.

I find it hard to tell what exactly happened yesterday night. I picture the artist entering the room from the back door, taking his position on the floor, and uttering in a soft, insecure intonation, “I now invite you to take a piece of paper.” Reacting to his request for participation two men started tearing of scraps of the paper Robert was sitting on instead of removing the tape applied to his body. Broken tension. Some started to laugh. I felt the dignity of the performer had been tarnished. Ten minutes later a girl picked for a single piece, but ripped off almost all the tape from the back. Embarrassed by her greed, she flushed and put the tape back were it belonged. Another girl spilled her beer on the floor, while she approached Robert. Some sneaked on tiptoes others staggered. The way up to the performer was unluckily too short for a close observation of outfits, gestures and mimics of the rippers.

Roberts didn’t look at their faces, but I was reminded, of churchgoers over enacting their habitual ritual gestures, demonstrating their engagement and respectfulness towards the performer. A woman I remember most clearly fought her way from the back to the front. She positioned herself slightly behind the performer. Akin to my German teacher, she gazed over Robert’s shoulder, trying to read his script.
Her appearance pictured Robert’s as a pupil. For her, at least she signalled that to rest of the audience, his performance had been legible apart from the notes he read out. For her his script presented the meaningful remainder of the performance.
The script could have formed content, a clarifying of what this was supposed to mean. Facing my German teacher vis-à-vis, I appreciated to stay unenlightened in regard of the scripts content. Instead, I participated and ripped off tape from a stranger’s body. I remained with the faces of my companions. I laughed when the mobile phone of a guy rang, and he, instead of turning it off, incidentally turned it louder. He blushed and as if he wanted to apologise for his misbehaviour, he quickly ripped of some tape from the artist’s body. The laughter increased and he flushed even harder.
But then again, it is only a game. One of us sat in the middle and he could have touched us. But we are all so used to be touched. Jimmy didn’t touch us we touched him. When it was over he left the room through the back door, and the guy in the yellow jacket who had been standing closest to him said: “Thank you for coming’.”
I am still confused whose performance I have seen.
http://www.cubittartists.org.uk/cubitt/past.html

Johannes Skolp

2008-01-20T11:04:00.000-08:00

Scolvus (Jan z Kolna)
Portrait by: Artur Szyk
[Ed. Mythical] Explorer in service of Denmark. In 1476 he [supposedly] discovered the land of North America.

From: "Who's Who in Polish America" by Rev. Francis Bolek, Editor-in-Chief; Harbinger House, New York, 1943

SCOLVUS Joannes, Scolnus Joannes, Skolp Johannes in Poland popularly called Jan z Kolna [Jan of Kolno], a 15th century sailor who was to have reached North America in 1476, that is 16 years before Columbus. On the subject of this mysterious, not fully explained, and not fully researched personage there is a wide ranging, though controversial, body of literature. Even the name of the sailor and his nationality are not definitely known, though many foreign sources ‹ Spanish, Dutch, French, and Italian ‹ from the 16th to 18th centuries cite him to be of Polish origin. Among those authors are: F. de Belleforest, C. Wytfliet, J. I. Pontanus, C. B. Morisot, G. Horn, M. V. Coroneili, and F. de Charlecoix.

In the scientific works of the 16th and 17th centuries, and also on contemporary maps and globes, the name of this sailor appears in over 20 different versions such as: Scolvus, Scoluus, Scoluo, Scolus, Scolnus, Scolno, etc. It is impossible to establish the original version of the name without finding the primary source which was used by the authors in the 16th and 17th centuries, and which today is unknown. The first reports about this person most likely come from an unidentified Portuguese or Spanish source, not found to this day, and perhaps lost. This opinion is stated by, among others, F. Nansen in his Nebeheim (vol. 2, page 300).

The excellent Polish historian J. Lewelel rather freely, it seems, extracted from Johannes Scholnus the surname "Skolny" then "Szkolny" and finally "Jan z Kolna" which name then embedded itself in Polish histography, and even partly in that of other nations. This is the version of the name given by, among others, A. Humboldt and I. P. Magiodowicz. B. Olszewicz who devoted a thorough study to this personage, questions the Polish origins of this sailor. The Scandinavian authors G. Storn, S. Larsen and T. J. Oleson also question it strongly, they prefer to see him as a Scandinavian.

Storn and Larsen depreciate the information from the 16th and 17th century Spanish and Dutch authors who call the sailor a Pole. They put forth an unconvincing argument that the word "Polonus" is an error due to the misreading of the word "piloto." Larsen also accuses Lelewel, and there is some foundation to this, that he changed the name for patriotic reasons, but he himself does this as well, using a similar linguistic hypothesis and changing the name to "Skolp." He brings in a series of even more controversial ideas. Another Scandinavian author, H. Hermannsson, speaking of Larsen said that his "entire theory is built on such weak underpinnings that it is impossible to accept." The German author G. Frederici said that it "is full of hypothesis, possibilities, and likelihoods but without evidence." Finally the brilliant Soviet historian of geography I.P. Magidowicz makes the conclusion "There is no reason to reject the reports by two impartial writers -- a Flemish author in the 16th century and a Dutchman in the 17th -- about Jan's Polish origins."

Further out yet, in the field of linguistic speculation, is the Peruvian writer L. Ulloa who identifies Scolvus as Columbus. Similar hypothesis, which are based on lack of clarity in Columbus' biography, and also in the etymology of both names (Columbus for a time used the name Colon, which phonetically is similar to Kolno) are also put forth by modern writers.

It is impossible to mention all the theories, but on the basis of sources from the 16th and 17th centuries one can draw the following conclusions: about the year 1476 a sailor serving Denmark who had the name of Jan (nearly all sources agree on this), whose surname and nationality are not quite certain, was to have reached the shores of North America at a place that is not definitely specified (Baffin Island, Hudson Bay, Labrador?). Outside the mention of this in the literature of the 16th and 17th centuries, and even more so, on the globes and maps of that era, there are no documented details of the voyage. It seems that with the level of knowledge that exists no categorical statements on the subject can be made. The matter could perhaps be explained by conducting a detailed search through all Portuguese archives, and failing there the archives in Spain and England. To date nothing like this had been done. It is an unrefutable fact that several authors from the 16th and 17th centuries, that is sources close to the time of his voyage, called the sailor a Pole and this fact cannot be ignored. Up to the time that a search of the archives is conducted and a primary source found, the formulation any conclusions on the subject is risky and without basis. To this date the matter of Jan the 15th century sailor, whose surname is not quite certain; the supposed discoverer of America, is still open.

skolp

2008-01-20T10:44:00.000-08:00

I was thinking it would be a good idea to create a map with all the places we have been and then set up a network of spaces that abstractly are connected because of our lab sessions. The map will be interactive so if you click on the first location (Goldsmiths educational building) then a sentence will appear like “some kind of location public” or something like that*; the idea it to play with the initials SKOLP (Some Kind Of Lab Project) and then form sentences more or less appropriate for the location. I don’t really know how to make a map but I think there are many links in internet to do it!!

I made a stencil that will be stamped near all the places we have been, so somehow it materialises our traces. The stencil as you will see it’s a set of cutlery (spoon, fork and knife) –related to the fact that we are going to have lunch every session- and a sentence: “follow skolp…” since we are moving and they have to follow us! ! I was thinking with Vikki to leave the firt mark in Godsmiths this thursday after the guest lecture when the light is gone! if anyone wants to join, that would be great!

Locations:

Goldsmiths, Educational Building
Goldsmiths, LW 30 7 (Lewisham Way Buildings)
Veronika’s bed room, 8 Manningtree street
Vikki’s ?
...

*Some King Of Lab Project:

-some kind of liquidity place

-some kind of location private/public

-some kind of let’s play

-some kind of luxurious plate

-…

We can link it to the work of Stephen Willats; check Victoria Miro's exhibitions
http://www.victoria-miro.com/artists/4,biog/

Moreover, I did some research on “SKOLP” and surprisingly there was an explorer of the Columbus time named Johannes Skolp that discovered some land in North America. The legend says that he discovered North America before Columbus but there is a mystery aura around his figure…!

Flash Mobbing

2008-01-20T07:22:00.000-08:00

Flash Mobbing is a sudden gathering of people in a public place who perform an activity together (eg. a walkman rave in vitoria station or a pillow fight) for a short time and disperse again. The activity, location and time is posted on the internet or sometimes communicated through text messages so the people do not necessarily know each other.

Making our own version of 'Flash Mobbing' could be an interesting idea for gathering in a public space and creating a disruption. It could possibly be a good way of getting other people from outside the group involved. Perhaps if anyone has ideas for an activity we could post it on the website and see what happens.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_mob#United_Kingdom

http://www.flashmob.co.uk/

Here is the painting...

2008-01-19T05:50:00.000-08:00

For some reason I couldn't upload it on the same post!

silent shelters

2008-01-19T05:17:00.000-08:00

I found this picture of my sister, cousin and myself lounging under a tent made from my Dad's Moroccan blanket a few years ago when I was going through some old photos at home, and I made a painting of it. We used to make a lot of tents in the summer, the simplest was constructed from a big green umbrella with some kind of sheet draped over the top to make it completely private. Then of course there were house-tents made with chairs and sheets, and filled with cushions.

I was talking with my sister this morning about making tents, and working in silence - two ideas that came to me out of the lab project meeting last week. I want to do a simple activity with others in silence; maybe to re-enact the enjoyment of making a temporary shelter with sheets and pegs, and explore working together without telling each-other what to do. Floss told me about her friend Dawn who has been on some two week long silence retreats, where speaking is forbidden and even eye-contact is discouraged. Eventually incredible closeness is created, though normal means of communication are frustrated: in this community incidental body contact produces a real intensity, quite apart from the bumping into each-other that we experience everyday that we even become numb to in our cover-crowded city.

I find this alternative communication really interesting, and I would like to propose getting together in a small group next Friday and making a very simple tent in silence. Other activities like cooking or lighting fires - quite basic communal tasks -could also be done this way, to explore communicating and negotiating without using voices. It may or may not work, but it could be an interesting experiment!

If anyone is interested in joining me next Friday in Victoria park with some blankets and pegs, reply to this post with a comment. I propose to document it with photography, and film or sound recording. If it rains, maybe we can make an indoor tent.

8 Manningtree street - Veronika's

2008-01-19T05:14:00.000-08:00

'Antagonism and Relational Aesthetics'

2008-01-16T15:44:00.000-08:00

Some of ideas here seems to be touching on Relational Aesthetics, by Nicholas Bourriaud. It might be good to interrogate the notion of interacting with a 'public' (who are they?) and creating relations as art from other angles. Clare Bishop's unpicking of his ideas and the artists used to exemplify them is very thought-provoking, and she also names some creators of rather more disturbing and tricky relations... she asks what kind of negative relations might be created in relational art, whether existing relations be simply affirmed, or curious types of non-relation be created?

It was on the reading list for one of Gavin's performance classes, so quite a few may have looked at it already:

'Antagonism and Relational Aesthetics', October, no. 110, Autumn 2004.

As an aside... maybe we can create our own -ism?

Liminal Zones...in art?

2008-01-16T15:07:00.000-08:00

I have been flying for many years now, and my first delay occurred last year. On December 17th my flight was delayed and for the first time I had to wait for a very long time in the airport. Once I have learned of the delay I ran to the airport's Starbucks along with a group of strangers waiting for same flight. We have occupied the big green comfortable chairs in the coffee shop. We took turns going to purchase more coffee and magazines, taking toilet breaks, and even napping, so that no one would take our places in the very desirable chairs. A first delay in sixteen years of flying...not bad.

I am interested in liminality in places. An airport is an example of such place. People don't actually live there, rather they occupy the space for a limited amount of time. For the travelers and passersby an airport is an in-between place of passage only, a threshold. Victor Turner (1920 - 1983), a cultural anthropologist and ethnographer, have written about rituals and rites of passage among tribes in central Africa. He noted that "in liminality, the transitional state between two phases, individuals were 'betwixt and between': they did not belong to the society that they previously were a part of and they were not yet reincorporated into that society." (Victor Turner, From Ritual to Theatre: The Human Seriousness of Play (1982), PAJ Publications)

Can a gallery or an exhibition space where artworks are introduced, changed, installed for a limited time, be considered a liminal space? Are galleries simply a temporary places for the art, which will continue on beyond it, such as into the art market, to an auction house, destroyed by the artist, or stored in a vault? What is the artwork's final destination?

I like the notion of liminal spaces. I think we occupy them often. Does/can art?

Unravelling Heterotopias

2008-01-16T02:42:00.000-08:00

Utopias are fundamentally unreal spaces yet existing parallel to society’s real space. Michel Foucault’s concept of heterotopias points toward counter-sites with a utopian notion, they are outside places within society following their own rules. Exploring heterotopias could mean to look into defined spaces and reveal ruptures in society, question modes of inclusion/exclusion and read space and its inhabiting people.

Six principles shape this roughly sketched concept of a ‘placeless place’ and a short summary follows:
Heterotopias can be found on the ground of every society, emphasizing on spaces of human crises and deviation (e.g. psychiatric hospitals, rest homes, prisons). Within this concept Foucault refers to time as heterochronies. Traditional time is broken and he refers to slices of duration, which are transferred in museums, archives and libraries, these places are ‘indefinitely accumulating time’ and stress on eternity. Moreover, history can even change the function of heterotopias evident in the cultural space of cemeteries. In the 18th century a graveyard was placed in the centre next to the church, had a charnel house, a hierarchy of tombs and statues that led also in the church itself. On the other hand, the concept of time in its ‘most flowing’ form leads to festivals, fairgrounds or vacation villages. Besides the aspect of time, seen as temporal or eternal, heterotopias are also identified on restricted accession. Either one has to undergo rituals or need a special permission; the entry could even be compulsory as in prison. Furthermore, the concept encompasses spaces of illusion, brothels, spaces that are other, colonies, and floating spaces in time as in a boat.

Reading:
Michel Foucault: Of Other Spaces (1967), Heterotopias.
http://foucault.info/documents/heteroTopia/foucault.heteroTopia.en.html

1 2 3 4

2008-01-16T02:02:00.000-08:00

1. I like the idea of producing, to elaborate on what is produced, and then produce again. (As we do now with the proposals)
2. I like the idea of having ‘negotiations’ as an overall theme (thanks to Marianne), as a working title for the project. To investigate, to be experimental (ja huu), make failures (oh no) and be critical, to mix those concepts and make suggestions about what is possible under the umbrella of negotiation.
3. I like the idea of producing different angles of knowledge, concepts, ideas, image, video, WHATEVER…..
4. I like the idea of the presentation as something that has been constantly negotiated throughout the project.

Encounters With Nomads; A Playful artLIFE Interaction.

2008-01-16T00:26:00.000-08:00

It seems that the concepts “spatiality”, “game-play” and “obsession” appear in every Lab session. Due to that I was thinking about establishing a series of transformational encounters that can be done the same day of the Lab group or can be extended to other days, moments. This encounters would be organised through games where both the audience and ourselves will be involved. Obsessive encounters in the sense that they are repeated every week; I am not sure if they have to follow the same pattern, structure. The idea is to leave traces playing with the space and the mobility (As Candas suggests in a Monopolian configuration). So bringing art into the everyday life through possible and different spaces –I personally like the idea of inhabiting public spaces and making the community that live around participative, surprise them and let them surprise us. Create an interactive and sharing atmosphere that blurs the limits of the performer. Dealing with the notion of participation and even more important the idea of how do you communicate art and with art.

In a world where the imagery is overwhelming and so easily forgettable what remains here is the experience felt, the quality of this experience rather than the imagery object itself. So the uniqueness and authenticity of the performance, since being ephemeral and unrepeatable, becomes the key to avoid the idea of visual accumulation and to underline the importance of the message existing behind this encounter. A message that will be in progress along the , lets call it, “performance”. A playing game that will break the bounders of observing Art with a capital letter from the outside and will enter inside it making it happen by means of the exchange of experiences. An endless process that could even go beyond the academic deadline.

Create an archive: pictures, interviews with people, filming the actual event… and may be do something with this archive… I do not know what exactly...

How Do We Occupy Space?

2008-01-15T23:34:00.000-08:00

I have been thinking about space (as this seems to be a common interest within the group). Primarily, personal and intimate spaces as were discussed by Claudia and Joakim. Initially all I could think about was Richard Billingham’s photographs of his personal space within his family home. However when considering how the notion of personal spaces could be conveyed within our project, I was thinking about creating a collaborative art work and moving away from traditional photographic documentary works.

Creating an art work as a final project after all the theory that has been discussed through the course I thought might bring a nice change. Obviously I am aware that many people in the group are interested in different ways of working. However, I think creating a collaborative art work based on the notion of how we occupy personal spaces as well as producing a guide to the work would suit those interested in theory as well as those interested in practice.

Considering further ideas of the way in which personal spaces are occupied I have been drawn to, shoes! Shoes are very personal, we generally choose them ourselves and when seeing a pair of shoes often their owner can be identified. Shoes are always found in our personal spaces, whether that is a bedroom in a family home, a hotel room, a flat or a house. When visiting friends or family we often leave our shoes by the front door but always claim the right pair when leaving. If we gathered in a large hall with 100 people and were all asked to remove our shoes and they were all moved around, the majority of people would be able to reunite themselves with their shoes. It might seem a strange starting point but when thinking about the words personal and space, shoes seemed to tie in nicely. I had in mind a kind of delicate Annette Messager style art work with shoes in a large space.

I think a lab project which considers the notion of how we occupy our personal spaces could be very interesting. I also think presenting our project in the form of an art work as well as an accompanying guide or programme would be beneficial as it would suit the majority of peoples interests.

CHARLOTTE

(sorry Charlottle - I couldn't do the picture, needed to be a separate file)

From show and tell:exchange, interaction and food

2008-01-15T15:47:00.000-08:00

From the formation of the lab group the elements, which continually emerge and seem to be fuelling the progression of the group are interaction and exchange. From this relationship the creation of new outwardly flows of information and connections are being formed and developed.

For myself the decision to merge the following meeting with the communal exchange of food seems the next natural stage. The coming together of a group of people to share a meal has always been an important, fruitful and intimate space to create discourse. The communal exchange of a meal from my own experiance has always acted as a spring broad for discussions. This is heighten within the intimate enviroment of the home, as we will experience at the following meeting. A quote which i have pulled out from a food magazine was a starting piont for the following proposal,

'I have open-house day on sundays, i make pancakes and my friends and family arrive with their own fillings. Then we all pig out'

I don't have a soild outline, more a fondation of an idea. I've always liked the saying, ' bringing the ideas to the table'

Idea: Recipe archive

To arrange a seires of gathering, where we make or bring food for a meal. Each person will bring a contribution. The recipe archive itself will be more than just containing granny's secret recipe. It should be viewed more along the lines of a living archive, an important part of the gatherings, rather than a documentation of past events. It should be created during the events.

elements of the archive; drawing, recordings, recipe's, photos, records of the dicussions, guest lists, music are just some of the components I have thought about.

This idea is far from a concrete concept. I hope to have outlined a starting point which i hope will stir some interest

A book which i enjoy and seems relevent to many blogs, 'The poetics of space' Gaston Bachelard

Also i wanted to add the link to the exhibition space i am a part of and which i talked about last week ( truck art) www.truckart.org

2008-01-15T13:55:00.000-08:00

What network culture means to me.
Network culture means nothing to me.
To research, produce and present means nothing to me.
I might better present something
Research it afterwards or even
Dare to produce without research.
Yes Yes

Everything is an experience.
And I have been given the freedom to experience myself together with you.
I have been given the freedom to research, produce and present whatever I want.

Say: Instead.
Think of a critical framework (research it, produce it and present it)
Draw me a line and I will erase it.
Showing you that you can draw with the same tool differently.
But given a pencil we will automatically start drawing a line.
What else could you do?

Negotiations

2008-01-15T07:32:00.001-08:00

How do we move through a crowded train station or busy shopping street? It is often immensely frustrating: usually one simply ploughs ahead with one’s own interests in mind – can I get to platform one in four minutes and catch the next train to New Cross? Firstly I must negotiate my own belongings in order to find my purse and railcard, hiking my bag round from my back and opening the front pocket without dropping my coat, scarf and gloves on the floor. Failing to find the railcard option on the ticket machine I belt over to the ticket office, to negotiate my discount with the woman at the counter. Actually there is no need to plead my case – she informs me the option for Young Person’s Railcard is always there, it hasn’t disappeared as I suspected. Relieved to here the discount still stands, but mystified as to the reason it I could not find it, I negotiate my pride with her – insisting that the option was not on the screen where it normally is, whilst from the other side of the window she disinterestedly replies that it is always there. Realising I do not have time for this – one of us must admit defeat, it appears to be me – I shrug and take my change, thanking her kindly before dashing off, through the gates and towards platform one. I dodge slow walkers, and sprint up the tunnel, slowing down slightly at the sight of a platform wet and slippery with rain. With delicate steps, but still running, I jump onto the last carriage of the train. Now all I have to do is find a seat nearest the front in order to get out nearer the exit at New Cross.

This is exhausting - negotiating spaces, trains, people, machines, time – but it is how one gets from A to B. At a party on Sunday, someone told me of a London Underground map that has been designed to tell you exactly which part of the train to get on, in order to be at the right point to alight nearest the exit, or to change trains. Obsessive, but negotiating time and space just got easier.

It strikes me that there are many different kinds and ways of negotiation: through space, with time, relationships, reading, as communication, with language, to make a deal, even and especially with ourselves. The importance of negotiation first struck when I worked with an elderly artist on a re-enactment of a seminal protest work: Gustav Metzger’s 1961 Southbank Demonstration. Nothing could ever be recreated as it was, I would even say that every aspect of the work was completely different. Legendarily difficult to communicate with in every sense, Gustav behaved true to form. Discussions managed via a complicated set of negotiations: a letter sent from me asking him to call on Tuesday morning; I would try to wait at my desk for the phone-call, which I would invariably miss and try desperately to return, in case Gustav was still there, waiting in the telephone-box. Eventually the phone would ring again and after a pause, which instantly signalled the caller, Gustav’s small thin voice would begin: “yes, hello…” and continue to read the box’s number out to me in order for me to call it straight back. Quite often traffic noise or a faulty line would cause problems – he once spent a whole morning walking between boxes in South Kensington til he found one that worked. Negotiating the very means and time of communication often required patience and input from both sides, before we even began to discuss the work itself that came with a whole set of compromises, which I am indebted to the artist to making in order that the event actually came about. As we will spend most of our time at college negotiating ideas, hanging on to some, and letting go of others in order that we create something together, it might be interesting to think about negotiations in the every-day and expanded sense. What is negotiation? What is it for, and when do we use it? When did we learn it, are there times when we forget it? What is our motivation? What are the terms of negotiation, can we use it unselfishly? These are some of the questions that come to mind, googling on the internet came up with a good deal of other areas and questions…

Here are two to begin:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negotiation

http://www.negotiation.com/art-of-negotiating.html

What is your limit?

2008-01-15T05:51:00.000-08:00

everyday, is a new day for an immense production of imagery, to accumulate... The accumulating of things into our perception, our gaze, our senses as well as things around us: the piles of newspapers, the occupying space billboards... no need to mention the continuous broadcasting device: tv
what is the fact that today there is more image produced than to consume, happen to form?
what is your limit is not a question towards the image consumption - is a question posed to the content. the content carried out through imagery. till what extend do you choose to understand? is there a terminology called change? what is your limit of a possible change?
what is your limit of patience to talk about things...
shall we have a debate or a game?

Imagining New Spaces

2008-01-14T16:03:00.000-08:00

Spending the last year and a half in Goldsmiths I have been amazed at how difficult it is to navigate …classrooms are all over the place, hallways are endless, doors lead to nowhere, signage and instructions are limited, entrances become exits.....

You can find a Goldsmiths Campus Map (which is a bit useless in itself)….but it is very difficult to find any printed version of the buildings' interiors. If one is in existence it is rarely distributed...

I propose to create a new Goldsmiths signage system for students, visitors, and teachers. It would be a system that is:
o Updated, modern, user friendly
o Interactive
o Highly visual and creative
o Simple for all ages
o Attractive and inviting

Starting with some proposals for the Main Building and, if successful, moving onto other buildings – eventually doing an improved ‘campus map’.

The first step would be to start doing an online survey to students and teachers; how can we (how would they) improve the current mapping system, what parts /classes/spaces do they find hard to navigate (or alternatively easy to find), are there any hidden/mysterious areas of the building (ie: secret hallways, rarely visited rooms)…..

Working as a team, which could be easily divided on a task-by-task basis, we would work with the current Goldsmiths mapping systems trying to improve it significantly.....

Tasks/Goals
o Creating our own everlasting space
o Interacting and embracing our environment
o Creating a welcoming, relaxed experience

Themes
o Levelling off Absence and Balance
o Loss, memory, imagination
o Exploring our setting by uncovering its hidden spaces (like Vikki’s intended scrum through Veronika’s flat:>)
o Creating intimacy and romance within a sterile environment
o Observation through displacement

Taking ideas from visual and installation artists like:

Maider Lopez (www.maiderlopez.com) and Laura Belém (www.laurabelem.com) who both work with creating engaging spaces and narrative that invite the viewer (or user) to reinvent their relation to their chosen environment.

We could also examine the ‘Audio Walks’ of artists like Janet Cardiff and study the new invention of IPOD city walks (www.podcityguides.com)

Playing in location

2008-01-14T13:34:00.000-08:00

The notion of play keeps popping up, as does location, or space.

The conversations about work by Christoph Buchel, William James, Joakim's housing artist and Veronika's show seem to disrupt and explore intimate spaces by creating work with a sense of intrusion. For our next meeting we will be a Veronika's house, and I have this urge to explore her house - to open her cupboards, to check out what's in the toilet cabinet, to look in her wardrobe and to document this - perhaps by recording conversations between different group members, through photography, film and drawing. I guess this is a Sophie Calle-esque kind of exploration, a sort of secret surveillance (or not so secret) into areas of privacy that we normally, through social convention, would not allow. We could challenge those behavioural conventions, and to play with them. (Sorry Veronika if you are freaked out by this!).

If we could explore different spaces (as Candas suggested in the monoploy game), then we could disrupt not only the private space, but the public too (as Amy has done with her bears!). The play people would like to make an appearance by setting up micro-communities in some of London's busier locations - for example, I think my elephant might like to return to the zoo to visit it's family, and the horses may well long for a gallop in Hyde park. These mini-performances (play) could contain an element of public involvement, perhaps by inviting passers by to join in. This aspect of play ties into Tino Seghal's recent ICA show This Success/This Failure, where groups of school children played with the visitors, blurring boundaries of performer, participant, audience, artist and visitor.

Emily Jacir's work is useful, and it would be great to find a way to work with people that is not only fun and playful, but has some form of social content and engagement - a way of setting up some kind of transformational encounter.

As mentioned in my previous post, Allan Kaprow's 4th statement does relate to all these approaches. It is to make work in nonart modes but present the work as art in nonart contexts.

(I hope I haven't come across as a mad stalker who wants to spend time in other peoples drawers, whilst frightening unsuspecting members of the public and talking to herself whilst playing with toys for 5 year olds. But, I may well have done!)

play and obsess

2008-01-14T08:14:00.000-08:00

Jeff began as a joke, and as it turned out something that enabled me to get to know my flatmate whom i had just moved in with and didnt know very well. A mutual love of meat bears and street art (a term i dont really like but im not sure what else to call it) developed. We clothed Jeff and pasted him out on to the streets in the berlin neighbourhood where we lived.

Thinking about it now, it combined two things stereotypical to Berlin - sausage and bears. Im sure you could put all sorts of meaning on it but we didnt think of it like that. it was a vehicle for me to start doing art work again and also to look closer at street art - something which my flatmate was already involved in. Most of all it was a laugh. Playing and joking around. It was never meant to become anything that I'd eventually present to a group, to be honest we did not really think about what it would become. The documentation was something that developed naturally later on. Unlike the lab group project there was no set ending or expectation of a presentation or method of documentation. This is what i have found problematic about the lab group, the idea that you are supposed to have a creative, playful freedom but are also expected to pull it back into the academic context at the end and produce something that can be graded.

I would really like to produce something that it is very hard to mark; something that really refuses to sit within the confines of Goldsmiths. This is very vague and I dont have concrete ideas as to what I want to do wth the lab group but the whole situation feels to me very fake (staged, set up, even sometimes a bit forced) and it is still difficult to know how to deal with this. My reaction is to do something very playful and act somehow - to stop discussing, do something practical and have fun. Take it out of it's normal context, make the whole thing more informal and let it develop from there. However, I suppose we have to decide on a theme first.

For me the most interesting things that have come out of the presentations are the ideas of obsession and playfulness. Obsession to me means repetition, doing something over and over, thinking about something over and over, talking about the same thing over and over, and then seeing how it changes during this. How something becomes twisted, distorted, manipulated, or improved, during discussion. Perhaps this is what we may do to our theme during the course of the next few months.

Obsession and playfulness seem to be two very different things (almost opposites). Playfulness is being free and happy and able to experiment and obsession is being bogged down in caring about something too much. I have just realised that I am coming to saying that we should look at obsession in a playful way and that doesnt really make much sense... so perhaps I am just talking about the process rather than the actual theme. I suppose I should just say that whatever the theme we agree on is, I would like to use both playfulness and obsession in dealing with it during our work. For playfulness and obsession to be tactics we use (critically?) at different times throughout our work.

not sure how much sense that made but see you all on thursday

Looking at London

2008-01-14T07:55:00.000-08:00

- a Lab activity

Ages 8+
0 – 15 players

Object of the Game

To engage the Lab group in a series of practical activities that will alter perceptions of public space around London.

The Game in Brief

Combining the theme of spatial practice and our desire to perform collaborations, enabling activities and / or interventions with others, the game challenges us to question our relationships to the public buildings and spaces we occupy daily as part of our familiar physical networks. This would be achieved through a series of actions implemented around the city, to enable both ourselves and the wider public to look at such spaces in a new light, or even notice those that we had never really ‘seen’ before. The Monopoly board is used as a tool to guide the actions around London, and provide a non-hierarchical organisation to the game.

Playing the Game

All tokens are placed at the GO position on the Monopoly board.

The dice are thrown at weekly Lab meetings.

A member of the Lab group rolls the dice and moves one token forward the appropriate number of spaces.

The Site the token lands on is where the action is to take place (e.g. ‘Mayfair’).

A public space and action are decided upon collectively. (e.g. ‘telephone box’ and ‘dummy signage’, or ‘green space’ and ‘sonic intervention’. These could be prompted by one of a series of ‘space’ or ‘action’ cards previously made by the Lab group, or suggestions made at the time of play that are pertinent to each Site.

The chosen action is carried out in the space.

If a token lands on a space other than a Site or a Station (e.g. Chance), the dice must be rolled again.

Game play could involve group or solo performances, guerrilla action, street art, covert activities, adoption of perceived roles of authority, projections, fabrication of dummy signage, sonic interventions, demonstrations, interviews, surveillance, re-branding, lighting effects, disorientation / diversion tactics, general tomfoolery and foul play.

Rules

The action must be carried out in a public space (indoor or outdoor) at the given location.

Actions may be implemented by individuals, small groups or Lab Group B as a whole.

Both the action and the reaction must be documented.

The game is non-competitive.

Magazine Launch at Cubitt Gallery

2008-01-13T11:44:00.000-08:00

Cubitt, Will Holder and Dexter Sinister invite you to a Double Launch: This Monday, 14 January 2008, 7-9pm.

A simultaneous launch of F.R. DAVID The Stuff and Nonsense Issue* and Dot Dot Dot 15** in London and New York. Both publications will be available for sale together for the special price of £12.50 or $25, and accompanied by a live lecture from the other location. According to the international dateline, Cubitt Gallery in London will launch at 7pm GMT with a live talk by Stuart Bailey, Dot Dot Dot editor, from New York, while Dexter Sinister in New York will also launch at 7pm GMT-5hrs with a live talk by Will Holder, F.R. DAVID editor, from London.

*

The second issue of F.R. DAVID, The Stuff and Nonsense Issue is concerned with the thing-ness (das Ding) of words, the materiality of language and its non-linguistic or extra-linguistic qualities.

With contributions by Goethe, Stephen Bann, Eugen Gomringer, John & Yoko, Experimental Jetset, Matt Mullican, Steven Shearer, Martin Borman, Marc Nagtzaam, Scott Myles, Barry Johnston, Bertrand Russell, Samuel Nyholm, James Lee Byars, Robert Ashley, Enrico David, Sue Tompkins, Jonathan Meese, Matias Faldbakken, David Thorpe. (a.o)

— F.R. DAVID is a journal, published by de Appel, Amsterdam, which focuses on writing as the core material of a number of visual artists but equally as a mode that exists parallel to or in service of the visual.

**

Since its conception in 2000 Dot Dot Dot has immatured into a jocuserious fanzine-journal-orphanage based on true stories deeply concerned with art-design-music-language-literature-architecture and uptight optipessimistic stoppy/revelatory ghostwriting by friendly spirits mapping b-sides and out-takes pushing for a resolution in bleak midwinter through late summer with local and general aesthetics wound on an ever tightening coil.

— Dot Dot Dot 15, produced on location at the Centre d'Art Contemporain Geneve, between 24 October and 7 November 2007 by Mai Abu ElDahab, Stuart Bailey, Walead Beshty, Sarah Crowner, Joyce Guley, Will Holder, Anthony Huberman, Polona Kuzman, David Reinfurt, Joke Robaard, Jan Verwoert and Jan Dirk de Wilde on Ricoh TC2, Ricoh JP8500 and Riso V8000 stencil printing machines in an edition of 3000.

Liquidity of the Space

2008-01-13T11:32:00.000-08:00

Art in everyday life throw a denunciation of political and social situations is what Emily Jacir presents in her project Were We Come From in which she asked Palestinians around the world "If I could do something for you, anywhere in Palestine, what would it be?" She then documented herself fulfilling the requests for people who are prohibited entry into their own homeland and/or who are restricted from movement within it. These included visiting a mother's grave, playing soccer with a boy in Haifa, and visiting a student's family in Gaza because he is prevented from traveling home while at school in the West Bank.

A different notion of the space where the artwork becomes a performance in an expanded, dilated, blended, mingled space; the artist becomes the medium who carries out people's wills being (because of her privileged position) the active participant of the piece. The traces she leaves among the Palestine territory actualise the fictive and impossible presence of these Palestinians quivering the notion of participation in the art field. A new conception of the spatiality, a liquid one?

140 166-311

2008-01-13T11:14:00.000-08:00

140 166-311
Parkring Hotel, Vienna
08.11.-18.11.2007

In 2007 Oona Peyrer-Heimstätt and I organised an exhibition in Parkring Hotel, Vienna. Our prior idea was to simply buy a temporally limited space outside the accessible/inaccessible exhibition space, which museums galleries and art universities normally offer.

>Displayed in a hotel room our show would be accessible to everyone and we could occupy the space as long as we wanted (or at least as long as we could pay for the rooms). Plus we could easily check-in/out and leave everything carelessly behind at the end of the project. Similar to the intention of Lara and her group for the art fair in Bolzano (to show art works that would fit into a suitcase), we wanted to check-in and install our works not before the night of the opening.

>When we finally found a hotel, which would sponsor, cooperate and allow us to perform as we wished, the project became slightly over-ambitious. Finally we didn’t only unpack our works, but worked on location for quite a long time, doing site-specific works, which were closely related to the space/hotel itself. The exhibition lasted for 10 days. Each artwork was shown in a room of its own (rooms: 140, 166 and 311).

Visiting the exhibition one had to check-in at the reception desks to pick up the room keys. The visitor came across the works in the intimate atmosphere either of a suite, a double or a single room. Entering the rooms one felt equally invading the private sphere of an unknown person who had just left the room for a minute, or occupying one’s own hotel room (some visitors had a nap on the bed or took a shower). I won’t go into detail about the artworks now, but if anyone is interested in finding out more, I am happy to provide you with details.
Artists: Manora Auersperg, Veronika Hauer, Oona Peyrer-Heimstätt, Nora Landkammer, Katharina Rettelbach, Rudolf Steckholzer

Intimate spaces

2008-01-13T11:07:00.000-08:00

I was also thinking about space as a point of departure for the lab project. After seeing Claudia's presentation, and thinking of the other's (including my own) I thought to propose en exploration of intimate spaces as theme for the project. I suppose I am inspired by Bachelard, who as you may know, wrote a great deal on the phenomenology of intimate space, of homes, cabinets, attics, nooks and corners, as well as on the relationship of inside/outside. But it is not a limited subject, intimacy is not reducible to a cosy home, it can be more of a psychological phenomena.

I would suggest that this could be explored in a short event, with a curatorial team/subgroup that organise an exhibition part and perhaps an other group that organise some talks on the subject, and a group that documents it (or maps it, whatever you want to call it.). Seems to me this would allow all our different interests to be satisfied.

With all theory making we are doing I am really hoping the lab project is an opportunity to bring in practical elements into the course. And my proposition of theme could also be a way of introducing some softness into the course, feeling sometimes the approach to things being rather clinical with all talk of "practicioners" and "practises".

A presto,

/Joakim.

Domestic - Public space

2008-01-13T10:48:00.001-08:00

Shelter by William James
Metrònom Gallery
Barcelona - Spain
3-10-2002 / 8-11-2002

"William James has photographed over sixty apartments in various buildings selected according to architectural type, location and their particular circumstances. Each block is represented by panoramic images of several homes, which form a cross-selection of the building's interior spaces.

In the exhibition space, the photographs are presented by means of sculptural support apparatus, so that domestic interiors become exterior surfaces, each piece representing a single building, the whole installation forming an urban landscape of buildings turned inside out. Whilst the city is usually represented as a series of façades, horizons, streets and squares, Shelter represents the city as a series of private inhabited cells. The images are accompanied by a series of essays and interviews produced by the artist in collaboration with other cultural workers and neighbourhood representatives, which describe the shifting relations between the citizen and the city, the private and the public.

At a time when urban space is undergoing a process of privatisation; when shoppin and the consumption of services have become the main public activity; when urban individualism is losely linked to materialism; when the production of public space depend on a strengthening alliance between the city autorities and business; it is difficult to reach a simple definition of what we nevertheless still call "public" space. The frontier between home and the city outside, which we cross several times a day, continues to be sharpy felt but, with the development of communication technologies, a highly mediated public sphere, operating independently of the physical public space invades every area of life. The separation of the public sphere from public space problematizes the citizen participation."

“… if we are to be in a myriad of exciting places in the weeks that follow.” Rachel

“YOU ARE HERE” titled the exhibition at CAMERA AUSTRIA where I was part of the curatorial team during spring last year. The arrow on a map, marked “You are here” signifies a place and enables one to locate oneself. The exhibition pointed towards locations around the globe as a topographic determination and added social, economical, political and ethical parameters. Furthermore, it discussed the subjective explorative mainly photographic approach to space. Artists: Marika Asatiani, Christoph Grill, Sylvia Henrich, Karina Nimmerfall, SofiaSylvia, Verena Winkelmann and Andrea Witzmann.

Using this exhibition as the point of departure for my initial contribution to our Lab project I transfer the idea of “You are here” onto the place where we are now.

In addition to Vikki’s playful approach to the Lab project I would like to stress the notion of a “liquid space”. Within the Geographies’ workshop (held on the 17th of December 2007) Eyal Weizman referred to the term “space” not as a fixed place, which needs to be occupied but as a gelatin like or even liquid something, which allows transformation by the event. This space is not predetermined but rather shaped and negotiated by various forces and moments of convergence that produce affiliation. Unlike authorship, where the motivation of the author lies in the subject, the Lab project, the “liquid space” could allow for a multiplicity of productivity without a centralized force.

Events....

2008-01-10T02:15:00.000-08:00

Irit Rogoff: 'Being an Audience'

Evening lecture at Monika Sprueth Philomene Magers London
on the occasion of Louise Lawler´s exhibition 'Where is the Nearest Camera?'
Tuesday, 15 January 2008, 7 pm

Monika Sprüth Philomene Magers Ltd
7A Grafton Street
London, W1S 4EJ
Great Britain
phone +44(0)207-4081613
fax +44(0)207-4994531
london@spruethmagers.com
www.spruethmagers.com

Anxiety and flowers

2008-01-10T02:09:00.000-08:00

Saturday Morning

I had a just before waking dream that someone from this room proposed learning French as an activity for the lab group (I don’t quite remember who it was)…. But for a moment within my dream, I was panicked by this idea but then upon reflection proposed instead the act of translating a specific document into French by way of learning the language. I then started compiling a list of text and articles to create a critical framework for this undertaking, Walter Benjamin, Deleuze and Guattari, Sarat Maharaj, Homi Bhabha mimicry, ventriloque, repetition mimicry, ventriloque, repetition…. a frenzied gathering of material, a building of a raft to enable something to float, a hammering together of stray bits of wood to create stilts… I am not sure, but something like these activities.

Upon waking I sat drinking a coffee wondering about my own anxiety around creating a critical framework. The need to translate the translating into a set of terms of context demonstrating and bringing into visibility what is at stake. What is at stake in this critical framework, this carpentry of criticality…

A memory around translation and language. I was eighteen

I went to Germany to attempt to improve my skills in this language. I worked in Hotel Langenfeld serving beer and making beds. I stayed with friends of my great uncle and aunt. I was bored and not enjoying this experience at all. It was in the run up to Christmas and the house was full of delicious German Christmas biscuits. On many occasions I sat up watching late night movies eating my way through my hosts home baking. It was in this way that I learned to like Cary Grant. Previously his slightly musical, quizzical tone of voice had not impressed me, but dubbed into a strong deep booming German, at this impressionable age he was spellbinding.

On Tuesday evening I went to the Bloomberg space for Ivan and Heather Morrison’s’ distribution of their project and I wanted to bring this project in today…. continue the dispersal

and read a paragraph from Sally O Rielly’s text which I suppose how answers some of my anxiety around critical context, we think around the complexities because we ‘owe’ this to someone…..

Neon Networks

2007-12-18T06:05:00.001-08:00

The stringed installation is an expression of the ability of a single composition to invoke a variety of different imaginative experiences in the viewer.

A series of composite cotton threads is strung between the walls of a room in a predetermined geometric arrangement. Each string is composed of a central length of green thread, to either end of which is tied a length of black thread, which in turn is attached to a wall. When viewed in darkness with ultraviolet monoculars, the black threads become invisible and the green threads glow; hence giving the impression of a geometrical arrangement hovering in the centre of the room. The arrangement of the strings is calculated so that the viewer experiences a curved plane in space, but as it is composed entirely of taut strings, the curve and the plane are both constructed in our imagination. That the composition is visually very different when viewed from different parts of the room demonstrates a variety of Wittgensteinian "aspects" forming the basis of a different imaginative experience in each case.

Viewing the installation with the accompanying ultraviolet monoculars prevents parallax error, and means that the composition is never visible as a totality. The viewer sees only what he or she illuminates, and the very fact that the viewer has an active role in the experience acts as a metaphor for our imaginative involvement with works of art and architecture.

Spatial practice - obsession - imagination.

Plan

Construction

Long Exposure #1

Long Exposure #2

UV Monoculars

CAD Model

Selvhenter

2007-12-14T05:36:00.001-08:00

Anxiety and Flowers

2007-12-14T05:34:00.000-08:00

Play People

2007-12-14T05:33:00.001-08:00

Allan Kaprow 'The Blurring of Art and Life', 1993

Kaprow's use of real life experiences as 'ready-made' art objects, was his way of exploring the meaning of life. Influenced by the American philosopher John Dewey, Kaprow stated that 'Art is not separate from experience' and that it's environment 'is a process of interaction'.

“Such consciousness of what we do and feel each day, its relation to others’ experience and to nature around us, becomes in a real way the performance of living. And the very process of paying attention to this continuum is poised on the threshold of art performance.” (196)

Kaprow's interpretative approach is experimental and participatory. He offers up situations/operations/structures/feedback/learning as inventive methods of art making. The comparison to how children play and experience the world is apparent, as they mirror, test and probe human responses and behaviours. This idea of 'playing' and 'testing' can be seen in the recent work at the Tate Modern by Carsten Holler 'Test Site', where the audience was invited to slide. Roger Callois in 'Man, Play and Games' writes about play (and in this case, sliding) 'producing delight and overcoming fear'.

The Play People are a model of an approach to art-making and to the Lab. We can see the Lab as a test site where we can play with ideas of practice and theory - testing and interrogating. They also represent a community or collaboration, just as we are in our group, with each character bringing their own individual histories and abilities. Finally, as Ola pointed out, there is an obsessive quality to our approach to art practice for many of us, with games or hobbies experienced in early childhood taking shape into personality traits and agency in later life.

I would like to add Allan Kaprow's 5 definitions to artwork, for us to discuss where we may situate ourselves, or in fact, if we can work across them all...

1. work within recognizable art modes and present the work in recognizable art contexts
2. work in unrecognizable, i.e., nonart, modes but present the work in recognizable art contexts
3. work in recognizable art modes but present the work in nonart contexts
4. work in nonart modes but present the work as art in nonart contexts
5. work in nonart modes and nonart contexts but cease to call the work art, retaining instead the private consciousness that sometimes it may be art, too (175)

Takashi Fuji

2007-12-14T05:31:00.000-08:00

Jeff

2007-12-14T05:30:00.000-08:00

Anomalies

2007-12-14T05:28:00.001-08:00

The Lost Moment

2007-12-14T05:26:00.000-08:00

Test

2007-12-12T06:37:00.000-08:00

So..here we go. Work in progress my friends!