common places

Radical Culture Research Collective
from http://transform.eipcp.net/correspondence/1196340894

Nicolas Bourriaud’s Relational Aesthetics (Les presses du réel, 1998; English translation 2002) undeniably has been an effective generator of debate. In the wake of critical responses by Claire Bishop (in October in 2004 and Artforum in 2006) Grant Kester (in Conversation Pieces, 2004, and in Artforum in 2006), Stewart Martin (in Third Text in 2007) and Julian Stallabrass (in Art Incorporated, 2004), the strengths and limits of Bourriaud’s book will be no secret. Our remarks at this point will not be new, but we think it may still be helpful to formulate some critical propositions with a sharper political orientation.

(more…)

Filed under: articles
2 Comments

Dates: November 26 – December 1 2007

A week of participatory walks, PDF available HERE
Walking and Not Walking has returned, with small experiments and workshops over the past few months. You are invited to participate in this week long series of events in Tampa – from the USF campus to the Hyde Park Historic Village and the Sulfur Springs Kmart desert.

1. Stroll Towards a Dream (Home)
In this intimate walking tour, you will guided by your friendly Dream Estate Agent through Historic Hyde Park. You will be exploring, shopping for and acquiring your ideal “home”.
When: Tue, Nov 27 — Thu, Nov 29 – Fri, Nov 30 between 3-5 PM
Where: Old Hyde Park
To participate: To reserve a spot on this walking tour, contact Laura Bergeron, your friendly Dream Estate Agent:
(813)751-4609 laura.m.bergeron@gmail.com

(more…)

Filed under: Places: Florida (US), Walking and Not Walking
No Comments

Radical Culture Research Collective

from http://transform.eipcp.net/correspondence/1189078355

Radical Culture Research Collective (RCRC) is a group of activists, artists, researchers and writers in Berlin, Hamburg, London (England), Montreal, London (Canada), New York, San Francisco, Tampa, Weimar and Vienna aiming to build structures and processes for critiquing the capitalist art system, reflecting on politicized artistic practices, and developing modes of a militant praxis within and without the field of art.

Our recent discussions have revolved around the ways in which criticality is recuperated through neo-liberal managerialism.  This text, written for Radical Philosophy, briefly sketches some aspects of this problem using Documenta XII as a case study.

(more…)

Filed under: articles
No Comments

I think this small video can be a good place to start an initial, quick report of BLW’s week of public meetings in Millennium Park, July 1-5, our contribution to the Pathogeographies exhibition (see HERE for more details). There is, from the beginning, a sense that the overwhelming imperative for positivity exposes us to something damaging, to a kind of suffering. As people who are visibly struggling with the performance of exceptional enjoyment, we receive some helpful advice: click HERE to watch the video, and pls be patient…

(more…)

Filed under: Places: BLW
No Comments

BLW is participating in the Pathogeographies exhibition at the University of Illinois at Chicago Gallery:
- a respeaking performance on Saturday , June 30 at 2PM
- a series of interventions in public space over the next week
- we conclude with a final presentation on July 7th.

“A Meeting is a Question Between”
BLW invite you to five public meetings in Millenium Park, Chicago, to investigate this site as a theater of (pre-emptive) warfare. We will use different forms of research, including theoretical discussion, re-enactment and body work to reflect upon and intervene into the site.

“I looked in the water of the monument fountain and I saw green.,.”

When?
July 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 – at noon sharp
Where?
Meet in front of the Exelon Visitors Information Center in Millennium Park and depart from there.
What if?
If you arrive late, please SMS (813)789-0122 and we will reply with our exact location

BLW is: Rozalinda Borcila, Sarah Lewison, Julie Wyman

Filed under: calls for participation, Places: BLW
1 Comment

forwarded from Ziarul de Iasi, Romania

http://www.ziaruldeiasi.ro

Serviciile drepturilor de coautor
Autor: Catalin GHEORGHE
Sintem responsabilizati sa acceptam drepturile proprietatii intelectuale si, in acelasi timp, sintem tentati sa apelam la argumentul libertatii accesului la cultura.
Producem si consumam cultura, vindem si cumparam, chiar si simbolic, insa atunci cind vine vorba despre drepturi ne aflam la mijloc, intre copyright si copyleft. (more…)

Filed under: news
No Comments

Here are a few images from the public hearing at the ICA, instigated by BLW (Rozalinda Borcila, Sarah Lewison and Julie Wyman) and Think Tank that has yet to be named (represented by Lena Helen and Meredith Warner). project description and more details about the investigation can be found HERE. Below is a summary of Assessment as to the Perpetration of Harm:

- Language is deceiving the public about civic and other plans.
- Language conceals the reality of the kinds of lives people are really living and the intent of activities people are engaged in.
- Language refers to civic engagement, but works to disable participatory democracy, or to work against civic education, or to actively create stupidity.
- Language facilitates diversions of funding or diversions of property from places it is needed.
- Language is pre-empting the possibility of alternative futures by “putting words in people’s mouths.”

Click HERE for testimony submitted in absentia by Jeremy Beaudry of Think Tank that has Yet to be named
Click HERE for more on the hearing from the website of Think Tank that has yet to be named

Filed under: Places: Philly, Places: BLW
No Comments

Public Hearing
Saturday March 10, 2007
3:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Institute of Contemporary Art - 118 South 36th Street in Philadelphia, PA.

The Coalition of Inquiry into the State of the Future (herein referred to as “The Coalition”) alleges that
language used in certain documents of public and journalistic record, and written with the
intention of informing a general public as to the nature of certain subjects (below), bears a spurious
and suspicious relationship to the truth.

The Coalition further alleges such language has the potential of causing harm through false
representation, through the perpetration of an illusion of participatory democracy, and through other
forms of harm to be assessed. The subjects allegedly misrepresented by said language include but are not
restricted to the following:

I) The nature and demographics of the city of Philadelphia

II) The transparent and participatory nature of certain institutions and current and future initiatives associated with the city of Philadelphia

III) The condition for artists and cultural workers in the city of Philadelphia.

IV) The condition and status of working people and/or residents of the city of Philadelphia.

V) The nature of democracy and democratic process

(more…)

Filed under: calls for participation, Places: Philly, Places: BLW
1 Comment

The Center for Getting Ugly invites you to participate in a skill-sharing workshop in calisthenics for collaboration. This is an invitation to share your experiences and ideas with others rather than an organized presentation.

Sunday September 3, 2006
6-8 pm workshop, followed by dinner (under $7.)
Studio 27
689 Bryant Street (ring bell) between 4th and 5th
between Leavenworth and Hyde
RSVP: limited to 12. Please RSVP to sarah lewison at sacamixta@gmail.com or call: 610-220-8634
Cost: Free (a small donation to the space is gratefully accepted)
(more…)

Filed under: calls for participation, Places: BLW
No Comments

tipsy and ugly will be going to Philly in September 2006, invited by Basekamp — see below.

From http://www.basekamp.com

Basekamp & InLiquid.com received a 2006 Philadelphia Exhibitions initative grant to plan Plausible Artworlds, an international conference and exhibition (to take place in 2007), with a significant web component, devoted to collaborative and socially-engaged artists’ projects and open forms of curatorial practice.

The funding so far is for planning only - we are still seeking funds to stage the actual planned project. In the interim we are asking a small selection of groups to work with us during the planning process in 2006. We see this process as a kind of ’project-in-itself’ which can be a chance to meet, talk and think together about the future. We hope this initial planning stage will grow organically into the planned event for 2007, with tangible outcomes along the way.

(more…)

Filed under: news, Places: Philly
No Comments

“I DON’T WANT TO BE PART OF YOUR CONFLICT (BUT I AM)”

Global Webcast, Saturday, August 12 2006, 15:00 - 19:00 PM CEST [–> 16:00 - 20:00 EEST] http://beirut.streamtime.org

Outraged at Israel’s ongoing aggression on Lebanon - which since July 12 2006 has killed over 900 people (mostly civilians), displaced nearly one million people (1/4 of Lebanon’s entire population), and wrecked Lebanon’s infrastructure and economy - we say: khalas! enough! (more…)

Filed under: news, calls to action
No Comments

by Nancy Davies
August 1, 2006

In the manner of a marcha de las caserolas made famous in Argentina, the women of Oaxaca took to the streets with their pots, frying pans and spoons to beat out the call “Ruiz Fuera!” Ruiz out!

On Tuesday morning about 2,000 women gathered at the Plaza of Siete Regiones and marched toward the zocalo, a distance of five miles. Along the route they were greeted by cheering onlookers who handed them water and waved signs in support of the social movement that has set as its first and foremost goal the removal from office of the governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz (URO). The women tapped out the rhythm of “Ya Cayó” and used pan covers as cymbals. Many carried wooden spoons and drummed on their frying pans.
(more…)

Filed under: news, calls to action
No Comments

by What, how and for Whom/WHW , from
http://printedmatter.org/researchroom/essays/whw.cfm

What, How & for Whom (WHW) is a non-profit organization for visual culture and curators’ collective formed in 1999 and based in Zagreb, Croatia. Its members are curators Ivet Ćurlin, Ana Dević , Natasa Ilić and Sabina Sabolović , and designer and publicist Dejan Krsić . Since May 2003 WHW has been directing the program of Gallery Nova – a non-profit, city-owned gallery in Zagreb.  (more…)

Filed under: articles
No Comments

forwarded by Sama Alshaibi

Palestinian Center for Human Rights (17 July 2006)

TESTIMONY No. 1

Dr. Fawwaz Abu Sitta, 53
Economics Professor at al-Azhar University

I am a professor of economics at al-Azhar University. I live with my wife, Anika Fagner, a German citizen, and my son, 18-year-old Suleiman, in a 3-story villa. We live on the second floor of the building. My brother Nawaf, an engineer, lives with his wife and his two daughters, 13-year-old Nouran and 7-year-old Dana, on the third floor. Fortunately, my mother, 82, is in Cairo visiting her daughter. (more…)

Filed under: Letters from Palestine
No Comments

Hello Folks,

The university restored my computer access this morning. It was cut automatically on Saturday by HR. Sort of annoying, but they have their hands full these days. I had been using my UCSD account since, and so some of you have not received much in the way of updates-for which I am very sorry. It is time consuming to use the UCSD account over a webpage. I received a lot of much appreciated mail on the UCSD account though, and so for the first time this year I actually had things worth reading rather than the usual sexual dysfunction ads and solicitations for various kinds of fraud. (more…)

Filed under: Letters from Lebanon
No Comments

forwarded by Greg Sholette

Dear All,

I am drafting this entry in this unusual diary at 11:30 pm, I have about half an hour before the generator shuts down. Most of Beirut is in the dark. I dare not imagine what the country is like. Today was a relatively calm day, but like most calm days that come immediately after tumultuous days, it was a sinister day of taking stock of damage, pulling bodies from under destroyed buildings, shuttling injured to hospitals that have the capacity to tend to their wounds more adequately. (more…)

Filed under: Letters from Lebanon
No Comments

from IDC listserv, written by Zena el-Khalil

I have started coughing, but I don’t know why. I am not sick. I don’t have a cold. I think it’s a reaction I’m having to stress. My body feels weak. My mouth is always dry, no matter how much water I drink. And I’m afraid to
drink too much water because I don’t want it to run out! (more…)

Filed under: Letters from Lebanon
3 Comments

6Plus is a collective of artists living in the US who have been trying to develop projects in Palestine in collaboration with 7 Palestinian women artists. Two exhibitions are scheduled for September at the International Center in Bethlehem, and December at the Sakakini in Ramallah. The December exhibit is also intended as the conclusion of a collaboration with a group of young women from a refugee camp close to Bethlehem. (more…)

Filed under: news
No Comments

A group of us walked through Chicago on April 30 to visit and commemorate the failed/interupted meeting of anarchist labor organizers at Haymarket Square. We walked without directions or much knowledge of the city, relying on other Chicago pedestrians to give us directions to our goal.

Most of the people we talked to were unaware of the Haymarket riot. We did get a cool guide to commemorating anarchist events published by Chicago Info shop–courtesy of the luxury W hotel! Does the W possibly stand for …. Work?

for images, click pic above; also , another set of images here 

Here is some stuff to refresh your memories about Mayday. 1886 is the year that marks Mayday as a workers holiday. (more…)

Filed under: Walking and Not Walking
No Comments

Images and musings from the Tampa walk to the beach are now uploaded at
http://www.commonplacesproject.org/gallery/v/walks/

Filed under: Walking and Not Walking
No Comments