[-empyre-] Another perspective

[Melinda <melinda@anat.org.au>]

This has been a wide ranging discussion..
from Ollivier's beautiful scene setting postings through many manifestations
of political engagement or non engagement. There have been some great
projects discussed and some openings opened..we haven't really carried
through much though..  Perhaps postulating is enough?

As a guest I've been rather flippant as I have mostly been  at a loss for
anything to say.. .  However my lovely Post Office Box has provided me with
another perspective..   Odd unexpected gifts arrive in it.. In the last few
months it has mysteriously yielded  such delicious  surprises as  the empyre
publication from Knoxville Galley and a hilarious show reel from Happy Inc.
 
Its most recent offering is a copy of the Autumn 06 Maska magazine from
Slovenia, on Artistic Activism. In an article called "the Collaboration and
Space" philpsopher  Bojana Kunst from the Uni of Ljubljana writes at length
about the  Russia collective of artists writers and theorists "Chto delat"
or in english "What is to be Done?" and their art work  also titled "What is
to be Done?"  shown in the Collective Creativity exhibition at Kunsthalle
Fridericianum Kassel in 2005.  I believe Brian Holmes who commented earlier
on the list this month wrote an article for the reader which accompanied the
show. I couldn't find a copy online.

Read the e-flux add
http://www.e-flux.com/displayshow.php?file=message_1113928400.txt

Here's another take from absolutearts.com:
  "Collective Creativity focuses on specific kinds of social tensions that
serve as a common axis around which various group activities are being
organized. It is interested in different emancipatory aspects of collective
work, where collaborative creativity is not only a form of resisting the
dominant art system and capitalist call for specialization, but also a
productive and performative criticism of social institutions and politics.
Which strategies are taken by collectives in public space? Which alternative
forms of ³sociability² are generated? In which ways do they occupy and
change the system and the conditions of production and representation? How
do they affect the social order?

Collective Creativity does not see group activity solely in terms of the
scope and efficiency of tools used in attempts to change the sociopolitical
situation; it also traces the paradox of self-sufficient enjoyment in group
work, which inevitably overcomes and betrays its own instrumentality and use
value. The interest in the specific politics of collective creativity is not
restricted geographically, but it does seem to be especially interesting
from the perspective of the ³New Europe² and in the context of other
geographical points with similar ³troubles with modernism² and tradition of
artists self-organizing. Collective Creativity does not see group activity
solely in terms of the scope and efficiency of tools used in attempts to
change the sociopolitical situation; it also traces the paradox of
self-sufficient enjoyment in group work, which inevitably overcomes and
betrays its own instrumentality and use value. "


So "what is to be done" has already been recently collectively re-done.
Maybe this  is exactly what our esteemed director Roger M. Buergel is
referring to.. And being globally distributed  we missed the localization of
the Kasel inspired reference .. perhaps Brian has another perspective on it
as well..?

In the  MASKA article Bojana Kunst speaks about collectivity and spatiality;
collaboration and social exchange  in relational aesthetics;  the
fetishisation of collaboration , communication and connection;  (quoting
Esche ) the museum is  a space of "democratic deviance";  the risky
conclusions which could equate to  a 60's ideal of participatory democracy.

The important question being  raised for me is  "why are we doing something
together?"   Why discuss it ? Why search for coherence or for that matter
argument?  What do we get out of it?

It seems particularly relevant to this list which was always envisioned as a
collaborative entity held together by some subtle etheric forces.  Is empyre
still viscous,  or is it time to disperse?

Signing out.. 
Thanks for having me
M
-- 
The Future of Technology is Wearable
WearNow ::  2-3 February
National Museum of Australia
http://www.anat.org.au/reskin


Dr Melinda Rackham
Executive Director
Australian Network for Art and Technology (ANAT)
PO Box 8029
Station Arcade
South Australia 5000
ph: 61 8 8231 9037; fax 61 8 8231 9766
http://www.anat.org.au
director@anat.org.au

Australian Network for Art and  Technology (ANAT) is supported by the Visual
Arts and Craft Strategy, an  initiative of the Australian, State and
Territory Governments;  the Australian Government through the Australia
Council, its arts funding and advisory body, and the South Australian
Government through Arts SA.