[-empyre-] Welcome Lorna Collins and the Making Sense Colloquium

[Renate Ferro]

Welcome to our October discussion, ³Contextualizing Making Sense. The
alignment of criticality and configurations of embodiment and space permit
creative flows of networks, resources, research and discussions whose
configurations prove limitless.

Lorna Collins and her team of collaborators have invited Tim and I to
represent ­empyre this month at the ³Making Sense Colloquium² at the
IRI-Centre Pompidou, Institut Télécom the 19th and 20th of October.
http://www.makingsensesociety.org/ <http://www.makingsensesociety.org/>
Lorna is a theorist and a PhD student at the University of Cambridge where
she is a Foundation Scholar at Jesus College.  Her academic research pushes
to forge the development of Making Sense via her research and writing but
also through various events such as the ³Making Sense² colloquium. The
colloquium brings together a wide variety of international theorists and
artists some of whom will be our guests this month on ­empyre.
  
Both independently and collaboratively, Tim and I have worked between the
spaces of theory and practice for many years.  Through Tim¹s international
curating as well as his work in founding and directing the Rose Goldsen
Archive for New Media Art and in my case the founding and directing of The
Tinker Factory, an interdisciplinary lab for research and practice we have
independently found venues for forging theory and practice.  Together our
collaboration with ­empyre has given us an opportunity to investigate the
negotiations between theory and practice historically in May 2009 our
discussion Critical Motion Practice merged intersections that entailed both
self-reflective and interactive movement at the intersections of art,
choreography, architecture, activism and theory.  Again in September, 2007
our discussion on Critical Spatial Practice highlighted themes of social
responsibility at cross-disciplinary intersections.  The questions we asked
revolved between the technological and critical approaches between practice
and theory and how those questions empowered creativity, enhanced artistic
activism and encouraged artistic/performance practice and collaboration.
 
We are looking forward to joining the Making Sense participants and
anticipate the international online discussion that will evolve with our
1400 subscribers. Each week we will highlight a handful of Making Sense
guests in hopes that their own project descriptions will entice our members
to add their own ideas and comments.
 
Together collaboratively we are hoping to open up the discussion of Making
Sense. As an artist my practice involves instincts, whim, research, reading,
discussion, investigation and critical analysis. When a research thread
³makes sense² I assume that my inquiry is finished and the project is
finished a cue to proceed to the next.  The act of ³Making Sense² implies a
search for resolution.  Though in the process of making it is the
uneasiness, the questioning, the restlessness, the point that is not making
sense that excites me to continue.  Welcome to ³Contextualizing Making
Sense² or not?
 
We would like to welcome Lorna Collins as our first guest. We will begin
this month on ­empyre by asking Lorna to answer a few questions for our
-empyre members.  Can you fill us in a bit more about your own work as it
relates to the Making Sense Colloquium?   Additionally what can we expect
from the forum itself coming up in a few weeks?
 
Renate and Tim
 
Renate Ferro
URL:  http://www.renateferro.net
Email:   <rtf9 at cornell.edu>
,
Visiting Assistant Professor of Art
Cornell University
Department of Art, Tjaden Hall
Ithaca, NY  14853

Co-moderator of _empyre soft skinned space
http://www.subtle.net/empyre
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empyre

Art Editor, diacritics
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/dia/