[-empyre-] Thanks but one more thing for Paul: humor/play/irony

[Renate Ferro]

Dear Paul and Cecelia,

Many thanks for being our guest this week.  Paul we did not want you
to get away this week without commenting on the post Renate made about
PED and your thoughts about activism and humor/play/irony.

Simon thanks for the footnote on network/contact.

 We are  going to be introducing next weeks guests in a few minutes.
Hope you will continue though to chime in as your schedules warrant.

 Renate and Tim

On Thu, May 16, 2013 at 10:47 PM, Renate Ferro <rtf9 at cornell.edu> wrote:
> Hi Paul, Cecelia, Erin, and to all of our -empyre subscribers,
> I have been traveling this past week and am just getting caught up on
> your posts.  Thanks to Ana for nurturing the list this week.
>
> Paul your posts made me think about your collaborative PED piece
> http://paulvanouse.com/ped.html
>
> In your summation of your experiences with collaboration I am struck
> by the fact that at the heart of many collaborative successes is
> playfulness and humor.  I thought about the PED piece because though
> there was certainly activist intent humor, playfulness, irony seemed
> to seep throughout the entire project.  I guess I am picking on PED
> because it is one of my favorites but I'm wondering if you could take
> a few minutes and talk more about the playful gestures that resonate
> in your activist projects?
>
> I am really interested n the gestures of play and fun even in the
> midst of pretty serious subject matter.
> I am asking Paul this but hope all of you will chime in. At Cornell
> about five years ago I founded a lab called "The Tinker Factory."
> Riffing off the word tinker to experiment, mess around, with things
> that sometimes you have no preplanned path of action for, tinkering
> with materials or technology or the stuff of creative production.  And
> the word Factory, I borrowed inspiration from Andy Warhol's
> performance, collaborative playground in New York City in the early
> 1960's.  It was a space that nurtured creative practice and
> experimentation as well as conceptual ideas.
>
> The Tinker Factory for my students and me has been a space where we
> can bring in guests and share work, ideas in both a collaborative
> workshop production space and a creative mentoring space.  We have
> brought Kevin Hamilton, Maurice Benayoun, Andrew Galloway, and Mari
> Velonaki among others. These guests not only provided an opportunity
> to share their expertise but also gave us license to think about
> broader issues involving critical digital technology in a relaxed
> atmosphere.  In the middle of Upstate NY we are centrally isolated and
> sometimes it is difficult to network.  The Tinker Factory brings
> together faculty, students, and sometimes even community members who
> come together even if it is for a brief period of time.  What have
> resulted are connections among artist's, engineers, and others that
> ordinarily would never have an occasion to happen.
>
> So to all of you what do you think about location?  Just a few weeks
> ago I heard Ricardo Dominguez talk about his early collaborations with
> his Tallahassee buddies.  They lived and worked together in the same
> geographic location.  Is it possible or how is it possible to network
> using social media, or email, or Skype to enable collaborative
> practice and thinking.  Anyone out there have some good examples of
> this that has worked successfully?
>
> Happy Friday to all of you and for others Happy End of the Semester!
> Renate



-- 

Renate Ferro
Visiting Assistant Professor of Art
Cornell University
Department of Art, Tjaden Hall Office #420
Ithaca, NY  14853
Email:   <rtf9 at cornell.edu>
URL:  http://www.renateferro.net
      http://www.privatesecretspubliclies.net
Lab:  http://www.tinkerfactory.net

Managing Co-moderator of -empyre- soft skinned space
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