Tuesday 15 December 2009

Hop, Skip and Jump The Story of Children's Play.

Hi, I am unsure as to whether this will be of interest, but I just saw this briefly advertised on television. Perhaps something worth watching, though incredibly naive i'm sure.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00p8lhr

Susannah.

Wednesday 9 December 2009

fotan (hk)

hey everyone.

this is basically a fyi post on the above, since it was mentioned:

the main website appears to be down at the moment <
www.fotanian.com>, so pls do head over to here for a pretty decent intro to the area: 'fotanian'. and this article too: 'fotanian open studios'. just an example of the 'conversion' of old factory spaces to working studio spaces.

cheers!


Shop at 34

A bit of feedback from yesterday. With Maria we went to see the opening of Shop at 34 and it seemed a really cool space to use in the future. It's on 2 floors and in a very nice zone in Holborn. We need to apply, as soon as we have a bit more of a concrete project we should start drafting a proposal.

This is their blog if you want to check it out
http://shopat34.blogspot.com/

see you tomorrow

Rachel's Reading Suggestions

This is Rachel's email from Friday, December 4, 2009:

Well for quick access and overview I would actually suggest going to the wikipedia entries (apologies to any purist art historians !) for Pyschogeography and the Derive which give a good overview and loads of links to texts and other sites and some of the maps etc.... Then you can follow as you see fit depending on time.


For further resesarch:

As Susannah suggested at google books – The most radical gesture: the Situationist International in a postmodern age By Sadie Plant – there are the first 27 pages which is a good introduction to the politics, philosophy, social context of the Situationists.

And then archives of SI texts and manifestos see:

www.notbored.org/SI-texts.html - Situationists Manifestos etc

http://library.nothingness.org/articles/4/en/display/2 - Debord on psychogeography

http://library.nothingness.org/articles/SI/en/display/314 - Debord on the derive


BUT – should we also perhaps think of discussing the ‘strategies of transformation’ or the transformative in Peter and Helge’s article in the read? Just an idea.

3 December - Lab Summary

Expectations/Aims/Outcomes, etc. (Feel free to add to this list!)

1. Conduct fieldwork in London (outside of New Cross) and potentially other parts of England, as well as drawing on our own collective personal histories, geographies, homes
2. Identify and develop the most effective format for the project/material outcome (publication, exhibition, performance, happening/intervention, film, conference, seminar, etc.)
3. Innovatively use or create a space, whether it is in a gallery, a public space or something else
4. Identify appropriate roles for everyone based on individual interest, experience, inclinations
5. Identify opportunities to meet people outside of the group - arts professionals, artists, administrators, funding bodies, other MA students at Goldsmiths and at other institutions - through direct meeting or through an exchange of existing contacts
6. Establish a process to document the process - which will be this blog during the planning stages and potentially a hard version at a later stage
7. Create something that (or part of which) can be continued after the completion of the MA lab
8. Take into consideration our audience, network/mapping concepts, alternative models, innovative collaborative practices

Preliminary resources/ideas/concepts:
de Certeau- Practice of Everyday Life
Situationists, Debord, Lefebvre - Production of Space
psychogeographies (see suggested texts/bibliography)
spatial practices - theoretically and practically conceived
subjectivity forming within this:
1. exhibiting culture; institutions; transforming practices
2. aesthetics/activism
3. individual artist practice; cartography as a strategy; transforming of identity and subjectivity

Potential directions/further ideas to explore:
Artist-run spaces; collectives; spaces utilized in interesting/new/radical ways
How can the cultural value of a space be increased?
Public art - who is the public and where does authorship lie?
How autonomous can a commissioned artwork be?
Dangers of gentrification and its repackaging as cultural regeneration
Transformative strategies: practice of everyday life, cartography, art as means to bring viewer/spectator into present moment (vs. existing in past or constantly thinking of future)

Next Steps:
Shop at 34 - make a visit Thus, 10 Dec; think about ways to use space; potentially make a proposal to organization (Maria)
Visit Church project (Julia)

Monday 7 December 2009

Friday 4 December 2009

Market Estate Project


Hi, I'm posting something again ...

This is another really interesting example of artists taking over an 'unusual' space. Perhaps quite a good case study because it is in formation now. I also love the fact that it is available to the public for one day before being demolished. Have a look ...

http://www.marketestateproject.com/

- Tom

Thursday 3 December 2009

AREA 10 - Peckham


Here's an idea for a field trip (shamefully cut and pasted from Facebook), it's actually the week after we break up from college (I got confused) but if anyone's still going to be around, I'll definitely be going down and perhaps you can join.

- Tom



Host:
Type:
Network:
Global
Date:
Thursday, 17 December 2009
Time:
19:00 - 23:00
Location:
AREA10 PROJECT SPACE PECKHAM SE15 5JT
Street:
Peckham Square, Peckham Hill Street
Town/City:
London, United Kingdom


BIOSPHERE Performance || Thursday night || 17th December ||
7pm PROMPT || ALL WELCOME || £4/£3 concessions

Cutting-edge performance collective LIVING STRUCTURES reveals their eagerly-awaited new event BIOSPHERE. Devised and manifest specifically with AREA10 during the past month - performed on the 17th December.

BIOSPHERE promises to be a challenging and involving piece of theatre. Living Structures is a collective of artists who believe that the position of the audience in their performances gives them a vital role to play in the telling of a story, and BIOSPHERE is no different. The audience will follow the characters through a mystical northern forest and will be able to wander amidst the trees encountering all manner of sights until they themselves eventually become part of the natural habitat.

“Moments of intense beauty and genuine wonder!” – Lyn Gardner, Theatre Critic for the Guardian

"Thrilling, exciting, provocative, sickening, challenging, wondrous..." - Terry O'Donovan, Total Theatre Magazine

“This was an exciting and innovative presentation, containing lots of creatively stimulating provocations, and operating in a crossover area between visual art installation and performance.”
James Hadley, Theatre Officer, Arts Council England, London


*******************************************************************

ABOUT AREA10:

AREA10 Project Space Peckham is an independent, unfunded artist led platform. Founded in 2002.

AREA 10 creates artist-led opportunities and activites that support and nurture artists making new work at critical junctures in their practice.

The focus of this enquiry rests on the importance of creating space and structures for artists to come together to share ideas and work. These take the form of events, exhibitions, performances, meetings, workshops, residencies, exchange and collaborations.

WWW.AREA10.INFO


Brixton Village - Interesting in terms of markets/networks/artist run spaces - also would be pretty exciting to utilise this free space if our ideas moved in that direction

What would you do with a space in a 1930s market arcade in Brixton? If you have a good idea, you could be part of the largest empty shops project in the UK.

Space Makers Agency is joining forces with London & Associated Properties PLC and Lambeth Council to fill the empty shop units in Brixton Village indoor market with exciting temporary and permanent projects.

Right now, 20 units in the market are being made ready for occupation. LAP are offering people the chance to take on a unit, rent free, for up to three months.

On Tuesday 10th November, the empty shops will be open for viewing from 4.30pm and anyone interested in taking on a space is invited to come to a meeting at 6.30pm. This will be a chance to hear from the owners and from Lambeth Council, as well as existing market traders, and find out what’s involved in taking on a shop – on a temporary or permanent basis.

Space Makers is looking for your ideas for creative, community-oriented and enterprising projects to make use of a space. Projects could include new and existing businesses, as well as community groups, arts and theatre projects and other imaginative uses of space.

...?

Hi all, have listed a few texts that could be useful regarding reading up on Situationism. Just to confirm that for next week we need to have our proposals on the blog. This should be a lot more straight forward than the other. Just to let you know am deleting the Tumblr blog and will transfer Tom's post on Brixton Village.

Susannah.

Our cause in context: reading on Situationism.

The Most Radical Gesture: The Situationist International in a Postmodern Age. S. Plant. (section '..a world of pleasures to win, and nothing to lost but boredom.'
Leaving the 20th Century The Incomplete Work of The Situationist International. C. Gray.
The Revolution of everyday Life. R. Vaneigem.

Also, the following website contains hundreds and hundreds of works that both, members of the group wrote and work that has been written about/around them/Situationism: http://library.nothingness.org

LABELS

Personal Proposals

Bibliography: Journals, Texts, Books, Online Resources

Field Trips / Feedback

Archive

Calendar

Lab Group Discussion

Misc.