some political art in BC: April 2008

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Jakob Jakobsen at SPA

Jakob Jakobsen who ran Copenhagen Free University spoke to SPA on Monday night. He outlined two major concepts for his processes:
Self organisation: The act of producing your own tools, so that you produce the means of production within the production. He presented the analogy of workers in a factory who operate machines that are made and owned by others so that the wealth of their labour is filtered away from them, so that their productivity is making money for others. Conversely, Jakobsen promotes a system of producing your own ‘machines’ so that the productivity is your own.
Autonomy: The act of producing your own system of laws and values.
Power: Power is productive and you must be productive yourself. So, rather than fight the power, take power. The key is to produce a new kind of subjectivity that can take power and once you have claimed power, don’t accumulate it.

Jakobsen set up the Info Centre in London called The Institution for Human Life, with an explicit view to operating for only one year. The info centre provided a space for information exchange and represented various networks, including the Association of Autonomous Astronauts.

On his return to Copenhagen, he and his partner wanted to create another alternative space. They had reflected on the fact that strikes had been the traditional weapon of the worker but considered how it could be possible to produce resistance in the new socio-economic landscape. The idea came easily, start at the core of knowledge production: Universities. The Copenhagen Free University/ University of the Everyday operated out of their home for six years.

EuroMayDay

EuroMayDay is a political day of action against precarity promoted by a network of feminist, and anti-capitalist and migrant groups and collectives in mostly Western Europe. EuroMayDay has been promoted as an attempt to "update" the traditional May Day by focusing on flex and temp workers, migrants and other "precarious" people living in Europe.

http://www.euromayday.org/

The Revolution of Everyday Life

Along with Guy Debord, the voice of Raoul Vaneigem was one of the strongest of the Situationists. Counterpoised to Debord's political and polemic style, Vaneigem offered a more poetic and spirited prose. The Revolution of Everyday Life (Traité de savoir-vivre à l'usage des jeunes générations), published in the same year as The Society of the Spectacle, helped broaden and balance the presentation of the SI's theories and practices.

Here a link to access of full version of the book:

http://library.nothingness.org/articles/SI/en/pub_contents/5

buzzing questions

Here is a extract of the book “Partage du sensible / esthetique et politique” by Jacques Ranciére just to open up the concept of “politics”:

“Politics is about what we see and what we can say about it, about who has the competence to see and the quality to tell, the attributes of space and the possibilities of time.”

And here are some questions that are buzzing us:

a) How do view the relationship between art and politics?
b) How can you inscribe your work in a political dimension?
c) Do you think a context like the one of « some political art » can give impulse to deepen or consider this issue?
d) How do residence projects influence your creation process? Do you think they are useful to define your own practice?
e) How do you address the notions of “autonomy”, “responsibility” and “resistance”?

More later!!

Cheers
L&C

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

How To Disappear Completely And Never Be Found

When making the decision to disappear, it is very important to understand that this is not a process that can be successfully accomplished overnight. For best results under normal circumstances, a minimum of four months is really necessary to successfully carry out the heroic actions necessary to leave your old life behind. This is certainly not an undertaking to be entered into lightly - be completely sure of yourself before you commit to this.

Destination
The first thing to do upon deciding to carry out this transformation is to determine where you plan to go. Your city of previous personal preference may not be the best choice if you have spoken to others about your love for it. Your destination should be outside of your current province/state. Do some research on it, figure out what you will do when you get there. Most importantly, decide on it and stick with this decision.
Once you have chosen a destination, you are ready to proceed with your disappearance. The first three steps should be accomplished simultaneously over the course of four months.

Step One
Cut personal ties with everyone who knows you. Drop out of every group, organization, social circle, bingo table and car pool that you are a part of. The most important thing to remember here is to accomplish this slowly: pull out too abruptly and your friends and associates will become immediately suspicious. Carrying out this step should require several months of missed meetings and unreturned phone calls. Build your absence up gradually until you no longer do anything with the people who knew you.

Step Two
Liquidate all your assets. Divest yourself of all stocks, property and possessions, except for a week's worth of clothes and other necessities (please note: a desktop computer is NOT a necessity). Sell your house if you are single and own one. Your house should be the last thing to be sold. Please note that if you are married, do not attempt to sell anything that is your spouse's or is jointly owned. This may mean that you won't be able to sell the house, but this can't be helped. Selling things that aren't totally yours brings all sorts of nasty consequences that will dog your disappearance, such as law enforcement and private investigators. They should be avoided at all costs. Get cash for everything you sell, and withdraw everything from your bank account, waiting as long as possible before actually closing it. Be very critical when deciding what to keep: everything has to fit into a suitcase (or two at the very most) by the time you leave, so keep only what is absolutely necessary. All these sales should close within as small a timeframe as possible; having them all close on the same day would be perfect but unlikely. Finally, do not sell your car, as you will need it for the early stages of your physical disappearance.

Step Three
Acquire false identification. While this isn't listed until step three, this really should be the first thing you do. Do not leave this until late in the process, as it will require a substantial length of time to acquire GOOD forgeries. These will be fairly expensive, but the cost and resulting quality is absolutely essential. A twenty dollar driver's license bought downtown is just not going to cut it. You will need a driver's license, a valid social security number, and a birth certificate. In some countries, you may need other pieces of identification, such as health cards. You will need two sets, two separate identities. By the time you have completed the two steps above, you should have your two new identities, the first of which should reside in a neighbouring city / county to your present home.

Step Four
Sell your car to the first of your fake identities. To achieve this, you need to open a post office box in the name of this false identity in their home city/county. Register the car with the DMV in this county, and get insurance. The rates are not a concern, as you will not be paying them.

Step Five
In the week before your departure, you should make a point of seeing each of your good friends once. When asked about where you've been, answer vaguely but reassuringly. This should be sufficient to keep them from becoming overly concerned about your absence for at least a couple of weeks. Once the last sale of your previous property has closed, destroy all your current identification. This means thoroughly burning it. Place in your wallet the identification that you registered your car with, along with one hundred dollars of your cash. Place the rest of your cash in a briefcase or other suitable container. Load your remaining belongings into your car. Now back out of your garage and DRIVE.

Step Six
Sell your car in a different state/province, using the identification under which you registered it. Choosing a near opposite path to the one you will eventually take to your chosen destination will help throw off anyone who decides to attempt to follow your footsteps. Now get rid of this set of identification (once again, fire will do the trick). Place your second set of identification in your wallet. There is now nothing to tie you to your old life. Get on a bus and ride it to your destination. Do not fly there directly, as airlines keep much more thorough records than bus lines. If flying is essential (your eventual destination happens to be a Carribean island) then take a bus somewhere else first. Carry your briefcase of money with you at all times. Do not put it in a luggage compartment or leave it unattended anywhere. This is your future life. Have this stolen, and you'll have disappeared, sure, but you'll be begging on the street instead of living it up in your new condo.

Step Seven
You're free. Build a new life and enjoy it this time.
Based on an article of the same name, by Chris Bethea.

one + one is not two

After an introduction to the thinking of Guy Debord, we saw an extract of his movie "La societé du spectacle". We therafter screened a Godard film made in 1968, "One+One", that he considers as his first attempt to politically make political films.

In these scenes of "One+One", Eve Democracy is harassed by an interviewer...

the books

Monday, April 28, 2008

Political garden under construction

"Future Farmers" strive for social and political awareness through art

Hello L,

We have some great friends in California with shared interests:
San Francisco-based art collective "FutureFarmers" strive for social and political awareness through art.

From June 5-7 2008 they organize a (2nd) bio-diesel bus tour through Silicon Valley:
"... Free Soil would like to use this years gathering of artists and practitioners to think about how we learn......."
an investigation on alternative learning, open/free universities, ...

More information on the bus tour program here: http://www.futurefarmers.com/tour2/

I send the info on the upcoming lecture of Jakob Jakobsen to Stijn who will post it
on www.free-soil.org

www.futurefarmers.com

Ciao,
C

Is it enough to use the word “political” to activate a political approach?

Davis Freeman raised this question when invited to participate in “some political art” research group.
In my point of view people indeed become politically concerned or resistant when the word “political” is put out there. Something happens in your mind. A question is raised and one searches to integrate his/her way of acting, dealing with the situation with a certain awareness on its the political self and point of view.
The example of the political garden event can be seen as an experience of the political in terms of a non-hierarchical structure. After the description and explanation of the plans, collaboration and autonomy were the only two pre-established points on how the participants could proceed to accomplish the garden, improvise music or eat.
Isabelle Pauwelyn made a garden design inspired on a diagram of Schlemmer (Bauhaus artist 1926) using the notions of autonomy and algorithms. One can never pass the same point twice.
Niko Hafkenscheid displayed musical instruments, microphones and proposed an improvisation format to accompany the garden makers.
Rosa and Zé took in charge the barbecue.
During a 5 hours period a group of people of all ages constructed a “generic city garden”, played music and eat.
It definitely designated a certain way of living.

Triadic Ballet – Oskar Schelemmer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMDtwC76HjA

Friday, April 25, 2008

'Generic City Garden' : inspired by Oscar Schlemmer

Monday, April 21, 2008

Davis Freeman invites Isabelle Pauwelyn to make a political garden

Davis Freeman invited Isabelle Pauwelyn to create a political garden in Bains Connective and participate in his project in "Some political art". Here listen to the explanation and see the plan of Isabelle called "GENERIC CITY GARDEN". The project started the 20th of April 2008 with a barbecue and a political improvisation session led by Niko Hafkenscheid .

some political art in BC