network

How can one relate as an artist to a community in a sustainable way? How to avoid institutionalisation without losing the power to organise? How to not become cynical while working in a public environment and seeing that many people just don’t care? How to start thinking about artistic education as a critical point of entry to the social fabric of the city?

A. Paper tour

I will first take you on a tour through the practices of four Rotterdam-based initiatives. This paper excursion is the result of an afternoon of walking, talking and reflecting upon a challenging question: how can art schools teach their students to have an impact upon communities? The second part of this text focuses on this question.
Although the four initiatives each have a different focus, they have this simple fact in common: they started doing. This is important especially nowadays, when public environments – libraries, community centres or public spaces – are disappearing from city life, being replaced by online spaces and social media. How does this affect local communities? And which long-term effects can be brought about by artist-run social spaces? Is community-building a goal, or a vehicle for something bigger?

Join us on our tour!

1. Critical community: Upominki

‘After finishing art school I expected to work as I had been educated: as an autonomous artist,’ says Weronika Zielinska. ‘But when I became a mother, the real struggle began.’ She started Upominki – meaning ‘gifts’ in Polish – in 2012 as a non-profit artist-run space. ‘My biggest question was: how to combine family life with remaining part of a critical artistic community?’

A small connection
Weronika had to re-train herself: ‘There is only a small connection between the art school and the outside world. I needed skills I hadn’t been taught. How to improvise? How to organise? Where to find space? How to become self-sustaining? How to make money through projects?’ Upominki became her tool to address these questions.
Weronika has been successfully running Upominki for five years now. She recently moved Upominki to her new family home in Rotterdam-West. Using a white marker, she writes on the window: When basic needs are met, it’s easier to be creative. ‘Are you able to be generous? Can you build relationships? In the end it’s all about giving and receiving,’ Weronika states. It’s as if she wants to say: it’s hard to meet obligations towards a community, when you yourself are in survival mode.

2. Local community: Leeszaal Rotterdam West

Leeszaal Rotterdam West started as a low-key organisation, not long after the neighbourhood library closed: ‘We didn’t write a plan,’ says Maurice Specht. ‘We just started by tapping into the local fabric.’ Free space was provided by a housing corporation. ‘We’re completely run by volunteers.’ So how do you maintain a library?

Aliens
‘Do as little administration as possible. People just take books – some bring them back, others don’t.’ Of course, some money is involved: ‘The DOEN Foundation gave us €50,000. After the first year we hadn’t even spent half of the money. So we contacted them and asked if they preferred us to waste the rest of it on something expensive, or save it for later.’ The DOEN Foundation agreed to the latter. ‘Now we still have about €15,000 left.’ Maurice smiles: ‘You have to assemble your life in such a way that you can live like this.’
This is an important issue for Maurice: ‘We have to change the money system. We didn’t accept funding from the local government. We don’t want to maintain their pace. We don’t want to force the people we work with. We want to stay independent.’ This independence makes Leeszaal Rotterdam West stand out. ‘People like us because of our presence in the neighbourhood.’ But: ‘Especially artists are coming like aliens and then leaving again. My question to them is: how can you work on a long-term basis?’

3. Ambitious community: Freehouse / Afrikaanderwijk Coöperatie

‘Using small-scale interventions, we plugged an ambitious artistic network into a local framework and language.’ Ramon Mosterd explains how Freehouse functions as a tool: founder Jeanne van Heeswijk brought her international network as an artist to the local market square in the Afrikaanderwijk neighbourhood in the south of Rotterdam. Funding helped allow these experimental interventions to grow into more viable ways of making money. ‘Along the way, we used institutionalisation in order to become a growing force.’

Oh no, not another group of students...
‘At first it functioned as an art project, rooted in Jeanne’s practice: a portrait of communities.’ But gradually it has become more than that. Operating from the Gemaal op Zuid building, a former surface-water pumping station, Freehouse set up Afrikaanderwijk Coöperatie, which facilitates new forms of shared space for meeting and interacting: sometimes it functions as a professional neighbourhood kitchen, a church or a library; on other occasions it could be a (web) shop, a shared office, a gallery or a meeting space.
‘But when people come and go, how can you establish a clear identity?’ Ramon laughs a bit: ‘Sometimes we whisper: oh no, not another group of students...’ He continues: ‘You need to organise in order to be taken seriously by the local government. How to find time and money to set up an organisation that can carry this responsibility?’ The main thing is to stick with the process. ‘Keep a goal in mind, but work based on intuition.’

4. Attentive community: Conversas

‘People are too busy! There is no time anymore after finishing art school.’ Constança Saraiva co-founded Conversas – ‘conversations’ in Portuguese – in Lisbon, Portugal, in 2012 as an ‘open space for open people’. Conversas is a series of weekly informal meetings where three people share ideas, projects or stories with the gathered group. Later she moved to Rotterdam ‘because I fell in love with someone who lives here’ – and she brought Conversas along.

Being a good host
Conversas events are currently being organised in various cities around the world, and thus also in Rotterdam, in this case on February 15 at Upominki. ‘Conversas are a basic tool for organising a critical network after you graduate,’ Constança explains. ‘We organise through social media, but meet in real life. We invite people to speak out. It’s a positive model in which we secretly help each other, by being a good host, by listening, and by raising questions to get each other to talk.’ Her motivation: to provide alternative ways of learning from others. Conversas are open to everybody. ‘Our network is mostly made of creative people, but we believe that we can learn from anyone, even more so from people who think differently and come from other backgrounds,’ Constança says.

B. How to teach?

What do these four practices mean for art education? They are all related to artists – and all but one are rooted in the practices of these artists. Only Leeszaal Rotterdam West functions at somewhat more of a distance from this. A closer inspection raises questions such as: How to work with, or within, the system? How to teach the art of using the social fabric as artistic material? How to teach the art of bringing back artistic production to the communities involved? Based on these questions, I wish to advance four proposals for art education. The core of each of these proposals is the verb ‘to teach’.

1. Process

Within all artistic practices, the same simple question arises: how to survive? Constança says: ‘There is no time anymore after finishing art school.’ ‘How does one find time?’ Ramon adds. Maurice has adapted his life in such a way as to create the necessary space and time. But still, as Weronika found out, ‘I needed skills I hadn’t been taught.’ These artists have all struggled and are looking for tools to develop and grow.
Thus, art schools will need to introduce a course called ‘Process’. Here, students will learn to address questions such as: How to start? How to prioritise? How to work based on intuition? How to persevere? How to finish? And how to work in a sustainable way?

Hardship
An example of a course focusing on process is Marina Abramović’s teachings on performance art – a time-based and process-based practice. At the beginning of a workshop she takes her students to a place ‘either too cold or too hot, never comfortable’ and, while fasting ‘for three to five days, drinking only water and herbal teas, and refraining from speaking’, she does various exercises: lying on the ground for as long as possible, going to a forest where a student is blindfolded and then tries to find the way back home, or trying to remember the very moment between being awake and falling asleep. Through these durational exercises, she wishes to give students ‘the general feeling that the hardship was worth it.’1 Only after these exercises does she allow students to start working.

2. Organisation

Money and institutionalisation are a second struggle. Weronika seeks a degree of self-sufficiency. Maurice didn’t accept funding from the local government, because of a desire to stay independent. On the other hand, Ramon says: ‘You need to organise in order to be taken seriously by the local government.’ And Constança hopes to reach more people than just friends and artists.
Thus, art schools will need to introduce a course called ‘Organisation’. Here, students will learn to address questions such as: How to find the necessary money? How to write proposals? How to build a team? How to collaborate with people who aren’t (already) friends? How to communicate about events? Using Facebook, for example, how to reach more people than just friends?

Intuitions
Today the individual is subject to pressures from different types of seemingly overpowering organisations: the state, big corporations, or the financial system. Self-organisation and collectivity are important tools as counter-forces, but they too are part of the same process, as the hipster movement or the history of the internet clearly demonstrate. Starting from a simple desire to share information, the internet grew into a system now controlled by a few big corporations and characterised by ‘filter bubbles’ and algorithms. The same basic story also applies to money and organisation.
During a debate, Anne Miltenburg, a brand developer, said something like: ‘When you’re supported by the money system, it’s too late already. You’re part of the system, and there’s not much you can do to change that anymore. The most interesting part is over.’ Or, to paraphrase the sociologist Joop Goudsblom: when we think together, we create institutions, which then grow and eventually replace our intuitions.2 Thus we should teach each other to cherish and hold on to this first phase of organising, in which we are intuitively searching for solutions without yet finding them. Because although this part seems hard, it is the most open and fruitful.

3. Transmission

Finishing art school, Weronika discovered: ‘There is only a small connection between the art school and the outside world.’ Especially Maurice and Ramon are critical of art students: ‘Artists are coming like aliens and then leaving again. My question to them is: how can you work on a long-term basis?’ And: ‘Oh no, not another group of students...’ To explain these observations: when working within the framework of communities, how sustainable is the traditional concept of the artist?
Thus, art schools will need to introduce a course called ‘Transmission’. Here, students will learn to address questions such as: How to renounce the institutional status of art? How to communicate with people who don’t know art or artists? How to present yourself to people who are cynical towards art and artists? How to stay generous? How to become an accomplice to a person, an organisation or a community – and vice versa? How to use this social field for sincere artistic production?

Understanding
In 1974 the artist and furniture designer Enzo Mari published a booklet titled Proposta per un’autoprogettazione, enabling the public to make ‘easy-to-assemble furniture using rough boards and nails. […] Anyone, apart from factories and traders, can use these designs to make them by themselves.’ Mari thus provided ‘an elementary technique to teach anyone to look at present production with a critical eye.’ 3 Because: ‘The world was not only made for the rich, who live in large apartments and villas, but most people live in two-room apartments.’ So: design does not become design by formally contributing to someone’s status. ‘Design is only design when it communicates knowledge,’4 Mari states.
Similarly, the artist Renzo Martens refers to the example of the Unilever series in the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern, London: ‘Every year a new spectacular exhibition, where art gets to show how important it is for people. This includes very critical, politically motivated works by Ai Weiwei, or works by Tino Seghal about changing labour conditions. Great artworks, sponsored by Unilever. And therefore by plantation workers who earn nothing.’ To Martens this means the very bankruptcy of art: ‘An artwork should first and foremost be a reflection upon itself. When you have great artworks […] that don’t show any understanding of the fact that they’ve been paid for through heartbreakingly abject poverty, then these are just bad artworks.’5

4. Change

After graduating from art school, ‘instead I became a mother,’ says Weronika. Constança moved to Rotterdam ‘because I fell in love with someone who lives here.’ Ramon calls for more intuition. And Maurice describes what makes his activities possible: the fact that they are embedded in his personal life, adapted in such a way that it allows him to live this way. All four are touching upon something important: the layer of everyday life, biography and personality. A decision to start doing begins here.
At first, I thought of using this space to propose a course on personality. But thinking further, the opposite approach became much more interesting: the art school as an institution should train its teachers to open up. Education itself will de-institutionalise and become part of city life and communities, as an engaging force supporting change within society. Because, as the artist and architect Apolonija Šušteršič wrote: ‘As citizens we lack power, but the influence we have, we can use to bring about change in our immediate surroundings, based on communication, respect and trust.’6 So: when we work to change art schools, what is the concept of this change?

Urgent questions
According to Šušteršič, the concept of change that is needed in order to open up art and art schools towards communities focuses on two main issues: de-materialisation of the artwork, and multidisciplinarity. Art is not just objects, and art is more than a reflection upon art itself. Bonds between people, and the creation of platforms to support these bonds, thus become the core of artistic production and education. Referring to philosopher Jacques Rancière, Šušteršič adds: ‘The unequal relationship specific to common ways of knowledge transfer – a one-way transfer from teacher to student – is unsuitable here.’ The opposite is needed: an equal process of exchange, in which the knowledge of an educator or an artist, the experience of communities or the public, and the professional competence of students are understood as equivalent to each other. We no longer live in a world in which independent artists struggle in their studio, isolated from society. In the studio, we still have to deal with gallerists, curators, the museum or the public; similarly, in city life, we have to deal with politicians, policymakers, developers and citizens. There is no more neutral ground. To quote again Šušteršič: ‘What matters is whether art manages to relate to the urgent questions of contemporary society.’7

The good part is: the world as it once was no longer exists. You’ve already changed. Now act like it.

Subject

education

Date written

2017-03-30

Author(s)

Klaas Burger

Keywords

Literature & Footnotes

Marina Abramovic, Walk Through Walls: A Memoir. Penguin Random House UK, 2016. Page 222-224.

Sander Pleij, Joop Goudsblom. Vrij Nederland, Year 78 #01. Page 101.

Enzo Mari, Autopogettazione? Edizione Corraini, 2014. Page 1.

https://vimeo.com/39684024

http://www.vpro.nl/programmas/tegenlicht/lees/bijlagen/2016-2017/cultuurbarbaren/vpro-gidsartikel.html

Mariska van den Berg, Stedelingen veranderen de stad. Trancity / Valiz: 2013. Page 137.

Idem. Page 142 - 144.

Organized Networks: A Model for Autonomous Organization

Rop — Fri, 16 Feb 2018 14:06:09 +0000

Organized Networks: A Model for Autonomous Organization Rop Fri, 02/16/2018 - 15:06

In today’s neoliberal ‘creative industries’ landscape, there is a need to redefine the concept of autonomy. The term has multiple meanings and potentially creates confusion. Let us distinguish between the use of the term ‘autonomy’ in the contemporary arts context, as opposed to its even more specific use in (radical left) politics, social movements and theory. In this essay I propose to look at contemporary network culture as a form of living autonomy, and to see how this can be applied in the context of Rotterdam.
In the arts, autonomy traditionally referred to the independent position of artists with regard to both patronage and the world of museums and galleries. Today, autonomy means to be independent of the market (and in many countries also from the state). The term also implies a liberation of the professional class that supervises and guides the life and works of artists, such as the educator, curator, critic and public cultural policymaker. The emancipation of the arts is thus the story of the struggle of artists to liberate the creative process from outside forces in order to start a journey deep into the work itself. Autonomy stands for radical self-reflection upon aesthetics, understanding and then deconstructing the rules, and generating social impact. The element of reflection has resulted in a multitude of academic disciplines and fields of research that study new forms of autonomy as a practice. One of the confusing bits here is the explicit rejection by ‘autonomous practices’ of the traditional ‘l’art pour l’art’ attitude. Often, autonomous art has been – and remains – deeply engaged in society and socio-political movements. To break ties with the authorities often results in a move towards society (even though it can also be expressed as the freedom to withdraw and precisely not to engage). What counts here is autonomy as enabler: it facilitates and embodies actual existing freedom, in whichever direction.
Autonomy as self-rule or self-determination also has a strong political tradition that needs to be discussed here, beyond individual neoliberal characteristics such as self-awareness, or self-motivated skills for acting independently and executing a plan, beyond the interference of (state) institutions or other authorities such as family or tribe members, or any similar social factors. Autonomy in the arts often refers to the rebel mentality of the 1960s-80s movements. Some of the many terminological roots include autonomy of workers in Italian factories; autonomy from (humorously enough) Communist trade unions and parties; and autonomy from Christian-democratic and social-democratic (labour) influences. In this context, autonomous movements were those that refused to negotiate and compromise with both capital and the state, and rather than building up systems of representation, focused instead on cooperatives and collectives that practiced forms of sabotage and resistance, combined with a strong belief in autonomous infrastructures such as squats, bars, bookshops, cinemas, theatres, bike repair shops and printing facilities. With the demise of traditional social movements, we can also see a shift away from sustainable autonomous forms of organisation (which unfold in time), towards a temporary expression that materialises for a brief amount of time, in space (including occupations of city squares such as the Occupy movement and the Arab Spring, university occupations, etc.).
Self-organisation today is radically different from the days before social media. Facebook is now the default tool, also for designers, activists, artists and academics. How is the informal creative sector organising itself these days, and how could this be done in a better way? In the recent past, this was mainly done through email, paper (flyers) and telephone. Which tools work best? Let’s investigate this and widely publicise the results. Would this be a LinkedIn group or a Facebook group? Or should we rather communicate through WhatsApp or Telegram? There are two elements that need to be balanced here: the network needs to be (relatively) open, while simultaneously ‘getting its act together’ enough to make its voice heard and get things done. The overall aim should be to generate a sustainable time axis between the players. Is there enough time to organise the grassroots in the age of Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook Live? Social relations are now or never. How can the real-time politics of social media be broken down in order to create slow spaces, spaces to ‘heal’ and hang out? How can we move beyond the identity question and create new cultures of solidarity and exchange? How can artist-run spaces remain economically viable? What do we expect from a shared office these days anyway, if not that it can be turned into a political cell, a subversive gathering where we can ‘radicalise whiteness’ (among other agendas)?
The aim of Autonomous Fabrics could be to foster strong ties within the localities, starting from educational structures in the arts and their links with cultural spaces and related specific individuals that are vital to the scene. This goal is in direct conflict with the ‘weak ties’ model of the dominant social media platforms. The promotion of strong ties is the core idea of the ‘organised networks’ concept (which I have been developing over the past decade with my friend, the Sydney-based media theorist Ned Rossiter). Why should artists and designers network? Not just to get to know each other, or to keep updated about events nearby and far away, but also to organise the field. One could call it cultural self-defence. For many this might sound too negative, but these days even informal structures need to be defended. Culture only unfolds in time, within a space. It’s not there instantaneously. The next question is then whether the act of organising should also result in a proper organisation. Here opinions start to differ. It’s not cool to start an NGO or a trade union, let alone a policy think tank. However, there are problems too with the ‘tyranny’ of networks and the lack of direction which informal structures often experience. The ‘organised network’ proposal is an attempt to overcome the problems on both sides. On one hand there is the real existing usage of social media, on the other hand the desire to get things done, to come together, to make decisions and to collaborate in order to realise what needs to be done.
The aim of the Autonomous Fabric should be to resist gentrification, to protect low rents of office spaces, and to exchange information on how to establish a ‘commons’ of the arts for sharing infrastructures and exchanging knowledge. Traditionally the aim of such networks was to lobby the city council and change (local) cultural policy. This might still be important, but we’re all very aware that there are multiple players and forces at work here. The housing situation is at the very centre of these concerns. It is up to us, as a collective entity, to occupy, build up and defend these spaces. To quote Sebastian Olma: ‘An aesthetic of performative defiance is not something that can simply be demanded of artists. If we want them to contribute to the evolution of our collective sensorium so the future will remain within reach of our aesthetic imagination, we must collectively persevere in our efforts to create a social space where this will be possible.’1 The current patchwork of small and medium-size non-profits, startups and freelancers can be destroyed almost overnight. This the main reason why the informal networks, as mapped by the Autonomous Fabric, should organise themselves. Mapping can only be a first step in a process of raising self-awareness – or, if you prefer, autonomy.

Subject

network

Date written

2017-03-30

Author(s)

Geert Lovink

Keywords

Literature & Footnotes

Hakim Bey, The Temporary Autonomous Zone, Ontological Anarchy, Poetic Terrorism, Autonomedia, Brooklyn, 1991.

Marie-Josée Corsten, Christianne Niesten, Huib Fens, Pascal Gielen (red.), Autonomie als waarde, dilemma’s in kunst en onderwijs, Valiz, Amsterdam, 2013.

Sebastian Olma, Autonomy and Weltbezug, Towards an Aesthetic of Perfomative Defiance, Avans, Breda, 2016.

V2_ Institute for the Unstable Media

Rop — Mon, 12 Dec 2016 21:46:37 +0000

V2_ Institute for the Unstable Media Rop Mon, 12/12/2016 - 22:46

Address

Eendrachtsstraat 10, 3012 XL Rotterdam, Netherlands

Location description

Facebook page url

https://www.facebook.com/V2unstable

Year founded

1982

Founders still active?

Website

http://v2.nl

v2@v2.nl

Facebook page id

V2unstable

+31 (0)10 206 7272

Subjects and keywords

network

Other Initiatives with subject

V2_ Institute for the Unstable Media

Publication Studio Rotterdam

Status

Active

Publication Studio Rotterdam

Anonymous — Mon, 28 Nov 2016 22:40:00 +0000

Publication Studio Rotterdam Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 11/28/2016 - 23:40

Address

Zaagmolenstraat 129a, Rotterdam, Netherlands

We are a publisher of original books distributing through a global network, a printer and binder able to make books one-at-a-time, and a social gathering place for those interested in publication or in publishing their own work. Publication Studio (founded in 2009 in Portland, Oregon) prints and binds books one at a time on-demand, creating original work with artists and writers we admire. We use any means possible to help writers and artists reach a public: physical books; a digital commons (where anyone can read and annotate our books for free); eBooks; and unique social events with our writers and artists in many cities. We attend to the social life of the book. Publication Studio is a laboratory for publication in its fullest sense – not just the production of books, but the production of a public. This public, which is more than a market, is created through physical production, digital circulation, and social gathering. Together these construct a space of conversation which beckons a public into being. A network of 13 Studios in North America and Europe share responsibility for production and distribution of new titles in the Publication Studio catalog. A full list of available books can be found on our website. Currently, Studios operate in: Portland (OR) / Portland (ME) / San Francisco Bay Area (CA) / Los Angeles (CA) / Minneapolis (MN) / Philadelphia (PA) / Hudson (NY) / Toronto (ON), Canada / Guelph (ON), Canada / Vancouver (BC), Canada / Malmö, Sweden / London, UK / Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Facebook page url

https://www.facebook.com/Publication-Studio-Rotterdam-454864501357936

Year founded

2015

Founders still active?

Website

http://www.publicationstudio.biz

psrotterdam@publicationstudio.biz

Facebook page id

454864501357936

0621367821

Subjects and keywords