For your listening pleasure here is an excerpt of the radio transmission recorded at Concent Art gallery in Berlin during ART01 event.

Barbara Huber initiating David Dunn's role playing

ART01-Concent_Art_Gallery-Berlin - excerpt Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Event held during Transart Institute MFA students exhibition at Concent Art gallery on 25th July 2010 under (symbolical) name “ART01 – Autonomy in Art Operating Systems” inspired Barbara Huber (Au), Maria Karagianni (Gr-Nl), Marian Potocar (Sk), Pod P (USA), Pedro Zaz (Pt) and Kruno Jost (Cro) to create together a unique art project. During two days this group worked in the way that each participant introduced an idea, material, technology, etc he or she were most comfortable with. Ideas were being discussed, methods were offered and finally group created art project that was based on collaborative work, it was using new technologies, performance like structure, it looked for participation of the public and it was critical towards the system of art representation it was being part of.

ART01 at Berlin took a form of an art lab where participants were called to play a role game.

Choosing a role

First,one rolled a dice to choose one of five roles: revolutionary, monk or a nun, parent, police (wo)man or illegal immigrant. This roles were chosen by the core group’s desires to show how different, yet very generalized characters, would react or observe art exhibits.

After rolling a dice and picking your character card you would roll a dice second time. This time it would show which of the exhibits one will be taken to. for example if your card would be no. 3 you would be a policeman, and if you roll second time and get. no 7 you would go to see artwork of Ingibjorg Hauksdottir.

Floor-plan of the gallery

After observing the chosen exhibit trough the eyes of the character one had to come back to ART01 artlab and communicate its finding, emotions and understandings to ART01 core group members.

Observing the artwork

Than you roll a dice third time choosing a location: a garden, kitchen, bank, homeless shelter, etc. where artwork you observed would be utilized. This little twist in the perception, utilization of the artwork, would be a starting point of discussion with the lab workers.

Conversation transmitted over radio

Conversation was carried out with easy flow of questions putting observer in the position to negotiate artworks utility, answers why this decisions, create a story for artwork and talks on systems of its representation.

People listening radio show at the car parking

Whole conversation was transmitted over FM pirate radio that was able to be picked up by small radios laying around the exhibition space, as well as in the cars on the parking lot outside of the gallery.

Floor-plan design was also projected on the wall near the lab, where everyone could see text inputed with the artwork in question. Shortened statements were inputed real time in the projection.

Projection

This is where texts from Piratepad can be found: file:///tmp/oe4gQRtuer-latest.html
a tool used for online text exchange between core group participants. Latter, all the shortened statements from ART01 participants were inputed there too, have a look at the end.

PDES is yet another step into the research on collaborative environments, its stimulants, individuals and their mind-sets which forms a group work. PDES is an example of what are (generally) the themes created in collaborative process orientated work environments that are critical to art itself.

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PDES was organized so that participants bring their ideas and share them. This situation brings a question of confidence, skill, will to discuss and bring an idea forward, etc. It is difficult process where certain people can overshadow others, without realising it. Trebor Scholz describes in The Participatory Challenge about the practical guidelines for collaboration. I will extract only a couple:

• develop trust and mutual respect;
• define self-interest, reasons well;
• take a dose of humility;
• learn when to let go;
• get everybody involved in the process;
• give reasons behind your thinking.

Sharing ideas and plans for further meetings, funders, etc.

PDES brought this ideas on the table: if one wants to work with Pure Data, one has to retire from art world. Taking that PD is time consuming and concerning we all are taking 80 % of our time working with different bureaucratic instances to get to the point where we can actually use PD as a tool, an idea was to retire so one can use PD. For this idea Guy van Belle wrote an article that was “red” by PD patch projected on the wall. At he same time he was filmed. This material was used at the last day exhibit where few of the aspects of his talk about retiring, and what are geo-political reasons for this besides one to have time to work on PD were corresponded to other texts on this subject.

Visualization of PD patch writing text on how to retire. Get full text here and patch here

Next work went a step further. Art Pollution Kit (both hardware and software) was introduced as a toll where art pollution was documented. PD was used to analyse recorded materials and this data was visualized. PD patch for art pollution was developed by Michael Kindernay.

PD patch for analysing art pollution.

Lenka Dolenova introduced a notion of un-pure data, where documentation of process of all the projects done during PDES by Kruno Jošt was used as starting point to change it and develop parallel perspective by simple analogue way of connections drawing, similar to Pure Datas way of connecting command objects in the software itself.

Visitor enjoying Lenka Dolenova un-pure data wall work.

What PDES brought to surface trough discussed ideas while the programs was undertaken is that people beside being open and creative in thinking, for many different reasons can create blocks of energy flow. Evoking the same experience from last year’s EEII festival in ?akovec when at one point of the day all appeared as it will come down and that collaboration did not work. People started to go away from the group into their own individual corners. Next is a diagram of blocks that appeared at PDES.

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It is hard to get back on track when something like this happens, especially if people start working individually to the point where they cannot let go of the development of the project as they spent so much time in it. So one has to be aware to always moderate and police the timing of when group meeting is in order.

Good point of PDES are seen in next diagram. Usually complex software will turn down non-geeks and non-techy creative people. That is why other ways of participating, involving and collaborations have to be envisioned. Sharing has to go in deeper level: sharing time together, so in-between coffees and city walks are also good to exchange ideas. At the end of the day, or in the end of the project, non rigid representation that looks more like fluxus event than exhibition is welcomed, so is the flow of the new comers that are coming into the game.

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Forgotten foods from hungary

Food Crisis is third part of the series of Crisis Mania project with events happening in Check, Hungary and Slovakia. First two were observing housing and travelling crisis in modern society. It is project made possible by involvement of many organizations working in the field of art, technology, urban culture and self-sustainability. Event was originally thought of as meeting point for exchange of knowledge and artistic questioning of routines, norms and patterns of today’s society. People were encouraged to think of plants and seeds that are mainly forgotten in today’s industrial food production (like nettle). Collective food preparing was introduced and food sharing was organized where each participant brought their food with them. Other part of the event was making the sound by cooking and mixing of this two disciplines. Prague non for profit venues and organizations were involved, like art magazine A2 and venue Školska.

Collaborative food preparing and eating

Cooking and making music at the same time

Again, to prepare such an event with international participants and without firm commercial plan this kind of collective and participatory event had to be thought of on different fields and had to serve as a vehicle for more than just stage for evening performances and day workshops. Further actions were discussed and plans made. Somewhere a common feeling of lack of structure that brings messy event time-line is something participants are looking forward or fearing. Some yearn for more structure, some like its organic development. Overall, and event that follows more or less conscious group interaction that brings experimental art out of realm of individual and singular signature work.

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Experimental Electronic Intervention (EEII) is an event that has 6 years of existence worked on self-organized principles. It’s main organizational principles are:
1. there is no audience: event is organized so everyone could take part in creative process;
2. there is no one organizer, everyone helps in organization, organization and curatorial process is collaborative;
3. there is no final exhibition, but what matter is a process of creativity;
4. focus is on collaborative work and distancing the process from individual representations and authorship.

EEII’09 was focused on collaborative work where ideas of every participant would be connected into one “organism”. It was 12 hours event (during December 2009), where participants went trough proposing their individual projects, to connecting them into jointed event, to realizing real time performances that were similar to Fluxus events in their free flow.

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Above drawing is a sketch used to show loop of informations flow from one to other artist. There is a suit with light sensors that reflect on light conditions in the space, sending the sound over FM transmitter to radio receiver. This one is connected to computer and mixer where sound is additionally worked on. From here it is send to another computer with arduino board that controls lights in the room. Another computer with camera is filming actor with the suit and trough computer this image is mixed with other images and is beamed on the wall. Actor can move according to the light input, sound input or mixed image displayed behind him/her.

Culture Robot 4.0 project won a prize at ArteMove festival in Belo Horizonte. Winning a prize brought a complex issues and questions: what are interdependencies between artists inside the team, and what are connections between them individually and the festival team. Also , what are the prerogatives and standards that prizes are given for?

As festival is sponsored by Nokia and other corporate powers in Brazil, question is what are dependencies between creating the festival and the capital.

I made a few attempts in diagram drawings:

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CR 4.0 installation at ArteMov festival

4 days of workshops – Circuit bending, arduino, open source tools for sound and video + evening shows. System: get funds from state, city, county, funds for civil society. Get help from local privat bussines.

Negotiations: eat at local rpvat bussines, sleep at local privat hotel, state looks to see what are numbers: how many guests, how many meadia articles, etc., county and city  are looking in how media coverage of event will be on national scale to propagate local political  structures. Civil societ funds have strict causes, in this case propagating reconciliation (many years after wors on Balkans) – consecvences are that bands and artists playing on the event are form Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia.

ACTFest diagram

Longer blog entry covering the event >>

Inspired by London collective ‘Random Artists’, over the past few years collective groups in Bristol, Manchester, Edinburgh and Brighton have been coming together to create a cultural, interactive, autonomous space where people are free to be, free to create, and free to express themselves. Forbiden Arts Manchester in 2009 happened in occupied primary school building that was left empty waiting for decisions by city hall and omnipotent property developers will it be brought down or repaired. Idea was to enter existing space that is not used at the moment and put it into public use for local community. Doors were open to everyone who wanted to take part in collective art event.

Wall paintings, poetry readings, video nights, fashion show, sound workshops, cabaret, installations, raveoke night, all fitted in aesthetics of local event that is characterized on MFA web page as: “An event like this doesn’t just happen but is the result of many, many people’s hard work.”

Noisy Toys collaborative event video >>

Event diagram:

TAA Manchester diagram

THE LAST THEATER SHOW EVER,  I-Camp theater, Munchen was a collaborative, participants interactive experiment in deconstructing theater and working in horizontal manner, where there is no single and individual artist. Idea and methodology was to deconstruct traditional theater trough series of collaborative works where one work was supposed to lean on another, where each participant brings an idea and connects it to someone. International crew came around and investigated for 5 days in what might be called horizontal construction decision making and constant reevaluating of the final presentation that was constructed of three distinctive pieces.

All three were on collaboration but with different input and output models: one was following movements outside of theater and by computer calculations bringing it inside trough sound and visuals done with found (theater) hardware.

Another used sound in feedback communication that deconstructed viewers position and placement in theater, being done under the stage and audience sitting space.

Third one used virtual theater through on-line software with international particiants being projected on theater walls, together with orchestrated individual who brought event there.

Experiment was worth while intentions to discover what are group dynamics when artist are put together to work on something that calls for collaboration and sharing. Not to forget to mention that putting creativity with different bacgrounds into same place can be very frustrating and cathartic at the same time.

Event diagram - click to enlarge