Next diagram was made when I wanted to create an understanding of the positions I need to take inside ART01 project.

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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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Rethinking the complexity of the media: a blog. What is it, how can it be represented? What does it mean to me?  It can be observed as a diary, documentation of practices, methods, sketches and observations, but it can also be seen as an process based artwork, with intrinsicaly rooted need to examine and rethink systems.

Gallery NANO will host a collaborative and interactive environment project under the name PD Exchange Summit. What lies hidden behind this name? PD stands for Pure Data, real-time graphical programming environment for audio, video, and graphical processing. Exchange stands for a way of giving and receiving, making a loop or interaction. Summit stands for a meeting of the highest-level leaders. Connecting the three gives a great name that will strike funders, media and curious ones. Also it gives a reason to meet: to share PD patches, parts of the software that can be exchanged, build on, taken from, connected to or used for exchange of information. It takes a greatest level of importance as it is not a one man show where he or she shows the world what is going on, but in the act of sharing lies the true art.

Next diagram is showing why the event is done in gallery NANO. Also it shows what are connections between participating artist, ART01 project and where it’s other aspects, behind pure visual or multimedia art, are stored. I guess it takes all kind of hacks to make interactive, improvisational, “always work in progress” type of art work a credential its relatives of visual representational, object orientated artworks have.  Question is: can this be alternative to object orientated exhibitions, and can it be presented as such? And other pertinent question: how important is work to be done in NANO concerning influences on HZSU decisions on my possible health insurance and retirement funds help? What is the level of my decision and aspire to work there concerned autonomy, and what to hacking national funding to cover fear of being poor and helpless.

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Thesis was that boat gives most autonomy concerning expression and mobility, as when it stands in international waters, it can broadcast completely autonomous material, and its mobility is more concerned on nature than on human laws. But, as later shown my labour was to no avail as boat was entangled to so many non-autonomous issues that the whole thing became a bad and ill body in need for shiatsu treatment so the blocks, knots and knobs can be released and energy can flow healthy again.

This is the diagram of the idea how to use boat that goes by the name Galeb. After so many escapades in recent history, as well as in the past, it is owned by city of Rijeka. As former president Tito’s boat, it is of cultural value that, as the case is showing is differently understood by me and city of Rijeka cultural and bureaucrat apparatus. Next diagram shows an idea for using the boat Galeb as a place where international partners would meet and offer new models for using and preserving this boat. It was supposed to be funded by IPA actions.

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Now, this is the diagram of their blockage:

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They didn’t understand our ideas that would provide larger autonomy for initiatives, networks and partners to create space for international projects. I bet Tito would like this.

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In spite of all the blocking systems around IPA application was used for a boat:

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To be skilful administrator is something funding and project orientated artist has to learn during production periods. More funders means bigger amount of time spent on administration, but can also mean bigger autonomy and chance to hack. Also it can mean bigger autonomy on artist idea, where one funder, especially if it is a big company, will easily create certain systems and boundaries, if not rules where art process should go.

ART01 in Berlin was depending a lot on Ministry of Culture Croatia co-funding. But as situation with global crisis is wide spread excuse this days, and with national debt similar to Greece, political elite got a good idea how to take measures to stop crisis: give less money to culture. So, from original sum, a 10% was donated to ART01 project. This sum is not enough to even bring one participant to Berlin. This situation calls for administrative funding actions on all fields. Run for cash has started! Instead of looking for one bigger source ART01 will look for more smaller ones. Problems arising from this tactics is that all funding bodies are giving money for similar costs: travel and accommodation. As one has to prove with bills all the cost, some hacking and art-ministration will be required to get funds for other expenses such as costs for other participants, production, per-diems, etc.

Following two diagrams show what are good value vs. bad value funders, and what is stressed when writing applications with what funder. Another diagram shows how applications will be written but cash will flow to other costs.

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ART01 has come to the point where two participants can not make it. In the case of Ricardo Palmieri from Brazil a carefully managed plan of bringing him first to Croatia to take part at cultural events that would pay the ticket and rest for his participation at ART01 Berlin was interfered with 2 things: his exhibition in Brazil and price of the tickets which sky-rocketed presumably because of this or that football championship taking place at that time of the year. Guy van Belle cannot make it as he will be in Belgium on meeting for Time Inventors Cabinet meeting. Both of them will be participating remotely with informations from those two events.

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Other participants are coming in the project. Barbara Hubert is part of Cal.me organization from Bratislava, originally from Austria. She will be helping a great deal with all FOSS inputs and outputs. Also, she will be working with questioning our perspectives on living/working/common/private space, which is partly question of ART01envisioned as TAZ in the ContentArt gallery. Maria Karaginani from Greece, living in Rotterdam will partly be working with sensors and partly with databases and questions of open contents and licensing. Glerm Soares from Brazil was supposed to be at ART01but is lost in the virtual world somewhere. His case can be explained with the story from Brazil that goes something like this: when a person goes to meet another person, and second person is not there, first person doesn’t say he haven’t met the second one, but he says he met second persons absence. Pedro Zaz originally from Portugal, living in Berlin was always into TAZ and will be there for visual and sound extravaganza. Also, Pod P, USA freedomfighter living in Berlin will be there with pirate cinema and helping hand.

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ART01 will be presented in ContentArt gallery during Transart Institute’s second year students exhibition. Incorporating open-end, self-organized system into TIs presentation orientated system of gallery will have to take negotiating on aspects of space used for presenting artwork, noise pollution, ad-hoc collaborative practices, etc. For this purpose a detailed specifications of envisioned events are put down on paper, so they can be communicated to the TI administration and fellow students.

Next graph shows envisioned creative circles of ART01.

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In the centre is core group (number of participants and who they are is still negotiated and depends on many factors) that will work between themselves, but will also open space for interaction with anyone: gallery visitors, other groups that will come to the gallery, TI students… Core group, besides their internal creative processes of interaction and information exchange, is also mediating processes between other groups and actors. Their task is also to bring to open end process and self-organized spirit.

Second circle are TI students. As they have own works to present, consideration towards space, noise, actions has to be communicated. TI students communicate with core group in terms of collaborating between group members and their own projects and between events that will be done by external groups.

External groups are envisioned as ones working with new media and interactive approach with community in mind. Open source group can inform and educate on freeing our machines, wireless group on getting us connected peer to peer, food group on international food and group cooking, alternative media on small scale radio broadcasting, Internet audio and video broadcasting, circuit bending group on music improvisation and battery run audio equipment self production, VJ tools for real time video manipulation, etc…

Core group will at all times open new discussions concerning freedom of creativity, authorship, copyright, new technology and production in open end creativity. Discussions will be led on-line and p2p and outcomes will be documented and opened for everyone to comment or to take part.

Events to consider:

1. Linux install festival – free your computer: volunteer based Linux install event with  accompanying event: food, talks, drinks.

2. Radio broadcasting – free your media: small scale FM radio installing and experimental broadcast.

3. Audio and video streaming using open source software – free your network: create your own on-line radio and TV.

4. Food exchange – free your stomach: create food and make it art.

5. VJ/DJ party – participate in creating real time collaborative performances.

(Events can happen in different scale at different locations).

Needs:

1. For core group: 2 tables 3 meters wide, 4 el. sockets for participant (12), Internet hub and wireless, 2 projectors, printer, audio and video equipment. Position: anywhere in the room where there is a wall that could be used as projection space at least 3×4 meters projection.

2. For external groups: chairs, wifi, el. sockets, projector, chairs.

All equipment, except chairs and tables will be brought by participants.

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One has to take in consideration low budget when thinking about self organized event. ART01 strives to bring core group of mediators from different countries that requires more hacking concerning funding. For ART01 a complex system of events that can co-fund ART01 is strategically organized. Sets of different approaches are considered for creating a TAZ from resources already available. One has to keep in mind that non of this resources (funders) had TAZ in mind.

This is the general idea of what might be interesting to have as open processes during ART01 in Berlin:

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To organize such an event people from Berlin and other countries are invited to help. It is a loose network created by trust and mutual trust from people who collaborated in this or that way.

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To create funding for core people to be part of ART01 this is envisioned time-line and events that are creating opportunities to share knowledge in the context of art events and gallery exhibitions:

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This is time-line in more details:

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Based on “circular causal” or cybernetic feedback theory (and Jack burnham System Esthetics), this drawing simply shows upgrading of each event done by self-organizing principle, that also resembles process of adoptive systems in Donald Schons theory and practice of learning.

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This is a sketch of envisioned communications streams between actors in ART01 event during its preproduction.

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If we envision ART01 project as a collaborative and process orientated where open source technologies are used, where information dissemination and knowledge transfer is important and by where negating art object and accepting systems aesthetics leads to group production and feedback as an artwork itself, maybe genealogy could be sketched in a way done here:

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Blog ART01 is constructed according to this diagram.

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One of EU cultural funding institution is European Cultural Foundation (ECF). From their web-page: “We believe that culture engages and inspires people to transcend boundaries. The connecting power of culture is essential for creating open, inclusive and democratic societies, and is invaluable for building Europe.”

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Both positive and suspicious criticism can be turned to question of boundaries and to connecting power as it seems by the overview of granted projects from the past that projects envision “barbaric”, “primitive”, “outlandish”, “fringe”, or in most cases “exotic” cultures showcasing in dominant one: Roma, Balkan, etc. in EU.

Is ECF creating a showcases for cultures that have been, or will be included in EU dominant one so as to create atmosphere for domestic/dominant cultures to acknowledge them and thus make less space possible for nationalist forces build up on preconceptions? Maybe that would be the entrance point for ECF grant? There is no explanation what are the boundaries, so one has to envision them according to information on ECF in order to transcendent them accordingly.

“Connecting power” can be loosely interpreted as networking structure of actors in cultural scene: artist and cultural workers. Personal impression is that the artist here is portrayed as “aesthetics design worker” that will create representation according to the cultural worker visions (management in the cultural world where artist becomes a meager discussed by Brian Holmes, Gerald Rauning and others springs to mind). So it is not connections of the artists, but connection of interest groups specified by the cultural managers and cultural industry.

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What interests me the most, I think, is that I am looking for a way to explain what are different aspects of explaining system of ART01. By creating event I am proposing:

– alternative event to dominant of art exhibition where artworks are offered for inspection, assessment and consummation;

– an environment where process is in focus, thus modes of operating change to adjust it;

– that aesthetics are than of process, not of object;

– that form is a process and content is actions that make the process.

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If autonomous art system is envisioned, than a valid question is where the money comes from and how it influences a project. In this diagram a positive way to give back value to the public for their tax collected money is drawn. Giving back to the public trough involving them inthe project or giving information on how to and creating space for workshops where knowledge transfer is happening are some of the options.

What is in question here is how to negotiate and how to recognize positions of systems that apply for funding: what is agenda of their system, what is systems background? Simply, are they following structure that funder requires to obtain funds or is their focus to retur public welth in the sphere of public.

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A diagram of ART01 operations, interdependencies and solutions for organizing TI 2010 event – relations put to visible.

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This diagram is showing what research ART01 will focus on and what tools will be used: what is collaboration and how it works, what are systems of institution that we are working within, and what are systems of representation in process-orientated art (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Process_art).

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Diagram of envisioned  dependencies that ART01 will be part of when produced at TI exhibition, July/August 2010.