that troublesome paragraph

Please can we sign? I get so confused

Obviously there are some problems in formulating the paragraph of the conceptual frame.
We have all fibbled with it, but I still think words still just seems to slip of the issue.

I have been spending some time trying to figure out the common denominator between all these aspects; inside/outside, static/dynamic, safe/unsafe, majority/minoriy, home/away, and on and on. Such a fundamental conflict of states, but I can find a good way to phrase.

So I have tried to  rewrite it completely, if not for anything else than to give us a new startingpoint for potential twists and changes.

/.../
The conceptual frame is concesquential to how the project is laid out. By leaving our "home"-environments we seek change/ and to be changed but we also construct a situation that strikes on all situations in which being included/ excluded, majority/ minority plays a significant role. These issues tend to become tangible first when one is not included, that is, part of the majority; at home.  All of the participants in Encounters; 2012 (/whatever name) have dealt with dealt with such situations previously both privately and in their practise, and so Encounters function as a space for dialogue and experimenting.
/.../
Gaaah!
I feel like I am trying to utter a name-less -----.

//jo

I REALLY THINK WE SHOULD LOOK INTO FUNDING WITH KICKSTARTER

it allows us to fund not only our costs, but also to fund the ammount of time  we would need to take off of work.....
but it also enables us to be completely autonomous, and is something I have wanted to try.

http://www.kickstarter.com/



we offer something to the participants in return, prints of our work  perhaps, the book of our documentation

I rewrote the first paragraph and raised some questions about the second. 

Bucarest? http://www.bucharestair.com/

During Encounter, five artists will travel from their different cities of residence, to a city where none of them have ever been before. They will stay in the new city for ten days. The artists will go out on their own into the city, where they explore, engage, and interact with the city, drawing from their own artistic practice and perspective. They are aware of their surroundings. They develop an active relationship with the city Each day the group will meet together and share their thoughts and experiences, developing both their dialogue with the group and with the city.

Encounters; 2012 is about location; relocating to one place and dislocating from another. It questions how we navigate and move through a city; how we choose to relate ourselves, while in relation to a new city. These simultaneous experiences are played out as a conceptual frame that references the individual and shared experiences of moving from one place to another, feeling disjointed or connected to the surroundings, acting to promote a minority which is, or isn't our own, answering for national ideas or actions and struggling with a burden of history, tradition and culture. Don't want to sound critical but I feel a little bit that the word “burden” sets carries a sort of negative implication, If I reflect on this sentance I feel a bit like it touches the issues, that we already as others investigate a city which is not our own, , come with our own otherness into a culture with it's own traditions, maybe there is a way to reword it.

Encounters; 2012 can be shaped in whichever way the participants choose to do so. At the core of the project are issues that we all have in common; how we negotiate our lives around lines of inside/ outside, home/ away, majority/ minority, connected/disconected and how this relates to the place where we are at.

Encounters; 2012 attempts to establish a meeting point and dialogue, in which a group of people with very different perspectives can exchange ideas and experiences. Each participant is encouraged to explore the location in accordance to their own artistic preference, and at the end of the day, the group comes together in a dialogue concerning questions objects and experiences. There is no intention that the participants produce collective or individual work, or that a final “concept” is reachd. Rather, the project is partly intended to question and explore where, or when in a process, “art” takes place. In Encounters; 2012 the art takes place in the real time and space, engagement that is facilitated by the project. Encounters 2012 is an artist initiated and led project, developed through ongoing dialogue and text based exchange. 

greetings

agree with the ten says, feel like it might be interesting to do it for two weeks.

personally I would document in a book like form; though that can be due to not love of film as a medium


also I don't necessarilly think we need to say that we always meet in the night times, the city of night is a much different than the city of the day.

 Someone just wrote me an email with the line "explore, engage, expand, exhilerate"    Just thought it was interesting re the title of the project.    not that exhilerate is quiete what we aim to do.  

I also feel a bit drawn to romania at the moment.    I have been to alot of eastern european cities........though.....just sayin.....as we plan.....

shall we all write the cities we consider as interesting choices?


excuses, will go missing for some more days.....coworker is still hobbling on crutches feeling sorry for himself, leaving me in the kitchen too much to think clear. 

going to try to hack at the text a bit   :)

TEN DAYS ?

How about extending the project to ten days ? A week seems kind of short.

Liquid concrete

How about we all add to the text to come to a consensus. I think it's very clear and outlines the project well. The name isn't hugely important, engage or encounter are fine...we encounter the city and engage with each other, the blog title can be changed easily if we decide to switch. I would like a more flamboyant name but can't think of one suitable so either is good.


I remember a Gaudi quote where he said that he thought the majority of architects were lacking imagination in their use of concrete which he saw as a fluid material that could take any form but was usually cast into squares and blocks...lets maintain a fluidity in our process, we are making this ourselves and don't need to do the usual gymnastics involved in application writing or pandering to the institution.


I've made any changes in red,

SATURDAY, 24 SEPTEMBER 2011

Writings toward more concrete

Lets change the work title? What do you think of Encounters; (city/place) 2012

now that we have a blog and all named engage... 

 .-)

During Encounter; 2012, five artists will travel from their different cities of residence to a place where none of them have ever been before. They will stay in this other place for the duration of a week, alone in the new city during the day, and together in the evening. In the daytime each participant has the space to discover the new location within the confines of their artistic practice and perspective. In the evening the participants join as a group to share their thoughts and experiences in an ongoing dialogue. Art as awareness of one's surrounding, to which one has an active relationship; to which one is in constant dialogue.

Encounters; 2012 is about location; relocating to one place and dislocating from another. These simultaneous experiences are played out as a conceptual frame that references the individual and shared experiences of moving from one place to another, feeling disjointed from the surroundings, acting to promote a minority which is, or isn't our own, answering for national ideas or actions and struggling with a burden of history, tradition and culture. Encounters; 2012 can be shaped in whichever way the participants choose to do so. At the core of the project are issues that we all have in common; how we negotiate our lives around lines of inside/ outside, home/ away, majority/ minority and how this relates to the place where we are at.

Encounters; 2012 attempts to establish a meeting point and dialogue, in which a group of people with very different perspectives can exchange ideas and experiences. Each participant is encouraged to explore the location in accordance to their own artistic preference, and at the end of the day, the group comes together in a dialogue concerning questions objects and experiences. There is no intention that the participants produce collective or individual work. Rather, the project is partly intended to question where, or when in a process, “art” takes place. In Encounters; 2012 the art takes place in the real time and space engagement that is facilitated by the project. Encounters 2012 is an artist initiated and led project, developed through ongoing dialogue and text based exchange. 

Writings toward more concrete

Lets change the work title? What do you think of Encounters; (city/place) 2012

now that we have a blog and all named engage... 

 .-)

 

During Encounters; 2012, five artists will travel from their different cities of residence to a place where none of them have ever been before. They will stay in this other place for the duration of a week, alone in the days, and together in the evenings. In the daytime each participant has the space to discover the new location within the confines of their artistic practice and perspective. In the evening the participants join as a group to share their thoughts and experiences in an ongoing dialogue. Art as awareness of one's surrounding, to which one has an active relationship; to which one is in constant dialogue.

Encounters; 2012 is about location; relocating to one place and dislocating from another. These simultaneous experiences are played out as a conceptual frame containing all the times of moving from one place to another, all the times of feeling disjointed from the surrounding, all the times of acting to promote a minority which is, or isn't our own, all the times of having to answer for a whole nations ideas or actions and all the times of struggling with a burden of history, tradition and culture. Encounters; 2012 can be bent in whichever way the participants choose to do so. In the core of the project are issues that we all have in common; how we negotiate our lives around lines of inside/ outside, home/ away, majority/ minority and how this relates to the place where we are at.

Encounters; 2012 attempts to establish a meeting point and dialogue, in which a group of people with very different perspectives can exchange ideas and experiences. Each participant is encouraged to explore the location in accordance to their own artistic preference, and in the end of the day, the group comes together in a dialogue about questions and objects and experiences. There is no intention that the participants produce neither collective or individual work. Rather, the project is partly intended to question where, or when in a process, “art” takes place. In Encounters; 2012 the art takes place in the encounters that result from the project.

I haven't thrown in any references to anything, it felt bulky. 

/J

Extract from email communication - Tess 16/09/2011

16/09/2011

"Why the need-desire to be somewhere else...to feel like the 'other'?"

I am having a fairly serious problem with this one myself at the

moment. Is it not a casper davis fredrich painting :) To conquer the

space......   I think this is an issue which we should think about, it

is almost imposible to to exoticise another city.

However I do believe that each city is very different.....in how it

relates.    I think we should not go more "east block" that prague.

In fact I perhaps think we should stay west.   stuttgard.   belgium.

leeds.

I do agree on us being strangers to the place, however I am also

drawing up iffy feeling on the word group.......   but as we enter a

new space, a city, we take on heavily the idea of culture........

@josefin I like your questions, but perhaps I feel like they should

rest in the background, I feel like they can be in our proposal and

should, yet when I give them too much weigh I feel sort of choked by

them.......especially this one......."  What does it mean to be

temporal, or permanent and what is the artists role as a permanent

resident or temporarl one.

What does the artist take from the community (what is community) and

what does the artist give back?

It is important to give back to the community and should it then be in

the form of art?"

and now a bit about detroit, the absolute death of detroit allows that

inititives which develop community are necessary, because there is

nothing, thus art practice, is regarded as something natural,

something essential.

I just skyped with my mom who is in georgia, she had shown them my

drum performance nd they loved it..............  i.e. I could yell on

the street there.

perhaps one needs only to give oneself.

@ josefin rilke   http://homestar.org/bryannan/duino.html

i would also like to hear a bit more about your ideas of "oneness"

"mindfullness" being in  and to think about them in relation to the

zizek.

In a city.   the last time I got off the plane into new york, I

dropped my luggage and went for a run.......I am a bit of a freak

these days, but when I run, it is an instant oneness with the city.

this project is going to make me think to much :) perhaps we should

slow down.   and get the text editor J suggested.   I feel like I am

about to write a research paper.

In fact...... I would like to :)

Extract from email communication - Josefin 9/09/2011

From Josefin - 9/09/2011

Thoughts on

proposed work title engage/ encounter/

When I had this idea, I had been talking to my family about the island project, and what I was happy about (and not equally happy about).

Something that I felt very strongly is that I never really had the opportunity and time to really be on the island/ feel that I was there. This was a consequence of several things; partially I was not entirely relaxed in the social surrounding, and thus my thought was more concerned with those social tensions than the tensions between me and the island. Another factor had to do with collective action; the fact of each of us bringing something to happen to the island was a good thought, but in the end it meant that we were pending to the collective most of the time. Finally, for me, I found the use of electronic media and the extensive share of mediated information quite disturbing (for my experience of presence). Mentally we were dealing with anything but the present, any theoretical idea of island but the sensation of the one we were on.

(This is not to say that I didnt bring loads home from the island project - I am actually quite inspired)

Now as a contrast to this, what I really appreciated was going to a real physical place, with a group of people whom I didn't know.

What I want to take from the island project is that, the going into the unknown; not knowing anything more than oneself and one's intention, perhaps without (but this is up to the participants individually) a plan. In my mind; this new project alternates between individual and collective in the way of a dialogue/ exchange of bits and pieces, poems, texts, drawings, thoughts, findings etc each night. In the day we roam the streets alone, as solitary hunters (marlboro women, cowboys), pursuing our own path, attempting to delve as deep into the particularities of our vision and individual engagement as possible.

Some reservations; we could of course choose to roam in groups one day, or to meet in the day and roam in the night, what I find is important is that we really attempt at being there. With being there I believe that one must be receptive to the place as an interference to one's normal routine. We need to be aware of codes and means of breaking with the routine. For example what Tess mentioned in terms of electronic equipment, other things could be how we talk about mediated information, if we talk and how we support each other etc. I don't suggest anything specific except that I think we should be open for tampering with our normal habits so as to be more present in the location, as a group that is. When roaming, everyone is their own to do what needs to be done :-))

Part of this, as I mentioned in my mail yesterday, I am thinking of shifting my mind in terms of “What art is”. This is a discussion I am busy with, which I find inspiring. I move from a point in which I have experiences, I go to locations, with the intention to seek motives and themes and thoughts for my drawings. The drawings were “the art”. Now, I (want to try) to move to a point where I engage with a locations/ situations so as to allow myself to be changed (albeit temporarily). I let the outside in me. What happens in terms of making a product – making a work – is different. (Not less, but different). Its is related to the event, but its neither a documentation or the actual purpose. It is the work and the work is on its own and comes later. What I am interested in for this project is not the work but the art, and art as an (active) engagement with the world and the present (and with a selected group of wonderful and interesting people). I do not mean that you should think the same about this.

Oh, and there is no notion in this about a "clean" relationship, I do not come without prejudice or previously established ideas, rather the opposite, I come with an intention and with myself as my tool; the dirt makes the glasses I see through visible (this is actually super-true because my glasses are insanely scratched..). I obviously mean this metaphorically...

Anyway; in short; I think we should all be free to pursue our own path. When we meet, we throw it all out there, perform perhaps, safely, sharing our findings and our process. Being solitary participants in a non-hierarchical affinity group.

There is a notion which needs to be explored, especially perhaps if thinking Mota; transience and transitory.

So these are words that I throw into the pit; transience, transitory, location, presence, group, individual, engage, seek.