Notes from Jamming Symposium

• Introduction by David Harding
• Introduction to Group Critical Writing Residency and Readings by Maria Fusco
• Keynote speakers: Stine Hebert, Maria Lind and Francis McKee
• Panel discussion led by Dr. Dominic Paterson with Hebert, Lind, McKee, Judit Bodor, James Bell and Anne-Marie Copestake
• Various readings and declarations

Francis McKee

• Sees collaboration as acknowledging the one thing you have in common - being assholes.
• The CCA refiguring to prevent the shutting of the common.

Stine Hebert

• Capitalism of the self-organised vs. the institution
• Tate Modern
• The fashion for the self-organised writing themselves into history through activities such as publishing. Mimicking what institutions do. Framing history.

Reading from Gareth Vile

Maria Lind

• Breaking down the definition of collaboration;- cooperation, collective, team etc. Do they mean collaboration?
• Palle Neilsen: The Model – A Model for a Qualitative Society 1968 and Lind's collaboration with Lars Bang Larsen
• Tensta Konsthall, the gallery Lind is director of, situated in the ground floor of a shopping centre in the suburb of Stockholm, Tensta perceived as a bit of a "ghetto"
• Ayreen Anastas and Rene Cabri's The Paths to the Common(s) Are Infinite
• What, how and whom for

Panel Discussion

• Maria Lind: Love, humour, critique... if you say they're going to occur in a project they probably won't. Curation is only scratching the surface in this speedy time we live in.
• Question from Maria Fusco: The use of the word coercion in terms of collaboration bothers her, in terms of acknowledging the wholeness and legacy of the activity.
• Judit Bodor: The problem of ownership in collaboration
• James Bell: "Co-production" - term accounting for issues of authorship/ownership. Problematising the relationships/positions.

Declaration by Catherine Street and JL Williams

Declaration by Lesser Arts

Reading by Kirsty Hendry and Jake Watts

Reading by Penelope Matheson and Murdoch Matheson

Reading by Lewis Den Hertog

Ganghut performance

Jamming Symposium Reading

Last Friday I was part of the 12hr Jamming Symposium as part of Studio Jamming: Artists' Collaborations in Scotland exhibition and series of events, 30th June - 2nd August 2014 at Cooper Gallery, Dundee.

I read, as part of the Writers in Residence, a text by Ben Burtenshaw, edited by me:

We’ll focus on the subject position an individual holds within a collaboration, exploring how this can be navigated away from the position of the professional sceptic to one that embodies a pragmatism, through commitment — as a subject position. The idea of losing individual authorship within collaboration inherently conjures up ideas of a symbiotic working style, with two minds working as one. And though this can often appear as a desirably open working model, it has the potential to supply a hindering subject position for respective parties.

The example: What do you bring to the table?

This text was bridged by the introduction of a new, incomplete text by me:

The table presents the rationale of sharing, however, without the retreat and a fixed seat, thoughts will contract. To conduce, there must be the potential to reflect through departure, which in turn, can offer a return which abets the collaborative process. The individual’s seats embody the subject position.

The reading culminated with a reading of Silas Parry's text Bringing Silence to the Table. Silas is a collaborator of mine, it felt appropriate to invite him to respond to our texts as his methodology is aligned with intuition as opposed to analyticism. Silas has written an ode to a painting partnership, looking at maintaining the ability to retreat whilst using the painting process as a shared dialogue or ‘table’:

Last winter I met an old man on a bench. He sipped from his disposable coffee cup, rummaged about in his pockets for a cigarette. We glanced at each other, smiled. Then looked away again. A cold wind blew through the spidery trees behind us. The old man cleared histhroat and said: It was a conversation that lasted many years.

Studio Jamming: Artists' Collaborations in Scotland

On Friday I will be presenting texts on behalf of myself and collaborators Ben Burtenshaw and Silas Parry as part of the Cooper Gallery's Writers in Residence, as part of the Jamming Symposium for Studio Jamming.

Click on the following links to read Silas' Bringing Silence to the Table in response to our text What do you Bring to the Table.

Silas Parry: Possibility of Life

Kirsty Macleod of 2|1|4|1, spoke to Silas Parry, about his practice and its development. His works are "a crass mimic of the processes of life itself; half-remembered and fading. The natural world echoing long-ceased industrial mechanics. They are jerky, half-conscious automatons, trying to scavenge a future from sad and finished history." 

I programmed Silas' exhibition Possibility of Life, as part of Summerhall's 2014 Edinburgh International Science Festival and we are continuing to work together on the next stage of this project.

2|1|4|1, is an artist-led collective supporting emerging talent in Scotland, their first curatorial project Draw-In, at St. Margaret's House, explores the role of drawing in contemporary art practice, it is on till the 26th July. Not to be missed!

Notes from FIELDWORK: Reports on Event Curating

30th June 

• Isla Leaver-Yap presentation on documentation: content vs. activity.

1st July 

• Vivian Ziherl report: feminist position; Ponch Hawkes' These Women have just run twenty-six miles, originally published in feminist art magazine LIP; Stedelijk inaugural Public Program performance event Stage It!; an experiment that became an institution - If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution; episodic programme - overflow, speculation and return - dissemination; the curator extrapolating from the artist something which was not there before; opportunistic institution because not fixed vs. sustaining its responsiveness; grounding itself through self-initiated, affiliated reading groups - different sets of texts, cross-pollination - the next thoughts coming; Landings - a research, event and exhibition based series co-curated with Natasha Ginwala; resurfacing histories of communities, decolonisation of politics; liberal feminism - strategic essentialism vs. essential position - position of mobility/agility in the "category of women"; Landings: the absent administrator - Approaching Absenteeism, Tropenmuseum; Landings: Sensing Grounds; The negative practice of curators/institutions outsourcing responsibility to artists. 

• Fionn Meade report: Walker's Cross Disciplinary Program; Merce Cunningham, John Cage, Meredith Monk; Cunningham's Variations V; shared autonomy as an aesthetic; Cunningham's choreography and David Tudor's electronic score for Rainforest; Choreographer Trisha Brown; Cunningham and Robert Rauschenberg's collaboration; liveness being absorbed; Maria Hassabi, participating artist at the Lithuanian-Cypriot Pavillion at the 55th Venice Biennale; not responding to the legacy of these artforms, heroicized therefore no more; Broodthaers' Esprit Décor/Decor Intention - narratives of globalisation.

Seaton Cliffs and Auchmithie coastal walk

• Gerrie Van Noord's Dissemination group, Parallel Conversations Part I: who to tell and why...; editor = disseminator; idealised/intuitive relationship with dissemination - creating publications rather than being instantaneous.

2nd July

• Sam Korman report: Whiteflag, 1 Nite Stand, St Louis; hierarchy, audience/performer, authenticity; reconciliation of a complex history, no inherent community; accepted difference; irresponsible; counter public space - proletarian space vs. the institution.

• Sarah Cook's Critical Framing group, Parallel Conversations Part II: "Curating: arresting a practice to show it"; curatorially and spatially choreographing.