Diego and Futurefarmers.

Looking at and Diego Tending link I couldn’t help but notice the parallel with an international collective called Futurefarmers. Founded in 1995 Futurefarmer’s projects tend to focus on Art, Sustainable Environments and Society. Self described as ‘A multidisciplinary group people working together to create new work which cultivates consciousness’. They tend to do cool things like make game boys that are, in theory, powered by 9 lemon trees (http://futurefarmers.com/survey/gameboy.php). Futurefarmers also produced a scuplture titled Rainwater Harvester / Greywater System Feedback loop, as it's name suggests was designed to capture rainwater and/or act as Grey water System .

Libache: Music, Politics, Revolution

“Instead of submitting the explicit ruling ideology (fo Yugoslav self-management Socialism) to rational critique or ironic subversion, their performances directly staged the underlying inconsistent mixture of ideological fantasies that sustained it”

Laibach subtracted themselves from a hegemonic field by failing to conform and challenging the pre-established system by altering the coordinates in which they operate. The music and performances of Laibach exemplify this strategy perfectly. The juxtaposition of industrial sounds, pop songs, totalitarian symbols, and avant garde art, Laibach restages the foundational violence of the nation state and of every spectacle. As they say in their manifesto, the Ten Items of the Covenant ‘All art is subject to political manipulation [...] except for that which speaks the language of this same manipulation.' (optimistic bunch)

And with that i close with http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZicTSUXOlSg

Public art + Newtown

I occasionally get this feeling that with the rise of technological reliance and birth of a global community that the arts are often considered to be at the periphery of the community. Despite increasing globalization Public art is ultimate way promote local residents within a micro community to recognize their own identity, culture, traditional art forms and the value of working together at a local level. Art works at times can feel like they have been arbitrarily placed in an environment. Instead site specific/Community Art promotes acts as an intermediary that promotes social bonds of solidarity and collective identity resulting in bringing neighborhood residents together by drawing and building on the collective knowledge of the local community.

This is typified, for me, by the series of large scale mural / graffiti street art on King st. Newtown. In particularly the Martin Luther mural which was painted over two nights in 1991 by a collective of Newtown artists calling they Unmitigated Audacity Productions. In 2003 there were calls to save this illicitly created iconic work as it embodies the community and it’s spirit/ ideas so well (please see SMH article http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/04/25/1050777406954.html) .

I know it mashes up and references of biblical, political, global and local civil right issues but it has become iconic to embodies the local community spirit, so much to which local residents protect it against vandalism, bill-posting and renovation.

Kester + Collective art practices

I found Kester discussion revigerating. his exploration into a network of artists and collectives united by a desire to create new forms of understanding through creative dialogue that crosses boundaries of race, religion, and culture. Some of the most innovative art of the past decade has been created far outside conventional galleries and museums. Provocative, accessible, and engaging Kester situates these socially conscious projects historically, relates them to key issues in contemporary art and art theory, and thus allows a unique critical framework for understanding them. In a parking garage in Oakland, California; on a pleasure boat on the Lake of Zurich in Switzerland; at a public market in Chiang Mai, Thailand—artists operating at the intersection of art and cultural activism have been developing new forms of collaboration with diverse audiences and communities. I really did appreciate the way in which Kester’s exploration of the ways in which artists corroborate and challenge many of the key principles of avant-garde art and art theory. Kester traced the origins of these works in the conceptual art and feminist performance art of the 1960s and 1970s and draws from the writings of Mikhail Bakhtin, Jürgen Habermas. I suspect that is the trick, they are seamlessly intertwined and inseparable to culture using, referencing and being reactionary to culture, society.

I found this on Collective invention website, i think it summarises the complex and dynamic approach that these artsits like The Art of Change, Helen and Newton Harrison, Littoral, Suzanne Lacy, Stephen Willats, and WochenKlausur took.


-http://www.collectiveinvention.com/

Critique of: “Constructing the Situationist” by Raunig.

I for the most part had trouble identifying with the original International Situationist (S.I) group and their actions and reactionary endeavours. I can empathise with the progression of their art and political ideologies. However, S.I appear to be hypocrites who’s radical and disruptive gestures appose what appears to be a reclusive and isolationist ideologies, I think this is best summed up by Rauning:

“ The paradoxically double sided face of S.I- their practice of exclusion on the other hand the Situationist process of opening up toward the movement”

On the simplest level I have trouble understanding how a group who actively rejects established institutions such as unions, political regimes, universities, art movements (/institutions), industry can interact with them in such a way that promotes and continues exposure to elements of organisation that they are opposed. For example why would affiliates of S.I go to University of Strasbourg attend a lecture and throw a tomato? If you are opposed to the ‘oppressive’ nature of the buildings, the environment, and the institution why continue the exposure? I have made a reasonable leap in logic and assumed the S.I members protesting at Uni where former or currently enrolled in the institution (if this assumption is correct this in its self presents a degree of hypocrisy as at one stage /or at the present the individuals affiliation with the university is promoting it’s purpose, methods, finances and prominence as an educational institution). I assume this because surely such a staunch dislike is harboured by intimated, continuous and/or prolonged exposure to multiple aspects of the institution. I fail to understand why you be revolutionary within the system if you where anti-system. The logical step would be to remove yourself from the un-pleasurable situation, in this case university/ union and create your alternate ‘anti uni and student union’.

I know they had an impact on the interaction between art and space and had a profound impact on the interaction between art, politics, society and revolution. But at the end the day they are French- the French love a good revolution.

Alberro’s “Institutions, critique and institutional critique’

I read Alberro’s “Institutions, critique, and institutional critique”. For the most part it dissected the dynamic between artist, art word, critic and the institution (referencing both visitors and managers/curators). I found it fairly standard but two things stood out:

The fist was a quote by WochenKlausur referencing the ‘exit strategy’:
‘Art should no longer be venerated in specially designated spaces…. Art should deal with reality, grapple with political circumstances, and work out proposals for improving coexistence’ WochenKlausur, 2005.

This truly resonated with me and was compounded by the attempts by many artists groups negate system, the institution. the While I think there is and has always been a need for the Institution I like this anti-establishment concept. This quote incites the reader to think outside of the box, to be creative , to be artists and to be conscious and informed members of society.

The second was just referencing the “aesthetic articulation”, art education and art school. The following quote amused me wondering how SCA and its students fitted into this:

‘Institutions such as art schools are disproportionately composed of students from wealthy backgrounds and thereby reproduce “the artistic values and interests of those socially and economic advantaged individuals.”’ –Alberro (2009) referencing Piper (1983).

Art Party

‘works which fall somewhere between a public instillation, an obscure performance and a private archive, can also be found outside art galleries, rendering them even more difficult to decipher in aesthetic terms’

For me this article with its reference to evolving concepts of technology, space/ setting and Gordon’s reference to ‘time readymades’ defined one of the biggest dilemma’s in relation aesthetics; the at times ambiguous nature of art . This article left me wondering about the role art not only on a cultural level, how it permiates through society but how the indervidual interacts with and reacts to art and notions of art.

Relational aesthetics strives to be informal which evokes interactivity, sociability and most importantly discussion. This is vastly different from the traditional Institutionalisation; the white room that effectively legitimises while segregating art/object from the world and alienates the viewer in a sterile environment. Where a Galleries room (if in a room) may have traditionally segregated art this new ideology aims to promote interaction with art/ instillation/ environment. Realtional asthectice act a medium not only promote decision on culture and society but become part of society and culture's ephemeral evolution.