I picked up a copy of HTV de IJsberg, an art newspaper that’s distributed for free. They currently have an ‘imaginary property’ issue curated by Florian Schneider. Every contribution, some of them really interesting, has been formulated as an advertisement, so actually this issue has no ‘content’ whatsoever. Will bring it in, but you can get the idea on the website (click on the imaginary property part).

Just to help me keep track:

Berg, J., & Zonneveld, J., (2008): Amsterdam – Indische Buurt The Conditional Embrace of the Exotic Other in Berg, J. et al (2008) Houses in Transformation – Interventions in European Gentrification NAi Publishing, Rotterdam.

Boomgaard, J., (year): Unfeasibility as an Ideal Online http://www.lkpr.nl/index_en.php?page=publicaties&id=4 last accessed 18/02/09

Breznik, M., (2008): The Role of Culture in the Strategies of Urban Regeneration in Berg, J. et al (2008) Houses in Transformation – Interventions in European Gentrification NAi Publishing, Rotterdam.

Davies, A., (2007): Take Me, I’m Yours: Neoliberalising the Cultural Institution. Online http://www.metamute.org/en/Take-Me-Im-Yours last accessed 18/02/09

DCMS, (2001): Creative Industries Task Force Mapping Document. http://www.culture.gov.uk/reference_library/publications/4632.aspx last accessed 18/02/09

Duyvendak, J.W., & Scholte, P., (year) Questioning the Dutch Multicultural Model of Immigrant Integration. Online http://www.assr.nl/conferences/documents/Burgerschap-QuestioningtheDutchmodelbyDuyvendakandScholten.pdf last accessed 18/02/09

Heartney, J., (1995): Mapping the Terrain: New Genre Public Art book review Online http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1248/is_n6_v83/ai_17128988 last acccessed 18/02/09

Holmes, B., (2008) Year Zero Amsterdam Creative City. Online http://brianholmes.wordpress.com/2008/03/06/year-zero/ last accessed 18/02/09

Holmes, B., & von Osten, M., (2004) The Spaces of a Cultural Question Online http://www.16beavergroup.org/mtarchive/archives/000869.php last accessed 18/02/09

Lovinck, G., & Rossiter, N., (2007): Proposals for Creative Research Introduction to the MyCreativity Reader in Lovinck, G, & Rossiter, N., (2007) MyCreativity Reader A Critique of Creative Industries. Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam.

McRobbie, A., (year) ‘Everyone is creative’: Artists as pioneers of the new economy? Online http://www.k3000.ch/becreative/texts/text_5.html last accessed 18/02/09

Montmann, N., (2006) Community Service. Online http://www.frieze.com/issue/article/community_service last accessed 18/02/09

Olma, S., (2008) On the Creativity of the Creative Industries: Some Reflections http://www.metamute.org/en/on_the_creativity_of_the_creative_industries_some_reflections last accessed 18/02/09

von Osten, M., (2007): Unpredictable Outcomes A Reflection After Some Years of Debates on Creativity and Creative Industries in Lovinck, G., & Rossiter., N., (eds) 2007, MyCreativity Reader A Critique of Creative Industries. Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdan

Oudenhampson, M., (2008): Back to the Future of the Creative City An Archaeological Approach to Amsterdam’s Creative Redevelopment. Online http://www.variant.randomstate.org/pdfs/issue31/31CreativeCity.pdf last
accessed 18/02/09

Partizan Publik (2008) ‘Dossier: Social Engineering in the Amsterdam Metropolis’ in 2008 Office for Social Engineering (eds) Volume 16, 136-154.
(CP see the wordpress dashboard/media/download pdfs.)

Thissen, S., (2005): Postscript to Eva Fotiadi’s PhD Research Project ‘Public, Ephemeral and Participatory Art Projects in European Context 1980-2000′ Online http://www.siebethissen.net/Kunst_en_Theorie/2005_Postscript_Public_Art.pdf last accessed 18/02/09

Wright, S., (2008): Exit Strategies: Challenging Productivism in Capitalism and Contemporary Art. Online http://northeastwestsouth.net/site/node/55  last accessed 19/02/09

Philip Samartzis _ Sound art, Field recording
www.microphonics.org/

Toshiya Tsunoda _ Field Recording, Contemporary Composer
http://www.sleepbot.com/ambience/page/tsunoda.html
http://www.scaruffi.com/avant/tsunoda.html

Geert-Jan Hobijn _ sound art, public Barbecue!!!
http://www.staalplaat.org/intro.html

Haegue Yang
http://www.heikejung.de/content.html

Younghae Chang heavy industry
www.yhchang.com

Jewyo Rhii
http://www.deappel.nl/exhibitions/e/618/1/12/
http://www.artfacts.net/index.php/pageType/exhibitionInfo/exhibition/122024/lang/1

Flying City_ Urbanism, Community Art
http://www.flyingcity.kr/

Atelier Bow-Wow _ Architecture
www.bow-wow.jp/

State Alpha _ architecture of sleep
http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/2008/10/press-release-june-26-2008.php

From Art history
Richard Long
Barbara Hammer
Oscar Nemeyer

Laura Oldfield Ford- here is her current project looking at the sites of the London 2012 Olympics (extremely contested land grabbing, expensive developments, compulsory purchase orders, shoving-around of working class population). Including the ‘drift’, a guided tour around key sites.

And a more general page about her work. To give an idea of scale, the yellowish one at the middle bottom row is wall-sized. She also makes a zine. She’s clearly more related to the London context and in another context it could become very anthropological.

Marion von Osten
This text of hers given at the MyCreativity conference isn’t hard to find, re precarity, the term ‘creative industry’.

The ongoing work she has been doing for Lapdogs of the Bourgeoisie, Nav’s project on class issues in contemporary art, is ‘I am like that anyway,’ where she initiates a conversation with the staff at various small art institutions about their working conditions. The phrase of the title comes from one worker claiming that while precarious labour in the arts requires obsessiveness, workaholism, she is ‘like that anyway’. She makes a video of them attempting to pose according to this image of Madonna and her ‘crew’ and uses the conversation as a soundtrack. The image is chosen for its reflection on the ‘cool’ status of precarious labour. Interestingly, since she made ‘I am…’ at Gasworks, none of the people featured in the video and conversation work there any more (including me).

Here is an interview of hers with Brian Holmes.

Narda Alvarado
Did the Rijks in 2005. Here is an example of her ‘good/bad/ok’ public project ideas where people were asked to rate her proposals; here are some of her responses when she proposed a memorial as part of the Busan Biennial, and she looked at the ‘gas wars’. The naive style is more of a communication than an aesthetic decision I think.

Less well known now are her actions.  One is called Olive Green, where she organised for a line of Bolivian police to interrupt the traffic on a busy highway, form a line, stand there, eat a single cocktail olive, and then walk away. The Bolivian police are very much seen as ‘of the people’ rather than a weapon of the state.

From the Atlantic with Love is a formal ceremony she arranged with the Bolivian Navy to deliver a bucket of sea water from the once-Bolivian coast (Bolivia is now landlocked so the Navy have something of a crisis of identity). The original plan had been to deliver it hand to hand in a ‘when faith can move mountains’ style act of mass goodwill, but she didn’t get the collaboration. So she took it herself.

Micropolitics
Core participants/organisers are from various Goldsmiths (London) departments (visual cultures, philosophy, sociology, etc etc), an open group that meets to discuss texts and collaboratively organise projects.  Here is their blog. The Micropolitics Research Group investigates the forces and procedures that entangle artistic production and the flexible subjectivities of its producers into the fabric of late capitalism. They have organised ‘drifts’ , this kind of psychogeographic tour, with Suely Rolnik and Brian Holmes (the visitors later react on what they have seen in a seminar).

Critical Practice
A research cluster based at Chelsea School of Art in London working according to open principles for reflexive, non-market-led artistic practices. This can and does mean an awful lot of things. They organise via wiki, publish all minutes, and for Disclosures they made a ‘ResourceCamp’, a ’sideshow’ session in which participants collaboratively drafted open budget guidelines.

In 2005 they were instrumental in organising Open Congress, an openly-organised conference on Open Source methodologies and cultural practice. Now they are planning Parade for 2010, a conference that will look at the contested notion of ‘public space’ (see the wiki for details).

Celine Condorelli/Support Structure
London-based architectural researcher part of International Festival. Along with artist Gavin Wade she set up Support Structure, a project taking the literal and physical notion of ’support’ alongside its potential applications in the reflexivity of contemporary art. Or something. Here is their website.

More soon.

Eva Fotiadi – woman who made her Phd about ARt and Participation, we meet her in the Café yesterday – was also mentioned by Jeroen.
http://home.medewerker.uva.nl/s.e.fotiadi/

links from Merijen
IBWN Amsterdam noord – could found it at the internet

and somethink else – people who are engaged with Noord
http://www.noord.amsterdam.nl/smartsite.shtml?id=11500

www.vakmansstad.nl
http://www.henkoosterling.nl/fysiekeintegriteit/fysieke-int.html

How Amsterdam Noord is representated at the Noord Website
https://www.noord.amsterdam.nl/smartsite.shtml?id=16201

Urban Resort / Free Zone
http://www.urbanresort.nl/achtergrond.html

Theaster Gates

BAVO

Kors van Bennekom

Some triggers: The Buckminster Fuller Institute

The Centre for Urban Pedagody

Enough Room for Space – Contapolis – Invite Marina Schmidt, London-based writer and researcher (economics and cultural production)

some names i suggested in today’s meeting:

archigram (website ; wikipedia page )

jakob kolding ( gallery website ) – the website has some good texts by jorg heiser and jan verwoert

claire fontaine ( website )

christodoulos panayiotou ( website ; the work i referred to about the ferry is called “To be willing to march into hell for a heavenly cause – Utopian songs with Kristian Kristensen”)
The work consists of the recording of a live concert with 7 songs, which originate from Hollywood musicals of the cold war period. The 7 songs treat the weather and natural catastrophes. Through the weather metaphors the songs imply a utopian tomorrow.
The songs are the following:
‘Tomorrow’ from ‘Annie’
‘Somewhere over the rainbow’ from ‘The Wizard of Oz’
‘Climb every mountain’ from ‘The Sound of Music’
‘My favorite things’ from ‘The Sound of Music’
‘When you walk through the storm’ from ‘Carousel’
‘The impossible dream’ from The Man of La Mancia
‘Somewhere’ from ‘West Side Story’

simon and tom bloor ( website ; the kisok projects )

democracia ( website ; the work i was thinking about was “welfare state (smash the ghetto)”)

barbara visser ( the text she wrote for the zuid amsterdam)

lara almecequi ( guide to ruined buildings ; the wastelands project )

-

that’s it for now.

Some really basic notes from Boris Groys and Terry Eagleton lecture – 15/01/09

Traces du sacre – Centre Pompidou
Medium Religion – ZKM Karlsruhe

Eagleton mostly 1960s-70s and work in the Catholic Left – the body as language, leftist theology. Christ reminded that the poor was always with them, committed them to revolution. (ref. Revolutions, series by Verso in London) Eagleton:

The word ‘belief’ – what are the implications of ‘I believe…’? the question of not-knowing, interpretation. Wittgenstein, I know that I am in pain was nonsensical. The knowledge adds nothing to the sensation itself. Redundancy. Knowing and believing only have force when DOUBT is possible. Doubt only has a place within accepted truths, there must be room for the negation of truths. IDEOLOGY ‘beliefs which are too close to the eyeball even to be objectified’. Rumsfeld’s ‘known known’ ‘known unknowns’ and what of the ‘unknown knowns’? What does it mean to have a belief? Like having a pair of kidneys, but how far do beliefs go…go to death for – these beliefs are known as CULTURE. How has this notion mutated. Constituative beliefs make up the self – would have to change dynamically in order to change these…more than a change of thought, practice as well. These have nothing to do with the postmodern obsession with options options options. Beliefs that you find in tragedy. Necessity and freedom. When I believe in Catholicism and Communism, I cannot change my mind NOT to believe in them. Beliefs are generated by our material forms of life (this in itself is a belief) – you cannot compare the two, as the existence of both is contingent on the other. Belief is your ontological foundation – a priori transcendental. CULTURE has become the new transcendental foundation…pluralism, diversity are not radical in themselves. The heresy that you can’t get behind.

Is belief the same as faith? What does it mean to believe in God – the ‘Bigfoot’ theory of God – the evidence is not complete…until we KNOW, we can only BELIEVE? Faith presupposed that He exists, but existence needs to be redefined. God is the condition of everything, begging the question of why is there anything at all? Faith in redemption, faith in love – Kierkegaard – the believer is the lover. To understand the faith in redemption you need to know the sensation of loss, of failure, of despair.

Faith of the New Testament is not presented as the signing on for certain exigencies, but in a political underdog who underwent torture for the belief in the transformative power of love – faith in a person/faith in a proposition.

Why would anyone continue to be a political radical in this time of post-secularism. This is not how things were meant to be? The depths of belief in transformation. In love with the belief in human kind? Believing IN and believing THAT. Division between those who believe too much and those who believe too little separates fundamentalists from liberals. Constitutes the Other.

Liberals and postmodernists see passionate believe as being totalitarian – this in itself is a conviction. Isn’t it? What is the power of belief in and of itself? Do we care what it is? Dawkins phenomenon?

Civilisation vs. barbarism now become civilisation vs. culture
Civ. meaning plurality, individualism, respect, diversity and cult. meaning extremism, collectivity, irrationality. Culture is the result of failure of religion in the West. Politics rather than culture tried to take over religion originally. This failed too. Culture in a different sense has taken over from politics – we call this postmodernism. Still dependent on Western imperialism? The shift though is deceptive. Just as war in North Ireland is not about belief. Like the Middle East – it is about culture/politics/material issues (land, armaments, famine)

Boris Groys – Science and Religion

A freedom of faith  – after the enlightenment became a private affair and unallowed to share impose on others. Art and design analogous to religion. The place of religion to public discussion –should be publically discussed but shouldn’t result in any conclusion – Kant. Religion as a transcultural phenomenon. Where is science in all of this? Foucault – scientific knowledge = power. Every position in science can and should be argued for, as long as there is evidence to support that opinion. Two types of freedom are operating in ‘our’ culture today – scientific, faith (but this is solvent, as there is no condition to prove that one faith is WRONG, just as there is no way to prove that it is right).

Where is truth in relation to both?

The religious subject is a consumer of truth (ref. Zombie talk at the UvA conference). It doesn’t matter what kind of truth – yes, of course I love you – reciprocal. Kierkegaard: leap of faith is essentially reactionary. Faith is the at the basis on no knowledge. Best Boris quote: ‘See book of Job’ Each religious subject is distinctly cynical. The relationship between believer and God the same between a viewer and artwork? A matter of taste. Hm…

Today we are in the position of Abraham rather than Plato. The contemporary subject is attacked by truths of every kind. They are aggressive, propagandistic. Inconvenient. These truths are distributed not by subjects but by impersonal agents – internet, media, organisations. No need to discuss the politics of representation…by adding yourself to Youtube, Facebook your represent yourself. You can add what you believe on the status. Belief is seen as opinion. Groys describes belief as ritual – which is actually opinionlessness (adoctrine). Zero level of freedom of opinion – that means no opinion. The religious ritual can be repeated but not criticised or modified. Science is progressive and changes in time but religion is repetitive. Religious fundamentalist is the true materialist of our time – about form and tradition.

Always a revolutionary element to religious fundamentalism as it is no longer bound to any kind of rationality. There is always a loss of spirituality in rituality. Mechanical reproduction the love is lost.

Digitised turn in religious exhibition practice. Talks about his work as a curator of religious show and the relationship between the spirit and the body/ human and divine through digital art. The score in relation to the music piece. It needs performance and this is the gap between digital art and its function. What do we need to perform? And which generation are we talking about performing these…accessibility of religion in terms of this visualisation. Signs and wonders! The digital image translates invisible digital information. Immortality in the digital. The relation of time to these.

http://www.publicartonline.org.uk/ has a lot of detailed case studies of a lot of public art/regeneration projects including documentation of Project Row Houses in Houston and a project in Ijburg, East Amsterdam that maybe we should visit (I didn’t know about this?). I’m not necessarily into the full rhetoric of the site but it’s a good resource. It also has documentation of a project I really would like to talk about more, called Further Up In The Air which was in Liverpool a few years ago. Various flats in a housing tower due to be demolished were occupied by different artists doing projects, in quite strong conversation with the former occupants of the flats. The element of interest for us is the quality of the collaboration, and the fact that it dealt with the specific situation of being in a community that was not going to exist after the demolition. I’ll try and get hold of the catalogue, there were some good projects in it.

Chantal Mouffe’s Deliberative Democracy or Agonistic Pluralism