Two New Ideas from Allison Smith's Visit

The two key ideas that Allison brought up were that:

1. The elephant in the room is the election and all the issues about collectivity that it brings up. Our event at SFMOMA will be days after that event has happened. The country will be dramatically changed by whatever happens.

2. To focus on our disagreement in some productive way.

Brian

Epiphany?

Not quite sure why no one felt enthusiastic enough to respond to Allison's visit and the project idea that came up.

I remember quite clearly what the discussion was, but I think it would be good to hear how it was filtered through each of your listenings. I think everyone should jump in with their account. 

Just to keep everyone fully aware of our timeframe: we are on for Dec 4 - this is about 5 weeks away.

Brian

Live Debate?

Town Hall?
How about it?
Anyone care to post the transcription of today's end of class epiphany?

Class list of Reasons for Being-Heading Towards a Mission Statement

Reasons for Being
Engagement
To connect
Involve the public
Inclusiveness
Where we are
Locate a position
Create something
Critical discussion
Learn the art of collaboration
Create a form of equivalence between participant and artist
To accomplish something
Form a sustainable model, (self geerating, self perpetuationg) that can go on outside
Solve a problem
Critque the canonization and institutionalization of social practice
To know more about ourselves
To be honest, sincerity
Tactition and/or strategy (how they differ, how they relate)
Dystopian
Learn when to give in or fold, give and take, let go
utopian
Enjoy
The magic moment

The statement should be simple, 1-3 sentences, easily remembered and free of jargon.
When composing the statement, the following should be considered:
Who are we, why do we exist, what do we do.
Who is this for.
How do we go about achieving it.
Aspirations-future of the project.

Building up the Mission Statement

Sunday 10/19 conversation + general summary

The meeting last Sunday was lengthy, as before, because there are so many issues on the table and we need to push to some resolution and decision relatively soon. I will characterize here what I believe was discussed at that meeting. I will also attempt to summarize where we stand at this point. If I missed anything, or have given the wrong impression of what was said, please reply.

We started discussing Lynn's project, Claire's List (after Claire Bishop), which is described in the project ideas section of the wiki. To put it simply, its a kind of Craig's List for Social Practice projects, providing the public-at-large an opportunity to structure and organize their own participatory projects. The strength of it is that it could grow in use and size well beyond our initial input, in part because the public would build it over time. (This gets around one of Lynn's critical problems that the artist' isn't single-handedly trying to fulfill some public need, which seems presumptuous to her and a bit too 60's). It could also help the public create new projects and activities in social space. On the downside, it was mentioned that it doesn't really get around the wide-eyed utopianism on the part of the artist/creator, because the artist is still setting up the proposition to begin with and the general structure. A second problem came up that people would just not use it, because the question of the nature of the exchange between participants has not been worked out. Try, for example, to imagine why a Stanford physicist might be part of it, or even any of us, given our busy schedules.......Lynn is going to retool the idea.

The next project discussed was Danielle's Reframe idea. See this on the wiki as well. There was enthusiasm for the idea but questions came up with how the reframers would be chosen and what kinds of reframing ideas would be activated. There were speculations about where the retooling shop could be installed - both in the museum and in a variety of locations around the Bay Area (it could be portable and easy to set up). It was mentioned that its admitted relationship (and inspiration) from William Pope L's "Black Factory" undermines the force of this idea. Danielle was not at the meeting to give the idea the next level of development because she somehow fell off my email list (many apologies!). So we need to see if we can take this idea further on Thursday.

Christian made an impassioned plea for us to consider focussing on the location given us for this project - the Koret educational center at SFMOMA. He and Michael visited it a few days and discussed its character. He suggested we do an excavation of what it is and how it functions to convey ideas about art and especially about the collection of SFMOMA. Because of these comments Brian visited two days ago and took a close look. The space has a very definite character and use which could be explored. Dominic described how it will be reconfigured for our events. There's one full wall projection space and then a separate projection on the back side of a large sandblasted glass divider. So two projection surfaces. The space has a very institutional vibe, as they say, and is pretty uninspiring. The final point made was that the Koret center could be a site for a project, but we need to have a sense of what that might be before we turn over our attention to it. Perhaps a preliminary excavation could be done.

Malak gave an enthusiastic presentation of her "Tableau Vivant" idea. She wants to make a SFMOMA/San Francisco extension of the large San Jose festival which has a stage with hundreds of people sitting in front of it watching the enactment of historical paintings. Her idea is to hire the company that produces this event and direct them to enacting some of the participatory projects in the SFMOMA show like Acconci's following pieces or Alys pushing the block of ice. This "Pageant of Artistic Masterpieces" would serve the critical function of highlighting Rudolf's canonization and museum-ifcation of participatory art - which somehow seems contradictory. Our group got stuck however, imagining how we could make this happen and we couldn't get to considering its critical vitality. The San Jose festival costs 4.1 million dollars and takes at least a year of preparation. The group was asked to think of how something like this could be manifested in an alternate form that we could do. The poet/critic Frances Richard from New York, our much praised class visitor, weighed in on this project as well. She thought that this gesture works to flatten all participatory art into one kind of thing, much like the museum canonization itself. She wondered why we didn't want to take our understanding of this form of art and these processes and make our own participatory project which critically engages the situation. (of course, this is what we are trying to do!).

There is also an idea on the blog that we have not discussed. It is Michael's 3-Institutions idea. we should discuss this on Thursday as well. 

If there are any other ideas that we should be actively considering, please put them back on the table. Also, its not too late for entirely new proposals. In the meantime, we need to see how far we can push and reshape the ideas above. We also have a mystery guest for Thursday, Ted had to cancel. Be sure to read the Kristine Podesva article.

 I also need to tell you about the state of our first artist production, by the larger collaboration between CCA/SFMOMA/Stanford by Jon Rubin. Its the mini-Hoover Institute. Stanford is being very resistant to it, or at least is not facilitating it, and we might need our Stanford cohorts to weigh in with support and engagement.

see you Thursday

Brian

3 Institutes?

Michael:

Can you explain this a bit further? Are you proposing 3 distinct institutes, one from each institution? I presume they come into collaboration somehow - yes? Is this related to Neue Slovenische Kunste? 

What work do they do, or what kind of projects do they collaborate on?

Brian

IN THE "SPIRIT" OF PARTICIPATION/COLLABORATION

THREE DISTINCT INSTITUTES

• MOMA-------------EDUCATION DEPT.
  

• STANFORD--------DRAMA DEPT.

• CCA----------------FINE ART DEPT.

CCA attempts to form a collective that "WORKS" in tandem with preexisting "NETWORKS" or resources inherent within each educational "institute"

Concurrently during the art of participation show at SF MOMA
2 evenings of programing have been allocated for use by this collective.

The location within the museum (not a gallery/exhibition space)
and the actual time of access is finite. (1 -2 hours approx)


There is potential that a sustainable group collective interested in future projects and programing may evolve from within the construct of this experiment

MAYBE THIS CAN HELP US MOVE FORWARD--->

Hello, 

So i keep thinking about the project while im supposed to be doing other things and several questions come to mind and i cant find a clear answer to them particularly without knowing how everyone else feels--- so i'll throw them out there as a starting point to define the project:

Ive made them multiple choice not so that you necessarily choose one.. but just as a way to organize options in a manner where one can maybe recognize some interests/priorities over others. Im sure i've failed to mention some very important points - so add them where you see that i haven't, thanks! Also, my apologies if some questions seem repetitive. 

1. What is our role in the project? (and how important is that role to the form of production) 

a) artists producing something

b) organizers/curators of an event

c) a student body working together

2. Is our project to be viewed more as a:

a) collaborative art project

b) a research project

c) an educational project

d) a critique

e) an experiment

f) an open source project (in as many ways as that definition can take us)

g) a platform for info/other projects

3. Where is the hub of our project

a) somewhere in the public space of SF (an informal open place)

b) somewhere in the public space of SF (a place that is a little more formal in its definition/location/parameters)

b) CCA

c) SFMOMA

d) the net

e) some other set up where we will organize a forum, or a screening, or party or an event etc

4. Who is our audience/ who are we doing this for?

a) the 'general public' - which is very vague so that would have to be defined

b) the art public

c) the non-art off our track public who have nothing to do with cca, sfmoma or the show

d) students in general (non art) - what age? 14? high school? uni? phd? public? private?

e) students from art colleges  

f) the thinkers/contributers/artists involved with the show

g) educators

h) writers/historians/archivers

i) open source community (programmers/users/artists)

j) are we focused on SF specifically or do our interests extend beyond?

5. who do we want to be involved in the production of the project?

same choices as above

6. What kind of product do we hope to have to complete this project?

a) a publication

b) a wiki

c) a website

d) a blog

e) a forum

d) an event (anywhere from exhibition/party/intervention/garage sale)

f) do any of the above also include another site of activity for the production of content/product or is that platform the process, event and product

7. Why are we participating in this project? What is the attraction of this unique opportunity

a) the availability of unique source of funding 

b) the opportunity to engage with other people who may be interested in the same issues (at cca/stanford/sfmoma and beyond)

c) the opportunity to be involved in a very open structure with a big institution such as sfmoma

d) the opportunity to be involved in the presentation/dissemination of a show like participation with the public

e) an opportunity to work with a public in a collaborative project

f) the opportunity to look at and contribute to new art/participatory/educational strategies

g) other

8. What do we want to achieve with this project? (ie: why is it of use?) (to both us and audience/user/participant)

Looking good I think we should spruce it up a bit with info somehow. I posted in the header a brief only takes 500 char. Should we allow it to be open? Just for viewing?

Great!!

Thanks Michael for setting this up!! Now lets sync in the info from the wiki....

Brian