regine debatty’s presentation for the IMAL workshop on rfid. she interviewed 5 artists (Paula Roush, Doria Fan, Joshua Klein, David Kousemaker and Meghan Trainor) as well as Konomi Shin’ishi about their experience with RFID technology.
http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/2008/03/rfid-workshop-at-imal-in.php
03 October 2008 to 16 November 2008
interview with kwong lee, artist and director of castlefield gallery, whilst talking about independent publishing and his artists publications with people like turf garden in to kwa wan with emma rushton and derek tyman, or the 4th venue wirth nick crow, ryan gander, paula rooney, david mackintosh, …
kl- i went to melbourne , australia for holiday in 2005 and went to visit conical where kisss happened the 1st time and liked the way the show was talking about freedom and non-freedom, met deej (fabyc) and joanna (callaghan) and invited them to submit a proposal to the open submissions at castlefield and kisss got selected.
kw- how does the theme of the show relate to uk? the kisss show has varied strategies to look at the way people deal with surveillance. i heard the uk is one of the most surveyed places, and we’re so used to being watched that maybe the reaction is that you react against it and try to subvert it or you take the vision that is a small price to pay for protection, and a lot of people that have material goods want to protect it…so in a sense there is private public debate, and the symposium will be fundamental, because participating and questioning is very important.
mark howarth-booth reviews conspiracy dwellings sympoisum in fall edition of aperture magazine. download the pdf here: aperture_conspiracy.pdf
Last conversation I had with Paulo Romão Brás and Sandro Resende was intended to provide me with enough background information on their new work for the upcoming exhibition “I LOVE YOU, OH, YOU PAY MY RENT” at the Galeria São Bento in Lisbon, that I could write a text for their catalogue. What resulted was that in the process not only I would come to fall for their photobjects but also come to terms with the thing theory, which applied to vernacular photography provides ample speculation about what’s lurking underneath their unique work. So here is a sneak preview into their world, which will go on display on september 13th (download pr_i-love-you.pdf for further details)
Can people love things and things pay people’s rent?
Paulo Romão Brás and Sandro Resende’s new exhibition project I Love You, Oh, You Pay My Rent exposes a method of working together that reflects the materiality relationships are made of, and- more up to the point- explores the shifting boundaries between people and objects. This is territory where definitions of objecthood or selfhood need to be stretched in order to account for that subliminal state of thingyness where objects and humans enter a third zone at the margin of conceptual meaning and certainty.
Paulo shows Dark Parables, ten photo-objects composed out of drawings sketched directly onto digital scans of photographic images and output as digital photographs. Paulo sourced these images from his personal archive of found photographs, a collection he has been building since 1986, selecting particular images of people characterized by its uncanniness– where shadows, erasures, double exposures and scratches perform a defamiliarising effect- to create a new set of narratives. In Dark Parables, a further development is obtained through juxtapositions of photograph’s own materiality – the textured “lived” photographic surface as an indexical anchor into the reality encroached onto it- with the drawing’s hand drawn bodily presence. References to narratives lost to history are weaved into these interventions, raising questions about the objectification of memory and the place of fiction in our relation to photography. Particularly, what is highlighted is the position of amateur photography (as wedding pictures, snapshot photos, family albums) and its value in the art system where they are “the other” that, according to Geoffrey Batchen (2001): “ Represent the troublesome field of vernacular photography; they are the abject photographies for which an appropriate history must now be written.. the part of (photography) history that has been pushed to the margins (or beyond them to oblivion)” 2
In this sense they represent an absence that is further developed into Sandro’s own work for this exhibition. Titled Fools Rush In Where Angels Fear To Tread, it is formed by a triptych of one photo and two drawings. One of the departing points was a moment of free association, originated in response to Paulo’s found photos. Without seeing the images, and based only on its verbal description, Sandro staged his photograph. There, we see a man – in a central position and in what seems to confer him the role of the main character- holding a plate with a “thing”. Three women sit away from him, in a secondary position but equally facing the viewer. Accompanying the photo there are two drawings, each representing the “thing” that, in Sandro’s words, could also be described as “social emptiness” but is, in fact, an unspeakable objectification of people through denial of communication. The “thing” is, in fact, a main element in Sandro’s video work Twenty Seven, a video which the viewer is alienated from, as this is not exhibited in the gallery and can only be anticipated through this extraneous scene, like a surplus that exceeds the video narrative and erupts into the current project as extra frame.
In the text Can the Sofa Speak? A Look at Thing Theory (2001), John Plotz elaborates on the “sense of failure, or partial failure, to name or to classify” that is the main focus of thing theory, and that investigates people or objects that become things because they come to occupy “…the margins—of language, of cognition, of material substance. “Things” do not lie beyond the bounds of reason, to be sure (that would be absurd or paradoxical, or flat out impossible), but at times they may seem to. That seeming is significant: these are limit cases at which our ordinary categories for classifying signs and substances, meaning and materiality, appear to break down.”2
This interest for the lacunas of knowledge is present in both artists’ projects. Whilst Paulo is interested in what happens when photo-objects cross boundaries and become things, Sandro is concerned with the consequences of human relationships that dehumanise people and commodify them into things. What they share in their photo-drawings is thus the blurring of boundaries between people and objects and the creation of fictional worlds where people love things and things pay people’s rent.
1 Geoffrey Batchen, 2001. Vernacular photographies. In Each Wild Idea, Writing, Photography, History. Cambridge, Massachusets; London, England: The MIT PRESS, pp. 56-80.
2 John Plotz, 2005. Can the Sofa Speak? A Look at Thing Theory. Criticism, Volume 47(Number 1), pp. 109-118.
In the Local Worls’s project July is the month for artists’ talks and workshops. THIS WEEKEND, the transversal programme includes the workshop seminar SHARED WORLDS (July 25-27) about collaborative and participatory art, coordinated by artist Mónica de Miranda and the participation of Tate Britain’s curator Paul Goodwin, artist Faisal Adbu’Allah and artist and Local Worlds co-curator Paula Roush.
Shared worlds : workshop-seminar about collaborative and participatory art
Coordinated by Mónica de Miranda (with Paula Roush, Faisal Abdu’Allah and Paul Goodwin)
In the Centro Cultural de Lagos
25, 26 and 27 of July (friday, saturday and sunday, 21:00-24:00
Free admission
As a follow-up to her participatory practice, artist Mónica de Miranda facilitates a three-day workshop together with artists Faisal Abdu’Allah and Paula Roush and theorist Paul Goodwin, to discuss the ways contemporary media art practice develops as a result of creative relationships. Moving away from the studio into networks of relations, artists’ works reveal a renewed interest for public spaces, urban geographies and personal encounters, raising a challenging question: how much of current practice is based on the art of relationships?
The workshop and seminar explore the concepts behind an art of collaboration and participation and the cultural interchange that happens in these encounters. Workshops create an opportunity for the sharing of working strategies, whilst the concluding seminar provides a historical and theoretical overview of relational art models.
The series is open to anyone interested in discussing collaborative, participatory art, with opportunities for participants to share their work. No previous experience is necessary.
Day 1- friday, July 25th , 21:00- 24:00
Live locations: travel, work, participation and collaboration in the work of Monica Miranda, Faisal Abdu’Allah and Paula Roush
In preparation for day 2 workshops, artists present their works, followed by informal conversations with the participants and Story Chain, a group exercise facilitated by Faisal Abdu’Allah.
Day 2- saturday, July 26th , 21:00- 24:00
Works in progress: live open workshops
Monica de Miranda- Tuning in: sound car performance, developed driving around the city with friends, whilst mixing live radio and broadcasting the sound and conversations into the street. Occasionally the car stops at chosen locations and the performance carries on with opportunities for the audience to take part.
Faisal Abdu’Allah- Live Salon: Artist and barber Faisal Abdullah sets up his very own drop-in barbershop. “Snipping and shaving while spinning yarns,” Faisal discusses art, life and haircutting with customers
Paula Roush- Photo Studio: ‘The possibility of identity per se by displaying that moment of suspense…’
Bi-annualy, Lagos holds a festival of the discoveries where people dress up as 15th and 16th century characters to re-enact historical episodes of the Portuguese empire. The ‘Discoveries Festival’ costumes collection - archived at the Centro Cultural de Lagos- is the departure point for a photographic project, exploring photography’s relationship with performance and masquerade.
Day 3- sunday, July 27th , 21:00- 24:00
Models of engagement: Researcher Paul Goodwin presents the theory behind an art of relationships, looking at the links between sociality and conceptual art practices, illustrated with paradigmatic case studies. Followed by informal discussion with the participants.
For further information please contact:
Jorge Rocha | E: jorgerocha.ccl@gmail.com | T: (+351) 93 9339647 | F: (+351) 282 770453
msdm will be presenting a batch of new photobooks at the Publish and Be Damned, the One-Day Self-Publishing Fair. In its 5th year, the fair will again take place at Rochelle School on Sunday 3rd August 2008.
Publish and Be Damned (PaBD) continues to profile individual and experimental approaches to making and distributing publications outside of the commercial mainstream. The fair encompasses cut ‘n’ paste ‘zines, critical journals, glossy periodicals, self-published DVDs, and collaborative publishing projects in a broad selection of formats and interpretations. The fair offers a rare opportunity to discover a wide variety of publications and to meet their producers, and provides a network for artists, writers, and musicians to distribute and disseminate material amongst other producers, and the public.
The use of print on demand providing the background for an experiment in self-publishing, the new msdm collection brings together more than 30 photobooks exploring the boundaries of the page when the photographic image takes centre stage. Developed during workshops on the use of networked digital technologies for book publishing throughout 2007/08, all these books are available for online purchase and have been shown in London (London South Bank University, Wimbledon College of Art, and Middlesex university) and New York (cltad conf), and this is their first presentation on a self-publishing fair.
FREQUENCY OF PUBLICATION:
2x year batches 0f 10 or more
TITLE OF PUBLICATION(S):
Growing collection of more than 30 includes:
One Board by Shea “Rico” Queensborough- a group of teenagers living their dreams through skateboarding.
No Reserve by Thomas Evans- a photographic exploration of society’s current obsession with leaving biographical trails online for all to see through forums such as Facebook, MySpace and of course, Ebay.
Metamorphosis by Aga Wierzbicka- a collection of personal journeys into the outer subconscious.
The Third Space by Sindy Püssa- this book is about the surreal experience of being in The Third Space. Photographs taken in a coffee shop, after-hours - in an attempt to portray a part of our society
Southbank by Mark Westlake- photobook documenting the exploits of a group of BMX riders at the iconic “Southbank” spot, London.
The Pop Cosmopolitanist: A Blank Canvas by Lee Slaymaker- a dual purpose photo book, a study of how best friend, Alexandra Saunders, goes about establishing her identity within the subculture of Pop Cosmopolitanism. Photos and essays within.
Living For the Camera by Jessica Kril- sleep. hit the snooze button. only five more minutes. get up. have a shower. pick the clothing. put the make-up on. morning tea. check email. leave for university. lectures. go home. work. boyfriend. music. cook meals. go out. meet friends. living for the camera. a ficticious documentary by Jessica Kril.
Alternative to ’subculture’ gone mainstream by Karel Polt- portraits of a boy and a girl who could be described as gay, but who have decided to portray themselves as something alternative to the mainstream gay culture.
Malford Court by Aviv Ron- portrait of Malford Court. Photographic images from a residential building, spatial study.
Layered Intimation by Jennie Rosberg- of self-masquerade, the characters performed are made up by forcing preconceptions about stereotypes specific to an area, a hometown in Sweden. The book aims to explore layered meanings constructed by putting these characters in relation to each other.
F-Stop Reality by John Brown- a journey through virtual cities BETA version.
Reflections of London by Sandra Madiot-mannequins and other shop-window artifacts found in the city environment, many of them co-composite with the cityscape reflected in the shop-windows, beautifully displayed in a deep range monochrome scale. Catalysts and Movement by Gary Lewzey-The most vibrant and colourful catalysts of people to be mixed within a city’s grey architecture are skateboarders. Their vision is as different as their priorities in comparison to the conventional visitors inside the business district. The general public sees practicality where skateboarders see opportunity and leisure.
Nine twelve fifty six by Chris Charalambous. The Fashion Journey by Mary Germanou-a pictorial biography about one’s grandparents journey from one country to a new location adapting to new cultures, new surroundings and new fashions.
Lomosexual: A Tribute to LOMO Cameras by Francois Boutemy- A close up look at the revolutionary Russian camera and its bag of tricks. A collaboration of several photographers featuring a gallery of images, interviews and modification tips; with contributions from Jon Wyatt, Ricardo Ventura, Jeansman Lee and Francois Boutemy. Me, Society and I by Liz Aspden- Posed as different members of society, photographed them and then they photographed her. Chess players by Alicja Sokolowska-Photos taken in Plac Grunwaldzki, all black and white, shot on high speed film.
This year a handbook published by Four Corners Books will accompany the fair.
Rochelle School (includes link to vue venue on a map)
Club Row
Arnold Circus
London E2 7es
paula roush participates on LOVING BIG BROTHER with John E McGrath (Artistic Director or Manchester’s ground breaking Contact Theatre and author of Loving Big Brother) and Nic Groombridge (www.criminologyinpublic.com), author on CCTV, criminology and sexuality, a debate that interrogates surveillance culture with the public in an interactive platform. There are more cameras in the UK than anywhere else in the world…Are we safer or is this an invasion of privacy? What are the new possibilities for interaction, resistance and change?
The Red Room Presents LOVING BIG BROTHER “From George Orwell to reality TV - is surveillance to be feared or embraced?” (Loving Bog Brother by John E McGrath, Routledge, 2004)
18TH JULY 2008 7.30pm - 9.30pm
Artsadmin
Arts Cafe and Bar
Toynbee Studios
28 Commercial Street
E1 6AB
Booking recommended - limited capacity
For latest information visit www.theredroom.org.uk or contact 0207 7357797
