radar

(Irit Rogoff, Deepa Naik, Sounding Difference, 2006 / image: Van Abbemuseum)

A TALK BY
IRIT ROGOFF

(Professor of Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths)
at Goldsmiths, University London
21st January 2010, 17:00 – 19:00

What does it mean to take part in culture? Beyond the roles that culture assigns to us; beyond the roles of viewers and voters, listeners and demonstrators, visitors and protestors? Can we find new modes of engagement within the spaces of contemporary art, perhaps even by galvanising the attention that these spaces demand, for some other form of inhabitation?

This research project on participation tries to veer away from the inclusive prescription that characterises the so called ‘participatory turn in contemporary art’ in which various protocols were created to invite subjects into projects and spaces. Instead it asks what does it mean to take part in culture beyond the roles that culture allots us for taking part? By looking to the work of Arendt, Agamben, Nancy questions of community and collectivity are fleshed out through the concept of ‘singularity’ rather than that of identity. Equally, this engagement with the blurring of lines between makers, viewers, objects and spaces has required the development of an alternative vocabulary to capture the shifting relations within the art world.

Irit Rogoff is a theorist, curator and writer. She is Professor of Visual Culture at Goldsmiths, and has published extensively at the intersections of critical theory, politics and contemporary arts practices including “Museum Culture” 1996, “Terra Infirma” 2001, A.C.A.D.E.M.Y 2006 and “Unbounded – Limits’ Possibilities” 2010. Her curatorial work included 3 versions of “De-Regulation with the work of Kutlug Ataman” (Antwerp 2006, Herzilya 2008, Berlin 2010) and Academy (Eindhoven 2006) and “Summit – Non Aligned Initiatives in education Culture” Berlin 2007 and “Turning” in e-flux journal 2010.

Also, interesting articles:
‘Turning’ in e-flux journal 11/2008
‘Education Actualizes’ in e-flux journal 03/2010
‘Free’ in e-flux journal 03/2010

Grassroots technology practices in suburban Australia

An exhibition exploring the ways in which technologies are made in suburban Australia.

by KAT JUNGNICKEL

24th – 31st of October 2009
Goldsmiths College, University of London
Kingsway Corridor, Richard Hoggart Building

Exhibiting the ‘homebrew high-tech’ objects and practices of ‘backyard technologies’ as well as Kat’s own methods of making sociological knowledge as part of a PhD in Sociology – blogposts, fieldnotes, photos, sketches, objects and film – the exhibition hopes to generate dialogue about improvised, hands-on and object-oriented ways of thinking, and the role of objects in sociological practice.

Read more and follow her thoughts at:
http://studioincite.com/makingwifi/

Caroline Knowles: ‘The journeys between us: Sociology as encounters with navigation’

Tuesday 12 May 2009

An inaugural lecture given by Professor Caroline Knowles, Professor of Sociology and Director of the Centre of Urban and Community research. She presented a journey through her past research projects, located in different parts of the world, finishing with her most recent collaboration with artist Michael Tan of Nanying Technological Universtiy in Singapore on ‘Footwear and Social Fabrics’, an ‘object biography’ of the life-worlds and journeys of a pair of flip flop sandals from their production in China to their consumption in Ethiopia.

The talk is accompanied by an exhibition of a selection of photographs by Michael Tan in the Kingsway Corridor at Goldsmiths University.

A brief summary of her speech:

Caroline Knowles argues that the world in which we live is created in the journeys people make around it. Travel is no trivial pursuit: it matters and makes matter. Understanding how people travel is the key to understanding how the world works. How the world walks is how the world works! In this lecture she will argue that journeys and the skill with which people navigate constitute and expose the operation of the world on a global scale. So journeys provide powerful intersections at which to observe, ask questions and act. We are where we go, how we go and why. Drawing on examples of journeys in her recent research Knowles explores the world of homeless psychiatric patients on the streets of Montreal; British migrant ‘ladies who lunch’ living in Hong Kong; and the intersecting journeys of a Chinese migrant worker, a smuggler and an elderly woman living in Addis Ababa; all connected by the journey of a pair of flip-flop sandals. Caroline Knowles argues that viewing the social world from the standpoint of the journeys traversing it provides a simple and effective thinking tool in understanding the world in which we live. The lecture is powerfully enlivened by images made by photographers Ludovic Dabert, Douglas Harper and Michael Tan in the context of research collaboration between sociologist and artist.

more info: www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/sociology/staff/knowles.php

Interviews with Professor Scott Lash, Research Director of the Centre for Cultural Studies, Professor Robert Zimmer, Co-Diretcor of Goldsmiths Digital Studios and Head of the Department of Computing, and Goetz Bachmann at Goldsmiths University London and Bernard Stiegler, French philosopher and Director of the Department of Cultural Development at the Centre Georges-Pompidou in Paris.

The interviews were conducted in response to several recent conferences, lectures and colloquiums held at Goldsmiths College that revolved around the Metadata research project at the Centre for Cultural Studies and visiting Professor Bernard Stiegler’s series of talks on the Economy of Contribution.

The interview is divided into two parts.

PART 1:

PART 2:

This one and a half day workshop was hosted by the Centre for Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths College, London on February 10th/11th 2009. It was organized by Scott Lash (CCS), Bernard Stiegler (Centre Pompidou/CCS), Robert Zimmer (Computing), Nina Wakeford (INCITE, Sociology) and Götz Bachmann (CCS).

The event was kindly supported by Intel Research.

AUDIO RECORDINGS listen or download HERESOON!

TUESDAY, 10TH FEBRUARY 2009
Introduction: Scott Lash
Coordinator’s Introduction: Bernard Stiegler

Museum of Contribution
Jennifer Mundy, Tate Collection Research
Anna Cutler, Tate Learning
James Davis, Tate Online Collections
Sheena Wagstaff, Tate Exhibitions and Displays
Vincent Puig, Centre Pompidou
Yves Marie L’Hour, Centre Pompidou
Nicolas Sauret, Centre Pompidou
(iri.centrepompidou.fr)

Art / Media
Presentations by:
Graham Harwood, CCS
(mongrel.org.uk/mediashed.org)
Bronac Ferran, Royal College of Art
(boundaryobject.org)

Additional Input by:
Juan Insua, Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona
Nina Wakeford, Sociology
Suhail Malik, Visual Arts

Lunch screening of Neil Cummings film: ‘Museum Futures’
(chanceprojects.com)

Relations and Networks
Presentations by:
Neil Cummings, Chelsea College
Lucy Kimbell, Saïd Business School, Oxford

Additional Input by:
Celia Lury, Sociology
David Oswell, Sociology
Goetz Bachmann, CCS
Noortje Marres, Sociology
Nigel LLewellyn, Tate Research

Discussant: Nina Wakeford

Software of Contribution
Presentations by:
Matt Fuller, Cultural Studies
Pavel Sedlak, Prague, International Centre
for Art and New Technologies

Additional Input by:
Robert Zimmer, Computing
Olga Goriunova, CCS

Discussant: Robert Zimmer

WEDNESDAY, 11TH FEBRUARY

Design of Contribution
Presentation by:
David Garcia, Chelsea College of Art and Design
Bas Rajimakers/Geke Van Dijk, STBY, London

Additional Input by:
Tobie Kerridge, Design
Nicolas Aurey, Ecole Nationale Supérieure
des Télécommunications, Paris

Discussant: Ishida Hidetaka

Media Theory
Presentations by:
Hidetaka Ishida, Tokyo University
Scott Lash, CCS

Additional Input by:
Yuk Hui, CCS
Christian Licoppe, Ecole Nationale Supérieure
des Télécommunication, Paris

Discussant: Juan Insua

Conclusions

Other Participants
Laurene Vaughan, RMIT University, Melbourne
Joanna Zylinska, Media Comms
Maria Bezaitis, Intel PaPR, Portland
Jennifer Bajorek, CCS
Clive Grinyer, Cisco Systems
Olivier Landau, France Telecom (in future)
Lu Xinghua (in future)
Eric Kluitenberg, De Balie, Amsterdam (in future)
Stefan Beck, Humboldt University Berlin (in future)
Steven Bognar, Hungarian Film Biennale (in future)

sound recordings and video will be posted here soon!

An interview with Götz Bachmann and Yuk Hui, Reseachers on the Metadata project at Goldsmiths Leverhulme Media Research Centre, following on form the one-day Symposium 2008 on ‘Force of Metadata’.

Force of Metadata from incite on Vimeo.

For more information:
www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/media-research-centre

Employing digital photography and new media, the youth art project Signs of the City – Metropolis Speaking (2007/2008) explores the sign systems of Barcelona, Berlin, London and Sofia. Young people guided and accompanied by professional artists investigate the signs of their cities and thus document their urban life. The photographic outcome was fed into an image database, creating a contemporary archive online: www.citipix.net

The project was accompanied and evaluated by the Centre for Urban and Community Research (CUCR), Goldsmiths College, University of London. www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/cucr/ 
Principle researchers where Professor Michael Keith and Alison Rooke.

In autumn 2008, four multimedia exhibitions were simultaneously curated in the participating cities to display the visual outcomes of the project, hosted by Watermans London, House of Cinema Sofia and the House of World Cultures in Berlin. Interdisciplinary conferences were held in Berlin (HkW), London (Goethe Institute) and Sofia (House of Cinema).

The project was funded by the EU Culture Programme, the Hauptstadt Kultur Fonds, British Council, Spanish Embassy and supported by the Goethe Institute and Sony Germany.