BAFA Unit 8 Stage II Development and Collaboration 2009

This Unit emphasizes your continuing and increasing responsibility for your work, its research, production and documentation. Whilst being encouraged to develop the distinctiveness of your own practice, you are asked to measure, test and locate that practice through collaborative experience and critical debate, building on the cross-disciplinary interaction and potential challenge of new perspectives gained through the Elective. Group Curatorial Project

You are being asked to involve yourself with others this term in the production, installation, analysis and documentation of your work. In the past the GCP has lead to the establishing of creative relationships which extend beyond the confines of the term or your single GCP projects so it is important that you make the most of the framework provided. In considering the GCP this term it is important to understand the concepts of curating and collaboration. Curating is the process of all aspects of mounting an exhibition from the selection of artists through having a venue, organising publicity, marketing, associated events and the design and installation of a show. This is usually done by a curator who might work freelance or for an institution. Collaboration is the process of artists actually making their work together in combined authorship. This is most commonly as a couple but also happens in groups or an artist might invite somebody to produce some aspect of their work or exhibition. Your project will probably combine both of these activities. The most important aspects of curating for you will be the design and hanging of a show and it’s conceptual framework but as you are collaborating on putting on an exhibition you also need to work collectively in decision-making. The emphasis might be on how to bring your disparate work together in a way that makes sense or might be that you work together in the production of a new body of work.

Joe Collins Documentation

‘TheSwarmGroupProject’

Katie Hare 12 February at 15:44 hey alex, hope everythings going well with your travels and what have you. we met up for gcp today and did some talking and filming which you will no doubt see/hear about at some point, but we also came up with an idea that you can take part in even if your not around which was: to think about the work you make, and how you make it, and as if working on a development from that come up with 5 proposals of future work you would like to do, and then get it to us in some form preferably by monday or if not wednesday at the latest (you can just send them on facebook or something). we were gonna then look at the 25 diffrernt proposals we'll have and try and maybe work from creating something from that... so yeah if you could do that it would be great! we are next going to meet on wednesday, so if you can make it then let me know, otherwise, see you soon CHEERS! katie

Alexander Stephen Myers 12 February at 20:17 I'll think about that now Katie! Sorry, I clearly forgot to tell you guys I was working today, sorry! See you soon

GCP! Between Alexander Stephen Myers and You

Katie Hare 29 January at 13:22 heya alex, hope all is well in newcastle. i thought i'd better let you know what went on and was said etc etc before i forget, but basically we caried on discussing this idea of a collective brain or swarm intelligence, and also that perhaps it would be an interesting experiment to see if it is possible to work in a way that's totally collaborative and equal without one person suggesting and the others leading or something like that. and we thought that perhaps it would be good to start experimenting with creating as much work together as possible- not nessacarily always physical work but documentation of discussions or conversations and concepts and stuff., all together. and that maybe an idea would be to have days, or half days, where we all meet up, all bring something maybe objects or concepts or whatever and try and create something sort of inutitively together and see where it takes us. so we were thinking maybe trying to aim for one morning and one afternoon a week... rosza is only in college on monday, tuesday and thursday, and tuesdays we have HATS, so we were thinking provisionally monday afternoons and thursday mornings? though the monday coming up i have a doctors appointment so we thought maybe trying to work together all day on thursday? ok so let me know what you think, about the idea and if you can make it and if its all clear blah blah blah and if you have any thoughts or suggestions! sorry this is all probably a bit garbled, anyway have a good weekend!

GCP Between Kat. B. Heggebø, Rozsa Farkas, You, Alexander Stephen Myers, Gabriel Tupinambá and Katie Hare   

 Katie Hare 18 February at 15:10 Reply okay! firstly, gabriel has joined our group. secondly, we met up today to talk about this concept idea and had the idea in the end of maybe some kind of classification system? i'll maybe let joe or gabriel explain too as i'm in a bit of a rush but anyway so thy're all here. alex sent his after the meeting, and rozsa sent new ones so some people wont have seen them‐  KAT 1. Documentary; stills from video, pics (GCP: swarm terminology) 2. “Nesting”, creating a ‘livable space’ (GCP: as a swarm) 3. Collecting, categorizing (objects from the thames), creating narratives 4. Collect random, thrown away artworks, work on these 5. Curiosity boxes, preserving childhood, memories, narratives, fact, fabulation?    ROZSA 1. well for ages ive been wanting to take objects ive collected which relate to my theme such as old barbies sweet wrappers etc and kind of 'chrystallise' them in resin/plastic or something, preserve them like the insect in jurassic park but to create plasic blocks with objects immersed i think id have to get a liquid that hardens, any ideas?  2. an to exhibit i wanted to experiment with lights behind the blocks. i have for a long time done sketches of people (especically asleep people) on public transport;   3. the painting ive been preparing to do has been based on looking at compositions of old masters paintings and religious situations and changing it to a version of an old scene, but corrupted into my style;  4. technically ive been practising my painting by doing a couple of portraits of people caught in movement/an act and i want to continue this as a sideline to create a collection of portraits.   5. with my photography a want to do another set up shoot with a different girl who looks very underage to give undercurrents of exploitation, but i also like continuing unplanned photographs bearing in mind a sense of voyerism.    ALEX 1. I'm taking stills from Adam curtis documentaries (i'd have a look at www.rewtube.com ‐ it's pretty excellent stuff) and photo‐merging them to create weird and slightly anatomically skewed portraits  2. I'm rearranging the letters of swearwords to make pretty black and white pictures, then blowing them up huge and sticking them on the wall, and then hiding within the black image another swearword in reflective tape (so it's black until a light shines at it, such as a camera flash, at which point it says 'FUCK YOU', for example).  

3. I'm in the very early stages of creating an automatic rosary counter, that will hopefully recite the prayers at high speed while notching the beads along a system of cogs.  4. I'm composing a piece of music made entirely from sounds in the sculpture studio, and also composing another piece of music made with a single recording of the word fuck.  5. I will be purchasing a couple of speakers, and embedding them within cuddly toys, so that the cuddly toys will have a conversation with each other. Also, I will be having one cuddly toy reciting that really long word I played you guys ages ago.  6. I'm also composing a piece of music for a bike video, and this has given me the idea to start making nonsensical videos and then writing beautiful moody soundtracks to make them better.   JOE 1. Experience pricing‐ Find an appropriate way of pricing experience. 2. Return of the Wicked (Ethical counter remake)‐ shift focus from ‘child witches’ to the priests and other exploiters. 3. Squatter Interviews‐ Interview squatters about artists interviewing squatters. 4. Unaware pretexts (of the artist)‐ Richard Long Apotheosis 5. Reflexive Recording (voice and body)‐ Record body and voice in a reflexive mode  KATIE 1. I would like to look in depth at the world of classical music, particularly that of teenagers and young people involved in the classical music scene as it’s not that common for young people to be as interested in ‘high art’ as popular culture. Also at the way that many people drop learning a classical instrument to fit in with their peers as its not that cool. What are the ones who carry on like? Explore the idea of their social lives and hobbies outside of classical music as well as their relationships to it.  2. I would like to create a sculptural piece using recorders probably or something similar and take plaster casts of the object to make a very large amount of duplicates looking at the way that an everyday object takes on another dimension when it is in such a large number. I think something like a recorder could work well for this as it could serve as a sort of graveyard for something that’s really popular during childhood and gradually falls by the wayside. Copies would be non‐functional, just a sort of monument/memorial.  3. I would like to make videos of siblings fighting‐ like physical fights/wrestling. I’m interested in the way the act of fighting takes on a new dimension when it’s with siblings. It perhaps loses some of the fear and worry of fighting with somebody, especially if the siblings are close; it’s almost like something very well rehearsed, quite natural and instinctive with perhaps a more playful feeling as people are generally more comfortable arguing or disagreeing with family than friends or strangers.  4. Investigate the role of costume and uniform and how it can be used to change a situation or action.  5. Look at finding examples of things in the world of which there is only one. For example, at Disneyland, Mickey Mouse only appears in one place at a certain time (like he’d never be in Paris, if he was in Florida, at the same time) Research and experiment.   GABRIEL 1. To do a fake documentary where we tell of a collaborative work that doesn’t exist (or rather, exists only in it’s 

telling to the camera). Note: One person doesn’t know what the other will say.  2. To do a real documentary about what has been done until now by the group and about the experience of actually putting a ryzomatic strategy in practice.  3. To shoot a short film which would be a reenactment of what the assessment of this work would be like, with everyone showing there work to a tutor (an actor) and talking about it.  4. To create a very big pile of small works done by everyone.  5. to choose one idea, created by no‐one in the group‐ as if heaven sent or aleatory‐ and work everyone together on it. If ‘the centre cannot hold’, let us empty it then with a proposal that comes from no‐one, rather than having no proposals.  SO  basically i think the general consensus is that the final show will be some kind of documentation of trying to work as a 'swarm'  for next week it would be good if everybody bought along a plan or their vision of how they think the room will look. i know that not everyone has alsways been here and might not know about all the material we have, but its just for ideas and stuff and we can work them out together? cheers katie Adam Curtis, The Trap, The Power of Nightmares, The Century of the Self and others... Source: www.rewtube.com Watch the Adam Curtis documentaries: The Trap, The Power of Nightmares, The Century of the Self, Pandora's Box and more... Share   

 Joe Collins 18 February at 20:54 thanks for the post! with the curation process we could set up another post for the identifying,'vision' and inventory of what the work was and willl be ‐ to get an idea of what we'll be curating.   with the concept activity we initially started with the idea that we would collectively attempt to synthesize all of the ideas into one concept. it was agreed that it would be right to unanimously decide on a standard to interpret and classify the concepts ‐ giving precedence to the synthesizing process. through committed debate it seemed to appear that we would be more comfortable working with the concepts in other ways (we seemed anxious about the value of what the single synthesized concept would be especially for people not involved in the process). recourse and how we left it: to somehow conceive categories for the concepts ‐ not necessarily generic art categories but more like tv or other categories/descriptors. also, to somehow randomly and collectively select and 'do one' of the concepts. and lastly we agreed this,FB, would be a good domain to do something with the concepts!  xx   

 Joe Collins 18 February at 21:09 this is a bit extra to my concepts: 2.End of the wicked. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUeKBibBN0I http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=‐1546500823932425961 3.Are you a STUDENT researching SQUATTING? Hello there! We probably get one or two people a week who approach us for help on written or film projects. This usually takes the form of wanting info and answers to specific questions OR wanting to interview us, OR putting them in touch with other people to be interviewed. To simplify things here are two points that we recently decided upon: :‐) 1) We simply don't have time to help everyone. Sorry! We have a huge archive that you can come and look through and we can help you find info and material and chat about your ideas etc. However, if you want to interview someone here about squatting or radical social spaces, it's probably unlikely that people here will want to be interviewed. What you can do is place a message on our noticeboard looking for people to interview. :‐( 2) Here are a few reasons why we discussed this matter and came up with the above. We would rather put our time and efforts into running the Infoshop. In the main, those we agreed to help in the past had no interest in radical change and just wanted help with what they saw as a 'cool' project idea. Subsequently we never heard from them again despite promises to give us copies of what they wrote or filmed. Off they went to their new careers! We certainly are not against talking to people who are just getting into radical ideas or who already involved in some way in radical change want to do something investigative and interesting as a college project. The people we have helped have usually come to the space and got to know the place a little bit first. In that way we got to know each other a little bit. So, don't let the above put you off ‐ it may sound a little harsh ‐ but we are open 4 times a week and we don't bite. http://www.56a.org.uk/   xx www.56a.org.uk Source: www.56a.org.uk Anarchist Social Centre, with bookshop, squat info, records, zines, radical archive, book exchange. Shares space with Fareshares whole foods coop and DIY bicycle repair workshop. Share   

 Joe Collins 20 February at 13:10 classify them as animals!?  this would allow us to engage in the process of 'finding what the concepts mean' and then classify them in the form of specific animals. these animal forms should then be more easier to synthesise or categorise into groups. List of animal names ‐ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Source: en.wikipedia.org This lists names of animals used depending on the context. Many species of animals, particularly those domesticated, have been given specific names for the male, the female, and the young of the species. ... 

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 Gabriel Tupinambá 20 February at 13:13 Reply Joe, im curious to know how you would classify concepts like animals, could you explain that a bit better?   

 Joe Collins 20 February at 13:23 such a quick reply ‐ did you read it!  we would be classifying our 30 concepts but we also would need to classify what the concepts of animals are.  we would probably need to do this individually and then collectively synthesise 'the animals' (which would be a lot of them).   

 Gabriel Tupinambá 20 February at 14:09 Reply So it is not a matter of using that link you sent as an example of how to categorize ‐ your idea is actually to categorize our conceptual ideas for possible projects under animal names which they could be interpreted as having to do with?   

 Joe Collins 20 February at 18:32 the link was just to help with expanding our animal vocab. we would probably make it that each of our concepts would 'be an animal'. so we would need to interpret attributes, qualities, perspectives, structures..whatever we see in the concept and then we would translate it into a particular animal that has resonance with the values (ultimately our concepts).    

 Gabriel Tupinambá 20 February at 18:50 Reply Joe, but why the hell would we transform our ideas for projects into animals? that seems rather unproductive and not much more than a funny experiment  

‐ on the other hand, to actually classify them (if that is really the best idea we could come up in terms of what to do with them) in a serious way, would be a way of sticking to them in what they have of singular, instead of transforming them into something else and having had those ideas just as excuses to do something completely different...  what if we commited ourselves into producing more material like the concepts? we already thought of the concepts, the sketch of the organization...maybe we could create more concepts and more material which represents individual practices and our thoughts on how that goes with the group...wouldnt that be a way of a) creating more material b) preparing documentation c) keep true to the idea of the 'swarn' ?    

 Joe Collins 20 February at 20:23 good rhetoric and i can see what you mean about it being funny but let's keep it open and valid. the process of interpreting and translating would need to be 'serious' (and is in fact an extremely politically charged!) engagement ‐ and could be highly productive. we would end up with 180 or so 'created animals' (some being the same) that we could then collectively classify.  so your idea's to produce more concepts like the ones we've done and then are you saying that we create something materially from a few of them but what "represents individual practices and our thoughts on how that goes with the group"?  what does the rest of the group think?   

 Gabriel Tupinambá 20 February at 20:31 Reply why is it politically charged?  why having 180 created animals is productive? (isnt it actually 're‐productive' ?) I just dont see the point of it...what does it do, having animal concepts?  my idea is that we more work which is at the same time documentation of our individual practices and comments on how we see solutions to working within the de‐centered model that was proposed. Things like creating a lot of concepts and writing those down (and then displaying them as both work and documentation), creating individual sketches on how we could organize the room, of how we understand eachother practices...i dunno...I just dont see the point of using the 'swarn' model to justify doing anything on the basis of it being open and valid...we should use it as a reason to work in a way that makes use of it, i think.   

 Gabriel Tupinambá 20 February at 20:36 

Reply i forgot a word: "my idea is that we DO more work etc etc"   

 Joe Collins 20 February at 21:25 you're focussing on the 'having 180 created animals' but not the process which is the thing of substance ‐ and i think 'points' could emerge in this activity. open in the sense that it is an option and valid in the sense of it not being a waste of time. your proposition is also open and valid. both are accessible but in keeping true to the swarm model we need to unanimously come up with a position!    

 Gabriel Tupinambá 20 February at 21:38 Reply thought this would become a very long and uninteresting discussion, I think that it is impossible for a process to be the thing of substance ‐ in the sense that matter and motion/force are, on the common sense level (not talking einsteinian physics here), different. You cannot say that the action of creating the animals is what counts and expect it to have more substance than the created product. also, if it does, it just means that the product is not very important or substancial....  again, as i said, being valid and open is not something which we should bragg about, seems like we use it to justify most things instead of choosing one...  as for unanimously, lets hope we can make it, since we dont really have ideas to choose from or a strong criteria on how to choose, so that we could all actually agree on something...  again, im just talking so much because i know it will go on record and i want to show that i am thinking.  

 Katie Hare 21 February at 00:09 Reply haha err dont really know what to say about this animal stuff sorry i dont think i totally understand it! better at understanding spoken word rather than written i have realised!  i forgot, the other thing we said we'd do for next week was each draw/write/whatever, some kind of plan for how you might visualize or see the space looking when we have finished. obviously no‐one knows and we've all got totally diffferent ideas but we thought it would be a good start to kind of pull all our ideas together?   

 Alexander Stephen Myers 22 February at 21:13 Reply To be frank, I think this is wholly unproductive!  I understand that we all have different working practices, but it seems to me that we are moving AWAY from productivity, rather than towards it, with this discussion.  We have ideas already, I'm seeing no benefit in attempting to classify or reclassify them ‐ the hive mind aspect will come into play when we choose one as a group and then discuss ways to resolve it.   Ideas based practice is almost wholly alien to me in the first place ‐ normally I just do something then rationalize it (or not) later ‐ but this, at least, seems like a more sensible method of approach than comparing the ideas we have to animals (?!?!). All we get from that activity is loads of ideas with animal names, which is all well and good, but it doesn't really fill a room!  How about we put all the ideas into a hat ‐ with animal pictures on, if you like ‐ and choose some at random. We then delegate one of these ideas to each person in the group, who has to produce some resolution (whether they like the idea or not!) by a set date. These resolutions can then get talked about in a group discussion/argument.   

 Joe Collins 23 February at 07:57 i think i'm getting it now. how about we systematically and collectively make all of the concepts ‐ 6 workers and only 30 concepts with just under two weeks is easily achievable. this will certainly, and if not can easily, be tailored to filling the room appropriately! down with the animals, up with material production! SWARM DE‐CENTRED MODEL HIVE MIND   

 Alexander Stephen Myers 24 February at 00:37 Reply yeah I like that, we could collectively make a response to every suggestion.   

 Katie Hare 

                 

[BLANK]           

24 February at 07:47 Reply yeah sounds good, i have booked a project space for us to work in on thursday. PROJECT SPACE 6 in 4D STUDIO G01 at 10.30 THURSDAY   

 Joe Collins 26 February at 19:19 SWARM GROUP ‐ production and connections  With one week to go until we present ourselves and the work, we have today been extremely progressive and productive. it was a challenge but there was strong commitment and collective awareness. although absent members were not present with us in body they were represented and appreciated by the rest of the team.  after rigorous debate we unanimously settled on 'connecting' and relating all the concepts with each other and keeping true to the swarm model. this relational process spontaneously formed 6 themes that have and continue to underpin our decentralised group ‐ in all its many forms!  we decided that each member will respond to one of these 6 themes (in relation to the swarm group), which we have specifically allocated according to our individual dispositions (see below). these responses will produce work that will then be collectively archived and curated. ‐‐ we plan to meet next Wednesday and Thursday at 10.30 (Friday presentation) (*sorry if the text is dense or 'unclear' please clarify or interpret any areas on behalf of the swarm group)    

 Joe Collins 26 February at 19:19 ALEX ** 'music' ‐ social, collective, relational connotations of music and its use for enhancing a situation. ~ conceptual facilitators: ‐alex 4 & 6  4. I'm composing a piece of music made entirely from sounds in the sculpture studio, and also composing another piece of music made with a single recording of the word fuck. 6. I'm also composing a piece of music for a bike video, and this has given me the idea to start making nonsensical videos and then writing beautiful moody soundtracks to make them better. katie 1 & 2 1. I would like to look in depth at the world of classical music, particularly that of teenagers and young people involved in the classical music scene as it’s not that common for young people to be as interested in ‘high art’ as popular culture. Also at the way that many people drop learning a classical instrument to fit in with their peers as its not that cool. What are the ones who carry on like? Explore the idea of their social lives and hobbies outside of classical music as well as their relationships to it. 2. I would like to create a sculptural piece using recorders probably or something similar and take plaster casts of the object to make a very large amount of duplicates looking at the way that an everyday object takes on another dimension when it is in such a large number. I think something like a recorder could work well for this 

as it could serve as a sort of graveyard for something that’s really popular during childhood and gradually falls by the wayside. Copies would be non‐functional, just a sort of monument/memorial.  GABRIEL ** 'the 'fake', documentary and theatrical in an attempt to define a position'  ‐ presenting fiction and non‐proven 'facts' as fact and the individual. defining a position of/in reality. ~ conceptual facilitators: ‐‐kat 1 1. Documentary; stills from video, pics (GCP: swarm terminology) ‐‐joe 3,4 & 5 3. Squatter Interviews‐ Interview squatters about artists interviewing squatters. 4. Unaware pretexts (of the artist)‐ Richard Long Apotheosis 5. Reflexive Recording (voice and body)‐ Record body and voice in a reflexive mode ‐‐katie 4 4. Investigate the role of costume and uniform and how it can be used to change a situation or action. ‐‐gabriel 1,2 & 3 1. To do a fake documentary where we tell of a collaborative work that doesn’t exist (or rather, exists only in it’s telling to the camera). Note: One person doesn’t know what the other will say. 2. To do a real documentary about what has been done until now by the group and about the experience of actually putting a ryzomatic strategy in practice. 3. To shoot a short film which would be a reenactment of what the assessment of this work would be like, with everyone showing there work to a tutor (an actor) and talking about it.  JOE ** 'religious and political processes' ‐ individual's engagement and involvement in the strong forces of 'politics' and 'religion'. ~ conceptual facilitators: ‐‐alex 1 & 3 1. I'm taking stills from Adam curtis documentaries (i'd have a look at www.rewtube.com ‐ it's pretty excellent stuff) and photo‐merging them to create weird and slightly anatomically skewed portraits 3. I'm in the very early stages of creating an automatic rosary counter, that will hopefully recite the prayers at high speed while notching the beads along a system of cogs. ‐‐rosza 3 3. the painting ive been preparing to do has been based on looking at compositions of old masters paintings and religious situations and changing it to a version of an old scene, but corrupted into my style; ‐‐joe 1, 2 & 3 1. Experience pricing‐ Find an appropriate way of pricing experience. 2. Return of the Wicked (Ethical counter remake)‐ shift focus from ‘child witches’ to the priests and other exploiters. 3. Squatter Interviews‐ Interview squatters about artists interviewing squatters. ‐‐gabriel 5 5. to choose one idea, created by no‐one in the group‐ as if heaven sent or aleatory‐ and work everyone together on it. If ‘the centre cannot hold’, let us empty it then with a proposal that comes from no‐one, rather than having no proposals.  KAT ** 'appropriating the work of others' ‐ infiltrating ready‐made works & things with ones own idea of individuality. ~ conceptual facilitators: ‐‐kat 4 

4. Collect random, thrown away artworks, work on these ‐‐rozsa 3 3. the painting ive been preparing to do has been based on looking at compositions of old masters paintings and religious situations and changing it to a version of an old scene, but corrupted into my style; ‐‐alex 1 1. I'm taking stills from Adam curtis documentaries (i'd have a look at www.rewtube.com ‐ it's pretty excellent stuff) and photo‐merging them to create weird and slightly anatomically skewed portraits ‐‐gabriel 5 5. to choose one idea, created by no‐one in the group‐ as if heaven sent or aleatory‐ and work everyone together on it. If ‘the centre cannot hold’, let us empty it then with a proposal that comes from no‐one, rather than having no proposals.  KATIE ** 'childhood' ‐ affinity with 'the child', 'destructive' and 'constructive' / 'pure' duality. ~ conceptual facilitators ‐‐kat 2 & 5 2. “Nesting”, creating a ‘livable space’ (GCP: as a swarm) 5. Curiosity boxes, preserving childhood, memories, narratives, fact, fabulation?  ‐‐rozsa 1 & 5 1. well for ages ive been wanting to take objects ive collected which relate to my theme such as old barbies sweet wrappers etc and kind of 'chrystallise' them in resin/plastic or something, preserve them like the insect in jurassic park but to create plasic blocks with objects immersed i think id have to get a liquid that hardens, any ideas? 5. with my photography a want to do another set up shoot with a different girl who looks very underage to give undercurrents of exploitation, but i also like continuing unplanned photographs bearing in mind a sense of voyerism.  ‐‐alex 2 & 5 2. I'm rearranging the letters of swearwords to make pretty black and white pictures, then blowing them up huge and sticking them on the wall, and then hiding within the black image another swearword in reflective tape (so it's black until a light shines at it, such as a camera flash, at which point it says 'FUCK YOU', for example). 5. I will be purchasing a couple of speakers, and embedding them within cuddly toys, so that the cuddly toys will have a conversation with each other. Also, I will be having one cuddly toy reciting that really long word I played you guys ages ago. ‐‐joe 2 2. I'm rearranging the letters of swearwords to make pretty black and white pictures, then blowing them up huge and sticking them on the wall, and then hiding within the black image another swearword in reflective tape (so it's black until a light shines at it, such as a camera flash, at which point it says 'FUCK YOU', for example). ‐‐katie 1,2,3 & 5 1. I would like to look in depth at the world of classical music, particularly that of teenagers and young people involved in the classical music scene as it’s not that common for young people to be as interested in ‘high art’ as popular culture. Also at the way that many people drop learning a classical instrument to fit in with their peers as its not that cool. What are the ones who carry on like? Explore the idea of their social lives and hobbies outside of classical music as well as their relationships to it. 2. I would like to create a sculptural piece using recorders probably or something similar and take plaster casts of the object to make a very large amount of duplicates looking at the way that an everyday object takes on another dimension when it is in such a large number. I think something like a recorder could work well for this as it could serve as a sort of graveyard for something that’s really popular during childhood and gradually falls by the wayside. Copies would be non‐functional, just a sort of monument/memorial. 

3. I would like to make videos of siblings fighting‐ like physical fights/wrestling. I’m interested in the way the act of fighting takes on a new dimension when it’s with siblings. It perhaps loses some of the fear and worry of fighting with somebody, especially if the siblings are close; it’s almost like something very well rehearsed, quite natural and instinctive with perhaps a more playful feeling as people are generally more comfortable arguing or disagreeing with family than friends or strangers. 5. Look at finding examples of things in the world of which there is only one. For example, at Disneyland, Mickey Mouse only appears in one place at a certain time (like he’d never be in Paris, if he was in Florida, at the same time) Research and experiment.  ROZSA ** 'portraiture and the individual within the collective' ‐ the swarm group and its members (done in a contemporary form!). ~ conceptual facilitators: ‐‐rozsa 2,4 & 5 2. an to exhibit i wanted to experiment with lights behind the blocks. i have for a long time done sketches of people (especically asleep people) on public transport;  4. technically ive been practising my painting by doing a couple of portraits of people caught in movement/an act and i want to continue this as a sideline to create a collection of portraits.  5. with my photography a want to do another set up shoot with a different girl who looks very underage to give undercurrents of exploitation, but i also like continuing unplanned photographs bearing in mind a sense of voyerism.  ‐‐alex 1 1. I'm taking stills from Adam curtis documentaries (i'd have a look at www.rewtube.com ‐ it's pretty excellent stuff) and photo‐merging them to create weird and slightly anatomically skewed portraits   

 Katie Hare 26 February at 20:16 Reply cheers joe, will get thinking!   

 Alexander Stephen Myers 28 February at 19:54 Reply Thanks Joe, glad it's all come together.  Katie: would it be ok to borrow some of your recorders? Don't worry, they'll be fine, just going to be mounted into some kind of music‐making device.   

 Katie Hare 01 March at 09:50 Reply yeah no worries, just swing by the studio! 

HI & swarm pics Between Rozsa Farkas and You

Joe Collins 16 March at 21:42 hey rosza! - how r u? could you email me a copy of the line drawing portraits and also those photos of the group members which you took on your phone. my email address is joecollins123@googlemail.com thanks Joe xx

Rozsa Farkas Today at 00:48 ok, will do line drawings tomottow, heres fone photos, i added an old face foto of me, as there's one of each of u! xxx also, sad to c u cant make exhibition!? x

Joe Collins Today at 07:47 just sent you an email before seeing this, if you don't have copies i could come get and scan the originals? i thought it was on this month which is busy - but its not till the next so i should be able to make it! xx

Rozsa Farkas Today at 14:08 cool, going to scan and email origionals now x

  

 Rozsa Farkas 01 March at 18:35 Reply so are we meeting wed and thurs to set up/ what time?   

 Katie Hare 01 March at 19:29 Reply how about 10.30?   

 Rozsa Farkas 01 March at 20:31 Reply ok, 10.30, wednesday x   

 Rozsa Farkas 01 March at 20:32 Reply and thurs my sweet xxxx   

 Katie Hare 01 March at 22:23 Reply yes yes 10.30 both days? or i guess we see how we go wednesday! x   

 Joe Collins 03 March at 18:24 

kat pointed out that there will be a meeting tomorrow about equipment needed for the presentation ‐ in room 802 at 1030. so far we have: 1. recording of our experience with the dismantling/stripping of the ball painting 2.the exploration and recording of the studios 3. sound recording of debate about concepts 4. gabriel's video response to 'the fake, documentary and theatrical' potentially then 3 monitors with dvd players and one sound system with cd player.  is there anything else?  

swarm project ‐ member support Between Kat. B. Heggebø and You   

 Joe Collins 01 March at 08:16 hi kat, got your text. basically what we decided to do with the concepts was to categorise them according to thematic links or relations to each other. we ended up with 6 themes (coincidently 1 for each person) so we then made the themes into a kind of brief or assignment‐ with a title, short description and conceptual facilitators (or references, concepts to be responded to). each of us will respond to our theme ( the themes can be seen as aspects or characteristics of the swarm group and our activity).the material generated from the responses plus the other stuff we've already got will then be collectively curated on wednesday and thurseday. feel free to respond in a way that suits you and is on behalf of the swarm group.  peace be with you xx   

 Joe Collins 03 March at 21:07 okay, i've been thinking hard about linking your individual disposition and practice, swarm theme, how you identify yourself with the group and the movement of the swarm. i want to propose and put forward ‐on behalf of the swarm group‐ a modified theme for you that is more in harmony with progressing and focussing on both your practice and the SWARM: the theme of 'appropriating the work of others' needs be also related to katie's theme of 'childhood'. i have worked out a detailed plan that will bring these two themes together to give you a clear idea of what form this will take. the plan is to create a children's book about the swarm group's work (including its activities/experiences). you need to choose or 'collect' whichever concepts from the 30 concepts that will be appropriate for a children's story about The Swarm. the concepts, work, swarm experiences you choose need to be taken and woven into a children's narrative that is personal to you but this should not be explicit to the swarm group. i will help with finding out about what all the work is from the group (tomorrow) and be available for consultation and practical assistance as time is now limited. also tomorrow in a meeting between you and me we will discuss how the book will be introduced or located in the swarm exhibition. kat, this is a significant work and contribution for you but also for the swarm group narrative!   xx   

 Kat. B. Heggebø 03 March at 21:26 

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brilliant, joe! we'll work on this tmrw. i've been gathering some texts about swarms, nesting etc., i'm sure we can make use of these. i've also been looking into the whole nesting thing, ‐"choosing a site where the swarm/group/colony can survive and grow for many years" ‐ or in our case, share thoughts and ideas for many weeks ;) I really want to make use of the tent... we'll discuss it tmrw! thanx again joe! u've been very helpful. looking forward to working with u and the rest of the group, i'm sure we'll have lots of fun! x   

 Kat. B. Heggebø 04 March at 21:19 hi joe! sorry about the late mssg. working on the text, have done a few sketches. i'll probably not finish any time soon, but we can have a look at it tmrw. here r the links to the texts if u wanna have a look:  http://www.nytimes.com/glogin?URI=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/13/science/13traff.html&OQ=_rQ3D2&OP=235a98b3Q2FxQ22RkxsfQ26lzfftTxT441xQ25Q25xQ25Q2BxlQ26HRnQ26RxQ25Q2Btzg66bQ51tQ20Y  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSk_ev1eZec  http://books.google.com/books?id=‐5iobWHLtAQC&pg=PA72&lpg=PA72&dq=swarm%2Bnesting&source=bl&ots=KUUCj_79rN&sig=mulc31aIurvwXo2O3SQR_iNFJ5k&hl=en&ei=SZStSfjXLOS1jAfNuK2nBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result#PPA73,M1  kat  From Ants to People, an Instinct to Swarm ‐ New York Times Source: www.nytimes.com 

 Researchers are discovering simple rules that allow thousands of animals to form a collective brain able to make decisions and move like a single organism. 

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                                                                                                              Swarm Group members:    

                     Alexander Stephen Myers, Joe Collins, Kat. B. Heggebø, Katie Hare, Rozsa Farkas                                                                           and Gabriel Tupinambá                                 

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‘Press Release’                                                                                                                          6th March 2009  

SWARM GROUP CURATORIAL PROJECT  Experimentation in collaboration and the ‘swarm model’ was the driving force for art students: Alexander Stephen Myers, Gabriel Tupinambá, Joe Collins, Kat. B. Heggebø, Katie Hare and Rozsa Farkas.  The swarm group has in spirit the great animal swarms of the natural world and in practice it attempts an ‘anarchist’ or decentralised form of involvement and production.  The dense work produced seems to embody an essence of the ryzomatic structure, the deconstructionist perspective and the ‘death of the author’ argument. A plurality of gathered and generated material has been inscribed into the depths of a small white room at the top of the art university, which is occasionally cut in half by its diagonal thoroughfare.   The space is illuminated by spotlights, a cluster of LED lights, TV monitors and a sound reactive disco light. Everything amidst this light, including the sounds and light, eerily comes across relationally. ‘Amongst other things’ there are line portraits of the individuals, a painting stripped of its balls (which themselves lie bare but colourful after having their glossy paint picked off), a handmade illustrated and metaphorized children’s narrative of the swarm group (validated by its origins in hard science) and inside a pop up tent there’s a ‘party bag’ with your name on it.  

Response to my brief + embarrassed justification of my absence. I’ve joined the group when it was already formed and working. I discussed the idea behind its structuring with Joe - the swarm model - and also the stage the group was at regarding the production of works. After this, I attended a first meeting with Joe, Kat and Katie, where we presented some concepts (we decided to work from concepts that each one would bring in because just coming up with one project would be against our swarm approach). we discussed our thoughts about the concepts and what to do with them. This meeting - and the discussion that followed in Facebook© led me then to prepare a piece of work called ‘cogito’ which was done as a response to the final briefing I received (the concepts were organised into briefs that each one had to develop something from), this is my response to the briefing I was given. My work, though surely affected by the fact that I was not around at the beginning of the group - a fact which I think entitle the group with the right to shut me off if they think I am intruding or simply not working collaboratively - is responding directly to what I see as a structural problem of working in the ‘hive mind’ model, which was a problem that I brought to the discussion at university and online. The concept of a swarm, a group of animals behaving without a leading figure, is a metaphor (because, since we are not instinct-based animals, it can only be thought of as a metaphor) for a de-centered mode of working where there is no ‘authoritarian’ figure, no central Cause guiding everyone’s work. We can find theoretical references to back this idea up in some late texts of Deleuze, Foucault and Derrida, the ryzomatic structure, the deconstructionist perspective and the ‘death of the author’ argument. But this, when put into practice, had interesting results. I refer specially to the meeting I attended: There is a basic problematic with the group's structure, since any idea which encompasses everyone is from an ‘authoritarian’ position, and thus needs to be dismissed. This happened four or five times during the meeting, and was the reason why any concept that was brought as an idea for us to do together could not be used. We sacrificed the chance to actually collaborate in something for the assurance that if we did not interfere in each other's work we would be collaborating even more! The second thing was that it made something really clear: Though the process that we decided on was based on everyone just working within their own practice mediums and ideas, what happened was that everyone’s practice was serving Joe’s idea (not only the swarm idea was his, but his current practice is based on watching and relating to other’s ways of working and works). Anyway, the way things worked is that everyone works as if we were just doing our own things, but it had the purpose of being shown together, which was the collaborative aspect of it, and it had a place within Joe’s concept, which was the Cause - unknown to many, but still. If you ask Joe, he’ll say that his practice is the relational experience which appears just by the fact that everyone is trying to work together. That means that we have addressed this exercise, and didn’t simply do our own work, and that we were under an authoritarian position. In other words, there was no ‘swarm’ or ‘de-centralization’, we just pretended there was, for the sake of Joe’s idea. This is not so much a piece of writing meant to expose or clarify what we did - since I'm sure that it will be read before anything else as a piece of our group's work - but I wrote it with the secondary intention of contributing to the understanding of how most practices within our university tend to be more authoritarian and centred than the type of structure that they try to avoid. The video work I did was a response less to the actual concept of the swarm, and more to the way that certain philosophical and theoretical concepts can be played around with beyond their use into pure rhetoric in order to justify and fill with sense the paradoxes and problems that the failure of putting into practice a ryzomatic structure (the paradox of trying to get rid of mastery). Gabriel

 

Gabriel Tupinambá

to me

Joe, this is my text for the project, would you mind checking for spelling mistakes? Tell me if you think it is confused, i wrote it kind of quickly... All the best, G -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Replythe confusing bits

joe Collins to Gabriel

seems clear enough except for the below: But this, in fact, when put into practice, it gave very interesting results. This could be seen in the meeting I attended to: First, there is the basic problematic of proposing something, a way of everyone collaborating, when any idea which encompasses everyone, and thus relies on an ‘authoritarian’ position, needs to be dismissed. - ----this seems unclear and difficult to follow -

(It is true: I am keeping my considerations to a conceptual level, but I don’t believe that what is ‘good enough for practice is good enough for theory’. It is through this motto that ideology works best. ‘Just do things’ is an imperative which asks us to disregard how we might be complicit with theoretical positions we don’t even know we are affirming.)----------- difficult to see what this is relating After some discussion regarding the concepts we brought in (since we could not choose one to work on, or it would be against the group’s idea) we decided that each one would respond to a certain configuration that we came up by comparing the ideas that we brought. This text, together with a short video work, is my response to it. ---------------first sentence seems long winded and confused, badly put together This is not so much a text meant to expose or clarify what we did, since I’m sure that its worth, if there is any, comes from being on this wall as part of Joe’s idea rather than contributing to the understanding of how certain practices based on our university are more authoritarian and centred than what they try to avoid. ---- this is a little confusing there are a few other spelling and minor mistakes which i can touch up! i'll do them in the week and then send you back the copy while you are in norway. but yeah, i think it works as best it can for your position and it will fit in to the group's work joe seems clear enough except for the below: But this, in fact, when put into practice, it gave very interesting results. This could be seen in the meeting I attended to: First, there is the basic problematic of proposing something, a way of everyone collaborating, when any idea which encompasses everyone, and thus relies on an ‘authoritarian’ position, needs to be dismissed. - ----this seems unclear and difficult to follow - But this, when put into practice, had interesting results. I refer specially to the meeting I attended to: There is a basic problematic with the group's structure, since any idea which encompasses everyone is a central idea, and thus needs to be dismissed. This happened four or five times during the meeting, and was the reason why any concept that was brought as an idea for us to do together could not be used. We sacrificed the chance to actually collaborate in something for the assurance that if we did not interfere in each other's work we would be collaborating even more! (It is true: I am keeping my considerations to a conceptual level, but I don’t believe that what is ‘good enough for practice is good enough for theory’. It is through this motto that ideology works best. ‘Just do things’ is an imperative which asks us to disregard how we might be complicit with theoretical positions we don’t even know we are affirming.)----------- difficult to see what this is relating we could take this paragraph out After some discussion regarding the concepts we brought in (since we could not choose one to work on, or it would be against the group’s idea) we decided that each one would respond to a certain configuration that we came up by comparing the ideas that we brought. This text, together with a short video work, is my response to it. ---------------first sentence seems long winded and confused, badly put together After some discussion regarding the concepts that we brought in during the discussion (we brought concepts becuase we could not simply work all on one thing), we decided to put them all together, classify them into certain configurations which had something to do which our own practices, a sort of briefing, and then respond to that with a piece of work. This text, together with a short video worl, is my response to the briefing I was given. This is not so much a text meant to expose or clarify what we did, since I’m sure that its worth, if there is any, comes from being on this wall as part of Joe’s idea rather than contributing to the understanding of how certain practices based on our university are more authoritarian and centred than what they try to avoid. This is not so much a piece of writing meant to expose or clarify what we did - since I'm sure that it will be read before anything else as a piece of our group's work - but I wrote it with the secondary, and maybe too self-referential to work, intention of contributinf to the understanding of how most practices within our university tend to be more authoritarian and centred than the type of structure that they try to avoid.

---- this is a little confusing there are a few other spelling and minor mistakes which i can touch up! i'll do them in the week and then send you back the copy while you are in norway. but yeah, i think it works as best it can for your position and it will fit in to the group's work joe Em 01/03/2009, às 20:23, joe collins escreveu: But this, in fact, when put into practice, it gave very interesting results. This could be seen in the meeting I attended to: First, there is the basic problematic of proposing something, a way of everyone collaborating, when any idea which encompasses everyone, and thus relies on an ‘authoritarian’ position, needs to be dismissed. - ---- this seems unclear and difficult to follow - what about this instead: But this, when put into practice, had interesting results. I refer specially to the meeting I attended: There is a basic problem with the group's non-hierarchical structure - ANY idea proposed comes from a centralised point, and thus needs to be dismissed to keep true. On four or five occasions during the meeting we could not commit to any one concept because of this underlying rule. We sacrificed the chance to actually collaborate on something, for keeping true to the rule. (It is true: I am keeping my considerations to a conceptual level, but I don’t believe that what is ‘good enough for practice is good enough for theory’. It is through this motto that ideology works best. ‘Just dothings’ is an imperative which asks us to disregard how we might be complicit with theoretical positions we don’t even know we are affirming.)----------- difficult to see what this is relating we could take this paragraph out-----------------------i like the reflexive nature of it but and the last sentence - you could elucidate or reconfigure After some discussion regarding the concepts we brought in (since we could not choose one to work on, or it would be against the group’s idea) we decided that each one would respond to a certain configuration that we came up by comparing the ideas that we brought. This text, together with a short video work, is my response to it. ---------------first sentence seems long winded and confused, badly put together After some discussion regarding the concepts that we brought in during the discussion (we brought concepts becuase we could not simply work all on one thing), we decided to put them all together, classify them into certain configurations which had something to do which our own practices, a sort of briefing, and then respond to that with a piece of work. This text, together with a short video worl, is my response to the briefing I was given. ----------this is also confused and the repeating the above - it could be succinct - it's to long This is not so much a text meant to expose or clarify what we did, since I’m sure that its worth, if there is any, comes from being on this wall as part of Joe’s idea rather than contributing to the understanding of how certain practices based on our university are more authoritarian and centred than what they try to avoid. This is not so much a piece of writing meant to expose or clarify what we did - since I'm sure that it will be read before anything else as a piece of our group's work - but I wrote it with the secondary, and maybe too self-referential to work, intention of contributinf to the understanding of how most practices within our university tend to be more authoritarian and centred than the type of structure that they try to avoid. ---------instead of read what about contextualised or interpreted and leaving this out: and maybe too self-referential to work, Em 01/03/2009, às 20:23, joe collins escreveu: But this, in fact, when put into practice, it gave very interesting results. This could be seen in the meeting I attended to: First, there is the basic problematic of proposing something, a way of everyone collaborating, when any idea which encompasses everyone, and thus relies on an ‘authoritarian’ position, needs to be dismissed. - ----this seems unclear and difficult to follow - what about this instead: But this, when put into practice, had interesting results. I refer specially to the meeting I attended: There is a basic problem with the group's non-hierarchical structure - ANY idea proposed comes from a centralised point, and thus needs to be dismissed to keep true. On four or five occasions during the meeting we could not commit to any one concept because of this underlying rule. We sacrificed the chance to actually collaborate on something, for keeping true to the rule. I prefer if you keep it as it was....its difficult to follow more because of ideological differences than syntax i guess (It is true: I am keeping my considerations to a conceptual level, but I don’t believe that what is ‘good enough for practice is good

enough for theory’. It is through this motto that ideology works best. ‘Just do things’ is an imperative which asks us to disregard how we might be complicit with theoretical positions we don’t even know we are affirming.)----------- difficult to see what this is relating we could take this paragraph out-----------------------i like the reflexive nature of it but and the last sentence - you could elucidate or reconfigure no, leave it out...if people dont know this yet, is not a paragraph in a stupid student's text that will clarify it.... After some discussion regarding the concepts we brought in (since we could not choose one to work on, or it would be against the group’s idea) we decided that each one would respond to a certain configuration that we came up by comparing the ideas that we brought. This text, together with a short video work, is my response to it. ---------------first sentence seems long winded and confused, badly put together After some discussion regarding the concepts that we brought in during the discussion (we brought concepts becuase we could not simply work all on one thing), we decided to put them all together, classify them into certain configurations which had something to do which our own practices, a sort of briefing, and then respond to that with a piece of work. This text, together with a short video worl, is my response to the briefing I was given. ----------this is also confused and the repeating the above - it could be succinct - it's to long i agree: how about: After bringing in concepts (we decided to work from concepts that each one would bring because just coming up with one project would be against our swarm approach), we organised them into briefs that each one had to develop something from. This is my response to the briefing I was given. This is not so much a text meant to expose or clarify what we did, since I’m sure that its worth, if there is any, comes from being on this wall as part of Joe’s idea rather than contributing to the understanding of how certain practices based on our university are more authoritarian and centred than what they try to avoid. This is not so much a piece of writing meant to expose or clarify what we did - since I'm sure that it will be read before anything else as a piece of our group's work - but I wrote it with the secondary, and maybe too self-referential to work, intention of contributinf to the understanding of how most practices within our university tend to be more authoritarian and centred than the type of structure that they try to avoid. ---------instead of read what about contextualised or interpreted and leaving this out: and maybe too self-referential to work, no, read is better....and i agree with taking the second part out. Thanks for helping me out!

 

 Exhibition opening and critique