Calendars:Networked Media Calendar/Networked Media Calendar/30-04-2021 -Event 2

XPUB2: 10:00 - 12:00 Florian Cramer Online: day three Self-organization & autonomy in artists' experimental publishing Three-day seminar with Florian Cramer

In this seminar, we will study the "Eternal Network" of 1970s/1980s Mail Artists and DIY publishers as a historical case of a self-organized art practice and investigate what can be learned from it for contemporary art, design and experimental publishing practices. The "Eternal Network", which operated solely through the analog postal system, existed outside of - and as alternative to - curatorship, art criticism, art institutions and creative industries, as a radically inclusive, participatory and self-organized/autonomous system. Yet it was struggling with similar issues as self-organized and networked practices today. We will spend one session to historically study the "Eternal Network" and two sessions to apply critical insights on its achievements and shortcomings on our own practice.

For preparation, please read Ulises Carrión's Essay "Mail Art and the Big Monster" in his book Second Thoughts, Amsterdam: VOID Distributors, 1980, p. 38-46, https://monoskop.org/images/4/4e/Carrion_Ulises_Second_Thoughts.pdf and Wikipedia's useful article on Mail Art: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail_art (whose only blatant omission is the Canadian artist collective General Idea).

- This seminar is a satellite of the ongoing WdKA research project Autonomy Lab which investigates new concepts of autonomy in today's arts practices. It will principally take place on Jitsi - https://meet.jit.si/AutonomyLab -, but can be shifted to any alternative environment that participants may suggest.

Friday, April 30th, 10.00-12.00 Takeaways Depending on the course and dynamics of our previous discussions, our last session can be an open-ended discussion or workshop on autonomy, self-organisation, apparatuses and self-critique, and/or a re-reading of Carrión's essay. Optionally, we might bring in a guest.