[artinfo] [transform] herbst academy at steirischer herbst festival 21/09 - 15/10/06

Thu Jul 6 00:24:09 CEST 2006

herbst academy: Nothing but control
steirischer herbst, Graz/Austria
21/09 - 15/10/06

Invitation

In the context of the international 
multidisciplinary festival sterischer herbst 2006 
two workshops and a herbstCamp for young, 
international artists and theorists will form a 
kind of backbone of the festival. The workshops 
follow the underlying leitmotifs of the festival 
that revolve around questions of control, 
participation, collaboration and open source.
The art of control  central to all forms of 
society  assumes different guises in different 
geographies, cultures, political systems and 
situations. Who controls, what is the effect of 
control, how is it avoided or necessarily 
required, these are aspects that are 
investigated, visualised and reviewed in a 
playing field research. Because politics and 
economy are no longer divisible today, one 
question that arises is that of models of society 
and relationships that depart from the idea that 
people can be modelled completely on the economy. 
Participation and collaboration are the buzzwords 
used to discuss the interplay between the 
controlled calculation and subversive 
uncontrollability of society. The theoretical 
field covers considerations of the critical art 
and net scene, the open source movement, 
aesthetic approaches and analyses of 
governmentality studies, that  following the 
French philosopher Michel Foucault  proceed on 
the premise that rule often exists in a strange 
alliance with those being ruled, which is why 
self-rules and foreign rules are often indivisible.

Application deadline is on 15/07/2006.

23/09  29/09/2006
Workshop I
When the skin is faster than the word (Brian Massumi)
On the politics of aesthetics

One of the effects of the 1990s on performance 
and choreography in Europe is the end of 
post-structuralist criticism, which avoided 
modern concepts such as authorship, spectatorship 
and modes of production. From a global 
standpoint, power mechanisms no longer work as 
ideologies but rather in the sense of affective 
processes that are the condition of the late 
capitalist system, writes Brian Massumi. In other 
words: the politics of aesthetics no longer 
consists in the fact that cunning concepts aim at 
deconstructing dominant social fictions, but 
rather in the artistic power to reshape the order 
of sensation and perception. This workshop offers 
the opportunity to reconceive performance and 
choreography with regard to aesthetics and 
politics  to be more precise, perception and 
affect  and their relation to control within 
artistic production and reception.

Organised by Bojana Cvejiæ (B/SCG)
With Mette Ingvartsen (B/DK),  Xavier Le Roy 
(D/F), Erin Manning (CAN),  Brian Massumi (CAN), 
Sergej und Nikolina Prista¹ (CRO), Jan Ritsema (B/NL)

30/09  06/10/2006
herbstCamp
Control knowledge, knowledge control, global control, self-control

Almost everything can be controlled today  so 
the question is not how surveillance takes place 
but rather to what purpose. Who has access to the 
accumulated knowledge? What is done or not done 
on the basis of this knowledge?
The aim of the camp is to create an active 
exchange on current forms of knowledge production 
and the conception of artistic/activist projects 
on current governmentality discourses: in future, 
how can we conceive critical and reflective 
actions and projects if the majority of the 
population (in the West) has long come to accept 
and assimilate the control of deviant subjects, 
and indeed readily submits to this control 
itself. In addition, the aim is to look into the 
question of access to places and goods on the 
basis of films from the Global South. We are 
interested in the control conflict revolving 
around hegemonic claims between the various 
disciplines, but also between individuals and 
institutions, between private and state players, 
between local city and administrative planners, 
between curatorial and artistic practices.
With walks, excursions, film screenings, public and closed discussions.

Organised by Jochen Becker (D), Peter Spillmann (CH) & Michael Zinganel (A)
With Ina-Maria Greverus (D), Marion von Osten 
(D), Pirate Cinema (D), Gerald Raunig (D), 
Remember Resistance (CH/D/CAM), William Walters (CAN/GB)

07/10  13/10/2006
Workshop II
Kollaboration / Collaboration
New descriptions of working together

Collaboration is one of the key concepts with 
which collectives define themselves as models of 
affective politics. Collaboration means working 
together, in this case above all in the setting 
of intellectual activities. The concept often 
describes new forms of work, on which there is 
little research or reflection. The problem is 
that collaboration is often equated with 
co-operation. Unlike co-operation, collaboration 
is seen as a complex social reality and is not 
based on a romantic conception of community. 
Paradoxical meshes of relationships offer the 
basis from which differences and controversies 
enable a productive exchange. In this respect, 
how can open-source models be transferred to 
society? This workshop investigates collaboration 
at a practical and theoretical level, discussing 
a new understanding of together with regard to working together.

Organised by Florian Schneider (D)
With Lawrence Liang (IND), Sebastian Luetgert (D) and Irit Rogoff (GB) etc.

The workshops and the herbstCamp are limited to 
approx. 20 persons and the organisers will select 
the participants. The participation fee for 
workshop I and II is 200 Euro (reduced 150 Euro) 
each. For both workshops five grants are offered 
that can be applied for. As the herbstCamp is not 
a workshop, which means that there is much more active presentation
of own works by the participants desired, the participation is free.

Registrants may participate more than one of the 
events. The spoken language will be English.

For detailed information and registration 
modalities please visit 
<<http://www.steirischerherbst.at/2006i/english/projects/herbst_akademie.php>http://www.steirischerherbst.at/2006i/english/projects/herbst_akademie.php> 