We are a London-based group of current or ex interns, mainly from the creative and cultural sectors, who regularly meets to think together around the conditions of free labour in contemporary societies.
We are currently undertaking a participatory action research around voluntary work, internship, job placements and compulsory free work in order to understand thier impact they have on material conditions of existence, life expectations and sense of self, together with their implications in relation to education, life long training, exploitation, and class interest.
In September of 2003 in Ljubljana, Slovenia, English-speaking U.S. artists Deidre Hoguet and Peter Walsh created a series of street actions that focused on the relationship between languages and power. The project featured 13 separate performances, with each artist interacting directly with hundreds of people, a gallery exhibition at P74, artist lectures and two public discussions (one at the 16 Beaver Group in Manhattan and a second in Ljubljana). The English word “tongue” and the Slovenian word “jezik” can both – with slightly different connotations – mean either language or the actual tongue in your mouth.
With the collective help of the citizens of Ljubljana, Peter Walsh attempted the impossible: learning to speak and write Slovene in just three weeks (photo gallery).
Kits for an Encounter is an exhibition that examines artists’ kits that instigate or trouble the notion of a (social) encounter. Providing the equipment needed to initiate a situation, kits can be characterized by their promissory quality, embodying potential and containing the possibility for transformation. ‘Wearable Mosque’ by Azra Aksamija unfolds from a fashionable women’s semi-formal wear into a minimal mosque which the artist-architect spatio-temporally demarcates as a prayer rug for two, head covering, compass, and prayer beads. Aksamija, born in Sarajevo and living between Austria, Bosnia, and the United States, comments that the wearable mosque “explores various ways of negotiating spatial relationships between Islamic traditions and modernity in the US and Western Europe.” An allegory about the impossible fulfillment of an imagined identity, Noam Toran’s ‘Objects for Lonely Men’ is a film that depicts a male protagonist vaguely resembling Jean Paul Belmondo’s character in Godard’s 196o film classic “Breathless (Au bout de Souffle).” Both likeness and difference is heightened as the protagonist interacts with a kit whose components, a steering wheel, mannequin head, dinner, cigarettes, allow him to simulate the filmic narrative from the comfort of his living room.
Many kits provide the sculptural and performative components needed to frame a social encounter, functioning as the control to unforeseen variables. Lize Mogel’s ‘Public Park: Personal Planning Kit’ contains instructions and signage so that any denizen can turn their private property (from a parking space to a front lawn) into public space. Judi Werthein’s ‘Brinco’ is an athletic sneaker equipped with a flashlight, compass, painkillers to enable those illegally crossing the US-Mexico border. Sold at a hop boutique shoe store or to art collectors, the proceeds support the free distribution of the ‘crossing trainers’ to border crossers.
By implying a situation, many kits either invite, enable, question, or obviate the future. Limor Fried’s ‘Minty MP3′, a portable listening device made from simple electronic parts and an empty Altoid mint case, presents a $50 do-it-yourself alternative to an iPod that questions the relationship between fetish and access. Janice Kerbel’s Deadstar (2006) is a city plan for a ghost town with all the necessary information for its realisation. Replete with topographic and geological data, water, vegetation and buildings, the city plans prominently feature the graveyard. With neither roads nor hospitals, the city is an area so poorly planned for human living that it is doomed to die before it’s been built. Vahida Ramujkic’s ‘Assimil’ is a text book whose exercises and lesson plans ‘teach’ non-European Union citizens how to properly enter and assimilate into the EU.
byproduct examines artist’s projects whose artfulness lies in building micro-worlds within other non- artworld systems. While parasitically reliant on the socioeconomic structure and symbolic order of other dominant systems, these artworks or “byproducts” — exploit loopholes, surpluses, and exceptions in order to affirm individual agency and complicate the mechanisms of their dominant “host.” As pivots or turning points between art and other sectors, these works function as carriers for meaning across disciplines.
While responding to 20th century precedents that investigate the relationship between artists and industry, ‘Byproducts’ suggests these outlines and vocabulary for evaluating relevant analytic criteria such as the outcome, duration, retention of a critical voice, assimilation or reconciliation, etc. As a book responding to the emergent genre of ‘interventionism’ in contemporary artists’ practices, byproducts shifts focus away from the artist’s singular, anarchic gesture and instead towards the integration of art into everyday life.
PieLab, an initiative of Project M, is focused on community development and engagement in Hale County, AL.
PieLab is a welcoming community space on Greensboro’s Main Street that provides delicious pie and coffee, as well as retail and hospitality job training for local youth through the YouthBuild Program. More than simply a pie shop, PieLab operates as a community design center focusing on community development projects and small business incubation in Greensboro and the surrounding five counties.
Open Engagement is a three-day conference that is an initiative of the Portland State University Art and Social Practice concentration and co-sponsored by Pacific Northwest College of Art and Portland Community College. Directed by Jen Delos Reyes and Harrell Fletcher and planned in conjunction with the Portland State University MFA Monday Night Lecture Series, this conference features three nationally and internationally renowned artists: Mark Dion, Amy Franceschini and Nils Norman. The conference will showcase work by Temporary Services, InCUBATE, and a new project by Mark Dion created in collaboration with the PSU Art and Social Practice concentration.
Dutch Artistic Research Event: DARE # 4, September 4 – September 13.
In recent years the term spatial practice has been established as a term to describe new forms of interdisciplinary (research) practices that are responding to the rapid transformations of the contemporary city and the politics of territorial relations. This symposium both describes the critical analysis of spatial relations, and various forms of interventionist strategies that are being devised by architects, artists, designers, urbanists and curators. During 2006 MaHKU (The Utrecht Graduate School of Visual Art and Design/Professorship Artistic Research) initiated a series of research activities resulting in an annual manifestation named Dutch Artistic Research Event (DARE). The fourth edition of this event will take place from September 4 – September 13. Five locations in the city of Utrecht – Academiegalerie, Aorta, Centraal Museum, Dutch Design Center, Studio Hoograven – will not only be platforms for graduate presentations, but will also offer room for research-screenings and parallel panel discussions.
slowLab is an emerging organization based in New York City and with activities worldwide. The mission of the organization is to promote ’slowness’ or what we call ’slow design’ as a positive catalyst of individual, socio-cultural and environmental well-being, engaging the innate creative capacities of individuals and leveraging the collaborative potential of communities to spur networks of cooperation that incite new thinking and approaches.
To achieve this, slowLab has initiated and is growing a network of creative, civic-minded individuals from all areas of the general public to exchange ideas and resources, share knowledge and cooperatively develop projects that positively impact the lives of individuals, the communities they participate in and the planet that we share.
slowLab’s current and future programs include public lectures, discussions and exhibitions, a dynamic online project observatory and communication portal, academic programs and publishing projects. Our objective is to reach a wide spectrum of disciplines and communities, enabling slowLab’s more holistic approach to take root and grow among the national and international public.
Neighborhood Art on Wheels exists to help communities and students utilize artistic interventions with the use of bike-mobilized media disseminators to solve problems, address issues and create connections between people. See to the left, Art on Wheels was invited to project on the Wiseman Art Museum as a part of the unconventional.
In the spirit of the event we found young artist to air their voices in the University of Minnesota’s 1601 introduction to time and interactivity class. The content for this projection came from the question how do you feel about the future of the U.S.
The sponsor of this project CURA The Center for Urban and Regional Affairs at the University of Minnesota. Visit this amazing NPR resource as well here.
The Philadelphia Institute for Advanced Studies is managed by enlightened despots, Brandon Joyce, and Richard Davis.
A Sampling of courses offered through PIFAS:
Department of Architecture | The Institute proudly claims a tradition of non-traditional architectural thinking. This past fall, the Institute hosted a series of events and projects, for the most part organized by chairperson Melissa Frost.
Acoustic Research | The Department of Acoustic Research combines the wildly experimental spirit of the Institute with an illustrative, project-based approach to the discipline of Psychoacoustics.
Biological Studies | A community program set up to explore cross sections of the biosphere from different angles. Each series will have discussions led by experts in the field, along with group discussions and group research to be presented.
We are a London-based group of current or ex interns, mainly from the creative and cultural sectors, who regularly meets to think together around the conditions of free labour in contemporary societies.
In September of 2003 in Ljubljana, Slovenia, English-speaking U.S. artists Deidre Hoguet and Peter Walsh created a series of street actions that focused on the relationship between languages and power. The project featured 13 separate performances, with each artist interacting directly with hundreds of people, a gallery exhibition at P74, artist lectures and two public discussions (one at the 16 Beaver Group in Manhattan and a second in Ljubljana). The English word “tongue” and the Slovenian word “jezik” can both – with slightly different connotations – mean either language or the actual tongue in your mouth.
Kits for an Encounter is an exhibition that examines artists’ kits that instigate or trouble the notion of a (social) encounter. Providing the equipment needed to initiate a situation, kits can be characterized by their promissory quality, embodying potential and containing the possibility for transformation. ‘Wearable Mosque’ by Azra Aksamija unfolds from a fashionable women’s semi-formal wear into a minimal mosque which the artist-architect spatio-temporally demarcates as a prayer rug for two, head covering, compass, and prayer beads. Aksamija, born in Sarajevo and living between Austria, Bosnia, and the United States, comments that the wearable mosque “explores various ways of negotiating spatial relationships between Islamic traditions and modernity in the US and Western Europe.” An allegory about the impossible fulfillment of an imagined identity, Noam Toran’s ‘Objects for Lonely Men’ is a film that depicts a male protagonist vaguely resembling Jean Paul Belmondo’s character in Godard’s 196o film classic “Breathless (Au bout de Souffle).” Both likeness and difference is heightened as the protagonist interacts with a kit whose components, a steering wheel, mannequin head, dinner, cigarettes, allow him to simulate the filmic narrative from the comfort of his living room. 
byproduct examines artist’s projects whose artfulness lies in building micro-worlds within other non- artworld systems. While parasitically reliant on the socioeconomic structure and symbolic order of other dominant systems, these artworks or “byproducts” — exploit loopholes, surpluses, and exceptions in order to affirm individual agency and complicate the mechanisms of their dominant “host.” As pivots or turning points between art and other sectors, these works function as carriers for meaning across disciplines. 
