An excerpt from networked_performance: new questions:
“And shouldn’t we be cautious when using language that still contains the outlines of earlier understanding to grasp today’s activities? Say the word performance and tell me you don’t immediately sense the centrality of the artist-actor?”
This is one of the many questions posed in a lucid blog post by Helen Thorington. It is a must-read provocation.
Yesterday was the “make-up” session of the arts critical writing dialogue over at gallery momo. Pictured is Pitso Chinzima, speaking to a crowd of about 50 artists, writers and art appreciators; the two other speakers were Kathryn Smith and Sipho Mdanda (Colin Richards sent his apologies, along with a slew of quotes to use if anyone got bored, or the conversation lulled; that never happened).
Of course, the conversation degraded to issues of transformation, accessibility and privilege, but when we managed to stay on topic, some interesting questions came up (not that these aren’t important issues as well, but conversations about critical writing in SA are much harder to come by). Questions like: what are the textual resources easily available to the general public? Where can we publish to get seen more? Why, if there are so many complaints about no dialogue, do so few emerging/black artists show up to events like this? (This last question had to, of course, be posed by a person of color - thanks to Monna for hitting on it.)
I had to laugh at some point when there was a bit of a “we have it worse” debate. An artist said a musician can put out a CD to be heard. The writer said the artist can hang their work on a wall, but he needs to be published…. and so on. As a musician, an artist and a writer, I think this is all rubbish. I want to play live music, and I don’t care about (nor can I afford to press) a CD; as an artist, my work does not hang on a wall; as a writer, I just need a bloody blog. I offered my services of hooking all the cats up with blogger accounts, but nobody seemed to hear me. Hmmmmmm. Life is so hard.
The conversation got more interesting when Kathryn Smith and Zingi Mkefa (who write for the Mail and Guardian, and THISDAY, respectively) started asking questions like what languages, besides English, should we be having these discussions in (Xhosa was offered as a possibility)? Where, besides expensive publications like Art South Africa (not to say these aren’t extremely valuable), do we need to see articles that hit the hard topics in contemporary art, if we want to reach wider audiences? What kind of language should we be using then?
But on the blogging note, I’ve come full circle back to my idea for at.Joburg (Art and Technology, Johannesburg - was gonna be something like the Dublin Art and Technology Association). Maybe it need not be limited to art and tech? Maybe it need not be physically live, but can be online - after all, we already have the digital soiree on Fridays at Wits.
Why not have some combination of a public blog, and a South African art wiki? The blog would be for posts of events, ideas, collaborations, etc (a public version of artthrob’s exchange page, but with a few more features). The wiki could be a place for projects, artists and spaces - obviously, this is vague, but the whole point of a wiki is that it’s self organizing, right? Do you think people would use it? Are you interested in helping me try this out? If so, please call me.
If you don’t know what a wiki is, by the by (I’ve recently noted that a lot of South Africans don’t even know what a blog is, much less a wiki), here is a quick and easy wiki definition, with a link to wiki history.
And while we’re on the subject of critical writing and wikis, many2many has a great post about some debates surrounding the evolution and importance of wikis. The most lucid part of the article is an ongoing email battle between my old college buddy (from techdirt) Mike Masnick (we used to be radio DJs together! Ha!) and a reporter/librarian who trashed wikipedia (a wiki encycopedia that allows the masses to self-edit), without having ever tried it - it’s actually an amazingly valuable resource….
And the promised Bush criticism (while we are on the subject of connoted anarchic -aka, supposedly chaotic- education systems): it seems that we now have officers equipped with super-speed, live streaming web cams to “protect us” from “anarchists” in NYC (read: arrest war dissenting citizens who are clued up on how the US is becoming closer and closer to South Africa during the state of emergency). The Feature has the robocop article already online, and Nicole and I know someone (from over here in Jozi!) who has been harassed by non-uniformed federal agents, who said he had no rights, and came to his home to implement fear tactics.
On that (final) note, Joy Garnett, on NEWSgrist, tells us how over 250 bikers, and (while being filmed/interviewed by Ron Reagan) Bikes Against Bush founder, Josh Kinberg, were all arrested this weekend….
SCARY
Yesterday, I gave one of my famous all-day performance poetry workshops - this time at the University of Pretoria’s main campus, to/with around 20 or so poets and students. I think this had to be one of the most prolific, enthusiastic and inspired groups I’ve yet had the pleasure of facilitating. And to end on a high note, it seems like my dream of bringing a South African slam team over to the US nationals might finally take shape; 3 of the more outgoing poets have decided to try and spearhead getting a registered slam venue up and running in P-town. Yours truly may act as the team ‘coach’ / slammaster. Rock on.
Here’s a pic of some of my MA students (Colleen Alborough, Sue Van Zyl and Nick Nesbitt, respectively) from the Wits Digital Media MA. Today, we had a great crit session (the first of many!) leading up to their final exhibition (some time in December or January). I actually just had the final one-on-one with Elmi Dixon; it seems we’ll have some great projects ranging in input from video and motion, to pin wheels and open doors, and output from multitrack sound to water waves and lights with prisms. I’m very excited about how the students are beginning to use interaction as their concept base, rather than as just part of their core methodology. Emotion, security, anxiety, etc, can now be performed in the gallery space by viewers, and that is what they are striving to achieve.
And speaking of alternative forms of input, I had a great chat with Ralph Borland this morning - the owner of physicalcomputing.org, future home of a resource and highlight site that focuses on p-comp projects and innovators in the third world. Shut off your pop-up blocker and go here if you want to know more about Ralph’s work. Recently, he’s been working on BS2 tutorials down in Cape Town, and we’re hoping to swap notes and projects when I travel there for the Kebbles in October. He’ll also have two artworks in the competition, as well as be on the set-up team; I’m looking forward to spending some time with him and seeing what he’s up to!
I’m hoping Ralph’ll also toss me some text for the networked_performance blog, as his work is fine and his theory is on point. Him’s got good words…. Speaking of, where are all the Southern Africans who want to be involved? Please, contact me if you have a project, some feedback, or a rant you’d like me to post from you on that site!
Today (and tomorrow morning) is your last chance to check out work by Pitso Chinzima (work pictured), Marco Cianfanelli, Johannes Phoklea, Ian Waldeck, Roger Botembe and Karin Dando at Gallery Momo - tomorrow night, a solo show by Diana Kortbeek, a Dutch sculptor and painter, will start up there. This is actually not curated by Monna, but a charity show.
I know I’ve been not posting much on the political spectrum lately, but it was interesting to finally see Dick Cheney speak about his views on same sex partnerships, which very obviously differ from those of the US president.
Did you know that momo means peach in Japanese?
For those religious readers of my blog (ha!), you all know that Hirschowitz Flionis Attorneys and Conveyances is the worst place in the entire world. You are better off locking yourself in a room for 9 months, with a window just large enough for you to throw your money out of it, than you are dealing with Dunn Hirschowitz. He is the worst thing ever.
However, the light at the end of the tunnel seems to have been right around the corner all along. Roy Bregman promises a free first consultation, where he’ll be ‘easy to talk to and sympathetic’ and he goes on to ‘promise an honest and frank assessment of your case.’
He gave us more than that. Patient, honest and kind (what you don’t expect from a lawyer), while extremely knowledgeable; I trust him - both with our security, and our case. If you need a lawyer in the Johannesburg area, I can’t stress enough how awful Dunn Hirschowitz of Hirschowitz Flionis Attorneys and Conveyances is (that one is for the search engines) and how great Roy Bregman of Bregman Mitchley Attorneys is.
This has been a public service announcement ;)
Since last we spoke, I’ve mostly been working on editing some old video footage so that I can finally finish the odys series - started in 2001! This is to be part of my upcoming solo show at the JAG, but you can bet I’ll put some clips online for your viewing pleasure.
On Friday, I checked out Konrad Welz’ talk at the Wits Digital Soiree. The video ranged from beautiful (in a formalistic sense - most of his recent work) to rancid (gross video feedback from the 80s), and I agreed with nearly everything Konrad had to say about working with video and sound (I even took some of his offhand advice about sound work with my current project); I just hated the way he said it….
I’m not a big fan of using misunderstood pop science for artist statements (er, justifications?), nor am I impressed with artists who say the obvious as if those they are speaking to have never thought of it. Opinions thrown into the mix as fact also tend to piss me off. Perhaps Konrad is naive, or perhaps he thinks everyone else is dumb, but I think he should leave selling his work and ideas to the critics, cuz I liked the presentation best when he wasn’t talking.
