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Call
for papers, proposals & contributions
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initiative & institution
an exhibition, a series of talks and events, a symposium, a publication.
Organised by Celine Condorelli from support
structure with public works
Department of Architecture and Spatial Design,
London Metropolitan University, 07.02.08 to 31.03.08
symposium 07 and 08.03.08
Photo: taxinge plaza, stockholm, International
Festival 2006
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Initiatives rely on action, and a readiness to embark on bold new ventures;
their language is one of spontaneity and temporariness, enthusiasm and
emancipation. Creative initiatives sometimes strive towards institutionalization
and therefore the crossing of boundaries towards an appearance of continuity
and permanence. What constitutes the shift between initiative and institution?
How does and why should an initiative become an institution? And in turn
how can institutions nurture and support initiatives?
Initiative & Institution is a conference as publication, a series
of events as exhibition, about the creation, implications and possibilities
of self-initiated social and spatial projects.
‘Initiative and institution’ seeks to negotiate the possibilities
of the spatial/architectural/artistic endeavor as a political positioning.
Grounded in self-organization, initiatives offer alternatives to predominant
models of art or architecture as service, allowing ways of imagining the
transformations of context, the organization of emergent social arrangements
and the construction of new institutional forms. The series will investigate
potential directions and methodologies for action, by discussing different
histories of knowledge, means and reference projects, discussions and
failures.
Organisers
‘Initiative and institution’ is organised by Celine Condorelli
(support structure) and Andreas Lang (public works) and hosted with/by
London Metropolitan University; a publication will be used as archive
and manual for the event series and conference, and will be compiled in
parallel to the events as an open process in the gallery. All the events
and the symposium are intended to be discursive and to include work in
progress; they will be relatively informal and do not have keynotes or
conference dinners. They are also attended by students.
initiative
& institution
Contributions are invited on a number of issues and areas:
Desire and motivation:
What is the motivation for self-organized politically engaged projects?
What is the set-up needed for engaging or starting to engage in such processes?
Who are the actors in the setting up of incentives, and how are strategic
implementations designed? Are they works in themselves?
Emancipation and dependency:
Can initiatives only be created outside the institutions that shape our
environment? Are these models emancipatory? Culture, politics and economy
can be both tool and content, object and site of artistic practice. They
are creative and interpretive practices; a production which takes the
form, among others, of negotiated relations between discourses and practices,
between politics and culture.
Production and temporariness:
How do we set up productive models for a shared authorship of the environment
without undermining the potential of expertise? how can we imagine implementing
participatory models beyond private space towards the public sphere? which
systems can we imagine to allow a decision making process which more directly
or comprehensibly would affect the public sphere through local public
incentive?
Blindness and process:
the nature of participatory process means that their qualities are largely
invisible, or do not manifest themselves as only physical, for example
they are not embodied by a building alone. How can we recognize them and
evaluate them, what are the means to assess their success or process?
Negotiation and fragility:
an initiative allows the posing, exposing and revising questions in relationship
to its context and how to operate within it. Initiatives and Institutions
are about negotiation, not the application of principle but conversations
towards something that is not finally defined.
Contributions
Please send a short abstract or proposal description including an image
(no more than 1 A4), by 14 january 2008 to:
Celine Condorelli: celine@supportstructure.org. We are interested in as
wide an approach to the theme as possible. Different formats for submissions
are encouraged; they can include text, image, video, performance, objects,
installations and any combinations of the above.
All the events will be open to the public and free of charge.
It is the intention to publish a journal/publication, as an edited documentation
and manual of the contributions, presentations and any projects which
may take place during the initiative & institution exhibition/event.
Timetable
Abstract/proposal submission deadline: 14.01.08
Responses to abstract will be sent by 21.01.08
Full papers / contributions/interventions due 07.03.08
Publication deadline for all material 13.03.08
Click here to download a pdf copy of the call for contributions.
www.asd-realtime.org/initiative-institution/
initiative &institution
Gallery,
Department
of Architecture and Spatial Design,
London Metropolitan University,
Spring House 40 - 44 Holloway rd
London N7 8JL