My thanks go to Trebor Scholz and Geerd Lovink for this rich weekend, and to Dorothee Gestrich and the staff for the work they did. That was my first conference on an US-American campus and I have to admit that, initially, I had some problems with that kind of self-organisation required there. You may read my complaint as airs and graces of an old Rockstar – sorry for that.
The Free Academic Supermodel
To review the parts of the conference »freecooperation« which I was able to attend – because some parts unfortunately ran simultaneously in four branches – I would like to emphazise the moment when I (as well as the whole audience) invited to inscribe the naked body of »VENDETTA The Academic Supermodel Part II« (Katrien Jacobs, assisted by Eugene Tan, Maurice Methot). After I crossed the threshold of gendered spaces – viewing the naked female body in the public sphere of the conference – I suddenly realized the matrix of terms shining through the bare female skin constructed in the performance: On the left breast I enjoyed to re-write »Interests«, on the right »Priorities«, in the middle »Free«, whereas above the navel »Intentions«; between all that I re-draw a questionmark as the basic energy which keeps the relations between the terms running.
This reminded me metaphorically of the eight breasts of truth as sources for different anarchistic movements at the end of the 19th century how they are formulated in the exhibition on the Monte Veritas in Ascona/Switzerland.
While the Supermodel-performer rubbed her body painfully clean from the texts which were recognized and inscripted by the audience, I thought that this performed body was materialising a substantial process of this conference: The lecturer offers her/his prepared text which goes through the collective reception process of discussion and recoding.
As I followed the terms I read on the naked skin with the pen the performer’s assistant had given me, I re-drew what I recognized from my own intellectual, academic, and intimate experiences. And I read and projected the female body with its texts on it at the same time. My perception turned out to be a combination of personal projection, set atmosphere, and performed (re)writing and reading. If we make a distinction between five performance modes in dance, acrobatics, political activism, ritual and everyday experience, the focus of »VENDETTA‘s« performance was on the last two modes emphazising the interaction of inscribing the body.
I have to admit that I was a little bit upset when the performance started. I had the feeling that through the places of presentation dispersed on the empty campus, some cancelled talks and the paralleled events everything seemed to fall apart (this feeling was also fuelled by my early morning experience of lonely swimming in the big Alumni Arena). Later, I met some participants who really didn’t know what was going on, and neither did I. But owing to the reflection process I was going through during this half-hour performance, the terms which turned out to be the center of my thinking on free cooperation led me back to the collective process which bricollages this event in Buffalo.
In the session on the first day of »Self-Organized Educational Attempts, Free Universities, “Anti-Universities“« one of the main interests was the resistance against the corporatisation of education in general and of self-organized processes in particular.
I based my comments on a matrix of terms which show the relevance this self-organized cooperation thing can assume: Interests (personal, collective, corporate), Priorities, Intentions (in Panofskys definition a social, not a personal internal one). This matrix leads, with Free will (in contrast to forced will), the discourse of the collective processes. From this I entered the field. If we think of self-organization first of all we have to ask:
If there are no SELFs, how can we think of (self-) organisation?
It will turn out that we have to understand Deleuze’s term of the »dividuum« as a derivate form of the modern homogenized self of the »individuum«. The veil of the buzzword »multitude«, which masks the theoretical nudity of the intended prostitution of the wrong »radical marxists«, is devided in thousands of discoursive threads and textures which are woven of the terms interests, priorities and intentions waving around the body of free will, offered by »VENDETTA The Academic Supermodel« as a projection screen for a cooperation. As Brian Holmes suggested »science fiction« is an appropriate metaphor of the real which we faced when entering the »city of Buffalo« by schoolbus Fridaynight. We saw the real already as a fiction which, in relation to »Brian’s fiction«, displayed huge empty houses, parkinglots, and streets as well as closed shops and infodesign. It reminded me of eastern Europe before 1989 – the urban desert cried for a critique of the real site.Modes of Teaching New Media: For a Commune des Arts
Of all the texts I wrote about training in new media and modes of self-organization in the world of art (German versions available), the model of the Commune des Arts, as I used it, seemed most appropriate because it opened up the potential of an anti-hierarchical institute.
Artistic training is understood in this framework as a collective production based on the self-organized appropriation of forms of communication and production. My skeptical view of existing forms of training and the conviction that an entirely other form of communication and an antiauthoritarian and anti-dirigistic (2) education must be developed resulted from the frustration I felt during my own years of training and education. I never wanted to visit a university and take on a corresponding function in the German state. The fact of the matter is, however, that in the meantime I am more or less engaged in the university system, and my thoughts are located there, but without abandoning my desire to transform the existing state of affairs.1. Commune des Arts (1)
This projection is not a teaching institution (3) but an academic institute that promotes collective artistic projects structurally, epistemologically, economically, and materially. A Commune des Arts should however be something that is not satisfied with any mere sense of autonomy, however conceived.
- One artistic goal is the departure from a fixation on traditional produced works. But this is not a dogma.
- There is no curriculum. The institute is composed of a minimal concept that changes depending on the project. The institute encourages social engagement.
2. An Institute as a Permanent Process
- The participants themselves decide how and to what purpose their group is formed.
- The groups are free to choose their goal, be it one of learning, production, or something else.
- The projects are self-organized, i.e., the project participants constitute themselves to form a group. This group is then driven interests, not unlike other groups external to institutions (initiatives, communes)
3. Project dropping
- Beyond the basic question of financing, every project takes account in terms of its realization its feasibility: that is, organization, financing, logistics, etc.
- In addition to the contribution guaranteed by the state that secures the basic operation of the commune, the financing of the projects is undertaken by the participants. For example, one obvious possibility for financing projects is collaboration with other institutions (agencies, academies, libraries, galleries, museum, production companies, universities).
=> The result of this is neither autonomy, nor a neo-liberal fixation on the market. The coalitions formed are decided by the group itself. Fundamentally, the state has to fulfill its duty of free education and guarantee the financing. Businesses can also participate as benefactors in financing, but may not demand any services in return, and should use their involvement for advertising purposes.
4. Central Committees of Self Dissolution
- The relationship to the state is regulated by a committee.
- This hinge function is (until a different solution is found) taken by a gender mixed steering committee. The members include elected students and tutors.
- The committee does not work only at administration, but also at making itself redundant.
5. Collective Survival training
- There will be the following functions in the commune: students (the actual members), project participants (external participants, entire seminars from other institutions), tutors (older students, elected group leaders) and advisors (external, invited specialists for project advising or lectures).
- The elected functions are determined within the institution by each themselves.
- It is proposed, within the first year to take over also administration duties, so that the students get to know the institution; training will be done by those who previously carried out this function. (A basic running of the administration is intended by the non-artistic staff)
- Projects with only women will be encouraged, but there should not be any set gender project bindung.
6. Used Transformation
- The processuality of the project as a whole will be maintained to prevent the development of an institutional rigidity.
- Group projects as a counter suggestion to the work focus of art and the formation of (master) classes block the gradual development of a fixed, hierarchical system.
- Since it cannot be assumed that political engagement means working for the required social improvements, a concentration must be defined on the analyses and counterpractices against the new forms of political and economic deregulation. This means a redefinition of leftist praxis, which should not be underestimated in light of its complexity.
7. Visionary Character
- There is the possibility of forming working groups for which the advisors desired lecturers and whole seminars from other institutions can be invited.
- It is possible to take on training positions or jobs in foreign institutions. This not only guarantees an in the commune of arts, but also outside it.
It should be clear that this will lead to completely other forms of art presentation, consumption, and distribution, as consequences of a changed cultural field.Stefan Römer (Translation: Brian Currid)1) As is known, the French Académie Royale de Peinture et Sculputre, founded in 1648, that took over the class contradictions to art education, was dissolved by the French Revolution in 1793. See Jacques-Louis David’s famous speech from August 8,1793.
2) Since concepts like interdisciplinarity, teamwork, plurality, dialogue between the generations, autonomy, etc., enjoy a great popularity within the current rhetoric of deregulation, their definition must be well thought through if one want to do more than supply buzzwords for the usual formal state reform plans: see Matthias Flügge, “Privileg der Zweckfreiheit. Die Akademie muß reformiert werden,” Neue Bildende Kunst, (1996), p. 26.
3.) At the start of the 1990s, the academies were overtaken by the media training programs oriented to the market. Since then, according to reports of those studying there, corresponding to the high investment of capital (from the side of the state and industry), an overblown administration has developed and very highly hierarchized (professor) positions were maintained: this seems to all go without question. The teachers there take on the role of experts entrusted with the most efficient use of finances.
4.) The spectrum of activities stretches from typical administration or management tasks. On the one hand, this serves to loosen the division between art production and cultural management and at the same time provides for participation in the institution’s political decisions.