Digital Theory: Commoning as artitics practice

Tuesdays, 09:15 – 12:45

Based on the ongoing research project “Creating Commons” the module will focus on the theory and artistic practice of “commoning”. Commons are free resources created and managed by a community, for example, alpine meadows, urban gardens, or Wikipedia. Commons embody an alternative idea of property, of cooperation and, in the cases that we will focus on, also of artistic practice. One of the projects we will look at in depth, both from theoretic as well as practical points of view is the archive “Ubu” (www.ubu.com), created and maintained by the artist Kenneth Goldsmith. It is informed by his particular stance on the role of the artist in the digital domain (overflowing and chaotic), but it is also a very valuable resource that many different people can use for their own purpose.

Commoning as an artistic practice does not follow the standard separation of “esthetics” and “function” but proposes a different model for the 21st century. To understand the different artistic approaches to commoning, particularly in the digital domain, we will draw on a wide range of theories from political science, art theory and feminist approaches to reproductive work, care and the role of technology as well as a close reading of the positions articulated by the artists themselves.

The module will be held in English and texts, video interviews and films on which we draw will also be predominantly in English.

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Shared Pad: http://pad.vmk.zhdk.ch/p/commoning_art

Editing Wikipedia. Tutorial

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19 Feb. Introduction: Art of Commoning

What are Commons?

De Angelis, Massimo und Stavros Stavrides (2010): „On the Commons: A Public Interview“, e-flux Journal 17

Hardin, Garrett (1968): „The Tragedy of the Commons“, Sciene 162, S. 1243–1248.

What is the research project “Creating Commons”?

Sollfrank, Cornelia & Stalder Felix (2017). From Creative Commons to Creating Commons German version published in: Blickpunkt. Zeitschrift der IG Bildende Kunst, Wien, Herbst 2017, Nr. 44, S.22-25

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5 March. Copyright and (Un)Creativity

Introduction to copyright

Woodmansee, Martha (1992): „On the Author Effect: Recovering Collectivity“, Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal 10, S. 279–292.

The Poetry of Archiving, Interview Kenneth Goldsmith, 2013

Goldsmith, Kenneth (2011): Uncreative Writing. Managing Language in the Digital Age, New York: Columbia University Press

Sollfrank, Cornelia (2015). Nothing New Needs to be Created – Kenneth Goldsmith’s Claim to Uncreativity. in: Melanie Bühler, Goethe Institut Washington (Eds.), No Internet – No Art. A Lunch Byte Anthology, Onomatopee, Eindhoven, pp.40-50.

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26 March. Libraries and Archives, I

aaargh & OxdB

Interview with Sean Dockray, aaarg.org (2017)

Dockray, Sean & Lawrence Liang (2015) “Sharing Instinct: An Annotation of the Social Contract Through Shadow Libraries”, e-flux journal 56th Venice Biennale PDF

Fuller, Matthew (2011) “In the Paradise of Too Many Books: An Interview with Sean Dockray”, Mute, London, 4 May 2011.

Interview with Sebastian Lütgert and Jan Gerber, on 0xdb.org (2017)

Lütgert, Sebastian (2010) “10 Theses on the Archive”, Beirut, Apr 2010.

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9 April. Commons & Feminism

Guest: Shusha Niederberger

Linda Nochlin (1971): http://www.writing.upenn.edu/library/Nochlin-Linda_Why-Have-There-Been-No-Great-Women-Artists.pdf

Interview “Feminist Hack Space. Interview with Patricia Reis and Stephanie Wuschitz” http://creatingcommons.zhdk.ch/?p=640

Sophie Toupin (2014): Feminist Hackerspaces: The Synthesis of Feminist and Hacker Cultures http://peerproduction.net/issues/issue-5-shared-machine-shops/peer-reviewed-articles/feminist-hackerspaces-the-synthesis-of-feminist-and-hacker-cultures/, Journal of Peer Production, 10/2014

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16 April. Feminist Infrastructures

Guest: Shusha Niederberger

Interview: „Forms of ongoingness. Interview with Femke Snelting and spideralex“ http://creatingcommons.zhdk.ch/?p=609

Richard Stallman: The GNU Manifesto (1985) https://www.gnu.org/gnu/manifesto.en.html

Feminist Server Definition, in: From autonomous servers to feminist servers https://gendersec.tacticaltech.org/wiki/index.php/Servers:_From_autonomous_servers_to_feminist_servers

relational infrastructure: The Etherbox / Networks of Ones Owns https://networksofonesown.constantvzw.org/etherbox/manual.html

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30 April Instituting the Commons

Laurence Rassel: |rethinking the art school, 1 March 2018

école de recherche graphique, Brussels

Institutional Psychotherapy

Jean Oury and Clinique de La Borde: A Conversation with Camille Robcis by Todd Meyers, somatosphere.net, 2014

Institutional Psychotherapy. EFPT Psychotherapy Guidebook

One more project, tbd

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14 May. Aesthetics of the Commons

Producing Organizational Aesthetics, Interview with Olga Goriunova, 2017, 28 Min.

Grant Kester Dialogical Aesthetics: A Critical Framework For Littoral Art, Variant 9 Winter 1999/2000

Bourriaud, Nicolas (2002): Relational Aesthetics, [Paris]: Les Presses du Réel. P.11-24

Claire Bishop. Introduction, Viewers as Producers, in Bishop, Claire, ed. (2006): Participation, Documents of contemporary art, London : Cambridge, Mass: Whitechapel ; MIT Press. P. 10-17

Aristakhova, Irnina (2008): „Stepanova’s ‚Laboratories‘“, in: Broeckmann, Andreas und Gunalan Nadarajan, eds. Place studies in art, media, science and technology: historical investigations on the sites and the migration of knowledge, Weimar: VDG-Weimar, Verlag und Datenbank für Geisteswissenschaften, P. 167–182.

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21 May

Shared Texts