Ausgabe #9 sharing/learning as a Scaffold of Traces Februar 2021

This issue acts as a collection of materials and reflections on and about the artistic-academic symposium sharing/learning: methods of the collective in art, research and activism, which took place on June 28th and 29th, 2019, at (and in cooperation with) District * School without Center. In formats including round tables, workshops, and participatory performances, the event brought together artists, scholars, and activists – who work collectively or research collectivity – to probe and question different ways of (en)acting together. The online journal presents an index of the event, with essays, reports, photographs, transcriptions and videos that offer insights into the respective methods, concerns and contexts of the authors.

Edited by Juana Awad and Irina Raskin.

Mit Beiträgen von Juana Awad, Julian Bauer, Clusterduck Collective, Pêdra Costa, Nuray Demir, Maja Figge, Elsa Guily, Ulrike Hamann, Timo Herbst, Irina Kaldrack, Serhat Karakayali, Andrea Caroline Keppler, Erden Kosova, Anika Lachnitt, Friederike Landau, Verena Melgarejo Weinandt, Grupo Oito, Irina Raskin, Fritz Schlüter, “sharing/learning” audience/participants, Zuzana Tabačková, Ferdiansyah Thajib und Theaterlinge.

Editorial

Introducing sharing/learning. The Opening Speech

Ausgabe #9

This text was part of the opening to the symposium sharing/learning: methods of the collective in art, research and activism and was read on 28th June 2019, in English, by two members of the organizing team, as introductory words. The text deliniates the central questions from which the two-day gathering arises, as well as its methodologies and actors. Many formulations originate from previously written concept papers, which were used to present the project for various purposes. These in turn are informed by the many conversations that took place within the organizational team – a group of people whose constellation was shifting along the way – orally as well as in writing. 

Transcription of the Round Table assembling/disseminating

Ausgabe #9

What are recent examples of practices in which ‘assembling’ and ‘disseminating’ reconfigure agencies, resources, affects and information to give rise to new forms of collectivities? This round table brings together Björn Heerssen and Noel David Nicolaus from the interdisciplinary collective Clusterduck, and sociologist Serhat Karakayali to ask about the relationships and interdependencies between ‘assembling’ and ‘disseminating’ as constitutive mechanisms in processes of collectivization. How do agencies, resources, affects and information elevate processes of creating collective feelings? Together we discuss how ‘assembling’ and ‘disseminating’ take shape in each example, leading to different forms of collectivities; what practicable mechanisms, interfaces and infrastructures come into play; and how do these two instances approach possibilities of collective inter­action in terms of ‘sharing’ and ‘learning’. 

Kollektive Zeit(en)reise – eine Probe mit den Theaterlingen

Ausgabe #9

Die Theaterlinge sind eine inklusive, generationsübergreifende Theatergruppe, die sich seit mehr als zehn Jahren im AWO Falkclub in Berlin Neukölln trifft. Ihrer solidarischen Praxis folgend, in der sie (un-)gewöhnlich Spielweise erproben und die Stücke gemeinsam entwickeln, soll auch dieser Beitrag in Zusammenarbeit entstehen und Einblicke in ihre Methoden, Erfahrungen und Wissen geben. Aufgrund der pandemischen Situation ist das Zusammenkommen und -arbeiten erst seit kurzem wieder möglich. Dieser Beitrag ist damit auch ein Dokument für die zurzeit erschwerten Bedingungen für kollektiv organisierte Schaffensprozesse und situative Voraussetzungen, die nicht durch digitale Kommunikationswege aufgefangen oder ersetzt werden können.

Wie (nicht) lecker mein Deutsch war

Ausgabe #9

In June 2019, I held the workshop cooking, playing and sharing at the symposium sharing/learning: methods of the collective in art, research and activism by the DFG-Graduiertenkolleg “Das Wissen der Künste”, Berlin University of the Arts (UdK), at/in cooperation with District * School without Center.

I invited guests to explore how to come together spontaneously, creatively and intuitively for preparing a feast without previously knowing the recipe and without a recipe. The main idea was how to make a meal with the ingredients, we would have available, and share it between the participants of the event. Noncooking Knowledge was required. As it usually happens in my proposals, the practice has taken other directions.

Transcription of the Round Table instituting/fleeing

Ausgabe #9

The round table instituting/fleeing addresses collective practices as forms of resistance against power asymmetries – as activist strategies. It focuses on the entangled dynamics between fleeing and occupying the institution and the role institutional critique plays in these dynamics. We will map out our different collective practices by posing questions, such as: How can we understand the different ways the institution and the collectives are linked? How to create collectives within the institution? How can collectives flee or occupy the institution? Who can flee and where to? How do institutions appropriate and destroy collective structures?

Transcription of the Round Table commoning/communing

Ausgabe #9

What practices constitute the commons? What are the conditions of the situated processes of commoning? What and how do we thereby learn? What would constitute a new sense of sharing, distributing, partaking? And, how can we take the idea of relationality seriously and institute structures of reciprocity between art, academia, and activism? To address these questions the round table commoning/communing brings together three projects focusing on urban practices of commoning.

Teilen und Lernen am Beispiel der Lecture Performance G20

Ausgabe #9

Am Beispiel unserer Arbeit an der Ausstellung und Lecture Performance G20 reflektieren wir, was Teilen und Lernen im interdisziplinären Zusammenarbeiten zwischen einem Künstler und einer Wissenschaftlerin bedeuten kann: was haben wir gemeinsam gelernt, was haben wir als Einzelne gelernt? Welche Arten des Teilens haben funktioniert, wo bestehen Brücken zwischen dem jeweilig Eigenem (was immer das ist) und wo bleiben Lücken?

Wir stellen zunächst den Prozess in einem gemeinsamen Textteil dar und teilen die Reflektion in je eigene Textteile auf. Zum Abschluss suchen wir wieder eine gemeinsame Sprech- bzw. Schreibposition. Dabei reden wir notwendigerweise aus der Position von Produzent*innen und nicht als Rezipient*innen.

Spaces of Collectivity

Ausgabe #9

How is it to act collectively when each one of us brings our own perspective, values, assumptions, and also our own language? How does from the many become ‘one’? What compromises does one need to make on the way? These were the questions we explored during the workshop Spaces of Collectivity. The aim was to collectively experience and enjoy space, while noticing how different our perspectives on it are, and how being able to talk about them, is key to any collective act of visioning, making or caring for space. Maps, as final products, and map-making, as the process of making these, became the tools to visualise and thus be able to better discuss these challenges.