AltMFA

13/02/2012 at Claire and Robbie's

2012-02-18T10:28:00.000-08:00

Present: Claire, David, Emma, Eyal, Fritha, Gabriel, Gwen, Louise, Neela, Robbie

Presentation by Eyal
Eyal talked us through, via a powerpoint presentation, a collective he collaborates with in Israel, the Eifo Dana Collective.
We watched the two short videos of two projects: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eg9RzPz3uY8&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAeRrYSH7eU&feature=related
Some features of the Eifo Dana Collective:
• A major factor is building and deconstructing objects.
• Establishing questions for research and exploring issues around the histories of territorial conflicts in Israel
• Critiquing the conflicts they’ve grown up and are sick of.
• The pieces were designed to utilise the different skills of each artist collaboratively, • They are designed for free public performance in public space

Performance Presentation by Claire and Louise
They performed an introduction to AltMFA that they created (via individual contributions from AltMFA members) for the Emerging Art Organisers Conference 2011 at Goldsmiths http://eaoconference-gobaloo.eventbrite.co.uk/?ebtv=C – complete with pots and pans.

Artists finances discussion – to be continued
We briefly discussed how artists financially support themselves: the emerging theme was ‘I do have one friend who earns a living from their art.’ We briefly touched upon how artists might support each other and how we are led to certain ways of conceiving art as a career. To be discussed at greater length in the future.

Presentation by Gabriel
He began to present themes and artists that influenced or represent ideas related to his work as Pavilion with Sophie Yetton: http://www.pavilionprojects.org/pavilion/pavilion.html
Works mentioned:
• We watched this clip of Dan Graham talking about hybrid art and architecture: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85Is-TpyvBM
• Carsten Holler’s The Double Club in Islington, a temporary installation that split a bar in two, a western side and a Congolese side with the food and music etc that represents the two. See a short, quite annoying video about it here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/video/2008/nov/24/double-club-carsten-holler
• Joseph Beuys 7000 oaks: http://www.diaart.org/sites/page/51/1295
• The Venezuelan skyscraper dubbed Torre de David. During the 90’s financial crisis it’s construction was abandoned halfway thorough development. Since 2007 it’s been squatted and turned into a vertical urban slum: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centro_Financiero_Confinanzas
For a nice overview of urban slums and community resilience in the face of financial plight today see Paul Mason’s article here: http://www.newstatesman.com/global-issues/2011/08/slum-city-manila-gina-estero

Actions:
Emma talk to be confirmed for next week
Discuss group show – any more possible spaces?

Next Week:
Meeting 6.30 at Lucie’s: 88 A stamford Hill, N16 6XS, top buzzer.
Crits: Dave, Eyal, Louise (20 mins that touches on the themes of Gabriel)
Gabriel to finish his presentation.

MEETING 06.01.2012 : THE OLD ARTICHOKE

2012-02-09T03:46:00.000-08:00

PRESENT:

Emma Gradin

David Snoo Wilson

Gwen Bajon

Eyal Edelman

NOTES:
Gwen Bajon

PLANNING MEETING

>>> please see the updated calendar for details of events!

ACTIONS:

LOCATION: Michael Archer's talk is set to be at Goldsmith's College on March 5th
(confirmed through Louise)

LOCATION: for student lectures on 12th March tbc! Who can offer their place/studio?

>People who give lectures hand out materials on the 13th March

CONFIRM: Jo Lathwood & Emma Gradin (preliminary) please confirm this for 19th March - we need to plan alternative content if this date isn't working for Jo/Emma

altMFA GROUP SHOW:

>Discussion on 20th Feb
>Plan Actions on 5th March
>Review actions on 20th March >>>>> finalise & DO IT!

EYAL EDELMAN: 'ONE-OFFS'
presentation of past projects since 2005

Eyal presented a really interesting survey of his projects since 2005 including work with the collectinve 'EIFO DANA'(form hebrew: WHERE IS DANA - something to do with his famous lost dog in Israel) the documenation show an interesting range of fine art and designer/maker projects.

The title of the presentation was 'ONE-OFFS' - referring to the diversity within the projects.

The discussion found structures and 'physical' challenges to be a common denominator/interest in Eyals work.

Eyals most recent project "EVERYBODY IS A CRITIC" which is part of his MFA course at Camberwell College of Art had a lot of interest and Josef Beuys' manifesto "Everybody is an Artist" was referenced in conjunction/ as a juxtaposition.

Eyal sees this project as a 'tongue in cheek' approach to engage people with artwork, extract opinions and feedback - a liberation/elevation of every viewer to become a critic so to speak and a chance for the artist to receive outspoken and specific feedback.

One of Eyal's projects - more so the preliminary drawing of it - was said to resemble 'The Large Glass' by Marcel Duchamp - here is the Wikipedia text about it:

The Large Glass

The Large Glass (1915–23) Philadelphia Museum of Art

Duchamp worked on his complex Futurism inspired piece The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass) from 1915 to 1923, with the exception of periods in Buenos Aires and Paris in 1918–1920. He executed the work on two panes of glass with materials such as lead foil, fuse wire, and dust. It combines chance procedures, plotted perspective studies, and laborious craftsmanship. He published notes for the piece, The Green Box, intended to complement the visual experience. They reflect the creation of unique rules of physics, and a mythology which describes the work. He stated that his "hilarious picture" is intended to depict the erotic encounter between a bride and her nine bachelors.

The piece was inspired by a performance of the stage adaptation of Roussel's novel Impressions d'Afrique which Duchamp attended in 1912. Notes, sketches and plans for the work were drawn on Duchamp's studio walls as early as 1913. In order to concentrate on the work free from material obligations, Duchamp found work as a librarian while living in France. After emigrating to the United States in 1915, he commenced his work on the piece financed by the support of the Arensbergs.

The piece is partially constructed as a retrospective of Duchamp's works, including a three dimensional reproduction of his earlier paintings Bride (1912), Chocolate Grinder (1914) and Glider containing a water mill in neighboring metals (1913–1915), which has opened for numerous interpretations. The work was formally declared "Unfinished" in 1923. Going home from its first public exhibition, the glass broke in its shipping crate. Duchamp repaired it, but left the cracks in the glass intact, accepting the chance element as a part of the piece.

Until 1969 when the Philadelphia Museum of Art revealed Duchamp's Etant donnés tableau, The Large Glass was thought to have been his last major work.

!!! For next week's student lectures here are two short videos of Eyal's work for review!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eg9RzPz3uY8&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAeRrYSH7eU&feature=related

Meeting adjourned & May the Fox be with you ~ G

Notes From Meeting on Monday 23rd January 2012

2012-01-26T03:10:00.000-08:00

We met at Gwen Bajon's studio at Bow Arts Trust.

Members present: Gwen Bajon, Gabriel Birch, Louise Ashcroft, Eyal Edelman, Fritha Jenkins, Lucie Galand, Robbie Lockwood, Emma Gradin and Neela Basu.

We reviewed last week's meeting in which we each selected extracts from texts to read to the group. The possibility of having themed reading weeks was suggested and also the idea of using a similar format presenting chosen artworks instead of texts. We considered our progress on aims and objectives and talked about the group show we are planning later in the year. Eyal noted that group shows can often be lacking in collaborative spirit and dialogue. Louise agreed and referred to a curatorial experiment she had made exploring the dynamics of a group show. Robbie feels that it is important that the show is a celebration of our experience at AltMFA rather than taking precedence over it.

Gwen's Crit:
Gwen handed out extracts from Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, which is a source of inspiration for her work. Gwen showed us her installation/environment consisting of two large paintings and two sculptures. She talked about the importance of the themes in Moby-Dick in relation to her personal experience of capitalism and referred to the biblical myth of the Leviathan sea monster which has parallels with the whale in Moby-Dick. We discussed possible routes in which to take the work and we discussed the importance of the title. Emma said that she thinks titles are a very important point of entry to an artwork. Gwen explained that she wants to capture the feeling of Moby-Dick without illustrating it as such. We talked about her use of materials and colour.

We didn't have time for Eyal's crit, which will be postponed until a few weeks time.

altMFA@The Old Artichoke (16.01.12)

2012-01-19T10:42:00.000-08:00

CHAIR: Neela Basu
NOTES: Gwen Bajon

PRESENT:

Fritha Jenkins

Eyal Edelman

ACTIONS FOR NEXT SESSION:

NEELA: Speak to Garage owner for exhibition space
DAVE: email Steph for final 'talk' or 'presentation'
LUCIE: photocopy P.Bordieu text for next session
ROBBIE: photocopy Henry Fords Amazonian Dream for next session

EVERYBODY: THE WEEK AFTER NEXT IS READING WEEK. PLEASE COPY SOMETHING THAT INTERESTS YOU FOR EVERYONE IF YOU CAN!

SELECTED READINGS:

DAVE:
1) Steve Hurst: Metal Casting (practice, skill, challenges)
2) Friedrich Schiller: the Song of the Bell (Das Lied von der Glocke)
(17th century, German Poetry/excerpt)

POINTS:
language and translation (loss/gain/alteration of meaning)
mis/appropriation of language throughout the centuries and across the world

language = truth?
language = expression?
language = an absolute?

LUCIE:
1) Interview with Anges Varda from Frieze Magazine
(French Artist Filmmaker, Nouvelle Vague, fiction/documentary, B&W new wave)

POINTS:
Film mentioned: The Gleaners and I
honesty and openness of documentation and her practice
exposure of the artist to her themes and subjects/personal involvement and expression

2) see actions

ROBBIE:
1) Chris Small: Musicking (Musicology=study of high art music which is only listened to by 3% of the population)

POINTS:
Social relations of "what is music"
moving away from the idea of an absolute/good/bad in music (as an art form)
chapter: a solitary flute player
structuralists/post-structuralists
challenge absolutes/categories/binary thought

4th Wall Theory:
ideas of interaction and participation in music/theatre/performance art
challenge the absolutes of 'performer' and 'audience' and 'player' and 'listener'

2) see actions

LOUISE:
opted out of reading Nietzsche (because she had a bad cold)

EYAL:
1) Shaykh Abd Al-Fattah Abu Ghuddah: The Value of Time
(islamic philosopher est.1000 AD)

POINTS:
one thing at the time
head in the clouds
relationship of theory and reality in art and study

Discussion about the Occupy London Event >> Occupy LSX - The Bank of Ideas

2) Homo Economicus (the freee art collective www.freee.org.uk)

Art against cuts

Art influences/is influenced by: economy/politics/ecology

Speakers:
Andrew Conio (http://www.wlv.ac.uk/default.aspx?page=22886). Introduction – The State Against Art
Platform (http://www.carbonweb.org/index.asp). Licence to Spill - Big oil and the UK art scene.
Liberate Tate(www.liberatetate.org/home.html <http://www.liberatetate.org/home.html> ). Performance interventions in gallery spaces
John Beck (Newcastle University) and Matthew Cornford (University of Brighton) (http://www.cornfordandcross.com/introduction/index.html). The Art School and the Culture Shed.
John Cussans. Protest Pedagogy.
Mark McGowan (http://markmcgowan.org/). There is No Law Against Art.
Dean Kenning. The Corporate Occupation of Art.
Freee. Mel Jordan, Andy Hewitt and Dave Beech (http://freee.org.uk/). Economists are Wrong.
Precarious Workers Brigade (http://precariousworkersbrigade.tumblr.com/). How Can we Fight the Marketisaton and Corporatisation of the Arts?

NEELA:

1) Chuck Palahniuk: Haunted
(writer most famous for the Novel Fight Club)

"The Paul Mccarthy of Writing"(Neela)

short and impactful language/interest in excess and the body
'horror around the ordinary'

2) Flash Art: Marina's Diary

Marina Abramovitch

> people burst into tears when they look into her eyes

> research about social dynamics/fear/intimidation/dynamics

POINTS:

> John Pilger Death of a Nation: The Timor Conspiracy

the horrors of war

the ethics of horror

hippocrisy and the modern world

morals and ethics of war

GWEN:

(Note to self: fox penises are not a suitable topic for reading aloud, even if you are German)

1) Martin Wallen: Fox (Animal Series)

POINTS:

Aristotle: the first Westener to classify animals >> wholly unscientific today
his 3 categories were:

1) different substances that make up analogous body parts
2) different environments that animals inhabit (land/sea/air)

3) differences in their dispositions revealed through their interactions with other animals

> fox is classified as the antipode to humans

'the nature of obsession' , 'Fox Fan Culture', material fascination and hording

'rules of attraction' 'symbols'

people's reactions to collections and obsessions > constantly feeding this relationship

'methods of identification' & hiding behind a 'mask'

Francis Alys (Belgium, *1959)
Night Watch 2004 (Fox in the National Portrait Gallery, recorded on in-house CCTV)

http://www.artangel.org.uk//projects/2005/seven_walks/video_the_nightwatch/video_the_nightwatch

FRITHA:
1)Nautical Archaeology: Rivers

detailed description of a common, ubiquitous thing(rivers): 'travel, trade, traces under water'

POINTS:

"an artefact of flowing water"

the continental shift of water over time

the interest in the ordinary reveals the amazing detail of things around us

art is often a tool in these 'investigations of specific detail'

'poetry of the ordinary' and 'hidden depth' of the common thing

Thanks to all of you & may the Fox be with you!

ENDE

9th January

2012-01-13T09:23:00.000-08:00

Planning session at Louise's.

- We did a rough plan for the coming 3 months - we have guest lectures booked, anyone welcome to do lectures (short or long). See calendar here

Actions:
- Robbie to email link to John Jordan talk
- Dave to email Campbell Works
- Lucie to do doodle poll.
- Everyone to think of places for exhibition.

Monday 21st November

2011-11-22T02:35:00.000-08:00

We met at the launch of the Archipelago/Wake exhibition catalogue at Arts Admin HQ Toynbee Studios near Spitalfields. Afterwards, we went downstairs to the cafe bar and discussed our presentation for the 'Emerging Art Organisers' conference which we will be taking part in on 24th November. New member Gwen Bajon attended for the first time.

Monday 14th November

2011-11-22T02:29:00.000-08:00

We met at Lucie's house in Stoke Newington. Visiting artist/educator Steve Bunn gave a really interesting talk on Brancusi's endless column which he had been to see on one of his art pilgrimages. We also talked about altmfa and compared it to institutions like the RCA where Steve Bunn teaches.

Monday 7th November

2011-11-22T02:23:00.000-08:00

We met at Campbell Works Gallery in Stoke Newington. Gabriel Birch and Sophie Yetton did a presentation and slide show about their collaboration Pavilion. New member Neela Basu joined us for the first time and showed us some images of her paintings, which we did a mini crit of. Louise and Gabriel also had short crits of some of their recent works.

10th October (campbell works) and 17th October (st pauls occupation)

2011-10-09T13:46:00.000-07:00

10th Oct
We met at Campbell Works.
Robbie gave us some texts to read in preparation for next week - which led us into a long discussion during which many themes were touched upon, including:
- Post-modernism, what is it?
- The fetishist object
- Do we live in a globalised world? Are there differences in art made in different places?
- Localism vs globalism
- Modernity / Future
- Recession
- Londoncentrism
- American and British influence over the world.
- Multiculturalism in London
Then we talked about the installation Binatone Galaxy by Stephen Cornford that was on in the gallery and that led us to another discussion about technologies and then went back to post-modernism.

Actions:
Robbie to write a paragraph for the website with the basic principles we agreed on in our self reflection meetings.

What was decided:
- The 'new structure' will follow term times. However AltMFA won't stop during holiday but will be open and without lectures.
- We will try to plan ahead as much as possible and hopefully the new structure will help.

Other:
- Claire said the curator of the exhibition 'Postmodernism, style and subversion 1970-1990' at the V&A is happy to come and talk to us.

17th October

We relocated our meeting to the occupation at St Pauls. We took part in group decision making and group talks.

19/09/11

2011-09-19T14:50:00.000-07:00

Robbie, Claire, Eva, Dave and Gabriel met at Lucies (without Lucie).

Eva entered to William Burroughs talking on the history of tape cut-ups. Someone has kindly stolen it and put it here for your pleasure: http://www.theaudiophiles.net/2009/04/22/william-s-burroughs-origin-and-theory-of-the-tape-cut-ups-animation/

Ran through last week’s proposal for a 3 week monthly structure etc and was excepted by those present. For talks to be open to others depending on who and where/when – baring in mind that part of the alt in altmfa is in its specificity of place and people. Please see the previous notes from Claire and raise any objections if you have them.

First Monday of the new structure hopefully 3^rd October at Neil and Harriot’s Campbell Works. To be confirmed by Claire.

Robbie to give the first theory session on 10^th October: Phenomenology, sound, art and politics.

Give up on Wiggio! Use a shared email attachment to add documents to.

We watched Dave’s video documentation from his project http://www.youtube.com/user/DavidSnooWilson

Listened to an extract of Alvin Lucier’s I am sitting in a room in preperation to Robbie’s theory day. Listen here: http://freealbums.blogsome.com/2007/01/25/alvin-lucier-i-am-sitting-in-a-room/

Mentioned:
Robbie – infoshop related about gentrification and Heygate Estate http://www.56a.org.uk/gentry.html
See here for gentrification forum in Southwark area http://southwarknotes.wordpress.com/
Eva went to a performance of collaborative music in the pitch dark - Larry Achiampong http://www.axisweb.org/seCVPG.aspx?ARTISTID=13368
Gabriel – Woodmill http://www.woodmill.org/ and V22 space http://www.v22collection.com/
Gagosian - http://www.gagosian.com/
Robbie is going to Sound Fjord in Seven Sisters, for a sound installation on Thursday http://www.soundfjord.org/galleryexhibitions.htm

Actions
Contact for new members: Eva’s Italian friend – Lucie’s old school friend – Dave’s friend from the puppet show!
For Speakers: Dave – 3 possible speakers – one definite (Steve Bunn) two maybes. Claire’s friend Glen. Robbie to contact Steven Gambardella. Robbie/Lucie to contact Chris from the infoshop.

12th October

2011-09-19T14:49:00.000-07:00

NEW Structure Proposed:

Meet for the first three Mondays of the month:

1^st Monday -  Have a guest speaker / event (Visitors could crit our works)
2^nd Monday - Theory
3^rd Monday -  Crits / Reflection of last two weeks (5min each so 30 or 40 mins)Bring texts for next month theory*

This structure should give us a sense of ‘freshness’ by having time off each month but also means by not having term times that some people don’t miss out because every has different times when there away.

Actions
Paper hand outs are more easy to remember to read

Have something to share to break up sessions (Video or sound). Should we plan these ahead or just bring them spontaneously

It is important to give out reading in advance so give up to two weeks before theory.

Update website – we could all write a piece of ‘What does alt MFA mean to mean’? Everyone to send photos to Louise for past sessions

*It is up to people to organize the crit days  like keep changing the crit methods

SPEAKERS

3 Guests for one night for one subject?
Robbie : Chris from info shop
Claire: Glen Adamson and Morris from Islington Mills Academy
Lucie: Glasgow guy to join and Anna Laura

Elephant and Castle

2011-07-28T09:11:00.000-07:00

We went to the Infoshop (the 'radical social centre and bookshop' at 56 A Crampton Street).

http://www.56a.org.uk/

We all started looking through the archive, reading, chatting. We drank coffee and ate some russian sweets brought back by Steph.

Once it closed, we decided to go to the Heygate Estate. We were all by bike so we cycled around for a bit, then we found a garden and sat down. Robbie read some texts and information about the history of the Heygate. Then 2 men came asking if we had seen bats flying around and a really interesting conversation started.

AltMFA thursday 21st July with Ivana Mestrov at Lucie's

2011-07-21T03:34:00.000-07:00

Ivana Mestrov is a curator and lecturer working i Zagreb and Split in Croatia. She will talk about self organising and collectivity in artistic and curatorial practices in Croatia since the 60's and 70's, as a way to understand the contemporary art scene, and especially the curatorial group WHW.
Anyone welcome to bring work for crit after the presentation.
You can read a short description of WHW's practice here: http://whw.posterous.com/pages/about-what-how-and-for-whom-whw

04-07-2011

2011-07-10T17:11:00.000-07:00

Attended by Robbie, Steph, Helena, Lucie, Eva, Claire and Louise

We met at Lucie's for an open reading of individually selected texts from:
Louise: Nicolas Bourriaud The Radicant
Claire: A letter from her former employer and Ray Bradbury The Pedestrian
Steph: Sun Tzu The Art of War and David Abram The Spell of the Sensuous
Helena: Edward W Said Out of Place
Lucie: Resonance FM publication Sound Art article by Brandon LaBelle
Eva: A poem of hers in Polish
Robbie: Seth Kim-Cohen In the Blink of an Ear – toward a non-cochlea sound art

Actions
Put Pictures and drawings from previous meetings on the blog – attach them to their relevant date
Organize a future reading session with a specific theme to compare to this open themed reading
18^th Ivana (Lucie’s friend) from Croatia, will talk about her work as curator and teacher, it’s also a good opportunity to have a crit form a visiting artist
Steph, Robbie, Lucie to arrange a Monday with the radical Education Forum http://radicaleducationforum.tumblr.com/

Also Eva invites everyone to the Young Socialists Summer Festival Sat 16^th Ivy Street Hoxton Market

Next Week 11^th July: Springfield Park for Eva’s talk on the evolution of nomadic architecture
Week After 18^th July: Silver Cloud Gallery

27-06-2011

2011-07-04T11:11:00.001-07:00

Atended by: Steph, Eva, Claire, Robbie, Jeremy, Louise
We visited Silver Cloud gallery located in a disused office space, previously housing the Duetch Bank. Josh Knowles (http://www.joshknowles.co.uk/) and Joe Duggan (http://www.joeduggan.co.uk/Site/Joe_Duggan_.html) gave us a generous guided tour of their current show, you can see Joe’s work at his website. The space is also used by invited think tanks, adding to the pairs attempt to create nomadic spaces as opposed to a pop up gallery.

13th of June 2011

2011-06-14T13:02:00.001-07:00

We met at Campbell Works and discussed “True Wood” show by Neil Taylor.

Neil spoke about ‘The Legend of the True Cross”.

www.fossombroni.it/.../The_legend_of_the_True_Cross.htm

We discussed parallel mechanisms of practice in religion and art.

We looked at relationship between a physical object and faith and power of suggestion.

Fetishising of an art object increases its commercial value and allows art market to operate.

In religion it allows the myth to be continued.

We thought of ethics of fetishising objects and presenting them as relict to the audience.

We looked at psychological need for ritual and aesthetics and how art and religion fulfils those needs.

Jeremy presented his work. We watched a couple of videos, documentation of video installations and discussed works on paper.

Jeremy spoke of his interest in narration and how we make sense of the world through narration, also ways of experiencing video work through time, space and objects, physicality of film and video. Jeremy mentioned influence of French philosopher Paul Riceour on some of his work.

Louise and Helen are taking part in Low and High arts festival in Folkestone and they will give a talk on 16^thof July 4pm (15 Tontine street, Folkestone).

Eva will give a presentation about the evolution of nomadic architecture on 18^thof June, 7pm at the Hilary Crisp Gallery, London

Links:

www.campbellworks.org

www.lowandhighplatform.worldpress.com

www.hilarycrisp.com

Recommended books:

“Songlines” by Bruce Chatwin

“The spell of the sensuous" by David Abram

‘Being in Time’ by Martin Heidegge

Other artists mentioned today were: Fra Angelico (Mocking of Christ)

William Burroughs

Francisco Troppa (representing Portugal in Venice Biennale 2011)
Piero della Francesca

Next week we are meeting in Helen’s studio.

Meeting 13th June

2011-06-12T23:29:00.000-07:00

At Campbell works 6.30
http://www.campbellworks.org/

Summary Monday 6th June

2011-06-10T01:09:00.000-07:00

Lucie, Gabriel, Jeremy, Louise and Steph met at Lucie's house.

We asked Jeremy a lot of questions and let him introduce himself.

Gabriel presented his body of works.

Artists mentioned during the talk:

James Turrell http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Turrell
Susan Hiller at the Camden Arts Centre http://www.camdenartscentre.org/exhibitions/?id=100954
John Bock
The Stanley Kubrick Archives

Lucie and Steph suggested that we each start to collect a 'box' of small music/sound pieces, texts, video clips etc to watch and listen to in order to break up our discussion sessions.
Please bring anything you have regularily to our Monday sessions!

Also let's put a list together (we will try and facilitate this on the blog) of places to go. First suggestion: Thames River Beaches

Actions:

* Lucie to contact Neil from Campbell Works to see his show and watch the first part of 'Century of the Self' by Adam Curtis there next Monday.
* Lucie to contact Chris from the Infoshop at Elephant & Castle to go and for a possible consensus making workshop
* Louise to prepare a talk about 'Presentation as a form of Performance' for Monday in two weeks time.

Monday 5th June 6:30 meeting at Lucies

2011-06-05T11:39:00.000-07:00

Summary 30/05/11

2011-06-05T11:38:00.000-07:00

We took turns answering questions about the structure and direction of altmfa, a rough outline of the main points are below.

· A distinction was made that we are a collaborative education group, not a collaborative art group. Therefore any collaborative art opportunities will be kept apart from the Monday sessions and hence not be known by name of altmfa.

· It was felt that we have touched on many subjects and not scrutinised them adequately. This led to a general feeling that we should try to focus more on specific subjects and spend more time reflecting on them. As a self-educating group it will be necessary to spend more time individually preparing and writing about our chosen subjects.

· We should spend some time linking previous subjects and talks, applying relevant critical theories to them. This could also be applied to the crits, where it could be useful to present such theory prior to them. Although as previously agreed, the student is ultimately responsible for the form and content of their crit. Two weeks in a row of crits could help us develop this practice.

· The decision was split 50/50 whether or not to have group holiday dates or try to always run something every Monday. For now there will be no collective holiday but we will raise again this possibility in the future. An emphasis was made that each individual is free to take time off when it suits them.

Other Info:
Spaces to approach:

Inivia in Shorditch
Robbie to approach

Offmarket on Lower Clapton Road http://london.indymedia.org/articles/8891

Eva to contact them

Decision making - we confirmed that the chair will email the group with the decisions we made so that those who did not attend the meeting can object.

Robbie's writing references:

Definition of 'hegemony'.

Paolo Freire - Pedagogy of the Oppressed

'Epistemologic doubt'

Edward Bernays- PR

John Pilger 'false reality' http://www.johnpilger.com/articles/flying-the-flag-faking-the-news

Adam Curtis 'the century of the self'

(Dave has a hard copy)

Lucie to ask Campbell Works if we ca watch it there.

David Hick Introduction to Radical Education

Next week 30th May Self Reflection Session meeting at Lucie's house

2011-05-24T04:21:00.000-07:00

Reminder to bring your thoughts, writings and possibly answer Dave's questions about what is and is not working for you in alt mfa or if you have any ideas about how to structure our sessions.

Summary of 23rd May by Claire

2011-05-24T04:17:00.000-07:00

Lucie, Robbie, Eva, Gabriel, Louise, Dave, Claire and Pippa Koszerek

We met at Lucie's flat and ate pizza and drunk tea.

After we collectively introduced the background to alt mfa, Pippa Koszerek (www.pippakoszerek.com) talked to us about independentartschool.org.uk and her own practice as an artist.

Pippa wrote a paper, 'Alternative Art Schools' for A-N in 2010 which is available to read at http://www.a-n.co.uk/publications/topic/1145371

We discussed that that if you are a small institution it is a good idea to keep changing and reflecting on the structure of your group. We talked about the importance of tailoring art education for each individual person and that the smaller the institution, the more likely you are able to decide on what you need. We discussed the impact of funding and different structures, for instance Islington Mills (http://www.islingtonmill.com/ - an alternative education art academy) vary between 3 and 12 people attending; running by art schoool term times and continuous weekly meetings.

Pippa also belongs to an art collective called Post (http://www.postartists.com/ - a uk artist network who respond to places) which annually changes the chair.

Then we did a bit more eating, said our goodbyes and went home.

Future actions:

All participants to prepare any writing and thoughts about the alt mfa for next week's self reflection session

We might do crits in two weeks for 9th June where Gabriel can also present his practice

Louise to email Jeremy ( a potenial new participant) to join us in two weeks

Next meeting monday 23rd May at Lucie's

2011-05-23T00:06:00.000-07:00

Pippa Koszerek is coming to speak to us.

http://www.a-n.co.uk/publications/article/1145700/1145371

Summary 16th May by Lucie

2011-05-19T08:30:00.000-07:00

Dave, Eva, Louise, Steph, Helene and Lucie.

-We met at Dave's studio in Clapton. One bottle of red wine was drunk by all in one collective glass and celery and hummus were eaten.

- Louise brought the art Magazine ArtLicks to show us the article about AltMFA. It will be kept on Lucie's shelf with our other book (Paths through Utopia).

- Dave showed us 2 books of maps that he got last year at the exhibition Magnificient Maps: Power, Propaganda and Art at the British Library last year.
We discussed briefly imperialism, colonialism, the morality behind it - Joseph Conrad 'Heart of Darkness' was mentioned.

- We listened to a soundpiece by Duncan Whitley called 'rachel & Rathbone' that came with ArtLicks. The three recordings on the CD are taken 5 minutes before, 3 minutes before and during the demolition of two tours of the Downs Estate in Hackney.

- Helene talked about a video piece by Hiwa K she saw while in Nottingham with the Chicago Boys - featuring him playing harmonica in megaphone at a march in Irak.
Another of his video can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/user/hiwakhiwa#p/a/u/1/0chyB2Wv1Q4.
We thought it would be interesting to show him what we did at the demo in March when he comes to speak to us.
ACTION: Lucie to collect all videos and photos from demo and edit it and show it to the group.

- Eva spoke about the possibility of an exhibition in Cheltenham. This led to a long discussion about wanting to work collectively on art projects or not. We concluded that we need a session of self reflection and planned it for the 30th May. We came up with different questions that we can all answer to individually. ACTION: Dave to put them on Wiggio/ email.
Eva also mentioned a russian artist part of a collective who could maybe speak to us on skype.

Next week: presentation by Pippa Koszerek.

Summary 9th May by Eva

2011-05-15T08:16:00.000-07:00

We met on 9th of May in Helen’s studio and David, Eva and Claire presented their work to the rest of the group. Helene read fragment from the book of Eyal Weizman “Hollow Land- Israel’s architecture of the occupation”.

Robbie spoke about Fluxus art movement

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1345511/Fluxus

http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/f/fluxus.html

and John Cage, a composer, philosopher, poet, music theorist and artist

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cage

http://www.artandculture.com/users/24-john-cage

www.artnet.com/artists/john-cage/

Future actions:

Ayal will talk about practical design.

Pippa Koszerek will give a presentation on 22nd of May.

Monday 2nd May

2011-05-09T07:49:00.000-07:00

Helene's Studio with Tom, Helene, Robbie, Louise, Claire, David, Eva.

Crit of work by Helene, Tom, Louise and Robbie.

Next Meeting - Monday 11th April, 6.30pm

2011-04-08T03:54:00.000-07:00

We are meeting at Helene's studio to make the bunting and book.
Please bring any spare fabric. And stuff that might be useful.
And don't forget the really really free library! Everyone to bring 3 books.

Summary Meeting Monday 4th April

2011-04-08T03:43:00.000-07:00

We met at Campbell Works at 6.30pm.

Attendants: Lucie, Robbie, Gabriel, Eva, Ben, Neil (from Campbell Works), David, Helene, Claire, Steph
Chair: Steph

6.30pm
We discussed practicalities and procedures of the group. Summary in 'Actions and Info below'.

Monthly publication: Gabriel suggested the publication of a zine, pamphlet, songbook curated or edited by one volunteer of the group once a month. Neil mentioned that Campbell Works tried to do a newspaper once, that publications are very time consuming and labour intensive and that a longer time frame might be more suitable. We came to the conclusion that we will do this quarterly.

Book competition: We will start an AltMFA prayer flag/bunting as an ongoing document and future focus of the group, suggested by Eva. The first edition will be entered into an art book competition.
People who are also making bunting at the moment and might be of interest to group members are the Craftivist Collective http://craftivist-collective.com/ (more info and contact through Steph)

7.30pm
Friends joined us to watch John Jordan's film 'Paths through Utopias' http://lessentiersdelutopie.wordpress.com/

Neil mentioned the film 'The Gleaners' by Agnes Varda (first 4 Minutes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKgjjEJvMbM

Actions and Info

Hiwa K is interested in talking to us, keeping the 9th May free
Helene to contact Marsha about critical practice after Easter
Mel Evans and John Jordan are happy to organise a consensus meeting workshop with us possibly for some time in May, keeping the 16th free, or another day between the 9th and 20th of May
The Chair for each week to step forward voluntarily the week before meeting and bring something to share with the group, sound/text/image/video.
To add Neil and Harriet from Campbell Works to our mailing list and blog - Lucie to send Neil info about book competition
Invitations to new students: It is agreed that we will only invite new students who are can commit to attending every Monday
Monday 18th April: We will meet at Gabriel's studio (http://www.woodmill.org/contact) to discuss work and exhibitions. Ben will hold a talk about Bauhaus.

Next Meeting - Monday 4th April

2011-04-02T08:48:00.000-07:00

6.30 Campbell Works Gallery
7.30 Film screening of Paths Through Utopia

Summary Monday 28/03/11

2011-04-02T08:19:00.000-07:00

Chair: Robbie

18.30
Discussed last weeks Action Points

18.45 Neil Introduced the new exhibition at Campbell Works http://www.campbellworks.org/content/alex-dipple-0
Links – The blocks of lines reminded Robbie of the Drawing Room's exhibition of Cornelius Cardew’s Treatise, a graphic score for musicians to interpret as they see fit.:
Drawing Room: http://www.drawingroom.org.uk/corneliuscardew.htm
General Info: http://www.spiralcage.com/improvMeeting/treatise.html
19.15
Helene briefly discussed some elements of the Chicago Boys March trip to Holland, which coincided with the Persian New Year ((Nowrūz) which brought out Iranian protesters: http://www.dutchartinstitute.nl/news/chicagoboys.html

19.30 March 26^th Demo/Margate Event

Musuem of London are taking donated placards for snapshot of the protest. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-12921158

Watched Lucie’s video of the AltMFA mega-plasterphone sound actions. Noted the importance of humour at the protest, the Robin Hood group, UK Uncut kettling 2 police officers. Found out that Ben and Neil saw the arts against cuts Trojan horse! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPDbQn4gkPk

Gabriel discusses the Pavilion Project event in Margate Dreamland Car Park.

About 100 people came but in disparate groups throughout the 5 hours. Next time he would like to have a smaller time frame, 8-10pm, to contain the energy of one larger group. He explained the project’s take on alternative spaces to the gallery/how to break gallery rules etc.

He showed us his pictures, people putting the megaphone on their heads, taking it from the possibly noisy to the mute.

To organise the event they ran a big poster campaign in Margate advertised as a drive through gallery; some literally drove round looking in a circle and then drove off.

A screen to connect our updated pictures/sounds could have attracted more volunteers calling our phone connection.

We discuss how the media use twitter and 24hour news to follow the march, one reason we felt no need to do so. However an alternative update could have been valuable away from towing the mainstream media line. We discussed ways we could have given alternative information back to Margate.

Where to take the project next? Brent Cross shopping?

20.30
Sound/Reading
Robbie read a small statement by the French musician Jerome Noetinger from the book Blocks of Consciousness and the Unbroken Continuum (Sound323) http://sound323.com/pages/view.php?stockcode=isbn9780955154102

Then played the group a 20 minute composition by John Wall, Fractuur, as a collective listening.
John Walls album website: http://www.utterpsalm.com/

21.00
Future
We decided not to have an Easter break despite Louise desperate attempts not to miss out on anything; we will always try to hold something, even if only 2 people can make it.
Next week 4^th April Campbell Works: John Jordan film screening of the film Paths Through Utopia. 6.30 AltMFA meet to discuss the book project etc 7.30 film start.

Possible meeting at Gabriel’s 9 ^th April or Monday 11^th show at The Woodmill http://www.woodmill.org/exhibitions

Ben has now set up the Wiggio information service for reading lists/links etc, so we can post thoughts and messages here instead of email bombardments. http://wiggio.com/#tpl=posts_677530

Actions
The Chair (Steph?) to bring something to share with the group, sound/image/video/text etc

Send Gabriel/Group the blog passwords etc

To invite 1 or 2 new students

Make sure texts are available far before the subject day; these can be posted on Wiggio

Gabriel suggested reading a highlight of these readings to the group on the day also, to refresh memories
Everyone to make a list of 3 books for the really really free AltMFA library share

Helene to contact Hiwa K, the Iraqi artist/musician based in Germany for a possible guest lecture in 2 ^nd week in May

Helena to contact Marsha about critical practice

Next meeting monday 28th March

2011-03-28T09:04:00.000-07:00

We're meeting at Campbell Works at 6.30.

CIRCUIT

2011-03-27T09:35:00.000-07:00

Protest March 26th

2011-03-25T13:40:00.001-07:00

Saturday 26th March some members of AltMFA will be marching to support the protest against the coalitions cuts to public services.

At 2.11pm we will make a collective sound to mark the signal for actions away from the march. At this time various groups – such as Arts Against Cuts, ukuncut, resist 26 – will be staging sit-ins, occupations and other awareness raising tactics. See http://artsagainstcuts.wordpress.com/ for some useful information about the protest, the cuts and other useful theoretical links.

During the march and after in Hyde Park we will be situated near to Arts Against Cuts group where we will be holding various collective activities throughout – look out for their banners, a giant wooden Trojan horse.

Some Hackney members will be cycling with the bike bloc from Hackney town hall at 10am, the march starts at 11am from Victoria embankment.
Throughout the day and evening we will stage collective speakings through home made plaster megaphones (or mega-plasterphones – this term has not been endorsed by the group!).

One of these actions will be to make connection with exhibition goers at the Pavilion Projects Circuit event in Margate:
http://www.pavilionprojects.org/pavilion/upcoming_show.html http://margatearchitecture.blogspot.com/2011/03/event-circuit-drive-thru-cinema-at.html

Via mobile phone we will be offering a connection for people at the exhibition to either listen to the march or have their comments collectively voiced via the AltMFA megaphones.

A banner situated next to one of our megaohones in Margate will read:
'call 07588631674, alt-megaphone live link to the London protest - speak or listen. Altmfa'
Once in Hyde Park where we will use improvised materials such as dustsheets and old placards to make shelters and will possibly camp out.

We hope everyone has a great day.

Summary Monday 21st March

2011-03-23T06:14:00.002-07:00

We met at Louise's house in Finsbury Park.

Present: Claire, Steph, Dave, Gabriel, Robbie, Louise, Andy, Lucie, 2 rats

Action points are in orange.

STRUCTURE

We started by discussing how we could structure our meetings better.

- We all felt inspired by John Jordan's talk and the notion of consensus. We agreed to take part in workshop to learn about group organising techniques.

Steph to contact JJ.

- Decision making: How can we make decisions without the whole group being present?

We agreed that some decisions will have to be made at meetings despite having everyone present in order to get things moving. We will send decisions by emails so anyone can request for it to be re-discussed. If no-one objects then we go forward. Dave suggested to agree on a quorum (a minimum number of person present to make decision). We all greed that any decisions is open to be reexamined at any time.

- Attendance: we agreed that it would be helpful that the people who can't come to the meeting let the group know by email.

- New member(s): we are usually never more than 10 at meetings so we could maybe have one new member joining us. How do we decide who to invite to join us?

Louise to write down waiting list.

Lucie to email them and ask who can commit to come every monday.

- Question week: we discussed ways of engaging in longer terms with a theme (so we don't only read a few texts the night before the session). It was suggested to have a bank ok ideas for question weeks and to have 'modules'.

- Guest: Pippa Koszerek was suggested. We also need to rewrite the email template that we can email to guests.

Claire to email Pippa.

Louise to email the first draft to the group.

- It was agreed that we needed a chairperson for each meeting.

Her/his role:

Introducing the session
Go through previous week's 'action points'
Take notes (and action points)
Facilitate conversation (trying to bring it back to the original subject, making sure everyone is heard, etc)
Time keeping (it was suggested we finish discussion by 9 so we have time to plan next session)
Conclusion (framing it with older conversations, coming with a collective response to the theme, etc)

Next meeting Monday 21st March

2011-03-21T08:38:00.001-07:00

We're meeting at Louise's house in Finsbury Park.
Agenda:
- Discuss British Art Show 7 at Hayward Gallery.
- Plan Circuit and demonstration.
- Discuss ways of organising AltMFA.

Next meeting 7th March 6.30pm

2011-03-02T04:14:00.000-08:00

This is going to be a mixed crit and question session.

Claire will present a project for the crit.
Steph is proposing a question/discussion:

I would like to have a look at and discuss the following texts from the book 'The Real Work' - by Gary Snyder - Interviews and Talks 1964-1979

Excerpts: 'The Landscape of Consciousness' & 'The Berkeley Barb Interview - Japanese Subculture'

and
the following quote by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

'All I'm saying is simply this, that all life is interrelated, that somehow we're caught in an inescapable network of mutuality tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. For some strange reason, I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. You can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.'

My questions are:

- In how far is the described role of the poet in society relevant to the role of the artist today? Does it relate?

- What kind of relevance has, what Dr Martin Luther King mentions, for art practice?

- Is there something in the alternative approaches and outlooks of japanese subcultures of the 1950s that can be inspiring for a nowadays approach of education, art and living?

Meeting 28th February

2011-02-28T00:40:00.000-08:00

Tonight is crit / presentation and we are meeting at Helene's studio off Cambridge Heath Road.

Next meeting Monday 21th February

2011-02-18T14:20:00.001-08:00

Ruth Höflich is coming to speak to us.

http://www.ruthhoeflich.net

http://www.guest-room.net

6.30 to 9.30 at Lucie's in Stamford Hill.

Summary Monday 14th February

2011-02-18T13:58:00.000-08:00

We started the session with 3 minutes of collective listening, based on the experience of Robbie and Lucie at the School of Echoes organised by Ultra-red at Raven Row gallery in 2009. See here for more information.
We then came up with a collective definition of the notion of 'free' within AltMFA based on each of our viewpoints:

- Alt MFA is based on the principle of free culture.

- We don't actively seek funding however we will endeavour to cover travel costs for visiting artists.

- We may accept OR object to funding from external bodies for extra curricular activities.

We also agreed that any definition is never set in stone and open for revisiting.
We then shared our motivations for joining AltMFA as well as our expectations of it.
Notes were taken in the big 'kitchen concept book'.
We briefly discussed the 'Circuit' project and Louise's contribution to Art Licks.

Next meeting monday 14th Feb 6.30pm

2011-02-10T03:42:00.000-08:00

meeting at Lucie's,
extending the theme of Radical Education we started exploring last week
see last weeks reading.

Summary of Monday 7th February

2011-02-09T03:20:00.000-08:00

(Hover mouse over the page for links)

Attendees: Robbie, Louise, Steph, Lucie, Claire, Helene, Ben, Paulina, Neil Taylor & Harriet Muray (from Campbell Works).

We met at Campbell Works. Neil introduced the exhibition of Delaine Le bas - Witch Hunt.

Neil and Harriet presented some of their past projects Mind Me, On Trust, Jasper Joffe & Simeon Banner, Streets For People.

We had a general discussion about AltMFA in which Neil and Harriet took part. We discussed our own experiences of traditional MA. Questions that came up: How do we apply rigueur to our practice in AltMFA? What level of critique do we want with each other as part of AltMFA? Are we producing or consuming (art, theory, words etc)? Are we educators or artist dealing with education? When are we collaborating, when are we not? How do we make decisions (consensus?)

Robbie and Lucie made a short introduction to radical education and Paolo Freire and his book Pedagogy of the Oppressed.

Links:

Department 21 at Royal College

Critical Practice at Chelsea

Platform 1 Hackney Down Station

Next meeting Monday 7th February

2011-02-03T03:38:00.000-08:00

Question: How can we learn from radical education theories and groups? (suggested by Robbie and Lucie)

- Introduction to Radical Education by David Hicks. Read here.

- What is radical Pedagogy? Article by Timothy McGettigan

- About Paolo Freire and Pedagogy of the Oppressed

- Anarchist Free School

- Bob Ostertag article on free internet sharing

- Book about free culture and copyright issues

Some interesting examples of radical eduction groups:

- Free school (London)

- Radical Education Forum blog (London)

- The Free University of Liverpool

- Islington Mill Art Academy ( free self-organised art school in Manchester)

- The Institute for the Arts and Practice of Dissent at Home (Liverpool)

- The Mountain School of Art (L.A.)

- Radical Education Collective based in Ljubliana. Read here.

- Pinky Show (film called 'Encounter on Radical Education: Cats in Slovenia'. Watch here)

- What can AltMFA learn from these practices? Are there techniques that could be useful for us to follow? How should AltMFA organise itself and on on what principles?

Should we introduce formal procedures for this organisation?

-To what extent should AltMFA remain free? - How do we ensure that our appropriation of the positive elements of free culture don’t veer toward the possibly insidious elements of the “free” – exploitation of labour, including internships for the well off; the undermining of public services (a la big society) and so on.

idea: collaborative thankyou cards for guests

2011-02-01T05:58:00.000-08:00

as well as the face cakes, i was thinking we could make thankyou cards/ thankyou drawings for each of our guest speakers- quick collaborative group drawings, which they can keep as a memento. I like the idea of collaborative drawings- especially the concept of exquisite corpse (see here and here).
I think this would be a great way of showing our guests our thanks.

Helene's links

2011-02-01T03:44:00.001-08:00

Critical Practice: http://criticalpracticechelsea.org/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page#About_Critical_Practice

Whilst we are trying to define what we are, and proposing to do projects to understand processes of collaboration, Critical Practice is an amazing group that have done some really interesting events and projects based on that idea.

Residency Unlimited: http://www.residencyunlimited.org/

This is a really good site that continually gives information about different residencies.

Tropic Corridors: This is the space in Italy that I mentioned, its run by an Italian artist called Lorenzo Marchi, its a platform which he has said the past he would happy for me to send a proposals to use. He doesn't have any money, so it would up to us to sort out, but I think he would be excited by our ideas but it would for us to make the most of the space. Anyway, theres a little bit of info about it on his site: http://www.lorenzomarchi.com/

Art of Occupation: http://www.helenekazan.co.uk/_files/_Downloads/ArtofOccupation_PressRelease.pdf

Also, in case any of you were interested in finding out a bit more about the exhibition I mentioned last week that I curated, have a read of the press release above.

FunderFinder: http://www.funderfinder.org.uk/

Also a really good website to find funding on.

Summary of Monday 31st January

2011-02-01T03:42:00.000-08:00

Attendees: Lucie, Robbie, Steph, Eva, Paulina, Ben, Claire, Helene, Louise
We discussed applying for residencies as a group.
Eva mentioned a residency in Cheltenham, Helene mentioned Tropic Corridors in Italy.
Paulina talked about her work and showed us images on the projector.
Ben showed us some prints hot off the press, which we handed around.
Louise showed us a blog documenting interventions.

Upcoming Excursions, Studio Opportunities and Class Themes

2011-01-29T15:45:00.000-08:00

We ended Monday's meeting with the following suggestions:

Excursions (please extend the list with your suggestions)

- a walk in Hackney Marshes

- camping in the New Forest

- sharing survival skills !!

- going to a Buddhist Monastery for a day

http://www.amaravati.org/abmnew/index.php/home/

We can roam the countryside grounds, meditate together in the hall (!!), talk to
and eat with the monks....

Studio Opportunities

Two studios with cheap rent are becoming available In Ben's studio group. Talk to him for more details.

Theme for Meeting on Monday 7th February

The idea for AltMFA and radical education.

Could everyone put a short paragraph together about the reasons for joining AltMFA? (Imagine you had to fill out an application form asking you why you would like to do this Masters program.)

Summary of Monday 24th January

2011-01-29T15:17:00.000-08:00

We met at Lucie's house again. A few were exhausted but Lucie provided us with some nice food. Thanks Lucie!!

Participants:

Claire Blundell Jones, Louise Ashcroft, Lucie Galand, Helene Kazan, Robbie Lockwood, Ben Varney, Steph Wehowski, Eva Lis, Paulina Michnowska and ....

Louise Ashcroft and Helene Kazan gave an introduction to:

Can curating be a mode of art practice?

in which they presented a short history of the curator as being museum and logistics based to the art 'star' curators in recent years and changes in curatorial practice.

They also described their own experience and questions to curatorial practice in their own art practice. Is curatorial practice art practice? How, when and where do they mix? Should they mix? Is there a division? Should there be one?

The interest in curatorial practice lies in the areas of

engaging with artists and the public - Louise
engaging with space - Helene

Comment: Maybe artists are taking on the roles of curators because they want to take ownership of the space, environment and audience and how they engage with it.

What do people see as the task of the curator?

initiator
bring group/people together - initiate collaboration
manager
administrator
site manager
feedback or tutorial guidance for artists

For links and artists/curators discussed see note from 19.1.11: Next Meeting Monday 24th January

Additional projects discussed were
Artur Zmijewski's Open Call for the Berlin Biennale, http://www.berlinbiennale.de/index.php?lang=en,
Does he, with collecting political statements from artists, create his own artwork? Does the curating become his own artwork? Is it an exploitative experiment?
Louise Ashcroft's show Stardust Boogie Woogie at Monika Bobinska's space.

serena korda talk

2011-01-24T13:18:00.000-08:00

see serena korda (bottom of page)
http://www.artquest.org.uk/projects/the-real-world.htm

mountain school of arts LA

2011-01-24T13:07:00.001-08:00

http://www.themountainschoolofarts.org/

Next Meeting Monday 24th January

2011-01-19T05:26:00.000-08:00

Question led by Louise Ashcroft and Helene Kazan:
Can curating be a mode of art practice?

(hover mouse over the page for links)

1. What is the mainstream definition of curating? How has it changed? The Cult of the curator.

2. Curators as artists? which curators have pushed their practice towards art? Richard Hamilton, Jeremy Millar, Grayson Perry.

3. How have artists used curatorial practice to make artwork?: Artists who think and work like curators, in particular, Jeremy Deller, Simon Starling, Mark Dion, Sophie Calle, Liam Gillick, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Art and Language, Superflex and The Centre of Attention. Non-gallery artist-curator projects eg. Rirkrit Tiravanija's The Land

4. Do any of us work in similar ways? Do we find these ideas exciting as ways of developing our own work and, if so, how might we do this? eg. Louise's curating, Helene's curating- is this work art practice?

5. Are artists the curator's medium?

6. Perhaps traditional curators only work with artists and finished objects, whereas artists who curate as part of their practice create relations within the ever-changing wider world?

Reading/Listening:

- Artquest podcast artist-curator 3: Gary O'Dwyer and Pierre Coinde (bottom of page, click on talk 3
- ICA podcast artist-curator (go to bottom of page and click to listen to mp3)
- Robert Smithson Cultural Confinement essay (online)
- video interview 'curating for the 21st century' with Hans Ulrich Obrist
- plus the links to artists (see above)

Lectures announced

2011-01-19T01:17:00.000-08:00

21 Febuary 2010: Ruth Höflich

http://www.ruthhoeflich.net/

http://www.guest-room.net/

14 March 2010: John Jordan

John Jordan’s work merges the imagination of art and the radical engagement of activism, creating new forms of participatory civil disobedience rather than representations of politics. Co-director of social art group Platform (1987-1995) he went on to work in the direct-action collective “Reclaim the Streets” (1995-2000). In 2003 he co-edited the book "We Are Everywhere: the irresistible rise of global anti-capitalism" (Verso). Senior lecturer in fine art at Sheffield Hallam University (1994 – 2003), he abandoned academia to work on the film "The Take" with Naomi Klein. In 2004 he stupidly formed the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army. He is now AWOL and works with the UK Climate Camp movements and runs the Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination, infamous for launching a rebel raft regatta to shut down a coal fired power station, turning bikes into machines of disobedience during the Copenhagen climate summit and pouring molasses over the BP sponsored Tate gallery. Showing work in places ranging from The museum of modern Art Barcelona to London's Squated Ramparts, the Arnolfini gallery Bristol to Hamburg's international Kampnagel theatre Festival, Tapie Biennial to Vienna's Tanz Quarter. He has just co-created a film-book with Isabelle Fremeaux, about postcapitalist life in Europe: Les Sentiers de l’Utopies, published by Editions Zones. He was recently labelled as a "Domestic Extremist" by the metropolitan police, but feels his lack of ironing skills make him unsuitable for the title.

Notes and links from Monday 10th January

2011-01-12T07:55:00.000-08:00

Participants

Claire Blundell Jones, Louise Ashcroft, Tom Estes, Lucie Galand, Steph Wehowski, Eva Lis, Kate Lepper, Paulina Michnowska, Ben Varney, David Snoo Wilson, Helene Kazan, Martina Miholic.

Some of the questions raised during the discussion:

Trangression as opposite of ideal?

Can vandalism help to change the world?

Transgressive art – is it just irritating?

Can it be conservative?

Is transgressive art a step towards something else?

Is it just the destruction of old values?

Can transgression be the by-product rather than the aim?

Is transgression radical?

Exploiting in order to denounce exploitation - can we not denounce without being exploitative?

Can we talk of effectiveness in art?

Artworks / Artists / etc (click on names)

Goya: The Disasters of War, Black Paintings

Jake and Dinos Chapman

Chris Morris: Blue Jam

Mark McGowan

Psychic TV

Slade's occupation
Jasmila Zbanic: Grbavica

WochenKlassur

Artur Zmijewski: 80064 (a concentration camp survivor has his number re-tattooed).

7th Berlin biennale's open call curated by Zmijewski.
The vacum cleaner (cultural resistance collective)
Renzo Martens in discussion with J.J. Charlesworth (watch here)
Renzo Martens' Episode 3: Analysis of a film process. (Article here)

Monday 10th - QUESTION by Eva Lis

2010-12-30T09:17:00.000-08:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Dear AltMFA

I hope you had a good Christmas break and I wish you all a very good New Year 2011.

I’m looking forward to see you on Monday 10^th of January.

I would like to propose a discussion about a role of art in the society and in particular if art should recognize moral boundaries and value of transgressive art form and shock art.

Reading list:

Jean Gimpel “Against Art and Artists”

Sven Lutticken “Idols of the Market”

John A Walker “Art in the Age of Mass Media”

Deborah Copaken “Adventures in Love and War”

Kieran Cashell “Aftershock-The ethics of Contemporary Transgressive Art”

Recommended list of artist:

Renzo Martens

Artur Zmijewski

Santiago Sierra

Carlos Garaicoa

Leo Tolstoy,

Jake and Dinos Chapman

Mary Kelly

Orlan

Paul McCarthy

Martina Abramovich

Please add artists that you would like to discuss

Additional artists (suggested by Steph): Genesis P-Orridge

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genesis_P-Orridge

Websites:

http://nkatz.org/blog/?p=376

http://www.newmediaministries.org/Morality/EthicsSection_S.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/13/magazine/13Psychology-t.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aesthetics

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transgressive_art

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shock_art

Video suggested by Steph about the role of the artist (I know it is a little weird, but replace the 'psychedelic experience' with role of the artist, maybe?!? I am happy to have a discussion about it at the next crit session) :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4z7_Is6oD4&feature=related

Christmas Holidays

2010-12-14T15:01:00.000-08:00

altMFA has broken up for the Christmas holidays! Our next meeting is 10th January 6.30pm.

If you would like to join us please email altmfalondon@gmail.com

Monday 13th December 6.30pm

2010-12-09T05:02:00.001-08:00

We met at Lucie's house in Stamford Hill for a group crit and Christmas drinks.
Lucie, Louise, Helene, Stef, Eva, Martina and Robbie attended. Robbie and Lucie discussed their work.

Monday 6th December

2010-12-03T16:29:00.000-08:00

Week 4: Question
What are the limitations on art practice?
PART 1: THE LAW
- Filming, recording, taking pictures in public spaces. What does the law say? When should artists break it?
A case study from the Civil Rights Movement about an artist arrested under terrorist act while filming. Read here.
- What are the consequences of the privatisation of public space on civil liberties? Article by Anna Minton 'These cities within cities are eating up Britain's streets'. Read here.
- The state and private bodies filming us: CCTV official government guidance. Read here.
- Gently exploring what is permissible in public space: 'Everything Is OK' best of. Watch here. And their youtube channel here.
Further reading: Anna Minton, Ground Control, Penguin Books, 2009
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LINKS AND NOTES FROM DISCUSSION

-City Ramblers

BOOK AND ESSAY

- 'Free Culture' by Lawrence Lessig available for free here

- 'Notes On Camp' by Susan Sontag

full text here

- About creative commons

ARTISTS

- Black Dogs - Leeds based art collective.

- John Jordan

http://www.social-sculpture.org/people/wider-network/johnjordan-platform.htm

- Christoph Schlingensief

About the project, Please Love Austria, a Big Brother parody in a container featuring asylum seekers supposedly competing for a residency visa.

Monday 29th November - CRIT

2010-11-29T14:41:00.000-08:00

We met at Lucie's house in Stamford Hill. Eva Lis, Louise Ashcroft, Robbie Lockwood, David Snoo Wilson, Helene Kazan, Martina Miholic and Lucie Galand attended. David, Eva, Louise and Helene presented their work. All the girls left with a cutting from the pink plant.

Next Meeting Monday 29th November 6.30pm

2010-11-25T09:10:00.000-08:00

Week 3: The next meeting will be Monday 29th November 6.30-9.30pm.
Meet at Lucie's house, Stamford Hill. Email us at altmfalondon@gmail.com if you plan to attend and we'll send you the exact address. The meeting is open to all, so you are welcome to bring friends. This will be a 'group crit' session during which we will discuss one another's art practice.

Thursday 25th November - QUESTION

2010-11-25T09:04:00.000-08:00

We met at Louise's house in Finsbury Park. Lucie Galand, Robbie Lockwood, Eva Lis, Tom Estes, Andrew Hepburn and Louise Ashcroft attended. We discussed Situationism and watched some of this video http://www.ubu.com/film/si.html . We discussed how we might use Situationist ideas today. We ate cake. We began a wish list of interesting people we would like to invite to talk at future seminars.
Further reading:
Leaving the 20th Century: The Incomplete Work of the Situationist International.
http://www.radicalbooks.co.uk/product/leaving-20th-century-incomplete-work-situationist-international
What is Situationism? By Stewart Home.
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1087084.What_is_Situationism_
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LINKS FROM DISCUSSION

Everything is ok - corporate property video

Artur Zmijewski - Applied Social Arts

2010-11-11T14:15:00.000-08:00

Re: next meeting wednesday 17th-
situationism and related movements

this has some quite useful info on situationism and politics:
http://issuu.com/typenowhere/docs/gedpalmer-istd

WEEK 2 (CRIT) + GUEST LECTURE

2010-11-08T06:57:00.000-08:00

We met and discussed the AltMFA project.

We discussed Lucie's wall project.

We watched the short film 'Girl chewing gum' by John Smith. Watch it here

Robbie Lockwood presented his Highly Subjective Romp Through Political Contemporary Music Without Words.

We listened to extracts of Bob Ostertag Voice of America part 2, Sooner or Later, Luigi Nono La Fabrica Illuminatta, Mathew Herbert Plat Du Jour.
Suggestion for further listening: Ilhan Mimoragalu, Sing Me a Song for Songmy.

Participants: Louise Ashcroft, Lucie Galand, Helene Kazan, Robbie Lockwood and Tom Estes.

GUEST LECTURE 1 ANNOUNCED

2010-11-04T05:26:00.000-07:00

'A Highly Subjective Romp Through Political Contemporary Music Without Words'

By Robbie Lockwood . Sunday 7th November at 3.30.

We're having a group crit session on the same day- from 12.30

If interested, email altmfalondon@gmail.com

www.altmfa.com is live!

2010-11-02T03:38:00.000-07:00

WEEK 1 GROUP QUESTION

2010-11-01T08:03:00.000-07:00

Suggested by Lucie Galand: Radical Education
- We met at the Wheatsheaf Pub in Stamford Hill.

- We read and discussed an introduction to Radical Education bu David Hicks. Read here.

- We read and discussed a short text by Radical Education Collective based in Ljubliana. Read here.

- We watched the Pinky Show film called 'Encounter on Radical Education: Cats in Slovenia'. Watch here.

Other eeading suggested:

Janna Graham's article Love in a time of hedging... or how to break out of an alien world.

JJ charlesworth article: Crisis at the ICA Ekow Eshun's experiment in deinstitutionalisation.

GROUP PLANNING MEETING

- Website went online.

- Suggestion of lecture about Sound and Politics.