Spurse info

SPURSE WORKSHOP INFO etc.

February 4, 9-5 & February 5, 9-4

FPRD 203

WORKSHOP CONTENT -- you won't be locked in a room for all that time, there will be activities and you will move around (that's why it's important if you're going to pop in and out that you be there are the start to get oriented.)

Their description of planned activities (these are DIRECT QUOTES from the artists involved) follows:

short version: "The workshop would involve: lecture, discussion, model making, diagramming, drawing, library and internet research, mini presentations, documentation, perhaps some collecting, eating and whathaveyou"

longer version: "This is the basic idea. Workshop would begin to figure out what this means and how it comes together as a system and object and method. We are interested in thinking of the idea of "wetland" and its inbetween status (neither land nor water) as a way of thinking about other related dichotomies (nature/culture, inside/outside, self/other) -- and to find ways in which to develop conceptual alternatives. Concretely - to bring something inside the museum it needs to go through an elaborate process to remove all harmful living organisms (all living organisms). Thus maintaining a strong and absolute distinction between nature and culture and inside and outside. At the same time the inside of the museum is full of living organisms(bacteria, fungi, microscopic insects). These invisibilities make up essentially all of life - what is visible is a trivial few percent. They also form a key part of ourselves- it is better to think of the human as a complex eco-systemic collaboration of 300+ species - rather than a single entity. Thus both the self and its institutions are quite different from how they are conceptualized. We would like to develop some form of self contained system that would collect, sample, and grow these organisms both inside and outside the museum. We would like to develop this idea in the workshop. [É ] Ideally this would become a full fledged collaboration."

Eloquent discussion of worker vs. collaboration I promised you:

"We are interested in collaborators and not workers. Obviously this is a complex and nebulous area but we are committed to this - (obviously we are interested in certain areas, topic etc. -- also we are interested in individuals or groups developing related projects as part of the final show). the concept of the workshop is to present a series of ideas and concerns and then collectively think through these items towards a project - breaking up into smaller groups to focus on different aspects or versions. We do not begin these things with an image or even an idea in mind - just a region to explore. The more one knows could be helpful but the reading is optional - we will bring some materials with us for those still interested. We are interested in beginning this project from rethinking certain notions of identity that is informed by theories of symbiogenesis (kropotkin's mutual aid is one of the first books in this regard, also obviously relates to the development of anarchism etc etc. there is a great book on this history 'concepts of symbiogenesis: a historical and critical study of the research of russian botanists" by khakhina). Much of this is part of a general liberal education or curiosity so I imagine people know something about these topics and wetlands etc. We will be giving a type of cliff notes at our lecture. And will be discussing these ideas more indepth as part of the workshop so people could arrive with less preparation. In regards to region - we will all be beginners. We are very much looking forward to this - and are very excited about the opportunities."

BASIC THINGS TO CONSIDER

1. The Interventionists Text in general... if you didn't get the second edition, then you need to read the forward to the second edition, which is very relevant. Here is a one-page PDF,portrait format. Of course you want to read about SPURSE.

2. Check out SPURSE's website, statements, philosophies etc. http://www.spurse.org

3. You could also get some background by reading about Marxism in d'Alleva's Look! Again! Marxist theory is nowadays sometimes called "social cultural" theory b/c some people insist on thinking Marxism = Communism = bad = kill the commies. Like Kropotkin, however, (and however misapplied these guys' philosophies were by *other* people), Marx wanted a society that valued and respected the "worker" as opposed to abusing the "worker" so that a corporation or government could profit. Kropotkin thought that the best model for society was the "peasant society" (before landowners and governments got involved) where everyone equally shared the workload AND the resulting profits. A society that barters goods or services instead of using an abstract currency such as MONEY would be preferred as the abstraction that MONEY creates leads to fundamental inequalities among the members of a community.

PDFs of the readings (hey, I'm a PDF scanner beginner. These are readable but not "pretty" in the traditional sense... I'm working on it)

Reading #1 Inna Semetsky, "The Problematics of Human Subjectivity: Gilles Deleuze and the Deweyan Legacy." (Portrait format for printing - 15 pp.).

Reading #2 P. A. Kropotkin, Selected Writings on Anarchism and Revolution (Landsape format for printing - 24 pp.)

Reading #3 Lynn Margulis, Dorian Sagan, Acquiring Genomes: A Theory of the Origins of Species (Landscape format for printing - 18 pp.)

Reading #4 "Recapitualtion and Conclusion" from The Darwin Reader (ed. Marson Bates). (Landscape format for printing - 13 pp.).

Reading #5 Fritjof Capra, "The Web of Life," is available at the following URL: http://www.tcd.ie/Physics/Schrodinger/Lecture3.html (Portrait format for printing - 9 pp.)

Reading #6 is Gauri Viswanathan, Outside the Fold: Conversion, Modernity and Belief. You can read a chapter at the following address: http://www.pupress.princeton.edu/chapters/s6250.html

LINKS you *might* find of interest

My search for explanations of "Subject Formation Theory" yielded the following (no definitions were available; you can find bits and pieces at these sites. I found very interesting that Lacan, Butler and Kristeva have written on the subject... which clearly indicates the Feminism connection to Subject Formation Theory... although SPURSE won't be implementing the Feminist version.)

http://www.protevi.com/john/DG/Lacan_notes.html

http://soc.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/39/5/965

http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/en/heartfield-james.htm

http://web.mit.edu/~philos/wogap/ESWIP02/Thiem.htm

http://www.uta.edu/english/apt/d&g/d&gweb.html

Definitions of symbiogenesis on the web:

"The evolutionary origin of new morphologies and physiologies by symbiosis." http://www.tim-taylor.com/papers/thesis/html/node234.html

"Symbiogenesis refers to the merging of two separate organisms to form a single new organism. The idea originated with Konstantin Mereschkowsky in his 1926 book Symbiogenesis and the Origin of Species, who proposed that chloroplasts originated from cyanobacteria captured by a protozoan. Today both chloroplasts and mitochondria are believed to have such an origin; see endosymbiotic hypothesis." http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbiogenesis

Biology version of Wikepedia: http://www.biocrawler.com/encyclopedia/Symbiogenesis

Definitions of web of life on the Web:

1. Scientists, historians, social analysts, and a philosopher/poet ponder the human quest to understand and control the genetic basis of life and consider the origins, myths, and potential of our attempts to shape our biological legacy. http://www.si.edu/resource/faq/siworld.htm

2. Refers to the interactions and connections between all living things. http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/canwaters-eauxcan/bbb-lgb/library-bibliotheque/glossary-glossaire/index_e.asp

Some fun & funky sites that reference the Web of Life

http://www.kidsplanet.org/wol/index.html let the cartoon spider teach you about the web of life!

http://www.fieldmuseum.org/biodiversity explore this Chicago museum's information.... this is a GREAT museum, btw...

About Deleuze (I love this guy's work, btw, I highly recommend 1000 Plateaus, which he wrote with Guattari).

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

http://www.egs.edu/resources/deleuze.html

About Kropotkin:

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

http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/kropotkin/Kropotkinarchive.html

http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/kropotkin-peter/index.htm