<nettime> A creative (un)commons
Via: David garcia
A Creative (Un)commons
In September 2006 the Amsterdam organisation Virtual Platform acted
as a catalyst for a small group of artists, designers and researchers
to organize a small meeting (of about 50 people) designed to take a
closer look at the dynamics and wider implications in the growth of
multi-dimensional interdisciplinary collaboration.
The meeting was a process of comparative analysis between a small
spectrum of case studies. Presenters of the case studies were
encouraged (begged) to avoid the usual parade of success stories and
bring us problems and loose ends-that might even be tied up across
projects!-. Presentations were short and most of the meeting was spent
with each case study being unpicked by our invited interlocutors made
up of practitioners, organizers and thinkers (even a few policy wonks
were allowed in).
The case studies we identified represented different categories of
collaborative practice from pragmatic projects with pre-defined
outcomes through to individual artist's placements with open ended
expectations. We looked at new educational models, lab cultures
-innovation or media labs- and of course the ubiquitous profession of
the cultural broker, mediator, connector, translator. In short those
whose practices which involves finding the 'structural hole or gaps
between social clusters with complementary resources'. Later on, once
the book (below) was in pre-production, we drew on a wider spectrum of
categories with more critical perspectives.
Why (Un)common Ground The term (Un)common Ground emerged during the
early planning stages. We had been working on the lazy assumption
that when very different (apparently irreconcilable) cultures succeed
in connecting it was as a result of identifying 'common ground'. But
actually far more frequently we found the opposite to be the case. The
most successful encounters were in fact founded on a willingness (in
fact a desire) to occupy 'uncommon ground'. The generally unexpressed
need was for a kind of creative estrangement from the assumptions that
underpinned the usual networks and rituals. Creative energy actually
flowed fro being able to dramatize differences and allowing for the
dissonances that attend genuine pluralism. We found that many were
happy to dwell in uncommonness, and we enjoyed imagining a 'creative
un- commons'.
The notion of uncommon ground helped to bring many hybrid practices,
professions and organizations into a new kind of focus, for example
the ubiquitous and hard to define phenomenon of the media lab
suddenly seemed to have a clearer function of either bridging or
'being' uncommon ground, triggering and supporting conversations to
occur across difference. The term offered an appealing heuristic
suggesting ways of avoiding many of the risks of 'common ground' as a
default setting, with its implicit reductiveness and presumptions of
convergence of either interests or outcomes.
Later
The meeting last September generated enough interest (and critique)
to make a book possible. So we moved quickly to widen our network and
enter into multiple dialogues with possible contributors (the book
has four editors). Currently with continuing institutional support we
will continue to track our early case studies whilst continuing to
widen our network. On the 26th of April (this Thursday as I write)
we will develop the discussion to begin with at the Enter Unknown
Territories Festival in Cambridge (UK) www.enternet.org.uk with both
a panel discussion, informal planning sessions and the book launch.
These small sessions will be the basis from which to plan the more
substantial (Un)common Ground expert meeting planned in Amsterdam for
September 2007, as a partner event at Picnic 07.
Below (for those interested) is a more formal announcement about the
book and its contents and its contributors.
David Garcia
A Creative (Un)commons
In September 2006 the Amsterdam organisation Virtual Platform acted
as a catalyst for a small group of artists, designers and researchers
to organize a small meeting (of about 50 people) designed to take a
closer look at the dynamics and wider implications in the growth of
multi-dimensional interdisciplinary collaboration.
The meeting was a process of comparative analysis between a small
spectrum of case studies. Presenters of the case studies were
encouraged (begged) to avoid the usual parade of success stories and
bring us problems and loose ends-that might even be tied up across
projects!-. Presentations were short and most of the meeting was spent
with each case study being unpicked by our invited interlocutors made
up of practitioners, organizers and thinkers (even a few policy wonks
were allowed in).
The case studies we identified represented different categories of
collaborative practice from pragmatic projects with pre-defined
outcomes through to individual artist's placements with open ended
expectations. We looked at new educational models, lab cultures
-innovation or media labs- and of course the ubiquitous profession of
the cultural broker, mediator, connector, translator. In short those
whose practices which involves finding the 'structural hole or gaps
between social clusters with complementary resources'. Later on, once
the book (below) was in pre-production, we drew on a wider spectrum of
categories with more critical perspectives.
Why (Un)common Ground The term (Un)common Ground emerged during the
early planning stages. We had been working on the lazy assumption
that when very different (apparently irreconcilable) cultures succeed
in connecting it was as a result of identifying 'common ground'. But
actually far more frequently we found the opposite to be the case. The
most successful encounters were in fact founded on a willingness (in
fact a desire) to occupy 'uncommon ground'. The generally unexpressed
need was for a kind of creative estrangement from the assumptions that
underpinned the usual networks and rituals. Creative energy actually
flowed fro being able to dramatize differences and allowing for the
dissonances that attend genuine pluralism. We found that many were
happy to dwell in uncommonness, and we enjoyed imagining a 'creative
un- commons'.
The notion of uncommon ground helped to bring many hybrid practices,
professions and organizations into a new kind of focus, for example
the ubiquitous and hard to define phenomenon of the media lab
suddenly seemed to have a clearer function of either bridging or
'being' uncommon ground, triggering and supporting conversations to
occur across difference. The term offered an appealing heuristic
suggesting ways of avoiding many of the risks of 'common ground' as a
default setting, with its implicit reductiveness and presumptions of
convergence of either interests or outcomes.
Later
The meeting last September generated enough interest (and critique)
to make a book possible. So we moved quickly to widen our network and
enter into multiple dialogues with possible contributors (the book
has four editors). Currently with continuing institutional support we
will continue to track our early case studies whilst continuing to
widen our network. On the 26th of April (this Thursday as I write)
we will develop the discussion to begin with at the Enter Unknown
Territories Festival in Cambridge (UK) www.enternet.org.uk with both
a panel discussion, informal planning sessions and the book launch.
These small sessions will be the basis from which to plan the more
substantial (Un)common Ground expert meeting planned in Amsterdam for
September 2007, as a partner event at Picnic 07.
Below (for those interested) is a more formal announcement about the
book and its contents and its contributors.
David Garcia
comments
No new comments allowed (anymore) on this post.