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postgraduate program, workshop

Agency ASSEMBLY WITH THINGS

10-13 October 2016 / a.pass

Thing 001390, and Thing 001652

Bildschirmfoto 2016-08-30 um 07.07.59

Agency constitutes a growing “list of things” that resist the radical split between the classifications of nature and culture. This list of things is mostly derived from juridical cases and controversies involving intellectual property (copyrights, patents, trade marks, etc.) in various territories around the world. The concept of intellectual property relies upon the fundamental assumption of the split between culture and nature and consequently between expressions and ideas, creations and facts, subjects and objects, humans and non-humans, originality and tradition, individuals and collectives, mind and body, etc.. Each “thing” or controversy, included on the list, witnesses a hesitation in terms of these divisions. Agency calls these “things” forth from its list via varying “assemblies” inside exhibitions, performances, publications, and other forms. Each assembly speculates around possible inclusions of excluded agencies. These fabulations explore in a topological way the operative consequences of the apparatus of intellectual property for an ecology of art practices and their modes of existence.

In terms of intellectual property law the commons are often determined by the vague demarcation like between what is “common” and what is “original”. The controversies that Kobe Matthys of Agency will invoke during the workshop bring about the absurdities of this division in artistic, philosophical and other terms. In this workshop we will also put some existing legal precedents in relation to our own practices and speculate around other potential scenarios, other lines of thoughts than the juridical argumentation of copyright law, possible diverging situations and beyond.

For this workshop Agency proposes an work amongst others with two Things that are directly connocted to questions of the commons Commons. Discussing and unfolding the problematics of these cases we try to localize the gray zones in our own researches, our relationship to objects and the reality that create ‚us and them’.

Thing 001390 (Ten dollar bank note)

According to Aboriginal tradition the Morning Star Pole is imbued with the power to take the spirits of the dead to the Morning Star, which will return them to their ancestral home. While a pole is part of the communal ceremony, it is made in secret in accordance with (common) religious rules.

In 1985, the artist Terry Yumbulul, himself member of the Galpu people, made morning star poles and sold one of them to the Australian Museum in Sidney.

In 1988, the Reserve Bank of Australia released a special $10 bank note to commemorate the first

European settlement in Australia incorporating elements of a reproduction of that specific Morning Star Pole. After Yumbulul was criticized by his community for permitting the reproduction of the pole on the banknote, he initiated an action against the Bank for infringement of his copyright.The court defended the copyright of the Bank.

Thing 001652 (Monkey’s Selfies)

In 2011 an individual of the so called crested macaques ape manipulated the camera of the wild life photographer David Slater and shot coincidentally an image of itself. The image became famous as the Monkey’s Selfie. It was published in an online version of Daily Mail and on Wikipedia – in Daily Mail the copyright notice read: „Copyright Casters News Service“; Wikipedia considered the picture as public domain. In consequence Mr. Slater himself, Copyright Offices and animal right groups started to fight with different arguments for and against a possible copyright of this picture.


 

 

Biography

“Agency” is an international initiative that was founded in 1992 by Kobe Matthys and has office in Brussels. Agency constitutes a growing “list of things” that resist the radical split between the classifications of nature and culture. This list of things is mostly derived from juridical cases and controversies involving intellectual property (copyrights, patents, trade marks, etc…) in various territories around the world. The concept of intellectual property relies upon the fundamental assumption of the split between culture and nature and consequently between expressions and ideas, creations and facts, subjects and objects, humans and non-humans, originality and tradition, individuals and collectives, mind and body, etc…. Each “thing” or controversy, included on the list, witnesses a hesitation in terms of these divisions. Agency calls these “things” forth from its list via varying “assemblies” inside exhibitions, performances, publications, etc… Each assembly speculates around possible inclusions. As a whole the assemblies explore in a topological way the operative consequences of the apparatus of intellectual property for an ecology of diverse art practices and their modes of existence.

On Days Like These We Must Surf from Jake Kovnat on Vimeo.





information, postgraduate program

ENGAGING IN THE BLOCK

Collective moments (opening week, half-way-days, and end week) are compulsory for everybody

Beside the collective moments you should engage in alt least 2 workshops proposed in thes block, of which one should be  b-workshop. B-workshops are this block Vladimir’s ‘Theory Under The Commons’ workshop and Mala’s ‘With I+II’ workshop.

In order to participate in the Common Conference at the end of the block, you should at least take part in half of the Friday open space sessions.

In order to keep the a.pass archive alive, we have to feed it! Therefore, we would like to introduce the concept of the Caretaker: all a.pass event – workshops and common moments – should be hosted and documented by participants.

You will have one coordinator’s mentoring with Kristien to orientate yourself within a.pass and your own research.

During the block you normally have two meetings with either 2 or 3 mentors of your choice. Please read the specific mentoring strategies for this block. 

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project

KunstAllmend

18 December-21 September 2014

Art as commons

P1360510
The KunstAllmend is a collective project experimenting with alternative artistic economies to redefine conditions for artistic production. Reflective of the commons active in the Swiss Alps for centuries, the KunstAllmend transposes this traditional model upon contemporary discussions concerning the management of common resources, authorship and copyright – a position standing in opposition to that of the artmarket. The Allmend model functions as a promising problematic rather than a ready-made solution. The KunstAllmend is a project of the Dampfzentrale in collaboration with the Transnational Art’s Commons for the Bern Biennial.
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postgraduate program, research center

2016 BLOCK III

1 September-30 November 2016

2016 POST-GRADUATE PROGRAM AND RESEARCH PROJECTS SUMMARY
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postgraduate program

Nicolas Galeazzi BLOCK 2016/III: COMMONS

5 September-4 December 2016

Fisheyed apass panorama
This block investigates commons economies in the context of the arts. It invests in an experimental setup to expand the notion of economy and appropriate it as an artistic practice. For this reflection we will try to model with you our own specific commons economy for holding a shared responsibility of our individual researches - respectively that ‚common economy’, that emerges while we work together.
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postgraduate program, workshop

Nicolas Galeazzi Opening week 2016/III workshop: Gathering things

5-14 September 2016 / a.pass

packman
With this commoning workshop embedded in the opening week, we emphasise - and radicalize what normally the opening week is focussing on: we share our researches! Sharing this time, is not only a means to update each other about the actual state of our researches, but literally to make them to a common issue.
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information, postgraduate program

MENTORING STRATEGIES Block III/2016

5 September-4 December 2016

The dedicated mentors for this block are Femke Snelting, Kate Rich, Geert Opsomer and Philippine Hoegen.

According to your needs, you can choose for either 2 or 3 mentors.

In order to challenge you with a specific context and language of mentoring we would like to suggest for this block, that the team of mentors proposes one of those 2 or 3 mentors to you. We would like to experiment with this possibly confronting, contrasting, or specific support to your research.  With each of the 2 or 3 mentors you will have 4 hours of mentoring throughout the block.

Since the dedicated mentors will present themselves in the opening week and will attend all your presentations you will be able to decide on your mentors at the end of the first week.

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postgraduate program, workshop

ECONOMY, AN INTRODUCTION

13-13 September 2016 / Kate Rich

Nodnol2
A one-day sortie into the darker macro arts of Economics, a field in which artists are regularly and perhaps wilfully unschooled.
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performative publishing, project

Change Log of Common Things

14 September-4 December 2016

common thing - 1
This page is a log board for tracing the canges and alternations of common things (or 'item') that has be brought in to the common space as a common research good.
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postgraduate program, workshop

Nicolas Galeazzi Friday Open Space

16 September-25 November 2016 / a.pass

The Magna carta Manifesto
Every Friday of this block - from 16th September till the Common Conference - we will come together for a concentrated commoning session. In oder to concretely practice and practically inquire the general question of the block - what is created in common? - we try to establish an open space practice that allows pursuing the individual research interests while focussing at the same time on interrelations amongst these researches and the common interests.
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postgraduate program, workshop

Mala Kline “WITH I/II”: Communal Dreaming

19 September-17 November 2016 / a.pass

Commons_rasterfahndung
In two complementary workshops at the beginning and towards the end of the block, we explore the practical and theoretical implications of working with the concept of the “With” (Nancy) with-in the affective relational space between singularities. In the process of co-articulation of singularities to be “with” is to be exposed, at the limit of oneself, entangled with another singularity and distinguished from it.
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postgraduate program, workshop

Vladimir Miller THEORIES UNDER THE COMMONS

26-30 September 2016

Commons is_
This workshop will be an attempt to „come to terms“, to create shared reference points within the commons discourse among the workshop participants. We will read discuss and map a selection of texts which lay the groundwork for understanding the commons debate today and we will make ourselves familiar with a reader, which can be a further reference for discussions and in depth reading throughout the block.
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end presentation, performative publishing, postgraduate program

Isabel Burr Raty; Thiago Antunes; Esteban Donoso UNDER )o( MINING

27-30 September 2016 / Zsenne Artlab

cover_logo
Three research will be presented: "Beauty kit focus group": Isabel Burr Raty will be presenting bio-products that she fabricates from a variety of substances collected from her womb. "Welcome and please do not turn the page": A reading game performance around authority, obedience and participation, inspired by civic integration programs. By Thiago Antunes. "Table Movie": Esteban Donoso hosts a moment of collective fiction; to create an imaginary film using our senses as recording devices.
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postgraduate program, workshop

Einat Tuchman & VK COMMUNAL GARDENS

31 October-3 November 2016 / VK (Vaarkapoen, Molenbeek)

Bildschirmfoto 2016-07-24 um 16.38.46
Vaarkapoen is a community center in the heart of Molenbeek, quite near of a.pass. One of their projects is to develop communal garden as an open space for a general public use in connection to an artistic residency place. During the workshop we will examine the existing and the future garden through each ones personal artistic researches.
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postgraduate program, workshop

Michael Bauwens / KaaiTheater Ten New Practices of the Great Transition

14-14 November 2016 / a.pass / KaaiTheater

michel_bauwens
The KaaiTheater kindly invites us to participate in a one day Workshop with of the most experienced activist, philosopher and commons advisor in Belgium. He is working as much with gras root movements as he advises e.g. Ecuador in reorganizing parts of their state structure as a commons.
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conference, postgraduate program, research center

a.pass, KaaiTheater The Artist Commoner : Public Meeting

25-26 November 2016 / KaaiStudios - Onze-Lieve-Vrouw van Vaakstraat 81 // 1000 Brussel.

(self) Education of new subjectivities

the artist commoner
During a two day event, a.pass welcomes a gathering of researchers, artists, a.pass program participants and public to engage with the struggle of being an artist commoner today, and the role of (educational) institutions in bringing this subject about. Two days of presentations, exchanges and commoning practices. Two days of ateliers, books launches, performances, workshops and discussions.
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conference, performative publishing, research center

Between what is no longer and what is not yet

26 November 2016

retrato johnny

Performance in the context of a.pass’ public meeting The Artist Commoner. (Self) Education of New Subjectivities

Dominguez wants to suspend events and create an interval of time in which he can try to integrate his past into his future. He will translate his visions and his desire to encounter the unknown through language. Dominguez is working alone for the first time in 14 years. Back then, he choreographed his work with labeled cards. Now, he’ll speak himself and give rise to a self-portrait that cites himself and some of his friends.

 

Limited capacity! 8/10/12€.

Tickets via Kaaitheater:

 



APPLY TO THE A.PASS PROGRAMMES

Unfortunately we no longer have applications. Both programs: the Postgraduate as well as Research Center have come to an end due to the decision of the ministry of education to stop financing a.pass. At the moment we look into new plans for the future. More news soon on our website.

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Every application will be offered a copy while stocks last of the a.pass publication In These Circumstances: a collection of methodologies, insights, experiences, ideas, researches from 15 years of a.pass. If you like to receive a copy then please provide an address below.




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