Location: Ben Pimlott Building, Seminar Room, Digital Studios, Goldsmiths University of London, New Cross SE14 6NW

This one-day workshop lead by Armin Medosch and Adnan Hadzi, uncovers and examines some of the challenges and opportunities faced when creative artistic practice is undertaking research. The challenge is to find ways of re-embedding useful aspects of free and open source methodologies in academic practice-based arts and technology research. How do we incorporate and negotiate research in those areas of work which are strongly inter- and trans-disciplinary? The workshop will address and discuss some of the generic, rather than discipline-specific, challenges of undertaking practice-based research within academia. It will draw on open and collaborative (FLOSS) methodologies by proposing and discussing a diverse range of taxonomies and practices.

____________________________________________________________________________________

Disclosures
27th March - 18th May 2008
Gasworks and offsite locations, London

Organised by Anna Colin and Mia Jankowicz
http://www.gasworks.org.uk

Disclosures is a multi-faceted project that looks at the manifestations of Open Source methodologies in fields of cultural production outside of the Internet. Openness – or its technological underpinning, Open Source – here refers to situations in which the viewer, reader, listener or Internet user becomes emancipated through egalitarian participation, collaborative authorship and/or the breaking down of hierarchical and social boundaries.

If openness is found in varied cultural practices, it matches certain systems and economies (internet-based or media practices) better than others (the artworld or the film and music industries). Issues around Intellectual Property and copyright – and the question of whether or not diffuse authorship and unrestrictive distribution are financially viable – come immediately to mind. Meanwhile, assessing the socio-economic, political and cultural conditions for openness is a necessary step.

A second reading of openness revolves around the idea of transparency and of availability of information. Of relevance here are practices which are committed to releasing public information and resources that have been out of civic reach for political, economic, historic or bureaucratic reasons. Disclosures will address histories and genealogies that inscribe themselves outside of the rigid bonds of ‘monopolistic’ versus ‘alternative’ social and cultural activity.

A range of practitioners, from tactical media practitioners, to cultural theorists, music producers and artists, will help identify and discuss references and strategies that have been common to two interrelated areas of practice: critical media practice and socially-collaborative work in the expanded visual art field. The various facets of the project will attempt to find a common language and to set up the basis for improved understanding and greater collaboration between the two fields.

Other dates for your diary:

Ongoing: DISCLOSURES | VIEW -ON-DEMAND FILM & READING LIBRARY | 11 APRIL - 18 MAY 2008

I’ve got the books, you’ve got the brains…

Open Wednesday-Sunday, 12.00-18.00.
At Gasworks, 155 Vauxhall Street, London SE11 5RH. Nearest tubes: Oval and Vauxhall.

Gasworks’ exhibition space has been adapted for a view-on-demand film and reading library. Its purpose is to bring together texts and works that have been invaluable in the development of Disclosures and which are ordered according to the four seminar themes. As such, it is inevitably a non-authoritative and incomplete selection, but ideally serves as an entry point and base for further exploration.

Visitors are encouraged to browse, watch and read within the three spaces: a projeâ—Šion room for large-scale films, small screening room for screen-based works and a comfortable reading room. According to license, selected texts will be available for photocopying or locating online.

Works by: Shaina Anand | Amy Balkin | Neil Cummings, Marysia Lewandowska, Eileen Simpson, Ben White | Carles Guerra | Manu Luksch | Nicoline von Harskamp | Tsila Hassine | Abhishek Hazra | Kurator | The League of Noble Peers | Oliver Ressler | Ashok Sukumaran

An ongoing list of texts and works can be found at http://pipeline.gasworks.org.uk/library

FLOATING EVENTS

Date: Sunday 18 May, 12.00-20.00
Location: Gasworks
Screening: La Commune (1999) dir. Peter Watkins (duration 345 min). Includes breaks with refreshments, food and discussions. This event will mark the closing of the library.

Disclosures is supported by Arts Council England, Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, Henry Moore Foundation and the Austrian Cultural Forum, London. Disclosures is part of NODE.London Spring '08.

Gasworks
155 Vauxhall Street
London SE11 5RH
+44 (0)20 7587 5202
info@gasworks.org.uk
www.gasworks.org.uk