Mute's Public Life, 2002
Events
In 2002, Mute attempted to run regular bi-weekly socials at the famous toilet-turned-events space Public Life, opposite London's Spitalfields Market. Our tacit premise was that, under pressure from intense forces of stratification, the new media community was atomising to the point of irrelevance and a regular dose of face2face wouldn't go amiss. We were soon trumped by the logistical imperative (the sheer amount of time and energy required to organise regular events has made us fawning admirers of anyone who can), but made a stab at it with evenings of performance (John Paul Bichard does live art at Habbo Hotel), talks by net.artists (Vuk Cosic in conversation with Armin Medosch), and straight forward chatting and drinking.
Public Life's solo ringleader Siraj Izhar closed operations in 2004, but is presently working on associated documentation and archiving. He has also placed two interesting essays ruminating on his experiences of this unique space, London's gentrification process and the global turn towards flexibilisation at the website Publiclife.org.
