PANEL DISCUSSION
People, Place and Distributed Communities
21/06/2008 // 11:30 – 13:30 // Clube Português de Artes e Ideias // Largo Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro, 29, 2o [ao Chiado]
AS PART OF: FESTIVAL UM// international festival for experimental and mixed media
// Lisbon, Portugal, 19-22 June
organized by Teresa Dillon
The panel discussion “People, Place and Distributed Communities” addressed the forms of movement and architectures for participation, which emerge through bottom-up and ground-level initiatives, from independent artist groups and communities,that often address concerns with local context and resources and their expansion to a more global reach (facilitated by digital media).
The speakers addressed the implications of such approaches, namely issues that are essential to the success of any community based on projects they have initiated and been involved with. Starting with Luís Silva’s talk on rhizome and The upgrade lisbon as different strategies for engagement and collaboration, Teresa Dillon addressed some essential concepts for the understanding of collaborative networks and communities, that linked to Paulo Raposo’s personal standpoint exemplified with his work with SIRR.
Communities, center and peripheries was Luís Silva’s starting point on the two projects he is involved in, Rhizome and TheUpgrade!Lisbon, focusing on the structuring role of such communities in the development and nurturing of the new media art field, both in central and in peripheral settings. He introduced rhizome and it’s inception as a discussion list that emerged from a need to communicate and collaborate later developing as an online platform. As distributed network with an online centralized platform for communication, rhizome has two main components (the Discussion and the Artbase) that emerged from a need for closeness and discussion on relevant topics for the community and also a growing need to archive and preserve a body of work that is often characterized by it’s ephemeral nature.
One question that the two examples brought was the relation between independent and more institutionalized models. This somewhat controversial question was illustrated by rhizome (and it’s new relation with the New museum in NY) and was also implied in the creation of the lisbon node of the upgrade and it’s connection to the “Lisboa20 ArteContemporânea” gallery. The need for financial support and the legitimation in an institutional context of a new media art scene were reasons that moved “cool independent” initiatives to a more institutional status.
The question of locality already implied in “the upgrade” network was stressed by Teresa Dillon that referred to NIP’s relation to locality. Using metaphors from navigation and concepts within geography and social psychology, she stressed the issue of trust as essential element to the kinds of communications, behaviors and relations that emerge as a basic form of survival for and within a network.
Teresa pointed out that bottom-up initiatives take advantage of “the carrying capacity” of place, (it’s embodied meanings) and the way we engage in locality. Like in a “way-finding” process, meaning emerges when creating a network, when creating systems that deals with change, risk taking and uncertainty. Essential to the sustainability of this networks is a sense of common good, a kind of “altruism” that can promote durable bonds. Trust then comes as an essential factor in maintaining human relations that consolidate these networks over time.
Linking different people and geographies was Paulo Raposo’s way of stressing the importance of human relation in the process he initiated with SIRR, a independent organization that gathers artists in the field of contemporary experimental sound art worldwide. He talked about SIRR as a projects based in shared interests, that do not tie to the confines of a local scene, and referred to his personal departure point as “potential” for a community. SIRR grew from personal and independent initiative trying to transcend established boundaries (economical, cultural or aesthetic) and to move between peripheries.
The different models and architectures underlined reveal how the networks emerge from a need for communication and discussion, a need for closeness between peripheral niches that share common interests. As Luís Silva stressed, the need to raise awareness and the search for a global reach can lead to models where the independent initiatives become more institutionalized. On the other hand the capacity to generate meaning, the “carrying capacity of place” that Teresa pointed out feed the sense of community rooted, like a social enculturation process. Linking the speakers discourse was also the idea that shared interests and common goals strongly rely on human relations, and on the consolidation of bonds that tie bottom-up initiatives and forms of collaboration that are essential for their growth and sustainability.
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Unfortunately Takuto Lippit could not join the panel discussion (representing STEIM), due to the recent death of Michel Waisvisz, the inspiring director of STEIM for over 27 years that Dillon and Ivan Franco had homaged the day before.
