PUBLIC
a research project by Elaine W. Ho & Fotini Lazaridou-Hatzigoga
January 22 – February 1, 2009
PUBLIC is the first in a series of research projects to be hosted by PROGRAM. Organized as a daily series of experiments, interventions and discourses, PUBLIC aims to examine the potentiality of latency and open spaces made possible in the relations between individuals and publics.
Your participation is requested. Individuals in good health between the ages of 15 and 80 are invited to take part. Activities will be updated here daily; please see the schedule above to find which suit(s) you best.
The PUBLIC project comprises a number of experimental investigations taking part in multiple phases, the first of which began in the Autumn of 2008 in the city of Beijing. There, video documentation of a series of gatherings in public spaces were examined both in context and as an abstraction, and the gestures, passing shapes and micro-scale narratives thus recorded became the first research material of the project (presented as a work-in-progress at the Beijing Independent Film Festival in November 2008).
Now in this second phase, we come to a Berlin without the density of the multitudinous masses dotted all over Beijing, and the more abstract sense of Berlin’s “scenes” begs the question of social gathering in a very different sense. As the word “participation” seems to be the mot du jour in current art and socio-politics here, the question of the individual in relation to any larger organ becomes more and more relevant. What is repeatedly brought to our attention is the transitive space exemplified by the moment of participation, or the liminality in which individuals in space become groups, collectivities or crowds. While a public seems to rest conditionally upon its manifestation of itself, or a certain self-awareness that engenders its own publicity, these Berlin experiments are more involved at the scale of the latent or indirectly communicated. In this sense, a gathering in public space is regarded from a different set of relationships—relationality as another opening of space, whereby a public is created as a multiplicity of encounters and individual relations—a whole that is not merely the sum of its parts.
PUBLIC is a project by Elaine W. Ho and Fotini Lazaridou-Hatzigoga. Between January 22 and February 1, the space of PROGRAM will be open to the public during select hours as a research headquarters and exhibition space.
an "Opening" of Critical Mass
Not much makes it an object of itself, stay just a little bit longer. 527 places
photograph by Gao Ling
a Warm-Up
A passing-by could be a getting ready, getting to know. Places unlimited, in rotation.
a Video-Making
Six players required for 4 hours of a co-produced non-narrative film shot at various locations throughout Berlin. Scenes are gestural or performative, sculptural or atmospheric, depending upon the group and the weather. 6 places, interested players please RSVP.
a Reading Group
We will be discussing an excerpt from Hardt & Negri's Multitude and a few selections from Alejandra Riera's Inquiry into the/our outside (shown at Documenta 12). Interested parties should e-mail reserve a place for the meeting, and a PDF version of the text will be sent upon confirmation. 15 places
a Spring Festival
Class I only, the Year of the Bull, slow and steady. Taking care of business, not letting things slide. ~6,000 places
an Appointment
Please meet at 18:00 at Alexanderplatz, U8 platform. Places unlimited.
This is your latest minute notice to our meeting and appointment. Please come to Alexanderplatz station, the platform of the U8 line, between Le Crobag bakery and the Presse + Buch shoppe. 18.00 is call time, this appointment will last from 10 to 30 minutes.
All are invited, and bring as many companions or co-players as you like. Please make sure that everyone reads the instructions fully before participating.
Click here or visit the facebook event listing for details and instructions on how to participate.
a Multi-Disciplinary Team Talk
Arriving late, we just jump into the conversation. Wine leftover. The team: Antonia Hirsch, visual artist and current PROGRAM artist-in-residence; Julian Kücklich, new media researcher, media clairvoyant, snake oil peddler; Markus Miessen, architect, researcher and writer; Kirsten Maar, researcher, Topographies of the Ephemeral: Movements of Transferal between Choreography – Architecture – Literature; Anastasia Lavrova, scientist, theoretical biophysics; others to be confirmed. 50 places
a Public Dinner
Look who's coming over for dinner, waiting until everyone arrives before we begin. 10 places
Thank you to Josephine, Rena, Cyril, Simon and Andre for joining us for dinner and St. Oberholz Café for lending seating/dining arrangements! photograph by Gao Ling
a Neighborhood Coffee Break
Neighbors and relations to the community are redrawn in the real space of PROGRAM based upon a neighbourhood (a)socius; coffee, tea and biscuits served. 20 places, by invitation only.
Thank you to all the neighbours that stopped by! photograph by Gao Ling
a Secret Community
Secret communities tested in aleatory fashion, Acconci's limitations are practical, too, beginning at the site of the Bundesnachrichtendienst and arriving at the Auswaertiges Amt. Places unlimited.
an Analysis & Data Processing
Working all day, drop by any time. 2+ places.
