ABOUT THIS SITE >>> This site is a blog as well as an archive. It gives visibility to the continues working of radical_hope, its current move to radical_house, the research project Distraction As Discipline (2016 - 2019) and the process of OTÇOE - works for passers-by, a working trajectory (2013 and 2014).
radical_house is a long term project and has a threefold nature: it presents a physical place, a framework and a logic. When in 2013 teaching and mentoring became an extension of Langsdorf's artistic practices now radical_house stems from her pedagogical experience where 'being in dialogue' with others is her main principle.
Distraction As Discipline is
an investigation into enactivist principles in art and education
(research trajectory at KASK School
of Arts Ghent 2016-19). It considers the potential of performance art and
pedagogy in general, in resisting the current and massive
desubjectivation, by critically reclaiming both, attention for the moment and participation in a process.
OTÇOE - works for passers-by was the development of radical_hope's artistic practice in the city and questioned how and by whom this practice (and its bodily, social and economical aspects) is perceived. The title refers to the public of a city and to how we encounter and register most things on our way through the city: Out of The Corner of Our Eyes. OTÇOE.
SEASONAL REFLECTIONS
NEWSLETTERS
TIMELINE
MAIN PRACTICES
CO-CONSTRUCTED CONVERSATIONS
Collage As Filter
Collage as filter
[literature-reference: The Tree of Knowledge - F. Varela, Technologies of the Self - M. Foucault]
Motivation
In the frame of my research at KASK (DAD ##) / pillar 'collectively practiced techniques', I work -
amongst other practices - with the collaging of material. I am interested not so much in the 'colle' of coll-
aging - the glueing together and the permanently fixating - but rather in what we make out of something
temporarily and exposed to a constant possible change.
The idea is to start up an open-ended collaging process that enables - during the time of a single class already, and of course throughout the year - to reflect (individually and in group) on what happens during the 'doing'.
Selecting (be it mentally or actually materializing) out of 'things' from existing contexts (newspapers, books, collections, pools, clouds, series of all kinds, installations, situations, surroundings, cities, landscapes, discourses etc.) and re-assembling them into a new and personal 'whole', contains for me next to its artistic potential a great autodidact capacity.
During the last year I could experiment with different ways to get students into a mode of 'doing and
reflecting' (physical, conversational, through writing exercises, composing and re-assembling material) and I
think what takes place during class is after all always a collaging activity - in the sense i described before.
This might be stating the obvious, as selecting (conscious or not) parts of what we can sense and
reassembling them (conscious or not) into our mental picture/s is what our brain just does.
Nevertheless I consider a redefinition or re-discovery of collaging as filtering our brains frictious activity an
important endeavour (in regard of my search (DAD ##) for autodidact methods,) enabling self-knowledge and
thus conscious encountering of that what surrounds us.
Concretely: selecting and re-assembling
Students of the course Autonomous Design (class: Activated Space) are in my eyes and when starting their first
year, more 'available' for hands-on collaging practices than writing- or physical exercises. At the same time
a collaging activity can function as a bridge towards those other strategies allowing for (self-)reflection. It
enables them - without having prior expertise - to observe what happens in front of their eyes: to look at
what they are doing with literally their own hand: cutting out, copy-pasting, re-assembling, editing, layering, reducing, letting accumulate etc.
We start off with a complete open pool of visual and graphical information, provided during the first class of the year. Considering collaging a continuous practice during the entire first year, depending on the personality and engagement of the student/s, we then can become more and more (media-)specific: once one understands what one is 'doing' with a newspaper, it is possible to translate the principles of this doing to other materials, such as movement, objects, language, actions, programming, filming etc.
Departing from collage and assemblage I want to make relations to physical- and writing-practices.
On the one hand i want to make use of exercises and practices that I could get in touch with and develop
during the last years. On the other I would like artists who are busy with interesting aspects of collaging,
assembling and composing in their own practice to work with the students and me during a couple of
guest-classes.
Throughout the year we will refer to different moments of collage art and at given times read related texts.
In the context of 'Choreography as Conditioning' ### I can imagine to eventually exhaust together with the students the choreographic potential of collaging by giving a task for activated spatial work, to be tackled individually or in group.
##
Distraction as Discipline - An investigation into the function of attention and participation in
performance art, art pedagogy, artists texts, writing and thinking practice.
http://www.open-frames.net/OTCOE/DISTRACTION_AS_DISCIPLINE/96
###
Choreography as Conditioning
A series of guest artist who work with students based on the choreographic aspect of their work
(2017/18/19. >>> Julia Barrios de la Mora, Laetitia Gendre & Miriam Rohde, Julien Bruneau, Mårten
Spångberg, Katleen Vermeer & Rony Heiremans, David Helbich, Renzo Martens.)