When Site Lost the Plot
When Site Lost the Plot Art Research Symposium
Goldsmiths 7–9 May, 2013 Studio B, room 5 9.30–5 each day with evening screenings “To remove the work is to destroy the work”. Where site-specificity once seemed to harbor a potential for disruption (Serra’s Tilted Arc, Haacke’s Shapolsky work), what status can this insistence have once it is a mainstay of capitalist logic to transform specificity into reproducible symbol and immaterial value? How is the materialist critique of ‘site’ shortcircuited when art’s site is reimagined as being unproblematically continuous with the real, or when a chain of locations are fabulated through the franchised idiosyncrasies of an itinerant artist/curator? The symposium seeks to examine the legacy of ‘site’, to ask whether, on a planet whose entire surface is mapped and apped, the critical force of the concept is spent; and to chart some of the (perhaps irreducibly multiple) ways in which site continues to be a concern for contemporary practice. Alongside artists showing and discussing their work, speakers will introduce us to concepts from various disciplines (fiction, mathematics, philosophy, geography, geology) that may help us to think otherwise the relation between local and global, between specific sites and their material conditions: Plot, Platform, Trauma, Topos … How to do justice to the particularity of local sites while unearthing their material conditions? What can a site-specific philosophy (“geophilosophy”) and the historical lessons of art practice offer each other, in developing a set of tools to avoid trivial reconciliations between local sites and global conditions, allowing instead for the controlled unpacking of the local into the global, and vice versa? The Symposium will also include showings of: Shu Lea Cheang The Trial of Tilted Arc (1989) Jeremy Millar Zugzwang (Almost Complete) (2006) Mark Fisher and Justin Barton On Vanishing Land (2013) Jan Svěrák Ropáci (Oil Gobblers) (1988)
Begin 0930 Morning Session 1000–1200 Afternoon Session 1300–1700
Tuesday 7th Robin Mackay Introduction Roman Vasseur Julia Martin Matthew Watkins
Wednesday 8th
Thursday 9th
Benedict Singleton Ilona Gaynor
Miranda Pope (Video Presentation) Yves Mettler (via Skype) Andy Weir
Robin Mackay
Nick Ferguson
Late Session 1730–
Reza Negarestani (via Skype)
Shaun Lewin
John Gerrard
Jeremy Millar inc. showing of Zugzwang (Almost Complete) (2006) Mark Fisher and Justin Barton On Vanishing Land (2013)
Screening: Shu Lea Cheang The Trial of Tilted Arc (1989)
Tom Trevatt Paul Chaney
Screening Jan Sverak Ropaci (Oil Gobblers) (1988)
PARTICIPANTS ROMAN VASSEUR is an artist and curator, senior lecturer at Kingston University London, and a PhD Candidate at Goldsmiths. http://www.romanvasseur.com/ JULIA MARTIN is an artist who lives and works in Berlin, and is a PhD candidate at Goldsmiths. http://www.juliamartin.de MATTHEW WATKINS is a mathematician and Honorary Fellow at Exeter University. He runs the online Number Theory and Physics Archive and is author of the ‘Secrets of Creation’ trilogy, on the mysterious properties of prime numbers. http://empslocal.ex.ac.uk/people/staff/mrwatkin/index.htm REZA NEGARESTANI is an Iranian philosopher and the author of Cyclonopedia: Complicity with Anonymous Materials. http://blog.urbanomic.com/cyclon/ JOHN GERRARD is an Irish artist, working in Dublin and Vienna, best known for his sculptures, which typically take the form of digital simulations displayed using Real-time computer graphics. http://www.johngerrard.com BENEDICT SINGLETON is a designer and writer based in London, where he runs the experimental design and research studio The Department of No with Ilona Gaynor. ILONA GAYNOR is director and co-founder of The Department of No, and visiting professor at The Bartlett School of Architecture, the Architectural Association and Princeton University. ROBIN MACKAY is a philosopher, visiting lecturer at Goldsmiths, editor of Collapse and director of Urbanomic. http://www.urbanomic.com SHAUN LEWIN is a Geospatial Technician at the School of Geography, Geology and Environmental Science, University of Plymouth. JEREMY MILLAR is an artist living in Whitstable and tutor in art criticism at the Royal College of Art, London. http://www.jeremymillar.com MIRANDA POPE is a London-based curator and PhD candidate at Goldsmiths. YVES METTLER is a Swiss artist based in Berlin. http://www.theselection.net/ ANDY WEIR is an artist from London, UK. He is a PhD candidate, and teaches Critical Studies in the Art Department, at Goldsmiths. http://www.andyweir.info NICK FERGUSON is a London-based artist and PhD candidate at Goldsmiths. http://www.nickferguson.co.uk/ TOM TREVATT is a PhD candidate at Goldsmiths, a curator, and coorganizer of the Matter of Contradiction series of events. http://lamatiere.tumblr.com/ PAUL CHANEY is an artist currently living and working in Donetsk, Ukraine. http://www.paulchaney.co.uk
Goldsmiths 7–9 May, 2013 Studio B, room 5 9.30–5 each day with evening screenings “To remove the work is to destroy the work”. Where site-specificity once seemed to harbor a potential for disruption (Serra’s Tilted Arc, Haacke’s Shapolsky work), what status can this insistence have once it is a mainstay of capitalist logic to transform specificity into reproducible symbol and immaterial value? How is the materialist critique of ‘site’ shortcircuited when art’s site is reimagined as being unproblematically continuous with the real, or when a chain of locations are fabulated through the franchised idiosyncrasies of an itinerant artist/curator? The symposium seeks to examine the legacy of ‘site’, to ask whether, on a planet whose entire surface is mapped and apped, the critical force of the concept is spent; and to chart some of the (perhaps irreducibly multiple) ways in which site continues to be a concern for contemporary practice. Alongside artists showing and discussing their work, speakers will introduce us to concepts from various disciplines (fiction, mathematics, philosophy, geography, geology) that may help us to think otherwise the relation between local and global, between specific sites and their material conditions: Plot, Platform, Trauma, Topos … How to do justice to the particularity of local sites while unearthing their material conditions? What can a site-specific philosophy (“geophilosophy”) and the historical lessons of art practice offer each other, in developing a set of tools to avoid trivial reconciliations between local sites and global conditions, allowing instead for the controlled unpacking of the local into the global, and vice versa? The Symposium will also include showings of: Shu Lea Cheang The Trial of Tilted Arc (1989) Jeremy Millar Zugzwang (Almost Complete) (2006) Mark Fisher and Justin Barton On Vanishing Land (2013) Jan Svěrák Ropáci (Oil Gobblers) (1988)
Begin 0930 Morning Session 1000–1200 Afternoon Session 1300–1700
Tuesday 7th Robin Mackay Introduction Roman Vasseur Julia Martin Matthew Watkins
Wednesday 8th
Thursday 9th
Benedict Singleton Ilona Gaynor
Miranda Pope (Video Presentation) Yves Mettler (via Skype) Andy Weir
Robin Mackay
Nick Ferguson
Late Session 1730–
Reza Negarestani (via Skype)
Shaun Lewin
John Gerrard
Jeremy Millar inc. showing of Zugzwang (Almost Complete) (2006) Mark Fisher and Justin Barton On Vanishing Land (2013)
Screening: Shu Lea Cheang The Trial of Tilted Arc (1989)
Tom Trevatt Paul Chaney
Screening Jan Sverak Ropaci (Oil Gobblers) (1988)
PARTICIPANTS ROMAN VASSEUR is an artist and curator, senior lecturer at Kingston University London, and a PhD Candidate at Goldsmiths. http://www.romanvasseur.com/ JULIA MARTIN is an artist who lives and works in Berlin, and is a PhD candidate at Goldsmiths. http://www.juliamartin.de MATTHEW WATKINS is a mathematician and Honorary Fellow at Exeter University. He runs the online Number Theory and Physics Archive and is author of the ‘Secrets of Creation’ trilogy, on the mysterious properties of prime numbers. http://empslocal.ex.ac.uk/people/staff/mrwatkin/index.htm REZA NEGARESTANI is an Iranian philosopher and the author of Cyclonopedia: Complicity with Anonymous Materials. http://blog.urbanomic.com/cyclon/ JOHN GERRARD is an Irish artist, working in Dublin and Vienna, best known for his sculptures, which typically take the form of digital simulations displayed using Real-time computer graphics. http://www.johngerrard.com BENEDICT SINGLETON is a designer and writer based in London, where he runs the experimental design and research studio The Department of No with Ilona Gaynor. ILONA GAYNOR is director and co-founder of The Department of No, and visiting professor at The Bartlett School of Architecture, the Architectural Association and Princeton University. ROBIN MACKAY is a philosopher, visiting lecturer at Goldsmiths, editor of Collapse and director of Urbanomic. http://www.urbanomic.com SHAUN LEWIN is a Geospatial Technician at the School of Geography, Geology and Environmental Science, University of Plymouth. JEREMY MILLAR is an artist living in Whitstable and tutor in art criticism at the Royal College of Art, London. http://www.jeremymillar.com MIRANDA POPE is a London-based curator and PhD candidate at Goldsmiths. YVES METTLER is a Swiss artist based in Berlin. http://www.theselection.net/ ANDY WEIR is an artist from London, UK. He is a PhD candidate, and teaches Critical Studies in the Art Department, at Goldsmiths. http://www.andyweir.info NICK FERGUSON is a London-based artist and PhD candidate at Goldsmiths. http://www.nickferguson.co.uk/ TOM TREVATT is a PhD candidate at Goldsmiths, a curator, and coorganizer of the Matter of Contradiction series of events. http://lamatiere.tumblr.com/ PAUL CHANEY is an artist currently living and working in Donetsk, Ukraine. http://www.paulchaney.co.uk
