[ connected-05 ] my thoughts

[cym at mur.at]

hello vita, hello all,

i found your e-mail only now. i guess i should have read it before we met on
saturday, but anyway, i've read it now.

i think this text, or parts of it, is very nice to include into the booklet,
also as a starting point for other artists/art centers to write thier text
about how an art center could function. i think it could be very interesting to
collect texts from different places about how places, groups of people, can
connect and especially how they could connect differently than with the usual
rules and systems. this is some subject where i think there is no answer. just
to collect different ideas and present them, so you can make up your own ideas,
can be very interesting.

also i think it is a good point that we should not invite people for shopping to
graz. actually this is some idea pec came up with, i think he said something
like that it will be the easiest to bring people if you offer them an afternoon
in the shopping center in graz. but i think you are right, we should offer them
a free trip to graz, as part of gibanica and for the gibanica-passport, with
some free hours where you can do what you like and the presentation as part of
gibanica. it can be very interesting to ask people afterwards what they did
with their free time. maybe they went to kunsthaus, we don't know.

also, i would find it very interesting to hear what people from graz do in
goricko, when they have some free time their. sometimes i have this feeling
that people from graz, or from the city, find it kind of very 'funny', this
life in goricko and on the country-side. they don't take it really serious
somehow. but this is only a feeling i get. it would be nice to give questions
to different people and to collect all the answers.

we can make a list of a few questions for people in graz and in goricko that
they can fill out and we collect the answers and present them in a small
booklet. it can be very interesting to read the different ideas about living in
the city and living on the country-side and to read how different people think
what the function of art can be in the different situations.

about including more people. i agree that we are already many and that we must
first discuss just the 6 or 7 of us. about including the volunteers, i had more
in mind that they are in art center to support our project and it would be good
if they can follow our discussion. of course we can simply tell them what to do
when we make a presentation, but if they know a little bit about our thoughts
behind it, it can be much more interesting to work with them. i was anyway
thinking mostly about maurits making a video-documentation about us. it would
be nice if he makes a documentation about us and i think, to make a good
documentation about the different stages of connected, it is important to
follow a little bit the discussion that is going on. but we can also put short
texts on the website that give an idea of the different thoughts and ideas that
we have for connected.

and maybe i am also thinking about including more people, because it is so
difficult to organize all of us, that are there now, to spend a few days
together in the same place... but with more people this will only be even more
difficult...

about rebeling and fighting, it is always good to rebel and fight when someone
tells you to do something that you don't agree on. but i also learned that
sometimes, if you really want to make a change, it is better to somehow
integrate with the people, do as they do, and then show them something
differently, a different way of life. this is much harder to do, but i think,
in the end the effect can be much bigger.

so much for now. i won't come to sredisce anymore this week. but i will come
next week on monday and stay the whole week until the presentation.

cu,

cym


Quoting vita.zgur at guest.arnes.si:

> Hello everybody
>
> I didn't write for some time now and i think it's time now. So…
> Maybe i will have some problems about explaining the situation but i
> will do my best. When i think of the empty symbol i think of lots of
> things. What i want to say is do you think if empty symbols exist,
> which are they and which are not empty symbols?
> I think people really like empty symbols because usually in everyday
> life it means again – i don't have to think, it's easier. They can say
> a lot, but do people see or understand them in this way? For me empty
> symbols are everywhere. I think we can play with them only in that way
> that we – let's say that we know what they are – are critical about
> them. Try being really sincere for one day to everybody. Don't say how
> are you just for the phrase for example. What i really don't like is
> to be forced in one way of thinking, living, communicating, working,
> ... I mean i think we are discussing about stereotypes (=empty
> symbols) really. Why use stereotypes? You think using them is
> criticizing them? Or are we just repeating one and the same thing?
> How do these thoughts connect with ac or fs? I can say something about
> ac that i would like everybody to know. I feel ac is a place where you
> don't have to function within accepted social rules, you don't have to
> pretend to be nice, you don't have to talk if you don't feel like it –
> my point is that ac has the possibility of becoming a little bit
> different … this is for me the most important thing  – maybe our
> project on the ac side should say something about that. I mean maybe
> we can play with stereotypes – i see a lot of them here around lately
> and i am sure you are meeting them in graz a lot – and be critical
> about them. And also this – i think art is a good way of showing
> different views. I think an art project like connected can show us all
> that - i called them stereotypes before -  there is never one right
> thing, thought, feeling, one way of communicating, attitudes, work...
> The basic things (that most people/places/projects lack to show/know).
>  This i see as hard to do and in the end not so easy to live with. But
> i think it's worth it.
>
> Maybe it is now time to start talking about our personal views. What
> can we learn from eachother? I hope i will have to deal with totally
> different opinions, none of them winning or losing, but supporting one
> or the other, in means of feeling and exploring differences. It's the
> hard way but a good one. What i want to say also is that sometimes not
> agreeing on things is better than thinking the same about everything.
> I think this is happening really everywhere now – we like to say that
> differences are good and what would this world be if everybody would
> be the same - but in the end we don't really mean that, because it
> involves not so easy and comfortable life. It's easier to set the
> rules. And follow them.
> But i don't need that. I don't need to be told what to think and to
> do. And if i am then i rebel and fight because i feel i have no
> freedom. I am thinking about this and my conclusion is that these
> things happen because somewhere in behind there exists some sort of
> hierarchy (people, thoughts, things) which is not so far from
> authority (how things should be and how they should work) and i don't
> want it. Maybe our project could be also a little bit more rebelious
> in this way of trying to make some small environment (like ac and fs)
> work different. My proposal is that we do a project that more involves
> us on a personal level (understanding differences), that we work and
> play with psychologies of people and places. This could be nice.
> Bringing up new or different ones, the alternatives, not the accepted
> social roles and "the" eye watching?
> I had an idea for my personal project of writing a small booklet about
> ac in this way and for it to be available to everybody that comes
> here. Like a small booklet of easy reading, words, games about the
> ways how a (small) society could funtion. Not rules but the spectrum
> of different varieties, alternatives. There would be no right or wrong
> just all the possibilities that i've (and pec and ...) come up with
> and readable for everybody. No high words no blahblah but something
> just to think about.If you would like to, we can do it together as a
> part of this project (maybe we can do one for the ac and you do it for
> fs or vice versa or mixed). I will do it for ac anyway. Then we can
> also set the »good« example  - because we are very different and want
> different things - and do something like that for the presentation.
> Maybe we can do this booklet together and include the exchange of
> thoughts as cym already would like to do. I would rather have
> something more than just a documentation of ideas. We can also leave
> some free pages for the people to write something in if they have
> something to say.
>
> I am not so interested in bringing people here and showing the places
> that i like that cym suggested. Just the place on itself has no
> meaning for me – i see it as an empty symbol. Maybe we can do
> something like we are doing now via e-mail there on the spots. Maybe
> everybody can choose one topic that she/he would like to talk about
> with others (about the connecting, empty symbols, whatever …) – and i
> see this as work.
> My dilemma is this:
> Somebody proposes a theme and we are supposed to talk about it as a
> part of the project. But there is nice weather, we could go for an
> icecream, have fun … and in the end there is no discussion, no
> crashing of cultures and opinions (because we all like icecream :)) or
> ways of thinking, learning that differences are good, accepting
> different views. I think that here comes again a thought that was
> already brought up – some things cannot be connected or they don't
> want to be connected. I would like some sharpness in thoughts,
> critical thoughts – only then i will see the project as succesfull.
>
> Another thing – about bringing local people to Graz. We can show them
> fs or spektral or our presentation there which i think is very nice –
> if not for the presentation but just for them to see that we here in
> ac are not the only of this kind. Icluding of gibanica's passport is
> also good. But for the shopping i say no – this i see as a bate for
> them to bite in and i won't be a part of it. So if we do a poster
> inviting them to Graz, shopping cannot be on it. I would rather call
> it a free trip to Graz with presentation of another gibanica project
> and free time for them. I propose we give them some free hours and
> they do what they like – go shopping or whatever. Then we ask them
> what they thought about the presentation and what they were doing in
> this free time and try to get the idea what are they thinking about. I
> think it would be nice. Why? If we are trying to show them what we are
> doing i think they should also have the chance to tell us what they
> are doing and thinking, or shortly: we have a chance to get to know
> them. Or another thing to think about: why do we need to show, or even
> better, why should the people come and see?
>
> Also I think it's good to have two »divided« parts – we have exchange
> of local people from here and maybe we can do the other way around
> also. The opinions that we get from both of them and us can be very
> nice together. Differences, i hope!
> We could ask everybody the same question and the variety of answers
> could be a nice thing to think about within connected project.
>
> Also what i want to say has to do with including more people in the
> project.
> I thought that the point was not to have too many people on the
> project. I guess the reason why cym suggested that we include more
> people is more of  something that has to do with us/you people not
> really having time for the project and this is the way of saving our
> asses – probably mostly the projects' ass. I still think we are
> already a good number of people - 6 or 7? More for me would be too
> much. I want people to be included but not so much in the working
> process – when we are still looking for something we would like to do
> - more in the »presentation« and organization.
> If you still want more people to be a part of it i have some people
> who would be interested to join in and could be helpful in a way of
> connecting artists and the two places in the future – because they are
> also artists who know other artists and so on. And this you could do
> also in Graz – finding more people in maybe Spektral or FS. Maybe just
> to try and think a little bit more in the long term.
> I thought that volunteering has more to do with them helping us
> implementing our project. Also i think that now that we have this
> mailing list and later this notebook of our discussions via mail
> people can read what we - as artists - were and are doing. We can have
> discussions with everybody after the project also.
>
> I have more going on in my head. Some other time.
>
> Sonce
> vita
>
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