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Finishing Up Our Homework (late assignment)

Above, Homework Artists-in-Residence presenting their work, Photo by Eduardo Aquino

It’s a week later than we had hoped to be making this kind of wrap-up post, but we also know this is just the beginning of a larger conversation that will span far beyond this space.

Homework: Infrastructures & Collaboration in Social Practices hosted over 120 artists, writers, community activators, curators, thinkers, and doers from big and small places across North America (and, incredibly, at least one person from overseas). From the first day of the residency to the last day of the conference, the schedule was beyond jam-packed, but the things we discussed, together, made the two-day conference an incredibly rewarding experience for us. We are exceptionally happy with how Homework turned out and we can’t thank you enough for attending and supporting it.

There’s still more ahead though — the publication will be assembled over the coming months, and if you’re still looking to contribute, you should get in touch. There’s also been some questions about another edition of Homework, and we’re considering it. We’d love to see these kinds of conversations given a bit more time and space to unfold.

As happy as we are with how things went, we know there’s definitely room for improvement. If you have any feedback for us on your experience of the conference, it’d be great to hear from you. Please consider filling out this response form: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dEpMczJtVTVtZEhoNWgyeUp4SWZyNVE6MQ

We’re also working on cataloguing all the video documentation and we’ll be working to make these video archives available as soon as we can, stay tuned. And, if you have any documentation of the residency or conference, please pass it along.

And finally, we’d like to extend our most sincerest thanks to everyone who participated and attended Homework, including our conference panelists and our incredible keynotes! Thank you!

Homework: Infrastructures & Collaboration in Social Practices is generously supported by the Ontario Arts Council, the University of Windsor’s School of Visual Arts, and our community partner the Art Gallery of Windsor.

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Marcos Zotes’ CCTV / Creative Control

Marcos Zotes, an architect and artist living in New York, recently completed CCTV/Creative Control, an intervention consisting of the projection of “an over-sized eye onto the lower surface of the 10-storey-hight Milton Street water tower in Brooklyn, New York.” This particular tower is a very ideal fit for an oval-shaped projection and since it does not display any external lighting fixtures, allows the projection to take center stage.

About the water tower: “Still the highest point in the area, until it is dwarfed by new gentrification plans, the water tower exists as a relic of the neighbourhood’s industrial past. The intervention temporarily transforms this iconic landmark into a discernible CCTV tower, raising questions of private control over public space in the urban context. By intervening in the everyday order of contemporary urban life, CCTV/Creative Control aims at both producing moments of antagonism –however transitory, fragmentary or ephemeral– and finding new ways to practice the city, not simply as consumers but as creators.”

On a conceptual level, “CCTV/Creative Control seeks to question the oppressive mechanisms and discourses implemented in the city through the temporary appropriation of public space.” I find this project interesting in principal, but also because it was executed by an architect who probably looked at the water tower with a special kind of criticism.

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Homework Residency: Day 3, Collaborations Under Umbrellas

Day 3’s report of our Homework Residency comes courtesy of the residents themselves!!! Be sure to check out more on our Artists-in-Residence.

From Artist-in-Residence, Simon Rabyniuk:

Its overwhelming to try and write a blog post about what’s happening… it’s messy to try and recount exactly how things unfold and I mostly don’t remember… There are reflections to be made about the projects we are setting up for ourselves and of course the different decision making models we are using. I feel fine discussing the projects but mostly forget how we arrive at any specific decision. Here are some brief notes Rodrigo, Megan, and I put together this afternoon, with some feedback from Leah tonight. Also, here are some photos from Leah’s, Andrea’s, and my own camera.

Continue reading “Homework Residency: Day 3, Collaborations Under Umbrellas”

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Homework Residency: Day 2, Voting on Rooftops & Other Endeavours

So, the report on Day 2 of our Homework Residency is going to be delayed, as we’re still gathering documentation. But, this picture seemed like a good start to introducing the day.

More to come, soon. Updated: there’s lots of photos that attempt to document the day, but it’s impossible to chart together a narrative to cover it all.

In the meantime, you can check out more on our Artists-in-Residence. Get acquainted with everyone here!

Continue reading “Homework Residency: Day 2, Voting on Rooftops & Other Endeavours”

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Homework Residency: Day 1, Terms of Reference

Any report on Day 1 of our Homework Residency needs to begin with a huge welcome to all of our Artists-in-Residence. Get acquainted with everyone here!

As a preface, it’s important to note the difficulty in trying to document such an involved process with any meaningful artifacts and with such little time for reflection. Photos cannot do justice to the hours of exploratory conversations, tangents, and negotiations that took place. Nor can my attempts to record some of the overarching concerns that I picked up on appropriately document the frustrations, insights, and moments of meaningful critical engagement, do any part of the day justice.

But, to try to make this as useful as I can, there are large things that need to be framed — in particular, a way of approaching a residency that explicitly asked residents to be prepared to not tackle a pre-designed project, alongside a number of other artists. Throughout the day questions were raised around the possibilites and limits in collaboration within such a large group, the ways in which to facilitate collaboration over participation, and the terms of reference that we all bring, but need to forget about.

Today focused on tackling a set of possible directions and the ways in which 17 people might move there, together.

Continue reading “Homework Residency: Day 1, Terms of Reference”

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Livestream is go for Homework!

Hiba and I took a trip down to the Art Gallery of Windsor (our gracious host and community partner for our upcoming conference) to check out the possibilities for using Livestream to make the conference available to the folks who can’t make it down to Windsor.

We had Kevin on another connection to check and it looks like we’re set for livestreaming the conference portion of Homework: Infrastructures & Collaboration in Social Practices next Friday and Saturday — you can check the schedule here: http://www.brokencitylab.org/homework/homework-conference-schedule-presenters/.

And, on those days, you can find us livestreaming here: http://www.livestream.com/brokencitylab

Homework: Infrastructures & Collaboration in Social Practices is generously supported by the Ontario Arts Council, the University of Windsor’s School of Visual Arts, and our community partner the Art Gallery of Windsor.

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Rideshares for Homework

Looking for a ride into Windsor from some other major city centre for Homework: Infrastructures & Collaboration in Social Practices?

There’s been a number of Homework presenters and attendees hoping to carpool down to Windsor, so hopefully we can help facilitate. If you have room in your car, or you need a seat in a car, please make a note in the comments.

As for the details of the conference, here’s the gist again for easy reference:

Everything kicks off on Friday, October 21st at 9am at the Art Gallery of Windsor with Day 1 wrapping up with the keynote presentation starting at 7pm. The conference continues for a second day, Saturday, October 22 from 12pm-5pm at the Art Gallery of Windsor.

And for a more thorough look of what’s happening, you can check out this link: http://www.brokencitylab.org/homework/homework-conference-schedule-presenters/

And, as a reminder, if you can’t make it at all, we’ll be livestreaming as much as we can! Looking forward to meeting everyone heading down.

Homework: Infrastructures & Collaboration in Social Practices is generously supported by the Ontario Arts Council, the University of Windsor’s School of Visual Arts, and our community partner the Art Gallery of Windsor.