State of Emergency

State of Emergency:
Art as a tool to imagine the world after the [ ]

State of Emergency:
Art as a tool to imagine the world
after the [ ]

State of Emergency:
Art as a tool to imagine the world after the [ ]

Art Tools for Change:
On Use Value of Art in Education

Alessandra Saviotti

2020

—

With a focus on the city of Liverpool (UK), this class examines the potentiality of using art, and in particular Arte Útil’s principle and criteria, as a vehicle to fill the gap between contemporary art and non-trained contemporary art audience according to the ‘usological turn’. Arte Útil, a concept developed by Tania Bruguera, roughly translates into English as "useful art," and it proposes considering art as a tool to be used in search for sustainable solutions to foster societal change.

The class is organised as an 8-week practice-based training in the form of a ‘city guide’ developed to discover and study how different constituencies organised themselves in order to face a specific urgency in the city over the course of the history using art as a tool.

After an introduction to the Arte Útil archive, the criteria and some notion around critical pedagogy (based on a learning-by-doing approach), we will examine the links between art and cultural activism as the common ground that inspired citizens to overcome the status of crisis enacting radical change.

Art Tools for Change is a slideshow that simulates a class presentation. Alessandra Saviotti started from analysing the ‘Arte Útil Table Set’, a mapping device commissioned as part of the Centre for Plausible Economies’ launch event in October 2018. The mapping tool was included to support a curriculum delivered at the international Master Artist Educator (ArtEZ, Arnhem, NL) in collaboration with the Van Abbemuseum (Eindhoven, NL). It enabled students not only to map something that was already known as part of their practice, but to reveal the possible relationships of the group, in order to understand its strength to apply in the future. In addition to that, the presentation shows how different case studies included in the Arte Útil archive, could be used to write a constituency led curriculum operating at the intersection of art, education and economy.

The class can function both online and offline, as a resource repository and a pedagogical methodology as well, which can be adapted and enriched by the students who will shift their role into users.

Students/Users are encouraged to visit some initiatives on location, which are included in the Arte Útil archive or have been developing different approaches to socially engaged practices and political art as well as challenging how art history has been told.

Finally, through a series of readings, students/users will engage with different theoretical approaches to the practice and they will help in identifying new works to add to the archive, and to explore ways to support the expansion and mediation of the Arte Útil archive as a project in itself.

If you are not located in Liverpool and still willing to take part in the class, please be in touch and we can work together in a tailored programme for Week 3 to 6.

Art Tools for Change is a slideshow that simulates a class presentation. Alessandra Saviotti started from analysing the ‘Arte Útil Table Set’, a mapping device commissioned as part of the Centre for Plausible Economies’ launch event in October 2018. The mapping tool was included to support a curriculum delivered at the international Master Artist Educator (ArtEZ, Arnhem, NL) in collaboration with the Van Abbemuseum (Eindhoven, NL). It enabled students not only to map something that was already known as part of their practice, but to reveal the possible relationships of the group, in order to understand its strength to apply in the future. In addition to that, the presentation shows how different case studies included in the Arte Útil archive, could be used to write a constituency led curriculum operating at the intersection of art, education and economy.

+

WEEK 1: Art as a tool to imagine the world after the [USOLOGICAL TURN]

WEEK 1:
Art as a tool to imagine the world after the [USOLOGICAL TURN]

+ Introduction about Arte Útil, its principles and criteria:
The definition of Arte Útil has been arrived via a set of criteria that was formulated in 2013 for Tania Bruguera’s The Museum of Arte Útil’ at the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (NL). In this first session we will analyse the 8 criteria that have been followed by researchers to compose the Arte Útil archive.

Bruguera, T. (2016) Reflexions on Arte Útil (Useful Art).
In Aikens, N. et al. (eds): What’s the Use? Constellations of Art, History and Knowledge: A critical Reader. Amsterdam: Valiz pp. 316-317

+ The coefficient of art:
In his lecture ’The Creative Act’, Marcel Duchamp defines the art coefficient as a subjective mechanism that produces art à l’état brut, so to say in a sort of raw state. He affirms that artists go from intention to realisation through a series of subjective reactions: the result is a discrepancy between the intention and the realisation of the work of art; a difference which the artist cannot totally control. In other words, the art coefficient is like an arithmetical relation between the unexpressed, but intended and the unintentionally expressed. The spectator is the other subject that completes the work of art: s/he brings its inner value to the external world.

In the context of Arte Útil, Stephen Wright in his book Toward a lexicon of Usership (2013) points out a series of questions linked to the idea of usership: ‘could it be that art is no longer (or perhaps never was) a minority practice, but rather something practiced by a majority, appearing with varying coefficients in different contexts? What coefficient of art have we here? Or there? What is the coefficient of art of such and such a gesture, object or practice?’.

What is the coefficient of art in our practice?

Duchamp, M. (1957), The Creative Act [mp3]. New York: Aspen Magazine
Available at: http://www.ubu.com/aspen/aspen5and6/audio5E.html
[Accessed: 4 July 2020]

+ Assignment: think about a project of yours (it does not matter if it is not framed as an art project) or a project you like. According to the Arte Útil criteria, try to define a numerical value that corresponds to the coefficient of art of your project. Assign to each criteria a value from 1 to 10; sum the total and divide it for the number of the criteria (8); then you have your coefficient.

Explain why you got that value and think about the relativity of that same value. How do you feel in assigning a numerical value to art?

Wright, S. (2013) Coefficient of Art. In: Towards a Lexicon of Usership.
Eindhoven: Van Abbemuseum pp: 13

+ Introduction about Arte Útil, its principles and criteria:
The definition of Arte Útil has been arrived via a set of criteria that was formulated in 2013 for Tania Bruguera’s The Museum of Arte Útil’ at the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (NL). In this first session we will analyse the 8 criteria that have been followed by researchers to compose the Arte Útil archive.

Bruguera, T. (2016) Reflexions on Arte Útil (Useful Art).
In Aikens, N. et al. (eds): What’s the Use? Constellations of Art, History and Knowledge: A critical Reader. Amsterdam: Valiz pp. 316-317

+ The coefficient of art:
In his lecture ’The Creative Act’, Marcel Duchamp defines the art coefficient as a subjective mechanism that produces art à l’état brut, so to say in a sort of raw state. He affirms that artists go from intention to realisation through a series of subjective reactions: the result is a discrepancy between the intention and the realisation of the work of art; a difference which the artist cannot totally control. In other words, the art coefficient is like an arithmetical relation between the unexpressed, but intended and the unintentionally expressed. The spectator is the other subject that completes the work of art: s/he brings its inner value to the external world.

In the context of Arte Útil, Stephen Wright in his book Toward a lexicon of Usership (2013) points out a series of questions linked to the idea of usership: ‘could it be that art is no longer (or perhaps never was) a minority practice, but rather something practiced by a majority, appearing with varying coefficients in different contexts? What coefficient of art have we here? Or there? What is the coefficient of art of such and such a gesture, object or practice?’.

What is the coefficient of art in our practice?

Duchamp, M. (1957), The Creative Act [mp3]. New York: Aspen Magazine
Available at: http://www.ubu.com/aspen/aspen5and6/audio5E.html
[Accessed: 4 July 2020]

+ Assignment: think about a project of yours (it does not matter if it is not framed as an art project) or a project you like. According to the Arte Útil criteria, try to define a numerical value that corresponds to the coefficient of art of your project. Assign to each criteria a value from 1 to 10; sum the total and divide it for the number of the criteria (8); then you have your coefficient.

Explain why you got that value and think about the relativity of that same value. How do you feel in assigning a numerical value to art?

Wright, S. (2013) Coefficient of Art. In: Towards a Lexicon of Usership.
Eindhoven: Van Abbemuseum pp: 13

+ Introduction about Arte Útil, its principles and criteria:
The definition of Arte Útil has been arrived via a set of criteria that was formulated in 2013 for Tania Bruguera’s The Museum of Arte Útil’ at the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (NL). In this first session we will analyse the 8 criteria that have been followed by researchers to compose the Arte Útil archive.

Bruguera, T. (2016) Reflexions on Arte Útil (Useful Art). In Aikens, N. et al. (eds): What’s the Use? Constellations of Art, History and Knowledge: A critical Reader. Amsterdam: Valiz pp. 316-317

+ The coefficient of art:
In his lecture ’The Creative Act’, Marcel Duchamp defines the art coefficient as a subjective mechanism that produces art à l’état brut, so to say in a sort of raw state. He affirms that artists go from intention to realisation through a series of subjective reactions: the result is a discrepancy between the intention and the realisation of the work of art; a difference which the artist cannot totally control. In other words, the art coefficient is like an arithmetical relation between the unexpressed, but intended and the unintentionally expressed. The spectator is the other subject that completes the work of art: s/he brings its inner value to the external world.

In the context of Arte Útil, Stephen Wright in his book Toward a lexicon of Usership (2013) points out a series of questions linked to the idea of usership: ‘could it be that art is no longer (or perhaps never was) a minority practice, but rather something practiced by a majority, appearing with varying coefficients in different contexts? What coefficient of art have we here? Or there? What is the coefficient of art of such and such a gesture, object or practice?’.

What is the coefficient of art in our practice?

Duchamp, M. (1957), The Creative Act [mp3]. New York: Aspen Magazine. Available at: http://www.ubu.com/aspen/aspen5and6/audio5E.html [Accessed: 4 July 2020]

+ Assignment: think about a project of yours (it does not matter if it is not framed as an art project) or a project you like. According to the Arte Útil criteria, try to define a numerical value that corresponds to the coefficient of art of your project. Assign to each criteria a value from 1 to 10; sum the total and divide it for the number of the criteria (8); then you have your coefficient.

Explain why you got that value and think about the relativity of that same value. How do you feel in assigning a numerical value to art?

Wright, S. (2013) Coefficient of Art.
In: Towards a Lexicon of Usership. Eindhoven: Van Abbemuseum pp: 13

+

WEEK 2: Art as a tool to imagine the world after the [ARCHIVE]

WEEK 2:
Art as a tool to imagine the world after the [ARCHIVE]

+ This week we will analyse 3 case studies included in the Arte Útil archive, speculate and draft a plan for their storytelling in circumstances of physical distancing, impossibility to reach the project and the unsuitability of including the practice into the traditional museum’s display.

Which formats are most suitable to render the spirit of the project, the urgency of their constituencies, the richness of the conversations which took place?

Read the cards of the following case studies, assign the coefficient of art, listen to and/or watch the interviews with their initiators and/or collaborators. Problematise the formats for the storytelling and draft an alternative plan to contextualise the project given the obstructive conditions above mentioned.

+ Daniel Godínez Nivón, Tequiografías, 2010 - ongoing
Materials related to the project are:

- Audio interview with Daniel Godínez Nivón
- García Canclini, N. (2019) Tequiografías: Reimaginating Interculturality. Visible project [online] Available at: https://www.visibleproject.org/blog/text/tequiografias-reimaginating-interculturality/ [Accessed: 22nd May 2020]

+ Juan William Chàvez, Northside Workshop, 2010 - ongoing
Materials related to the project are:

- Video interview with Juan William Chàvez
- Medina Estupinan, G. and Saviotti A. (2016)
Broadcasting the archive: Redefining the City through Socially Engaged Practices, Community Art and Cultural Activism. Temporary Art Review [online] Available at: http://temporaryartreview.com/broadcasting-the-archive-redefining-the-city-through-socially-engaged-practices-community-art-and-cultural-activism/ [Accessed: 5 July 2020]

+ Beatrice Catanzaro, Fatima Kadumy, Cristiana Bottigella, Bait Al Karama, 2012 - ongoing
Materials related to the project are:

- Video interview with Beatrice Catanzaro
- Bait al Karama Website

+ This week we will analyse 3 case studies included in the Arte Útil archive, speculate and draft a plan for their storytelling in circumstances of physical distancing, impossibility to reach the project and the unsuitability of including the practice into the traditional museum’s display.

Which formats are most suitable to render the spirit of the project, the urgency of their constituencies, the richness of the conversations which took place?

Read the cards of the following case studies, assign the coefficient of art, listen to and/or watch the interviews with their initiators and/or collaborators. Problematise the formats for the storytelling and draft an alternative plan to contextualise the project given the obstructive conditions above mentioned.

+ Daniel Godínez Nivón, Tequiografías, 2010 - ongoing
Materials related to the project are:

- Audio interview with Daniel Godínez Nivón
- García Canclini, N. (2019) Tequiografías: Reimaginating Interculturality. Visible project [online]
Available at: https://www.visibleproject.org/blog/text/tequiografias-reimaginating-interculturality/ |[Accessed: 22nd May 2020]

+ Juan William Chàvez, Northside Workshop, 2010 - ongoing
Materials related to the project are:

- Video interview with Juan William Chàvez
- Medina Estupinan, G. and Saviotti A. (2016)

Broadcasting the archive: Redefining the City through Socially Engaged Practices, Community Art and Cultural Activism. Temporary Art Review [online] Available at: http://temporaryartreview.com/broadcasting-the-archive-redefining-the-city-through-socially-engaged-practices-community-art-and-cultural-activism/ [Accessed: 5 July 2020]

+ Beatrice Catanzaro, Fatima Kadumy, Cristiana Bottigella, Bait Al Karama, 2012 - ongoing
Materials related to the project are:

- Video interview with Beatrice Catanzaro
- Bait al Karama Website

+ This week we will analyse 3 case studies included in the Arte Útil archive, speculate and draft a plan for their storytelling in circumstances of physical distancing, impossibility to reach the project and the unsuitability of including the practice into the traditional museum’s display.

Which formats are most suitable to render the spirit of the project, the urgency of their constituencies, the richness of the conversations which took place?

Read the cards of the following case studies, assign the coefficient of art, listen to and/or watch the interviews with their initiators and/or collaborators. Problematise the formats for the storytelling and draft an alternative plan to contextualise the project given the obstructive conditions above mentioned.

+ Daniel Godínez Nivón, Tequiografías, 2010 - ongoing
Materials related to the project are:

- Audio interview with Daniel Godínez Nivón
- García Canclini, N. (2019) Tequiografías: Reimaginating Interculturality. Visible project [online] Available at: https://www.visibleproject.org/blog/text/tequiografias-reimaginating-interculturality/ [Accessed: 22nd May 2020]

+ Juan William Chàvez, Northside Workshop, 2010 - ongoing
Materials related to the project are:

- Video interview with Juan William Chàvez
- Medina Estupinan, G. and Saviotti A. (2016)

Broadcasting the archive: Redefining the City through Socially Engaged Practices, Community Art and Cultural Activism. Temporary Art Review [online] Available at: http://temporaryartreview.com/broadcasting-the-archive-redefining-the-city-through-socially-engaged-practices-community-art-and-cultural-activism/ [Accessed: 5 July 2020]

+ Beatrice Catanzaro, Fatima Kadumy, Cristiana Bottigella, Bait Al Karama, 2012 - ongoing
Materials related to the project are:

- Video interview with Beatrice Catanzaro
- Bait al Karama Website

+ This week we will analyse 3 case studies included in the Arte Útil archive, speculate and draft a plan for their storytelling in circumstances of physical distancing, impossibility to reach the project and the unsuitability of including the practice into the traditional museum’s display.

Which formats are most suitable to render the spirit of the project, the urgency of their constituencies, the richness of the conversations which took place?

Read the cards of the following case studies, assign the coefficient of art, listen to and/or watch the interviews with their initiators and/or collaborators. Problematise the formats for the storytelling and draft an alternative plan to contextualise the project given the obstructive conditions above mentioned.

+ Daniel Godínez Nivón, Tequiografías, 2010 - ongoing
Materials related to the project are:

- Audio interview with Daniel Godínez Nivón
- García Canclini, N. (2019) Tequiografías: Reimaginating Interculturality. Visible project [online] Available at: https://www.visibleproject.org/blog/text/tequiografias-reimaginating-interculturality/ [Accessed: 22nd May 2020]

+ Juan William Chàvez, Northside Workshop, 2010 - ongoing
Materials related to the project are:

- Video interview with Juan William Chàvez
- Medina Estupinan, G. and Saviotti A. (2016)

Broadcasting the archive: Redefining the City through Socially Engaged Practices, Community Art and Cultural Activism. Temporary Art Review [online] Available at: http://temporaryartreview.com/broadcasting-the-archive-redefining-the-city-through-socially-engaged-practices-community-art-and-cultural-activism/ [Accessed: 5 July 2020]

+ Beatrice Catanzaro, Fatima Kadumy, Cristiana Bottigella, Bait Al Karama, 2012 - ongoing
Materials related to the project are:

- Video interview with Beatrice Catanzaro
- Bait al Karama Website

+ This week we will analyse 3 case studies included in the Arte Útil archive, speculate and draft a plan for their storytelling in circumstances of physical distancing, impossibility to reach the project and the unsuitability of including the practice into the traditional museum’s display.

Which formats are most suitable to render the spirit of the project, the urgency of their constituencies, the richness of the conversations which took place?

Read the cards of the following case studies, assign the coefficient of art, listen to and/or watch the interviews with their initiators and/or collaborators. Problematise the formats for the storytelling and draft an alternative plan to contextualise the project given the obstructive conditions above mentioned.

+ Daniel Godínez Nivón, Tequiografías, 2010 - ongoing
Materials related to the project are:

- Audio interview with Daniel Godínez Nivón
- García Canclini, N. (2019) Tequiografías: Reimaginating Interculturality. Visible project [online] Available at: https://www.visibleproject.org/blog/text/tequiografias-reimaginating-interculturality/
[Accessed: 22nd May 2020]

+ Juan William Chàvez, Northside Workshop,
2010 - ongoing

Materials related to the project are:

- Video interview with Juan William Chàvez
- Medina Estupinan, G. and Saviotti A. (2016)
Broadcasting the archive: Redefining the City through Socially Engaged Practices, Community Art and Cultural Activism. Temporary Art Review [online] Available at: http://temporaryartreview.com/broadcasting-the-archive-redefining-the-city-through-socially-engaged-practices-community-art-and-cultural-activism/ [Accessed: 5 July 2020]

+ Beatrice Catanzaro, Fatima Kadumy, Cristiana Bottigella, Bait Al Karama, 2012 - ongoing
Materials related to the project are:

- Video interview with Beatrice Catanzaro
- Bait al Karama Website

+

WEEK 3: Art as a tool to imagine the world after the [PANDEMIC]
Meeting at St.George's Hall Liverpool - remember to bring your laundry with you in a backpack!

WEEK 3: Art as a tool to imagine the world after the [PANDEMIC]
Meeting at St. George's Hall Liverpool - remember to bring your laundry with you in a backpack!

WEEK 3: Art as a tool to imagine the world after the [PANDEMIC]
Meeting at St.George's Hall Liverpool - remember to bring your laundry with you in a backpack!

WEEK 3:
Art as a tool to imagine the world after the [PANDEMIC]
Meeting at St. George's Hall Liverpool - remember to bring your laundry with you in a backpack!

The gathering is before the statue of Catherine (Kitty) Wilkinson (1786-1860), the first woman to be honored with a statue in St. George’s Hall (2012). Kitty Wilkinson was an immigrant from Northern Ireland, who opened the first public wash house at her home, and helped clean thousands of clothes and linens during the cholera pandemic in Liverpool (1826-1837) saving many lives.

Richmond, C. and Harrison M. (2014) Kitty: The Saint of the Slums
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tNYWT3W6H0
[Accessed: 4 July 2020]

Inspired by her legacy, Kitty’s Laundrette is a community laundrette and social space in Everton (77 Grasmere Street, L5 6RH) offering high-quality, ecological and affordable laundry services. It also offers a space to hang-out waiting for self-service laundry. They are currently working on a project ‘Hanging Out: Histories of Liverpool’s Laundry Life’ which aims to gather histories and memories about laundrettes and wash-houses in Liverpool to uncover forgotten histories of community in the city. Students are encouraged to use their services during and after the visit.

Kitty’s Laundrette Website

Tea break at Homebaked (197 Oakfield Rd, Liverpool L4 0UF) a community land trust and cooperative bakery run by people living in the neighborhood that became a strong grassroot success of the residents fighting against gentrification.

Van Heeswijk, J. (2012) The artist will have to decide whom to serve. In: Erdemci, F. and Phillips, A. (eds.) Social Housing - Housing the social. Art Property and Spatial Justice. Amsterdam: Sternberg Press/SKOR Foundation for Art and Public Domain

Homebaked Website

+

WEEK 4: Art as a tool to imagine the world after the [RESISTANCE]
Meeting on the first Saturday of the month at 10:30am at the Granby Street Market.

WEEK 4:
Art as a tool to imagine the world after the [RESISTANCE]
Meeting on the first Saturday of th mounth at 10:30am at the Granby Street Market.

+ Gathering in the Granby Four Streets area (Toxteth, Liverpool) for a walk around the neighborhood while familiarising with the history of the struggle that saw the establishment of the Granby Resident Association in 1993. Over the 90s residents organised and lobbied the council to protect themselves from displacement as well as saving the area from demolition. We will visit the ceramics studio Granby Workshop created in collaboration with Assemble and the Granby Winter Garden, a place dedicated to plant and education workshops.

Granby Four Streets CLT Website

L’Internationale Online (2017)
L’Internationale Dialogues - Granby: Collecting working and making in a post-democratic society. Available at: https://vimeo.com/242756001 [Accessed: 6 July 2020]

+ Lunch at Squash (112-114 Windsor St, L8 8EQ) a creative food enterprise committed to participatory social change bringing culture, food and community together. We will explore how the project uses food as a tool to improve health and well-being of its users through a series of initiatives created in collaboration with local residents.

Squash Website

+

WEEK 5: Art as a tool to imagine the world after the [RESTORATION]
Meeting at The Florrie (377 Mill Street, L8 4RF) - remember to bring sport clothes, we will do some movements today!

WEEK 5:
Art as a tool to imagine the world after the [RESTORATION]
Meeting at The Florrie (377 Mill Street, L8 4RF) - remember to bring sport clothes,
we will do some mvements today!

WEEK 5:
Art as a tool to imagine the world after the [RESTORATION]
Meeting at The Florrie (377 Mill Street, L8 4RF) - remember to bring sport clothes, we will do some movements today!

The Florrie was founded in 1889 as one of the first boy’s institutes in the UK and it soon became a center of excellence in various sports such as boxing, gymnastics, baseball, basketball and of course, football. The Florrie carried on its activities for almost 100 years before being closed in the 80’s. The building was saved from demolition and eventually restored thanks to local residents who organised themselves into the ‘Friends of the Florrie’ to raise funding for the restoration. The Florrie opened in 2012 as a multi-use community hub providing resources and several activities to groups and individuals in the city. It hosts a Grand Hall, a gym, an Heritage Resource Centre, a library, a radio studio, a community cafe, several classrooms and workshops.

Byrne, J., Estupiñán, G.M. and Saviotti, A. (2017)
Asociación de Arte Útil: a nomadic and multiform platform for usership.
Journal for Research Cultures, 1 (2).

Historic England (2018) Best Rescue of a Historic Building: The Florence Institute. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=35&v=qUmzbjOJ71I&feature=emb_logo [Accessed 6 July 2020]

The Florrie Archive Website

We will engage in some physical movements inspired by Pablo Helguera’s Addams-Dewey Gymnasium and Annette Krauss’ Unlearning Exercises.

Addams-Dewey Gymnasium archive card

Krauss, A. (2018)
Unlearning Exercises. Art Organizations as Sites of Unlearning. Amsterdam: Valiz

The Florrie was founded in 1889 as one of the first boy’s institutes in the UK and it soon became a center of excellence in various sports such as boxing, gymnastics, baseball, basketball and of course, football. The Florrie carried on its activities for almost 100 years before being closed in the 80’s. The building was saved from demolition and eventually restored thanks to local residents who organised themselves into the ‘Friends of the Florrie’ to raise funding for the restoration. The Florrie opened in 2012 as a multi-use community hub providing resources and several activities to groups and individuals in the city. It hosts a Grand Hall, a gym, an Heritage Resource Centre, a library, a radio studio, a community cafe, several classrooms and workshops.

Byrne, J., Estupiñán, G.M. and Saviotti, A. (2017)
Asociación de Arte Útil: a nomadic and multiform platform for usership.
Journal for Research Cultures, 1 (2).

Historic England (2018) Best Rescue of a Historic Building: The Florence Institute. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=35&v=qUmzbjOJ71I&feature=emb_logo [Accessed 6 July 2020]

The Florrie Archive Website

We will engage in some physical movements inspired by Pablo Helguera’s Addams-Dewey Gymnasium and Annette Krauss’ Unlearning Exercises.

Addams-Dewey Gymnasium archive card

Krauss, A. (2018)
Unlearning Exercises. Art Organisations as Sites of Unlearning. Amsterdam: Valiz

The Florrie was founded in 1889 as one of the first boy’s institutes in the UK and it soon became a center of excellence in various sports such as boxing, gymnastics, baseball, basketball and of course, football. The Florrie carried on its activities for almost 100 years before being closed in the 80’s. The building was saved from demolition and eventually restored thanks to local residents who organised themselves into the ‘Friends of the Florrie’ to raise funding for the restoration. The Florrie opened in 2012 as a multi-use community hub providing resources and several activities to groups and individuals in the city. It hosts a Grand Hall, a gym, an Heritage Resource Centre, a library, a radio studio, a community cafe, several classrooms and workshops.

Byrne, J., Estupiñán, G.M. and Saviotti, A. (2017)
Asociación de Arte Útil: a nomadic and multiform platform for usership.
Journal for Research Cultures, 1 (2).

Historic England (2018) Best Rescue of a Historic Building: The Florence Institute. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=35&v=qUmzbjOJ71I&feature=emb_logo [Accessed 6 July 2020]

The Florrie Archive Website

We will engage in some physical movements inspired by Pablo Helguera’s Addams-Dewey Gymnasium and Annette Krauss’ Unlearning Exercises.

Addams-Dewey Gymnasium archive card

Krauss, A. (2018)
Unlearning Exercises. Art Organisations as Sites of Unlearning. Amsterdam: Valiz

The Florrie was founded in 1889 as one of the first boy’s institutes in the UK and it soon became a center of excellence in various sports such as boxing, gymnastics, baseball, basketball and of course, football. The Florrie carried on its activities for almost 100 years before being closed in the 80’s. The building was saved from demolition and eventually restored thanks to local residents who organised themselves into the ‘Friends of the Florrie’ to raise funding for the restoration. The Florrie opened in 2012 as a multi-use community hub providing resources and several activities to groups and individuals in the city. It hosts a Grand Hall, a gym, an Heritage Resource Centre, a library, a radio studio, a community cafe, several classrooms and workshops.

Byrne, J., Estupiñán, G.M. and Saviotti, A. (2017)
Asociación de Arte Útil: a nomadic and multiform platform for usership.
Journal for Research Cultures, 1 (2).

Historic England (2018) Best Rescue of a Historic Building: The Florence Institute. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=35&v=qUmzbjOJ71I&feature=emb_logo [Accessed 6 July 2020]

The Florrie Archive Website

We will engage in some physical movements inspired by Pablo Helguera’s Addams-Dewey Gymnasium and Annette Krauss’ Unlearning Exercises.

Addams-Dewey Gymnasium archive card

Krauss, A. (2018)
Unlearning Exercises. Art Organisations as Sites of Unlearning. Amsterdam: Valiz

The Florrie was founded in 1889 as one of the first boy’s institutes in the UK and it soon became a center of excellence in various sports such as boxing, gymnastics, baseball, basketball and of course, football. The Florrie carried on its activities for almost 100 years before being closed in the 80’s. The building was saved from demolition and eventually restored thanks to local residents who organised themselves into the ‘Friends of the Florrie’ to raise funding for the restoration. The Florrie opened in 2012 as a multi-use community hub providing resources and several activities to groups and individuals in the city. It hosts a Grand Hall, a gym, an Heritage Resource Centre, a library, a radio studio, a community cafe, several classrooms and workshops.

Byrne, J., Estupiñán, G.M. and Saviotti, A. (2017)
Asociación de Arte Útil: a nomadic and multiform platform for usership.
Journal for Research Cultures, 1 (2).

Historic England (2018) Best Rescue of a Historic Building: The Florence Institute. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=35&v=qUmzbjOJ71I&feature=emb_logo [Accessed 6 July 2020]

The Florrie Archive Website

We will engage in some physical movements inspired by Pablo Helguera’s Addams-Dewey Gymnasium and Annette Krauss’ Unlearning Exercises.

Addams-Dewey Gymnasium archive card

Krauss, A. (2018)
Unlearning Exercises. Art Organisations as Sites of Unlearning. Amsterdam: Valiz

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WEEK 6: Art as a tool to imagine the world after the [Monument]
We will join the Liverpool and Slavery Walking Tour organised by historian Laurence Westgaph, please wear comfortable shoes!

WEEK 6:
Art as a tool to imagine the world after the [Monument]
We will join the Liverpool and Slavery Walking Tour organized by
historian Laurence Westgaph, please wear comfortable shoes!

WEEK 6:
Art as a tool to imagine the world after the [Monument]
We will join the Liverpool and Slavery Walking Tour organized by historian Laurence Westgaph, please wear comfortable shoes!

Westgaph, L. (2020) The sinister history behind Liverpool’s buildings and monuments.

Available at:
https://independent-liverpool.co.uk/blog/guest-blog-the-sinister-history-behind-liverpools-buildings-monuments/?fbclid=IwAR3rTWnQRezwm9_s_P1sSdi9ZZi0D-3MvsBWX6KZVwfCfiSluxFIT9IECR4
[Accessed 6 July 2020]

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WEEK 7: Art as a tool to imagine the world after the [CLASS]

WEEK 7:
Art as a tool to imagine the world after the [CLASS]

This week it is dedicated to self-study. After reading this week’s text try to imagine and draft a project responding to a current urgency you and/or your community might have.

You could use the following structure:

+ Try to draft a feasible proposal that can respond to a current situation you are experiencing and you’d like to change.
+ Determine your field of action, your role, your goal
+ Decide which tactic(s) you are going to use to realise your idea (tools and case studies that you can take as inspiration for your project)
+ Decide a location: where does the project take place?
+ Specify who is involved in the project (civil society, public authority, private power, non-human living beings), who speaks and for whom.
+ Try to identify the other individuals, groups and constituencies who directly or indirectly would be involved in your project; who are your allies, your enemies, your supporters and so on.
+ Plan a campaign to promote your project: one-sentence slogan and an image, think how to spread it in order to gain traction on mass media (such as radio, press, blogs, and so on.)

Garcés, M. (2012) Honesty with the real. Journal of Aesthetics & Culture, 4 (1), 18820.

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WEEK 8: Art as a tool to imagine the world after the [ ]

WEEK 8:
Art as a tool to imagine the world after the [ ]

This is the final week of the class and it will be open to discussion and Q&A about the class, the topics we studied, what we saw, the experience we had walking around the city and the project. This session will be a group video chat.