5 Jul 2012

The Porous Studio

The second studio took place at PSI #18 in Leeds 2012. The two posters from Leeds, created by Nicholas Johnsson, here below:

 


Short abstract:
The PSi Artists' Committee is proposing the second incarnation of the "Studio" for PSi #18 LEEDS. A primary concern of the Artists' Committee is to encourage artist participation in PSi, and to integrate performance theory and practice. To this end, we propose a Porous Studio this year, so as to include works by artists from Leeds.

Long abstract:
A primary concern of the Artists' Committee is to encourage and expand artist participation in PSi, and to develop the integration of a multiplicity of performance and theoretical discourses in PSi.  
The PSi Artists' Committee is proposing the second incarnation of the "Studio" for this year’s PSi #18 LEEDS. The Studio is designed to encourage and support combinations of process, theory, philosophy, pedagogy, and practice within the framework of the annual conference: a productive lab of experimentation at the fuzzy border of theory, philosophy and practice. As in the inaugural session in Utrecht, some participants in the Studio will engage creatively with the conference theme. The final determination of works depends on how our discussions as a group develop over the next few months, and the final composition of the committee at the conference this year.
We are now working on developing links with members of the arts community in Leeds, so we propose a Porous Studio this year, to include works by other artists from Leeds. The Artists’ Committee is engaged in a long-term reflexive inquiry into what exactly is a "studio": historically a space designated by artists as a site where economies collide: private + public, culture + industry, rehearsal + spectacle… sometimes resulting in products, and often not. Whether a room, factory, notebook, rock in a landscape, the city street, a laptop on a plane, the body, or the space between one’s ears.  The studio holds a mythic place in the imagination as a site for cross-class industry: individual or group work, the sharing of resources and methods, and as a stage (temporal and spatial) for both the choreography of artistic labor, and the respite of the flâneur.
The Studio underscores the notion of annual continuity and the practical/symbolic significance of site/place at the PSi annual conferences. We are a constantly mutating social network of artists, which over successive years map itself onto many sites in different cities, countries and continents. This continuous narrative of theoros-praxis has, as its intent, the continuous development of a community and a "(re)turn" to site and the material conditions site entails.

Aim and Purpose of the Artists' Committee


The Artists' Committee is committed to supporting mutual exchange among artists engaged in PSi and performance studies, as well as enabling contacts with local artists in the area of the yearly conferences.
The chair of the committee is Ray Langenbach. The main working mode at present is the Studio, which provides a space to share artistic practice, artistic research and artworks in the making in informal ways.  The first studio took place at PSI #17 in Utrecht 2011. The poster, designed by Nicholas Johnson, here below: