Intermediæ english blog

Politics of Research / Situated Commons
Saturday 27, 17.30h. at Intermediae
With Isaac Marrero-Guillamón, Javier Rodrigo and Aida Sánchez de Serdio

Mediation and research have become key terms for some curatorial projects and debates. Practices, spaces and networks build up a collective research on the meaning of culture and the social function of its institutions in relation to "the commons", opening up a debate on the notion of an other institutionality and overflowing the spaces of the collective (be that a cultural institution, a school, a grassroots space, or the very idea of citizenship). In this context, many cultural projects take up research as a key notion in the relationship between cultural production, the production of knowledge and the construction of the social.

The current politics of the modes of production of collective bodies of knowledge intersect with new modes of construction of citizenship, and the generation of common wealth. The emerging models of research and circulation of knowledge, different forms of urban experimentation, the traditions of feminist research, the famous IAP, militant research, popular education... articulate other politics of relationship, care and mediation in the political economy of research groups and the groups by whom and with whom co-research is undergone, and bodies of knowledge produced. This dimension doesn't exclude the fact that these politics of research can lose their goal of transformation, in citizen environments and specific fields of situated praxis, while at the same time opening up and generating models of construction of bodies of knowledge and collective pedagogies.

In this manner, the question of the politics of inquiry is answered through a kind of new pragmatism, or lesser politics, from the standpoint of which to question the tensions, relationships and the circulation of this production of situated bodies of knowledge. Under this starting point, neither the institution no the research groups would therefore occupy a neutral space, and neither would they define themselves as an incomparable framework. Rather, they would be described as specific, and in process. Their actions are considered unfinished, partial, situated; on the search of connectors with the social tissue, and joining multiple conversations. The frameworks of decolonisation, the bodies of knowledge produced by education, and a heterogeneity of practices of social experimentation can be posed as other scenarios from which to rethink the politics of production and circulation of bodies of knowledge, as another political dimension of the commons.

Intermediae, together with Transductores (as part of their Research Residency at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía), Isaac Marrero-Guillamón and Aida Sánchez de Serdio, invite you to participate, share and debate the various starting hypotheses which affect the practice of a large part of the mediation and research initiatives.

Isaac Marrero-Guillamón will present a project produced with Hillary Powell (The Art of Dissent: Adventures in London's Olympic State) which responds to the challenge of compiling and organising a disperse and heterogeneous series of artistic and cultural projects produced as an anwer to the brutal transformation of East London motivated by the 2012 Olympic Games. The project defends the specific role played by these practices in the configuration of antagonistic spaces in relation, for example, to the politics of regulation what is known, what can be said, and what is visible effected by the Olympic machinery (and its collorary: the division between those that have a right to speak and those who don't).

Javier Rodigo will present Transductores' project of citizen research and consultation with the MSR Team in Quito, Ecuador (currently in its second phase). For this purpose, he will engage the issue of how feminist pedagogies help us rethink other frames of relationship and the paradoxes of work in the production of knowledge beyond the classic models of empowerment and dialogic consensual learning. Articulated around this position, collective pedagogies emphasise a pragmatic relationship of transformation, premised on situated and active bodies of knowledge, which generate new forms of politics through learning communities. In a composition of both perspectives, the issue of how to transmit situated bodies of knowledge, how to circulate the production of research and how to generate multiple work tools crosses the challenges of these pedagogies, and, therefore, of the politics of research.

Aida Sánchez de Serdio will contribute to the debate through a reflection on the production of knowledge at a university in a state of emergency. The current situation, which poses the risk of the dissapearance of the public university model as we have known it since the mid-80's of last century, has made a large number of members of the university community face the need to ask themselves about the current situation and about the future perspectives of this institution, and their role in it. In the same manner, the very definition of knowledge, and its forms of production and transmission (terms which also need a deep rethinking) are being challenged. On the basis of a comparison between previous research projects on changes at the universities, which she has been involved in, and the urgency of a militant research which is being drawn out in the present moment, she will attempt to order, in real time, some possibilities for research and action, the most significant space in which might be one of the exteriority, and not interiority of the object of study.

Associated texts

Isaac Marrero-Guillamón

(2011) “London 2012: espacio de excepción”. urbe. Revista Brasileira de Gestão Urbana (Brazilian Journal of Urban Management), v. 3, n. 2, p. 179-190.
(2012) “Photography against the Olympic Spectacle”. Visual Studies, v. 27, n. 2, p. 132-139.
(2013). “Por una teoría del actor-red menor: perspectivismo y monadología”. In F. Tirado and D. López, eds. Teoría del Actor-Red. Más Allá de los Estudios de Ciencia y Tecnología.Barcelona: Amendia, p. 331-356 (in the press).

Javier Rodrigo

Texto presentación :Comunes, colectividades e institucionalidades: paradojas productivas y pedagogías inapropiadas. https://www.box.com/s/6iva80kuil8ploxb7jbx
http://transductores.net/?q=es/content/laboratorio-ciudadano-mercado-san-roque-exposici%C3%B3n-y-socializaci%C3%B3n-del-trabajo-del-grupo-ms-0       

Aida Sánchez de Serdio

(2010) “Políticas de lo concreto: producción cultural colaborativa y modos de organización”. In Collados, Antonio y Rodrigo, Javier (2010) Transductores: pedagogías colectivas y políticas espaciales.Centro José Guerrero. Granada. p. 44-64
http://www.mov-s.org/wp-content/uploads/Transductores.pdf

(2009) The Political Economy of the Monument. In Street signs, Spring 2009. Centre for Urban and Community Research (CUCR). Goldsmith College. University of London (p. 2-4)
http://www.gold.ac.uk/media/streetsigns_spr09.pdf

Tending Avant Garden Workshop

Given by Miguel Moreno

Sunday 28 April 12 noon to 2 pm.

Workshops for tending Avant Garden, an urban garden designed by atelier le balto. Avant Garden is a wild rose garden, a garden shared by visitors, creators, passersby... a place for coexistence and exchange, for learning, enjoyment and rest. Workshops are usually focused on exploring the concepts and philosophy underlying atelier le balto’s design for the garden. Planting season continues at the garden.

The 3R group, part of the CRPS of Arganzuela, collaborates in tending Avant Garden every other Friday from 12- 14 pm. The workshops occasionally become times for exchanges, taking cuttings cultivated at Avant Garden to other green spaces in Madrid, such as la Huerta de Roberto in Carabanchel, Esta es una Plaza in Lavapiés and la Huerta de Madrid Salud in Usera.

Open Studio by The Authorless Film Factory
Colectivo Cine sin Autor (Authorless Cinema Group)

Space to meet and show work processes. From Tuesday to Sunday during Intermediae opening hours.

Screening of works in progress. Wednesday 27 February at 6 pm at Cineteca.

The Authorless Cinema Factory started its activities in May 2012 at Intermediae.
Since then, many people who have nothing to do with film production have taken part in making their films collectively.
 
Throughout 2013 films in progress will be shown monthly at the Cineteca at Matadero Madrid. A meeting space open to everyone interested in actively taking part by offering their opinion and even getting involved in the production process.
The participating public can do more than just see films here: they can do so in a new social model of filmmaking.
Social Cinema. Horizontal. Participatory. Inclusive. 21st century Cinema. Cinema XXI

Open Terrario / Streaming Scenarios: ON & ON Presentation of Season #2
PlayDramaturgia

Saturday 19 January at 7 p.m.

Three months have passed since the start of Streaming Scenarios, a process of exploring the possibilities for dialogue among live arts and real-time video broadcasts via the Internet. 
Something along those lines was said by Pablo Gisbert, one of our collaborators, when we sat down to reflect on it: “Our times require we take action. And since we are too cowardly to take up arms, we have to do our best in our field: the world of ideas. They need to be specified, filled with content, and shot.” That is what we are doing.  ON&ON serves to recharge and present the second phase of the project. More ideas, more action, more playwriting and hard punches… more Streaming Scenarios.

Open Terrario / Public Listening #2. How to create sound spaces? With Enrique Rivero.
Radio Sures

Friday 18 January at 8 p.m.

Radio Sures is an on-demand web radio with radio documentaries. With no additional photos, supporting videos, or multimedia extras. We tell stories using only sound resources!  We illustrate this aesthetic proposal each month at a public meeting devoted to listening. We offer a selection of documentary sound narratives, in Spanish and other languages, with translations planned. We listen in the semi-darkness, seated or lying down, as if we were in a cinema watching a movie with no pictures. As Orson Welles said, “Radio is better than the cinema because in radio, the screen is bigger.”

At each session, we will have a guest with a point of view (or better said… hearing) on the documentaries we have heard. The guest is not a specialist in sound or radio but rather, another creative field such as painting, photography, literature, theatre, etc. Instead of offering an analysis, the guest will share sensations and impressions as a listener. This intervention will create bridges between sound and other artistic disciplines.

In this second session, our guest is filmmaker and producer Enrique Rivero.

At each meeting, we will discuss the sound documentary from a different perspective, starting with a question. This month it is: “How to create sound spaces?” A film director frames the shot with a camera. Do radio documentary makers also create a shot with microphones? Other questions we will explore include: What is a “sound space”? How is it constructed by the person recording and perceived by the listener? We will discuss distance, movement, and field depth.

Enrique Rivero has worked in various areas related to film production, from photography to art. As a director, he started with two short films, Nidra and Schhht!, making his first feature length film, Parque Vía, in 2008. It garnered various international awards including the Golden Leopard at the Locarno Festival (Switzerland). His second feature length film was Mai Morire (2012); it won awards in Rome (Best Photography) and Huelva (Special Jury Award, and the Radio Exterior de España award, among others.) Currently he is in development with his next project, Pozoamargo, to be shot in Spain in a town in La Mancha.

Seed exchange bank event
Ecosecha

Thursday 3 January, 6 pm

The Seed Exchange Bank is an initiative in favour of decentralizing control of seeds and questioning the management models we generate or in which we take part in this culture with our current way of life. The Seed Exchange Bank and the activities it holds are offered as a metaphor for the need for change in society today.

The first Thursday of each month, a seed exchange session is held for growers, horticulture enthusiasts, and anyone interested in being part of a social network based on organic and sustainable principles, where know-how can be shared about working with seeds and ways to enhance organic agriculture in Madrid.

The Seed Exchange Bank can be visited on a regular basis at the Terrario at Intermediae.

ecosecha.blogspot.com
bis.intermediae.es

CITYKITCHEN
Basurama and Zuloark

Wednesday 5 December at 7 PM. Open conversation between Basurama and Zuloark with Vivero de Iniciativas Ciudadanas.

Citykitchen aims to generate a new way of building a city, based on collaboration among citizens, companies, public administration and professionals from various fields.

Various forms of citizen groups are focusing their work on regenerating neighbourhoods through artistic creation and cultural development. These citizen initiatives have generated a wide range of excellent practices that have been disseminated though not always interconnected. They have not yet crystallized into a shared methodology rooted in collective knowledge and able to grow by intertwining all these experiences toward a shared goal.

Citykitchen is carrying on with several processes of gathering these experiences, like the one that was already begun by Vivero de Iniciativas Ciudadanas, to reflect on possible methodological tools for collective building and frames for clear dialogues among cultural, social and administrative agents.

Through a series of public meetings and work sessions, they aim to open an investigation into the processes and mechanisms that exist currently. They aim to detect the main problems and barriers citizen initiatives face today and reflect on possible protocols to facilitate their development and support these citizen-based processes for managing public space.

LA GASEOSA DE ÁCIDO ELÉCTRICO
Javier Montero

Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 December at 20 p.m.

La gaseosa de ácido eléctrico (The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test) is an experimental stage project that develops horizontal work tools and investigates collective intelligence methods. It is carried out by a heterogeneous group of women about the age of 60 from a diversity of social and ethnic backgrounds. We started the process by exploring the subject of love but soon we agreed it would be more interesting to focus on the here and now. The plot of the open piece which has evolved is based on the occupation and conversion of a social dining area at a financial club, given the precarious nature of the crisis of the system.

The project has developed its own strategic approach to experimental stage arts and popular culture which has nourished the work with body and space, text and narration, accents and languages, playwriting and meta-fiction, soundscapes and stage design. This has allowed us to explore numerous contemporary artistic disciplines and make a call to thinking as action. We have also developed specific collective work tools, focused on developing creativity, personal enrichment and social interaction.

The work has been structured into four workshops that made it possible to investigate various aspects of stage development:

. Writing and acting workshops led by Javier Montero.
. Soundscape design workshop led by María González.
. Stage design workshop led by Matilde Juárez.

In La Gaseosa de Ácido Eléctrico (The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test) we started with the idea that inter-subjective relations are not only an end in themselves, but also allow us to explore more complex terrains such as the role played by cultural representation systems, micro-political potentialities, the role of emotions, inequalities, and the class system, behaviour protocols, the concept of value or narcissism.

The piece combines three spaces: the dining hall, the kitchen and meta-fiction, where we reflect on the dramatic process and debates are held. It is important to point out that we have not aimed to reach a final conclusion or a finished, polished work. The work process is undoubtedly what is most fascinating.

OPEN TERRARIO/ Streaming Scenarios
PlayDramaturgia

Théa: contemplation. Wednesday 12 December as of 4 PM.

Theory and theatre share the same Greek root: Théa: contemplation.

Theory was born as a contemplation practice and theatre as a place for it: it is not by chance that before they were buildings, the first Greek theatres were overlooks, always facing monumental landscapes.
In the 20th century, going back to its origins, this contemplative attitude was recovered for the stage: the viewers’ attentive gaze became an essential active element in forming discourses. Wasn't Gertrude Stein’s idea really quite ancient, something the stage arts had lost? Doesn’t Pieza Paisaje, the source of so many renewing aesthetics, show originality possible only in resonance with the origin?

THÉA: A THEORETICAL FESTIVAL aims to highlight this contemplative theoretical attitude in a sort of thought marathon structured in brief micro-presentations that are always oriented in some way to the vast landscape of the stage.

In this first showing, framed within Streaming Stages, we will focus our discourse on problems in using streaming in relation to stage arts.

Open Terrario / Cooperama
COOPERAMA union of cooperatives

Tuesday 11 December from 4-9 PM.

Meeting to commemorate the international cooperatives year. “Creating economy based on cooperatives”.
The United Nations general assembly proclaimed 2012 as the international year of corporate news and highlighted the contribution of cooperatives to economic and social development, especially their impact on reducing property, creating employment and social integration. In Madrid, the COOPERAMA union of cooperatives is offering an open event for everyone to exhibit the best of Madrid's cooperative sector. We will hold an open meeting to share experiences in the field of social economy, a video presentation of cooperative companies in Madrid, and an information desk about starting up and/or consolidating cooperatives, as well as an open workshop to collectively share and build a new identity for cooperatives in Madrid.

Participating entities: Cooperama, Somenerg, Ecosecha Productos Ecologicos, COOP57, Mercado Social de Madrid, Mercado de San Fernando and all the work cooperatives in Madrid that want to participate.