Notes:
- Introduce the server in advance - and other tools
Reader folder
https://cloud.constantvzw.org/apps/files/files/1239533?dir=/2.%20Projects/2025/Worksession/Reader
Mail to varia
alice.strt@gmail.com
info@niekhilkmann.nl
yoanabuzova@gmail.com
Hi Common dirt'ers Alice, Niek and Yoana,
We hope you are doing fine. We see that the Common Dirt cycle continues, great!
We have launched the call for the worksession here:
https://constantvzw.org/site/Open-Call-Worksession-Otherworldly-Communications.html
we have two questions for you
- Do you think any of you can join the worksession?
- In the worksession we have changed a bit our modus operandi: we really want to keep open time for people to work on connecting, exchanging ideas and develop new ones.
We want to provide some research threads, in different shapes, experiences and sizes.
One of them will be a physical trip (keeping this a bit a surprise). Next to that we want to set up some tables with things to engage with, rather than input in the form of presentations. For example we'll make a box with all the ingredients to make a hydrophone. Two people from within Constant will work on a table with snapshots and material from their own research thread going on this year, which will be available for the worksession participants to pick up. The participants can ask for more context to the persons who have assembled the materials on the different tables and work with them.
We would really love to have a Common Dirt box/table/assemblage to be available, ideally with someone of you that can come along. As you are working on the publication, we thought this perhaps could be an interesting intermediate step in your workprocess. We are especially interested in the taxonomy exercises (getting away from Linnaeus), the in-between zones, what is nature and why do we tend to put ourselves outside of that. (Great quote, I have to find back where it comes from as it is now lodged in my brain: With the origin of the Linnaean system, it's as if the natural world has been frozen in time, it's as if it can no longer evolve). In the worksession there is a pointer towards water, rivers, sludge.
For this intervention we can offer a fee of 400 euros per person (maximum 3 in total), 100 euros in material budget. Plus travel costs, food during the day and lodging.
We want to ask you to think about this, within the time framework of the worksession and your agenda's?
Enthusiastic regards,
Wendy & Mia & the rest of Constant
Todo:
- Catering
- input invites
- open call
Budget overview:
Boat tour = 22 eur pp
'READING' list
Jana Winderen https://janawinderen.bandcamp.com/album/listening-through-the-dead-zones-excerpt
Docu Herve Wiels?
Stijn Demeulenaere zijlijn
https://stijndemeulenaere.be/zijlijn.html
https://radiolab.org/podcast/quantum-birds
Meetings planned:
Retroplanning open call:
asap - open call soft launch26th of march - newsletter- 21st of April - deadline
- 5th of may - respond
Handy:
https://constantvzw.org/wefts/orientationspourcollaboration.en.html
OPEN CALL FOR WORKSESSION
Otherworldly Communications
Deadline: 21/04/2025
IN SHORT:
Otherwordly Communications will look at interspecies coexistence and their different arrangements of life. By life in this context we mean biological, geological, digital, immaterial, time/space or beyond.
With a wish to find other ways of relating and engaging with technology than through damage, we look closer at the less obvious communication streams and currents happening around us.
We will use the harbour of Antwerp as a starting point with special attention given to the life organized in and around water. In this friction zone we want to highlight the various extraction flows and interrelations involved.
We invite participants to come to take part in a week of listening, tuning into and making vibrations.
INDEX OF OPEN CALL
✦ WORKSESSION & CONSTANT
▲ COLLABORATION GUIDELINES
◪ WHO IS ORGANISING
⫸ PRACTICAL INFO
Ⓐ ACCESSIBILITY
◉ HOW TO REACT TO THIS CALL
✦ WORKSESSIONS & CONSTANT
Constant is an artistic organisation based in Brussels. Our work is oriented on research. We use experimental formats to critically engage with technology. As a collective of artists, designers and researchers concerned with and about technology, we wonder how digital tools can foster togetherness and inclusivity, how we can collectively share responsibilities and knowledge so that the digital works with us, not against us.
Otherwordly Communications is part of a 5-year research programme (2023-2027) Constant develops around the theme we call SPLINT, "Speculative, Libre, Intersectional Technologies". With the intention to answer the question: What could/should libre, intersectional technologies be or do? SPLINT explores the potential of technology for artistic practice and vice versa, at the intersection of intersectional feminism and open source software.
A 'worksession' organised by Constant is a form of collective artistic residency of about 25 people. We bring together people with different backgrounds to do open-ended research. We invite people who want to rethink and experiment with concepts, phenomena, tools and infrastructures related to digital culture and life. Together we tinker, try things with electronics, we read together, study and exchange. We don't believe in expertise, but we value experience. We aim to mix the digital and non digital. We do like art and weird stuff.
We warmly invite you to bring something to share, something banal, extra-ordinary, something frustrating or intriguing, something appealing that could trigger the imagination or curiosity.
No pressure is placed on the creation of a finished product, but there is space to think together about ideas and prototypes for future development. An informal sharing moment open to the public takes place at the end of the week.
▲ COLLABORATION GUIDELINES
Constant works with a set of collaboration guidelines for public and non-public activities. These guidelines will be used and discussed in different environments, situations and constellations. We will then take the feedback and update them for the next worksession.
https://constantvzw.org/wefts/orientationspourcollaboration.en.html
◪ WHO IS ORGANISING
This session is initiated by Constant and organised in collaboration with Morpho (https://morphoantwerp.be/).
⫸ PRACTICAL INFO
Where: Borrewater, Borrewaterstraat 1, 2170 Merksem (workspace provided by Morpho)
When:
Worksession: Monday 09/06 - Saturday 14/06
(arrival Sunday 08/06 is possible)
Conditions:
Travel costs, accommodation and lunch is covered by Constant.
Ⓐ ACCESSIBILITY
- Activities will take place on the ground floor of the building.
- There is a large toilet available, but not fully accessible according to standard.
- You can reach the location by public transport which are not always aceesible.
- Guide and assistant dogs are welcome
- We provide masks, hand-gel and will air out the spaces regularly. We trust people to inform us and stay at home if they have contagious viral infections.
- We will have a rhythm of more intense input in the beginning of the week with working moments in the second half of the week.
- Main language used will be English, but we are able to provide informal, whispered translation from other languages.
Please don't hesitate to communicate your accessibility needs to us, and feel free to go in detail (for example: audio describers, sign language interpretation, childcare ... ) and we will let you know exactly what we can accommodate before you commit to participating in the worksession. We will also try to adapt the programme to the participants needs.
◉ HOW TO REACT TO THIS CALL
Send an email to: info@constantvzw.org by 21/04/2025
Your email contains:
- A short proposal and/or reason you want to come to this worksession (maximum 1 A4)
- Something about yourself, interests, life experience, CV, ... ?
- What are your access needs.
- Feel free to drift of from the above if you think something else makes more sense.
Confirmations of this round will be sent out on 05/05/2025
PROGRAM DRAFT
MONDAY
Half day intro
Half day sharing and getting known
TUESDAY
- Tour with Georges De Caluwé
- I would suggest the following first outline of the program:
- Part 1. Walking tour of about 2 hours in de old harbour area
- - We gather around 10h30 at the MAS ( Museum aan de Stroom). Reachable with tram 7 from the city centre.
- -Visit to the harbour pavillon at the museum MAS : we position ourselves on an aerial view of the portal area, projected on the floor, offering us an impression of the size of the harbour, its location.
- - Then we walk alongside the old quays in the direction of the Port House, passing by the Red Star Line Museum of emigration to the US, enyoing the panoramic view at the Belvedre on the river bank, passing by a huge construction yard for the renovation of a lock.
- - We shortly pop in the Port House for a coffee break and a sanitary stop.
- - Returnijg with tram 24 to the Schengenplein to take our lunch.
- Part 2 Two hour roundtrip in the harbour by boat
- - We walk form the Schengenplein to the embarkment point of the boat ( short trip of about 15 minutes)
- - Roundtrip by boat in the docks of the commercial harbour.
- Finish around 16 hours.
WEDNESDAY
Worktime
THURSDAY
Hydrophone? Imane & martino slot?
FRIDAY
VARIA
SATURDAY