NEW PAD!!!

TASK division. 


emails:
    
    isabelpontoppidan@yahoo.com
first off, making a list of exercises to carry out during the "show" (ie. monday-friday)

  1. Occupy the elevator
  2. Speedrun through the building: gather as much "art" as possible and pile it up in the middle of the room
  3. Write 200 words about your cat
  4. Split into two groups and write mean stuff about each other
  5. split in to two groups and write cheerleading cheers dissing each other
  6. talk to your neighbour and introduce each other to the group afterwards
  7. draw a mindmap on the wall / paper
  8. Gather as much paper that is not used anymore in the building so we can print on it. Who has the most, wins "person of the hour" award
  9. Make the person of the hour award
  10. Make an on-the-spot presentation about the history of a random object in the hallway
  11. Rate the building based on categories your inner child would follow: how well can you slide on the floor? is everything reachable? is your favorite color represented enough?
  12. Try to listen in to a conversation nearby and write everything down
  13. hide a secret message in the coffee area
  14. write a 100 word introduction to the exhibtion that reads as if it was written by an AI
  15. Don´t let anyone know you´re in the middle of this prompt: let names go extinct (you can not use any names)
  16. Write down every room number where you can find an art piece in 
  17. get snacks for everyone (you can share the costs)
  18. Write a peom on the beauty of UvA (the minutes you draw are also the amount of words you can use)
  19. Write a cookbook like recipe for an artistic research project (satire or not, you decide)
  20. Make an origami piece. if you don´t know how, learn from someone around or youtube
  21. write a 20 words summary of the last news story you heard
  22. remind everyone loudly of the time left in the current phase (make it alarming)
  23. write an announcement that we are using this space for the exhibtion in the style of a threatening letter
  24. make a copy of the etherpad on your laptop (hold you laptop screen over the scanner field)
  25. try to get a drink (coffee, tea) for free
  26. turn off all lights in the building or as much as possible
  27. gather with as many people as possible in a toilet cabin and take a picture
  28. make a color coded floorplan of all the different kinds of floors in bg2
  29. announce yourself on the glass wall next to the exhibition space
  30. read the introduction of the first books that you find out loud. the title of the book has to start with B,G,2,U,V or A
  31. make a flyer to invite people to our exhibition—corpse exquis format???
  32. read paper 2 of the person sitting next to you (of your right side) pick your favourite paragraph and read it out loud to us.
  33. Play truth or dare 
  34. Play hide and seek together
  35. Play hide and seek with ....... the rest is a spectator
  36. write a diary entry of the person next to you
  37. write a letter to mia
  38. write a letter to mia from the perspective of the cone
  39. write a letter to the person who broke your heart most previously
  40. write erotic fanfiction
  41. write erotica about two of the other people in the group (names can be picked from the bowl!)
  42. write a story in which one person from the group is a side-character (everyone should write about the same person; name can be picked from the bowl)
  43. write a story about the window
  44. write 3 versions of your upbringing that are all false; pick your favourite and get together in pairs and write a combined version. think of a suitable name for the person with your combined ideal upbringing and maybe how they wear their hair.
  45. work a whole day without break. see what happens and reflect about it the next day
  46. get to know the person sitting downstairs at the door
  47. make a playlist together
  48. play loud music and dance if you cant play music dance in silence or with headphones
  49. use the stairs for a workout. one is giving instructions which kind of step has to be used to go up and down, the rest follows, repeat until the time is up
  50. spread out for 5 minutes and collect a sound that you find in the building, when you come back shownin to the others with your own voice
  51. greet every person entering the building
  52. take a sunbath in the exhibition space
  53. teach the person next to you a sentence in your language, use a another prompt as what is to be translated
  54. clean up the space, make sure everthing is in order
  55. make a list of all the books you have borrowed at the library and then organise it with everyone else's books by theme, use it to discuss 
  56. mimick the other people in the room
  57. make a poster out of copies that you take from the books in the building
  58. write a reflection on our first semester at uva focussing on food
  59. brainstorm by yourself how to transform the exhibition space in a way that when you enter you don't recognise you are at uva. afterwards come together
  60. Write stream of consciousness for 5 minutes. Afterwards shorten it into a story and share
  61. Play folding of paper game - who, what, when, where and why
    1. start a collective story with this sentence
  62. Don't talk when doing the next prompt 
  63. read all of the prompts and vote on which ones you would like to do. everyone gets three votes; the prompts with the most votes win and will be chosen.
  64. work for an ... on your laptop; then pretend to work on your laptop for another .... but actually check instagram and/or play online games.
  65. throw all of the prompts in the trash and write new ones
  66. write a new prompt each and replace it with one from the bowl. hide the one you took from the bowl somewhere in the space. if someone finds one of them, we have to do the prompt, no matter what other prompt is being executed at the time.
  67. write a story about what florian does when he comes home from talking to us at uva
  68. write a banal story about florian picking up his child after talking to us at uva
  69. write a list of all of the cakes you have ever eaten
  70. write down the first and last names of all of the people you can remember the names of
  71. write a love letter to the artistic research master's programme
  72. write a story where we're in class with core module 1 and kati makes us all re-enact the mapa teatro piece we watched
  73. marina teaches us all hand balances
  74. we all put own clown makeup at aga's instruction
  75. make a collective tinder account and see if we can get someone to come to the space for a date with all of us
  76. it's opposite day!
  77. write an anonymous love letter to someone you know the address of. read it to the group first, then we mail them all.
  78. draw portraits of each other with our non-dominant hand. make tiny plaques describing the person. display them in the hallway, elevator, toilets
  79. make a vegan thanksgiving dinner
  80. Go and ask around in the building to anyone that is there or has an office if they have a piece of furniture that we can borrow for the week of the exhibition. (bring them to the space and install them)
  81. Write a story with every artwork in the building
  82. Grade every task we do between 1 and 10 
  83. Write a small essay about the space we are working in, about 400 words
  84. Write an introduction about yourself as an artist in the academic language, about 50/100 words, read to each other 
  85. give each other compliments
  86. make a list of good compliments (some you like to get)
  87. make a list of bad compliments (would you like to get them anyway?)
  88. Write an introduction about yourself as an artist in art language, about 50/100 words, read to each other
  89. Write from memory how you enter the building this morning, in micro detail from an outer perspective 
  90. Write a description of us as a group of people from a 3rd person point of view, like an anthropologist 
  91. Write a first word impression of every member of the group
  92. Spent every 2 hours, 5 minute at the coffee machine, everyone has a coffee or tea while whispering to each other
  93. Find a form to present the traces of the exercises
  94. Make a paper that only consists out of foodnotes
  95. Make a chain text, someone starts with a few sentences, some else continues, not the story but adds a few lines that are inspired by those lines. End in a chain of associations 
  96. Pick a text, preferably very difficult and academic, all skim read it in several minutes and each person improvises what they felt this text was about. 
  97. All bring one book that you have read, academic or fiction, from home and share one sentence. Make a story from the first words of these sentences
  98. cook breakfast for all of us on the 1st of february
  99. play shark tank
  100. write a script based on the photo collage with Mia on it hanging in the hallway
  101. print your papers/writings and hang them on the plastic picture strings
  102. sabotage the next prompt
  103. repeat the last promt 
  104. make a list of all artistic research graduates
  105. take the trash out
  106. plagiarize
  107. put a post-it on every door of the building with each containing a previously written sentence
  108. put the timer on 5 min and wait for it to ring
  109. choose another prompt and execute it only whispering
  110. write a gossip on the toilet (everyone)
  111. write a fake love story between professors on the toilet
  112. draw the invite/publication together, no words are allowed
  113. find a soundtrack for the exhibition
  114. learn to DJ already!!
  115. play "who is the person"
  116. You are an artist, act like one
  117. You are a student, act like one
  118.  You are a professor, act like one
  119. fake it until you make it
  120. All log onto the online study space of the UvA, study for .. min and leave collectively. 
  121. Take your laptop/notepad. Walk around in the space (+ surrounding hallways, etc.), find yourself a spot you like and write 100 words about what it smells like
  122. Split up, take in one of the art pieces present in the space, come back to the group and describe the pieces to each other.
  123. spread memo notes about what we are doing
  124. start a rumour
  125. Ilja brings cake tomorrow 
  126. Read this prompt in silence, don't tell anybody what it says, quickly throw the prompt away and pick a new one
  127. do the whisper game, write the result on a sticky note and spread it through the building
  128. fill the exhibition with art
  129. write a group-work manifesto 
  130. write an instruction manual on how to create an exhibition within a university
  131. write down everything you see around you
  132. pick one person, describe them in detail through writing
  133. mix up the schedule
  134. bring your favorite piece of writing tomorrow, and read an excerpt of it out loud. (Plan this moment already in the schedule.)
  135. Since no one is a DJ; practice. Make a shared playlist and listen to it when you are not in the space together anymore.
  136. Make a drawing of the alarm clock Nor brought 
  137. Breathe against the window and draw something in the fog you created (give it a title and present it as your art piece)
  138. Make a folder somewhere everyone can access, and put one of your papers in there. 
  139. Spread yourself out in the space, take your phone/laptop and communicate through etherpad.
  140. trust the alarm clock, not the general clocks
  141. skill-sharing session; teach the group a skill you have. 
  142. Trade food or an object with someone in the building
  143. Share food all together 
  144. use all the paper that you collected to make recycled paper. if you dont know how use youtube to learn
  145. start a laugh flash (laugh about anything and get everyone! to join
  146. Create an exhibition of all the art in the building, make up stories about them, incl. curatorial statement,floorplan
  147. Put everything on wheels
  148. make a nest
  149. print all of florian's emails and contruct a story from them

Times
5 min
1 min
30 min
20 min
until someone uses the toilet
56 min
13 min
2 min
5 sec
15 min
32 sec
1 hour
1 hr 5 min
until someone's phone rings
until someone asks what we are doing
until someone says peanut
until we all agree to stop

Names
Isabel
Leyla
Wietske
Pip
Nor
Shanna
Chloë
Nava
Ilja
Aga
Anna


notes/to do:

structural limitations:

Fwd: TEMPORALITY 
wietske

just as time, like Chloë said, can be a disease and liberation all at once, the prompts have this ambiguity too. They can restrain you, feel claustrophobic, or liberate you. The structure of the prompt is freeing. The funny thing here is that on the one hand, efficiency is seen as a problem of capitalism, on the other hand, this ‘efficiënt’ scructuring of the prompts + time, makes us experience a certain pressure releave. As if the pressure to be efficiënt has lifted off of us. 
By being more strict in time — rather than endlessly staring at the page/text— we become more efficiënt. 

Begin doorgestuurd bericht:

Van: Isabel Pontoppidan <isabelpontoppidan@yahoo.com>
Onderwerp: Fw: TEMPORALITY
Datum: 26 januari 2023 om 14:51:20 CET
Aan: "wietskeflederus@outlook.com" <wietskeflederus@outlook.com>

it makes sense to think about the temporalities of the master, of this 'project/exhibition/presentation' concoction. time so dictates how we relate to things, to ourselves, to others, to what is at hand. urgency moves me, urgency thrashes me around in my life and tells me what to do. i navigate the world blindly, following only the urgencies. what needs to be done first? then i do that thing. what needs to be done now? then i do that thing. i have a free afternoon: what can i do in this afternoon that will alleviate time pressure from other aspects of my life?
here we are making new time rules, rules that are not based on due dates, schedules, having to do laundry ('if i put the wash on now i can make dinner and eat it and do the dishes and then i can hang my clothes just in time before i have to leave the house again'). we schedule showing up; then we time ourselves together. of course, now we have to write this text for florian. we're doing it now, under time pressure and specific rules. but hopefully the text itself will just be a by-product and what we are ACTUALLY (not to make a hierarchy or anything) doing is just talking to each other, one by one about specific topics. the most important element here is sharing, writing each other and then the reading out loud afterwards. the time makes a little bottle for our ship.

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Chloë van Diepen <chloevandiepen@gmail.com>
To: "isabelpontoppidan@yahoo.com" <isabelpontoppidan@yahoo.com>
Sent: Thursday, January 26, 2023 at 02:39:14 PM GMT+1
Subject: Fwd: TEMPORALITY

I am thinking of the temporality of this master. We are already on 1/4 and time goes faster when you get closer to the end. Can you already project in the future and think back on us sitting here, sharing thoughts about the course and how we are experiencing it. Time has been our entry point to give a response to the question of this exhibition. Time has also been what bring us together during these days. Times has been what makes us put words on paper without rationalisation. Or should I say time-pressure. Time pressure can be a disease and a liberation at the same time. (hehe) It makes us sick and burnout or it makes us speak our minds freely. A while ago I was having a debate with a friend that believed in 'efficiency', personally i felt efficiency is a problem of capitalism    ......

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Ilja Schamle <iljaschamle@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 26 Jan 2023 at 14:26
Subject: Fwd: TEMPORALITY
To: <chloevandiepen@gmail.com>


Also what role does interpretation play with our perception of time? The pace of the dutch art world, the neoliberal order of the amount of steps one has to take per minute is ever present in our perception of time. Camilla mentioned how this gathering of the group, the response to the temporal order that has been given to us, the time to make art, is an act of withdrawal. We decided that this time, this aesthetic of temporality, is something we can use to gather, to get to know each other, to reflect on our needs and relations. What if we take the time and the perception of it and use it for our benefit? We time everything, we use the aesthetics all around us, but not to produce, not to deliver, but to be. This contrast, to have a timeframe to reflect, and have fun and care, feels absurd, yet it does offer me a strategy to cope with the expectation of the amount of steps I am supposed to have taken. 

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Pırıltı Onukar <piriltionukar@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Jan 26, 2023 at 2:16 PM
Subject: TEMPORALITY
To: <iljaschamle@gmail.com>


What is it for something to be of temporal quality? Perhaps it exists in time, or maybe it is of time. Something that fleets, like the smell of linden flowers in early spring is temporally bound — it will exist only for the duration of two-three weeks every year. (Of course if seasons remain as we have gotten used to experiencing them, given the absurdity of climate crisis.) What about the temporality of something that no longer exists? Or are living beings and non-living things of a different temporality? (Does this divide even exist?) And what about the non-perceivable time that presupposedly encompasses 

Fwd: COLLECTIVITY
Pırıltı Onukar <piriltionukar@gmail.com>
3:07 PM (28 minutes ago)
to me
Begin forwarded message:

From: Anna Pabērza <anna.paberza@gmail.com>
Date: 26 January 2023 14:52:22 CET
To: piriltionukar@gmail.com
Subject: Fwd: COLLECTIVITY
---------- Forwarded message ---------
No: Nor Akelei <akelei.nor@gmail.com>
Date: ceturtd., 2023. g. 26. janv., plkst. 14:38
Subject: Fwd: COLLECTIVITY
To: Anna Pabērza <anna.paberza@gmail.com>

What happens is that I seem to be confronting that something. It's as if my capacity to tolerate uncertainty has increased. It is as if I have opened the door of my mind to the thoughts and insights of all the members of the group. The goal is no longer to reach a certain point but to float in something that results from the presence of each member of the group. I am practicing the process rather than the end. I think that's what collectivity is for me. I like the idear of floating, when I applied for DAI they wrote something about it. It was something like a floating, always moving spaceship. Maybe this presentation is an oppurtunity to create this spaceship together? And maybe we can continue to go on adventures? Ah! I looked it up, they call it "soft spaceship". This space is not soft, but we create our own softeness. A place where we don't need to harm our bodies with stress
did you know that the word collective has a very difference resonance with previous soviet countries?  it was a forced concept of
marxist-leninist ideology. susanne altman gave a workshop about this. why do we have to name it collective and not just a group? sounds hip for sure. “collective work” is trending now and it felt kind of imposed as a concept onto the group also how we should approach the exhibition. but i’m happy there we are not concerned about the performance and presentability of our group but rather see it as an opportunity to spend time together within the context of the school since this is where “our collective” materialises. maybe that is the opposite of floating? 
We take shape as a collective within the planetary boundaries of the university. Do we only exist as a collective here? Do we only exist as a collective until we are done with our exhibition and gotten our grade? And then our collective labour is over and it is the end of the collective. Or once a collective, always a collective? Or I will add it to my resume, that I have worked in an artistic collective, which was a thought provoking, inspiring, interdisciplinary, methodologically new experience for me. To collect means:
  1. To gather together; amass items “Suzanne collected all the papers she had laid out.
  2. To get; particularly, get from someone
  3. A mortgage company collects a monthly payment on a house.
  4. The prayer said before the reading of the epistle lesson, especially one found in a prayer book, as with the Bookof Common Prayer
  5. He used the day's collect as the basis of his sermon.
  6. To form a conclusion; to deduce, infer. (Compare gather, get.) 
  7. the riot is so great that it is very difficult to collect what is being said.
  8. To accumulate similar items or items belonging to a particular theme, particularly for a hobby or recreation
  9. John Henry collects stamps.
We are gathered together, we are accumulated items or items belonging to a particular theme. We chose to be here, chose to do this together and thus we are not gathered in the passive sense, but actively gathered, doing something. more like attempting to do something. But how deep this activity goes I am not sure. Will we feel different after this exhibition is fulfilled? What are we learning? We are a group of individuals, some humans that were prompted to do something. we did not feel comfortable with the prompt so we collected ourselves.



Sent from my iPhone

Begin forwarded message:

From: Shanna de Ruiter <shannaderuiter@hotmail.nl>
Date: 26. January 2023 at 14:26:33 CET
To: akelei.nor@gmail.com
Subject: FW: COLLECTIVITY


What happens is that I seem to be confronting that something. It's as if my capacity to tolerate uncertainty has increased. It is as if I have opened the door of my mind to the thoughts and insights of all the members of the group. The goal is no longer to reach a certain point but to float in something that results from the presence of each member of the group. I am practicing the process rather than the end. I think that's what collectivity is for me. I like the idear of floating, when I applied for DAI they wrote something about it. It was something like a floating, always moving spaceship. Maybe this presentation is an oppurtunity to create this spaceship together? And maybe we can continue to go on adventures? Ah! I looked it up, they call it "soft spaceship". This space is not soft, but we create our own softeness. A place where we don't need to harm our bodies with stress


Van: nava samimi <samimi.nava@gmail.com>
Verzonden: donderdag 26 januari 2023 14:17
Aan: shannaderuiter@hotmail.nl <shannaderuiter@hotmail.nl>
Onderwerp: COLLECTIVITY

What happens is that I seem to be confronting that something. It's as if my capacity to tolerate uncertainty has increased. It is as if I have opened the door of my mind to the thoughts and insights of all the members of the group. The goal is no longer to reach a certain point but to float in something that results from the presence of each member of the group. I am practicing the process rather than the end. I think that's what collectivity is for me.

DO-ING/ACTIVE CRITICALITY

maybe this is super cheesy, but i very much connect do-ing/active criticality with being an artist. or perhaps connect it with the role that art has in our lives. the way i have been taught to approach my own creativity is with a lot of curiosity for the world, to seek potential in everything and to ENGAGE. maybe that's the do-ing, the active part of it. you can discover the nature of things by engaging with them: touching them, pushing them, talking to them, eating them. veils fall and revelations take place, material morphs between my hands. 
similarly the criticality comes from the engagement. to question the way things are you can engage with them in a different way, in an unexpected way. the parented becomes the parent. when i was a child, my parents told me what i could not do. now i tell them what they cannot do (ie. use certain words or certain emojis in certain contexts). it's the same with the university; it tells us what to do but also says 'hey, if you don't like it you can tell me why (in my way though) and then you can do whatever you like'

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Chloë van Diepen <chloevandiepen@gmail.com>
To: "isabelpontoppidan@yahoo.com" <isabelpontoppidan@yahoo.com>
Sent: Thursday, January 26, 2023 at 02:52:47 PM GMT+1
Subject: Fwd: Do-ing/active criticality

Active criticality for me refers to seeing yourself in relation to what is happening around you. Instead of ignoring the context you're in and not taking it for granted, you ask questions. These questions are not about answers, no, they are there to reflect and start thinking. We started to think about this building, what it has to offer and what we have to offer to it. We started to think about ourselves and the other and what we can offer each other. We started thinking about the structures we work in and how they affect us. We started to think about what it means to make art, do academia, be an artist or academic. And especially how all these things are entangled; one of those words that is liked in both of these worlds. What is important for me is not to get any answers, but simply to recognize these questions..

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Ilja Schamle <iljaschamle@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 26 Jan 2023 at 14:38
Subject: Fwd: Do-ing/active criticality
To: <chloevandiepen@gmail.com>


It is definitely recognisable this idea of parenting yourself. As a mentioned during the group discussion the collective do-ing asks me to surrender to this group, i do not hold someone more accountable then myself. It teaches me to learn to deal with expectations that are so internalised that they can get stuck in there sometimes. Being in a group expecting to do something together immediately becomes about the group itself and the way we relate. The meta mode takes these expectation patterns from the inside to the outside, they become visible. The same goes for criticality, when one is critical, especially by themselves, one can easily forget about the being as a whole– where is your body in this, where is the intuition etc. Us practising criticality together occurred out of our longing to do something without following these set expectations. We were joking about teenagers and the way they interact with school buildings, that acts of vandalisation e.g.; writing in the toilet space; throwing tomatoes against the wall; being loud, is also such an act of active criticality, a kick against often arbitrary societal expectations. 

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Pırıltı Onukar <piriltionukar@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Jan 26, 2023 at 2:26 PM
Subject: Fwd: Do-ing/active criticality
To: <iljaschamle@gmail.com>


Begin forwarded message:

From: Anna Pabērza <anna.paberza@gmail.com>
Date: 26 January 2023 14:16:19 CET
To: piriltionukar@gmail.com
Subject: Do-ing/active criticality


Do-ing as an active criticality puts your body in action. When are you done being critical? Or is it an infinite activity? Or maybe you are done when you have achieved your goal? But what is the goal? Or as long as you are do-ing you are carrying out active criticality? And it only stops when you are....dead? I assume not everything you are do-ing can be active criticality. You are eating because you are a human. But not eating, not-do-ing what you are supposed to do can be an active criticality. We are in this space, expected to be do-ing an exhibition. Is it do-ing other things and not do-ing what we are expected to do active criticality? What is expected of us, anyways? This term expectation reminds me of unappaisable parents always expecting something of their child without ever knowing what it is they expect. But a child has not reached the verbal skills that are required of us in academia for the active criticality we are supposedly engaged in. A child does not have the citations to prove to their parent that if they come home late that night they were right to do so. They might get punished, maybe grounded. What’s to be our punishment for our not do-ing of what is expected from us? A bad grade? We’ve been told that as long as we can prove our methodology in one way or another, we are good to go. We can break the rules if can prove that we know the rules. And to attempt at breaking the rules implies we were unppaised by the setters of the rules. So roles are reversed and we get to play unappaisable parent parenting itself against the university? What matters is the fact that we are here, giving our precious time to something we see value in. When we go home at night do we wonder if the roles might get reversed again and our parents start punishing us? 

DO-ING/ACTIVE CRITICALITY
Nor Akelei <akelei.nor@gmail.com>
15:07 (pirms 29 minūtēm)
kam: es
angļu
   
Tulkot ziņojumu
Izslēgt: angļu
The writing becomes a doing in this colectivity. Not as a universal statement, rather within the group. Writing collectively engages me with others, humans, writings, computers, sounds of the typewriting that distances from walking around endlessly, in our mind.
Maybe it has to do with getting out of our individual minds -even if that is an illusion-

How is passive criticality? What does active criticality change or does or produces differently?

We need the doing, discussions decant there.
Rather then writing or thinking critically, we wanted to practice it. Activate our bodies, minds.
We created a method, rather then just walking around endlessly in our own minds. But why then is writing not active criticality?
What is passive about writing (if it would not be active)? I am reminded of Chloë’s presentation about her practice where she talked about the physical part of hearing and writing (if i remember correctly, sorry if this is not the case -rush typing).
Does our performativity or the fact that we are physically moving through the space make the criticality active?
Either way, the doing through instructions gave us a vehicle and a method to -rather than feeling stuck, walking circles in your own head- to be in motion more or less. Perhaps this is the active part of it, we are in motion (?)

For me, this active criticism was like jumping into a deep pool without doing a lot of calculations about the width and length of the pool, its temperature, and swimming techniques. That's what made it enjoyable, the way it was matching with Artistic Research which requires a great deal of courage to wander into the unknown.
Funny, I just wrote about the beach and waves and how there is a constant coming in and out of people, things and organisms, apparently I'm not the only one that was thinking of something water related. Although for me it's not so technical it's more ituitive, this whole group process. I like to even feel in the writing that it is going so much easier because we are in an echo room (not sure if that's the right way to descibe it) togther, I feel like writing better(?) things because of writing together. It feels good to just do and surrender, although it's also a bit scary sometimes. A week ago I was worrieing a lot about it, but now I just see and accept the process. I like how we are becoming a group more and more. 
the word criticality in itself is active. criticality to me is about movement, rather than just passively criticising, criticality thinks of what needs to change and proposes alternatives. how
grounded they need to be in reality in order to set change in motion is another question. our presence might be exercising a different, maybe more open, use of the space. but what are two weeks to an institution? to set something in motion, the criticality needs to be persistent. how to extend the active state of presence over the two weeks of the exhibition planning. how are we continuing to dis/integrate at uva?

Sent from my iPhone

Begin forwarded message:

From: Shanna de Ruiter <shannaderuiter@hotmail.nl>
Date: 26. January 2023 at 14:57:30 CET
To: akelei.nor@gmail.com
Subject: FW: DOING / ACTIVE CRITICALITY


The writing becomes a doing in this colectivity. Not as an universal statement, rather within the group. Writing collectivelyengages me with others, humans, writings, computers, sounds of the typewriting that distances from walking around endlessly, in our mind.
Maybe it has to do with getting out of our individual minds -even if that is an illusion-

How is passive criticality? What does active criticality change or does or produces differently?

We need the doing, discussions decant there.
Rather then writing or thinking critically, we wanted to practice it. Activate our bodies, minds.
We created a method, rather then just walking around endlessly in our own minds. But why then is writing not active criticality?
What is passive about writing (if it would not be active)? I am reminded of Chloë’s presentation about her practice where she talked about the physical part of hearing and writing (if i remember correctly, sorry if this is not the case -rush typing).
Does our performativity or the fact that we are physically moving through the space make the criticality active?
Either way, the doing through instructionsgave us a vehicle and a method to -rather than feeling stuck, walking circles in your own head- to be in motion more or less. Perhaps this is the active part of it, we are in motion (?)

For me, this active criticism was like jumping into a deep pool without doing a lot of calculations about the width and length of the pool, its temperature, and swimming techniques. That's what made it enjoyable, the way it was matching with Artistic Research which requires a great deal of courage to wander into the unknown.
Funny, I just wrote about the beach and waves and how there is a constant coming in and out of people, things and organisms, apparently I'm not the only one that was thinking of something water related. Although for me it's not so technical it's more ituitive, this whole group process. I like to even feel in the writing that it is going so much easier because we are in an echo room (not sure if that's the right way to descibe it) togther, I feel like writing better(?) things because of writing together. It feels good to just do and surrender, although it's also a bit scary sometimes. A week ago I was worrieing a lot about it, but now I just see and accept the process. I like how we are becoming a group more and more. 

prompts

Van: nava samimi <samimi.nava@gmail.com>
Verzonden: donderdag 26 januari 2023 14:51
Aan: shannaderuiter@hotmail.nl<shannaderuiter@hotmail.nl>
Onderwerp: Fwd: PROMPTS
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Camila de Mussy<camilademussy@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Jan 26, 2023 at 2:39 PM
Subject: Fwd: PROMPTS
To: <samimi.nava@gmail.com>


Promps as Restrictions
Promps as Frame
Promps as holding structures. 

There is this methaphor that someone shared with me once. Imagine you are in a rooftop of a tall building and it is just you and the floor, no boundaries, no walls, no things to grap in the sides. Imagine how would you feel there. Would you be able to play? To dance? To explore? How would you approach the border? Now imagine there are some tall strong glasses in each side of the roof top. How would you feel now and what possibilities does it opens? How do limits allow the possibility to create, to explore? How not having limits paralizes, and rises stronger limitations? narrow frames and no frames work maybe in similar ways.


---------- Forwarded message ---------
De: Wietske Flederus<wietskeflederus@outlook.com>
Date: jue, 26 ene 2023 a las 14:26
Subject: Fwd: PROMPTS
To: camilademussy@gmail.com<camilademussy@gmail.com>

Begin doorgestuurd bericht:

Van: Isabel Pontoppidan <isabelpontoppidan@yahoo.com>
Onderwerp: PROMPTS
Datum: 26 januari 2023 om 14:15:59 CET
Aan: "wietskeflederus@outlook.com" <wietskeflederus@outlook.com>

writing about prompts.
it seems to be a question of free will. i think we have all experienced the paralysing pressure of having TOO many options, too much time to do something, etc. these imposed restrictions and limitations are dictating what we will do, how we do it and for how long. whatever experience or trace comes out is a direct reflection upon the restrictions; the restrictions are the work itself in this sense. the things could not exist without our externally imposed limitations and rules. 
the rules work because we are a group i think. I think it works because the rule maker (the pot filled with prompts) is not one of us. But at the same time it is us, if someone else would have made them, we probably would less accepting. we hold ourselves/each other accountable and make decisions together. we are the makers of the game and we are all the judges,we are also the receiver of the game, the excecuter of it. or the respondants if you will. the rules of the game are a collective framework that we are stubbornly upholding together. they operate in their own logic; outsiders cannot glean the rules at first glance. we are creating a little world with a language of its own together. we understand each other, we become a community as a result of this rule-making and logic-building. there's an element of secrecy and tenderness. we're building a nest for ourselves and each other, and although the others in the building may not understand us they let us do our weird thing in this corner and they don't mind our sticky notes.
I am reminded of what Ilja said yesterday; we needed a leader so we created one. Following rules/instructions/a structures can be verstikkend , but can also be comforting. It can be comforting to follow a structure, surrendering yourself to something else. Something that happens ‘outside’ of yourself. 
(are we rehearsing the exhibition by doing these prompts?) 

More than the propmts themselves are important, the way they were designed and how everyone encountered them gave us an idea of each other and was a good opportunity to understand each other better. They were an uplifting platform that helped us practice being free of structure while having a structure.

This double thing of being the receiver and (indirectly) the giver of the prompts has something also having no leader and a leader at the same time. The role that time plays and the layering in it is also crucial/interesting I think to make it work. We are creating a certain speedy pace to be able to fit into the structure that is given to us. 

----
TEMPORALITY 
Temporality as an aesthetics, a way of framing our work now.
We have two weeks to organize+create+share an 'exhibition', and that pushes us to certain -->prompts, tools, ways of approaching the exercise.
The center of our meeting has been Time Timer, a small pink clock that guards the time for each conversation, break, organizacion or activity. 'Is felt so useful yesterday', 'Let's do a time schedule again '. It has framed our experience.
We are writing in short time slots, we are creating from a more spontaneous, embodied?, not (re)flected space.Scheduling worked like a form for us. Like a container to pour our mental content into. It gave us direction and helped us not get lost in our fluid movement of exploring the university building. This form gave our group work a rhythm that became part of its identity. This rhytm creates something like waves and everytime when a wave returns to the sea it leaves traces. I like the image of a beach. There is a constant coming in and out of people, organisms, water. In the space we are in, people go to the toilet, get chairs for the empty room, we are here, we leave again, we fill the space with art from the building, the art goes back to the place it was coming from. This also creates a certain temporality, like high- and lowtide. There is a layering of time in everthing we do here.
Did we capitalise our own experience? Capitalism sets a strange sense of temporality. Everything has to an immediacy, an urgency, you are always too late. is there a relation to the “prompt“ adjective? immediacy. is that what we are doing by picking up on the idea of a schedule and limited time? or does it release you from the need to perform in the best possible way?
Fast pace, growth and development. Sounds a lot like capitalist modernity. We are expected to work within a small time frame, develop our work and grow as artistic researchers. Beautiful in theory, disaster in practice. Time is an interesting construct. And it has also become part of our working method. Time, pace, rythm, temporal boundaries, running out of time, last minute, time is money, no time. People tend to get things done when there are deadlines coming, time is pushing and pulling us to do things. This push and pull sometimes feels uncomfortable and the direction is not always clear. But as long as we are in this together. Only time will tell if the grade we will get will be sufficient to move on in time and space.
----


Traces
Ilja Schamle
15:08 (29 minutes ago)
to me
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Pırıltı Onukar <piriltionukar@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Jan 26, 2023 at 2:52 PM
Subject: Fwd: Traces
To: <iljaschamle@gmail.com>


Begin forwarded message:

From: Anna Pabērza <anna.paberza@gmail.com>
Date: 26 January 2023 14:38:36 CET
To: piriltionukar@gmail.com
Subject: Fwd: Traces




---------- Forwarded message ---------
No: Nor Akelei <akelei.nor@gmail.com>
Date: ceturtd., 2023. g. 26. janv., plkst. 14:20
Subject: Fwd: Traces
To: Anna Pabērza <anna.paberza@gmail.com>




What traces would we leave behind? Crumbs, post-its, letters. How long would it take till most traces disappear? And are invisible traces from the past still there in some way? The building changed to me, I start to get to know the corners. We changed the building as well, with our presence and games. I also like the word fragment connected to traces.  

is a mark a trace? what does it mean to be unmarked? invisible? invisible according to whom? can anything ever be unmarked?

Leaving traces can be a blessing and a curse. Sometimes you want to be invisible, leave nothing behind, like a burglar that comes in, takes what is wants and leaves without a trace. A trace would mean a punisment. So not a single hair, a visible skin cell can be left behind. But sometimes, traces are important. To find your way back in a forest like Hans and Gretel did. Or when you want others to know about your past presence/ past in the present that they can reflect upon. We as humans are leaving a lot of traces in the world. Good and bad. I wonder if it is in our human nature/culture wanting to leave traces? To mark something as yours. But also being marked ourselves. Showing that you belong. Does a mark make you fit in, become invisible or being unmarked makes you invisible? 
If we were to leave no traces behind in this building, we could not be graded. Remember that meeting with Florian after our first playdate and we had cleared the table and only had a few words to describe we had done what we had done. And he trusted us. we could have lied!
It would be funny to encase the crumbs that Hans and Gretel left behind. ‘Look, we are going somewhere…’ Are we too, going somewhere? Moving in time, moving in space; through trains and bikes and we gather here. I would like to leave more traces behind, to make this place feel lived in. Yet we are so clean, so thoughtful and so organized. And are all the traces we leave behind going to be these emails and sticky notes? yes.

Especially in these buildings traces are so erased, the places are so standardised, that the traces of the history of the institution feel hidden. It makes it secretive. You create a territory with traces, marks, territory sounds negative, opposite of commoning spaces, yet hiding traces seem to hide histories, seem to deny historical territories. What if the traces we make are not to be hided, but also not to claim space. What would there traces look like? Something I have been experiencing in collectively owned space is that there is this constant back and forth between creating rules to prevent individuals from asserting ownership through their mark-making, and to allow newcomers the same opportunities for utilizing the space as those who have been here for longer, without falling into the traps of creating a norm for how a space should look like, norms in spaces, universities inform us how the ideal bodies/students function, they set ideals, create categories. This is exactly what we are trying to go against, how do we make this space work for us? The only way is to alter it through occupation. But how to allow the space to remain open to new needs from people outside of this particular group?


Sent from my iPhone


Traces

What was there but is not anymore, but it is still something. One way of thinking it is to imagine traces as parts, as rests, as loose threads of an other. Like the myth of following the traces to reconstruct a puzzle, to understand a history.
Also maybe traces are other shapes that the previous 'thing' takes, or is always a new 'thing'.

It makes me think of memories, how they are layers of re-written images and stories built out of traces.

A trace is the materialisation of what is no longer present. (Right?) I wonder if traces really are always material. Imagine: you see a mouse somewhere in your house. Its sitting still in one place, but then its scared by your movement and runs away. You can still ‘see’ the mouse in that place. Perhaps that leaning more towards memory, rather then a trace. But you can ‘see’ the route the mouse left in your house, over your floor. The moment something becomes a trace, it is the embodiment of that which is absenced now. Yet, it is not an empty absence, it's full with references, references that relate to what was and no longer is, and opens up a new presence. When we look into traces we maybe find its origin, an essence, but, I believe we can find much more than that.  


traces as what was and no longer is as still being something.   this makes a lot of sense to me, this new presence, modality, THING. my friend thea sent a love letter to myself and our friend felicia and in it she wrote something very beautiful which i will transcribe here from my phone: 'I want to forever be brave enough to feel all the feels and express the gratitude I have for each one I may be so lucky to experience, and to be brave enough to fully embrace it when it's there and recognize it as an IMPRINT OF WHERE LOVE ONCE WAS, RATHER THAN A NEGATIVE SPACE TO BE FILLED, IF IT DISAPPEARS' (capitalisation mine). This is beautiful. 
traces are not about finding an origin necessarily; they are an imprint of what once was and become a thing in and of themselves. just as nostalgia is not the past, it is a harkening for an idea of the past that can never be relived—it's the past after all.
are traces a yearning? or a potential for imagination perhaps? a little mark that can spark so many tales and stories, so many ideas of what happened. these ideas may diverge greatly from what actually happened, but the idea is not to sherlock-holmes our way to a Truth. the daydreams and fantasies of what once was are valid and present in and of themselves as well, just as the traces. they exist in a dreamscape inside of our minds, that is what traces do. they spark dreams and imagination and fabulation. 
is it possible to collect or archive traces? What do our traces in this space look like?

Traces are more powerful than they seem. I felt this when I read the notes we wrote in the toilet. I could imagine the voice of the person who wrote it in my mind. Even their doubt or certainty when they wrote the sentences was completely obvious from the lines on the wall. Like a dense accumulated moment of their presence in this place and the decision they made to write that sentence. Will the traces of our presence in this building, the words and laughs we exchanged and the lines we left remain in this place?

CM2 teacher

I am taken back by the funny confusion of the word prompt that was there when we started to create this game. The word prompt, prompted us to think about prompts in the form of a game. A game that would push us in to the direction of rerouting from the usual discursive framework, the game is about nothing and everything at the same time. A prompt feels so arbitrary because we came up with it ourselves and we still have the choice to not do it. We needed a leader in the group so we created one, not the one that was imposed on us by the department "make an exhibition, with a publication", but a leader that we created ourselves. It is fake but so real at the same time. Just like life feels like a game sometimes, with rules that everyone seems to follow, but actually everyone has this absurd feeling of not having received the instructions (some more then others of course). A prompt is an imposed activation, but you always have the choice to not do it, right?

I did not fulfill the prompt to read the previously written text about prompts. Some prompts we did were unsuccessful, but what was important for us while thinking of these prompts is that there is no perfect. Every prompt is intended to activate a relationship. We wrote them without thinking of the outcome but purely pushing us to step out of our minds. Do without thinking, make without thinking does not really corresponds well with the mentality of the university. These prompts were intended to trust and rely on the knowledge that is imbedded un us, as individuals and as a group. To discover instead of calculate. To find instead of search. Our starting point..

Promps as Restrictions
Promps as Frame
Promps as holding structures. 

There is this methaphor that someone shared with me once. Imagine you are in a rooftop of a tall building and it is just you and the floor, no boundaries, no walls, no things to grap in the sides. Imagine how would you feel there. Would you be able to play? To dance? To explore? How would you approach the border? Now imagine there are some tall strong glasses in each side of the roof top. How would you feel now and what possibilities does it opens? How do limits allow the possibility to create, to explore? How not having limits paralizes, and rises stronger limitations? narrow frames and no frames work maybe in similar ways.


---------- Forwarded message ---------
De: Wietske Flederus<wietskeflederus@outlook.com>
Date: jue, 26 ene 2023 a las 14:26
Subject: Fwd: PROMPTS
To: camilademussy@gmail.com<camilademussy@gmail.com>

Begin doorgestuurd bericht:

Van: Isabel Pontoppidan <isabelpontoppidan@yahoo.com>
Onderwerp: PROMPTS
Datum: 26 januari 2023 om 14:15:59 CET
Aan: "wietskeflederus@outlook.com" <wietskeflederus@outlook.com>

writing about prompts.
it seems to be a question of free will. i think we have all experienced the paralysing pressure of having TOO many options, too much time to do something, etc. these imposed restrictions and limitations are dictating what we will do, how we do it and for how long. whatever experience or trace comes out is a direct reflection upon the restrictions; the restrictions are the work itself in this sense. the things could not exist without our externally imposed limitations and rules. 
the rules work because we are a group i think. I think it works because the rule maker (the pot filled with prompts) is not one of us. But at the same time it is us, if someone else would have made them, we probably would less accepting. we hold ourselves/each other accountable and make decisions together. we are the makers of the game and we are all the judges,we are also the receiver of the game, the excecuter of it. or the respondants if you will. the rules of the game are a collective framework that we are stubbornly upholding together. they operate in their own logic; outsiders cannot glean the rules at first glance. we are creating a little world with a language of its own together. we understand each other, we become a community as a result of this rule-making and logic-building. there's an element of secrecy and tenderness. we're building a nest for ourselves and each other, and although the others in the building may not understand us they let us do our weird thing in this corner and they don't mind our sticky notes.
I am reminded of what Ilja said yesterday; we needed a leader so we created one. Following rules/instructions/a structures can be verstikkend , but can also be comforting. It can be comforting to follow a structure, surrendering yourself to something else. Something that happens ‘outside’ of yourself. 
(are we rehearsing the exhibition by doing these prompts?) 

More than the prompts themselves are important, the way they were designed and how everyone encountered them gave us an idea of each other and was a good opportunity to understand each other better. They were an uplifting platform that helped us practice being free of structure while having a structure.

This double thing of being the receiver and (indirectly) the giver of the prompts has something also having no leader and a leader at the same time. The role that time plays and the layering in it is also crucial/interesting I think to make it work. We are creating a certain speedy pace to be able to fit into the structure that is given to us. 



PROMPT #31: write our exhibition(presentation??? game???) text—corpse exquis format

limitations:

executed 26th of january, 14:17-15:15

Van: nava samimi <samimi.nava@gmail.com>
Verzonden: donderdag 26 januari 2023 14:51
Aan: shannaderuiter@hotmail.nl<shannaderuiter@hotmail.nl>
Onderwerp: Fwd: PROMPTS
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Camila de Mussy<camilademussy@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Jan 26, 2023 at 2:39 PM
Subject: Fwd: PROMPTS
To: <samimi.nava@gmail.com>


I am taken back by the funny confusion of the word prompt that was there when we started to create this game. The word prompt, prompted us to think about prompts in the form of a game. A game that would push us in to the direction of rerouting from the usual discursive framework, the game is about nothing and everything at the same time. A prompt feels so arbitrary because we came up with it ourselves and we still have the choice to not do it. We needed a leader in the group so we created one, not the one that was imposed on us by the department "make an exhibition, with a publication", but a leader that we created ourselves. It is fake but so real at the same time. Just like life feels like a game sometimes, with rules that everyone seems to follow, but actually everyone has this absurd feeling of not having received the instructions (some more than others of course). A prompt is an imposed activation, but you always have the choice to not do it, right?

---------- Forwarded message ---------
De: Wietske Flederus<wietskeflederus@outlook.com>
Date: jue, 26 ene 2023 a las 14:26
Subject: Fwd: PROMPTS
To: camilademussy@gmail.com<camilademussy@gmail.com>

Prompts as Restrictions
Prompts as Frame
Prompts as holding structures. 

There is this methaphor that someone shared with me once. Imagine you are on a rooftop of a tall building and it is just you and the floor, no boundaries, no walls, no things to grab on the sides. Imagine how would you feel there. Would you be able to play? To dance? To explore? How would you approach the border? Now imagine there are some tall strong glass panes on each side of the roof top. How would you feel now and what possibilities does it open? How do limits allow the possibility to create, to explore? How does not having limits paralyze; how does having too many limits paralyze? Narrow frames and no frames work maybe in similar ways.


Nor Akelei <akelei.nor@gmail.com>
15:07 (pirms 29 minūtēm)
kam: es
angļu
   
Tulkot ziņojumu
Izslēgt: angļu

More than that the prompts themselves are important, the way they were designed and how everyone encountered them gave us an idea of each other and was a good opportunity to understand each other better. They were an uplifting platform that helped us practice being free of structure while having a structure.


---------- Forwarded message ---------
De: Wietske Flederus<wietskeflederus@outlook.com>
Date: jue, 26 ene 2023 a las 14:26
Subject: Fwd: PROMPTS
To: camilademussy@gmail.com<camilademussy@gmail.com>

Begin doorgestuurd bericht:

Van: Isabel Pontoppidan <isabelpontoppidan@yahoo.com>
Onderwerp: PROMPTS
Datum: 26 januari 2023 om 14:15:59 CET
Aan: "wietskeflederus@outlook.com" <wietskeflederus@outlook.com>


a prompt gives you an action. it is not the rule but rather the task that needs to be done. how you will get to the results is open. a prompt sets into motion. in german prompt is an adjective. it means immediately, now, asap, directly (unverzüglich). if we combine the action with immediacy we can think of a prompt as setting something immediately into motion. the prompt is about the act. like this prompt to write about. prompt gives me the task to think about the word and write about it.


Ilja Schamle
15:08 (29 minutes ago)
to me
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Pırıltı Onukar <piriltionukar@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Jan 26, 2023 at 2:52 PM
Subject: Fwd: Traces
To: <iljaschamle@gmail.com>


A prompt gives a direction and a purpose of your action. It is open and closed both at the same time. The word prompt sounds alien to me. I know what it is but I also don't know what it is. I know what it does but not exactly. It is one of those words that doesn't sound natural to me. There are words that sound like the action, activity or object that they denote. But prompt does not. I know prompt is also used to encourage someone to speak. This prompt now is encouraging me to speak. Prompt is prompting me to speak through written words and will continue to prompt you to continue with this prompt.

Sent from my iPhone



Begin forwarded message:

From: Shanna de Ruiter <shannaderuiter@hotmail.nl>
Date: 26. January 2023 at 14:26:33 CET
To: akelei.nor@gmail.com
Subject: FW: PROMPTS

Prompted by the prompt to continue with this prompt, i am imagining prompts in my mouth prooooompting proomptiiiing very slowly like very big and unchewable bubblegum. sometimes to be prompted causes the opposite reaction, not wanting to do what you are asked to do. yet here we reversed, we responded to the prompt by our own prompts, prompting ourselves and each other to respond to our prompts. of course we are not stupid enough to endow ourselves with jokers that in case we are unprompted by the prompt we can deprompt the prompts. prompt prompters prompting about in a prompted world of promptous promptliness, prompetually prompted to promptly promptiness, prompted, prompting, promptenuously prompted in a promptful prompt; promptous, promptacular, promptilly prompotonoprompontopromtontantialiopromtiguous promptototosaurus. holy promptology! prompt


Dear Mia,

Hope this email finds you well. As you may know, the Midterm Exhibition for the first year artistic reseachers is coming up next week. It will be on the first and second floor hallways of BG2 from 1-3 February. The 'opening' for those of us working individually who will exhibit their work is on the first, and you should be receiving an email from Florian about the details for this shortly. 

In addition, some of us have decided to work collectively for this exhibition and have been meeting in BG2 to play together. This process has resulted in certain activities, games, performances, interventions, and collective writing and reading. On the 2nd of February, we will open up our group process to our other classmates and professors. We wanted to invite you to this gathering with the group and other professors on Thursday the 2nd, if you're available. We would like to share our experiences of these two weeks, talk about education and collectivity and perhaps share the game and some food with you. Is there a time on Thursday 02/02/23 that would suit you? 

Next to that we have a question. One of the activities of our game was to create an exhibition with the art already present in the BG2 building. To re-curate the items in the building. We know there are lots of people with artworks in their offices, and would like to reinstall these artworks in the 'exhibition space' to tell their stories differently. Do you have any advice on how to approach this project to collect as many art pieces as possible? This will only be exhibited on the opening day of the exhibition. 

We are looking forward to share our process with you and hear your input.

Warmly,

Isabel, Shanna, Chloë, Ilja, Pırıltı, Nava, Anna, Nor, Wietske, Leyla, Aga and Camila


Dear inhabitants/professors/academics/researchers of BG2,

I am writing to you on behalf of 12 members of the Art and Performance Research Master's program's First-Year students. As you may have already known, we are organising an exhibition as part or our Midterm Practice Tutorial that will be set up 1-3 February. Some of us have been in BG2 some days of the week for the past week and a half, and you may have seen our interventions around the building. We are experimenting with the idea of a Midterm Exhibition and using what we have been discussing in our program for the first semester to reimagine collectivity, temporality and active criticality.

One thing that we are interested in showing for our exhibition is the stories of the building that we are expected to exhibit in, and that involves you too. :) We have noticed other artworks in this building, and thought that whatever we put up is also connected with what was already here before we entered this space. Thus we have decided to include the other artworks as part of our process since we did not want to come in and impose ourselves into the building. On the opening day of the exhibition, we would like to re-curate the other artworks that are present in the building in our exhibition space and to tell their story otherwise. For this we need you support. If it is possible, we would be very happy if you could lend us the 'art' in your offices for the duration of a day, and we will add them to the story that we are part of. We could arrange Monday and Tuesday to either pick-up your artworks from your offices or you can bring them to us in the hallway of 2nd floor BG2. 

We would return the artworks to you on 2 February. We will be very responsible with what we receive and return them to your offices. 

And of course we would be very happy to see you on the opening day, the afternoon of 1 February, and as well feel free to approach us if you have any questions. Thank you for your support and cooperation. I look forward to meeting you next week.

Sincerely,
Name
(Isabel, Shanna, Chloë, Ilja, Pırıltı, Nava, Anna, Nor, Wietske, Leyla, Aga and Camila)


Van: Isabel Pontoppidan <isabelpontoppidan@yahoo.com>
Onderwerp: Fw: Collectivity
Datum: 26 januari 2023 om 14:38:20 CET
Aan: "wietskeflederus@outlook.com" <wietskeflederus@outlook.com>


----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Chloë van Diepen <chloevandiepen@gmail.com>
To: "isabelpontoppidan@yahoo.com" <isabelpontoppidan@yahoo.com>
Sent: Thursday, January 26, 2023 at 02:27:16 PM GMT+1
Subject: Fwd: Collectivity


---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Ilja Schamle<iljaschamle@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 26 Jan 2023 at 14:16
Subject: Collectivity
To: <chloevandiepen@gmail.com>


The whole purpose of this gathering with the class was to have a sense of collectivity. What inspires me to do things collectively is the undefinedness that comes with it, unpredictability, not knowing the codes of the relations yet. What does this undefinedness do to a person? It opens one up, it asks for care, gentleness, listening, reflection, contextually. It asks you to look inside and to endeavour towards finding patterns, finding the codified manners that influence us all day, encounters that shape our identity. Collectivity is exactly about that, not about no hierarchies, or finding another "right" way of relating, but.......
When I read about collectivity I think of listening. Reading your also makes me listen, a listening to what you say between the words. A reading/listening between the lines. Working collectively for me has been about this listening, a listening to what happens in-between our activities, in-between our prompts. To that what perhaps has not words and what can never been written, especially not in an academic text. Being together to me means listening to every possible sound, or non-sound that stands between us

collectivity also is about honouring a group dynamic rather than individual thoughts, opinions and desires, no? of course each individual of the group should ideally feel heard and seen. but there's a sort of 'great good' vibe that feels important as well. it's important to nurture the space in which we relate to each other and the ways in which we do that; just as important as whatever goal we are working towards, whatever we are trying to investigate together. The Group is our pet and we must take care of it: feed it, walk it, play with it, pet it and love it. and simultaneously The Group is our house: it provides us with shelter and warmth and refuge and safety. the well-being of The Group influences and in turn reflects the well-being of us all. it is exactly with aforementioned gentleness, listening, care and reflection that we should approach each other and ourselves and The Group. the group is us, is the thing that we are together. it is greater than the sum of its parts, ie. its individual components. 

I like that in our collectivity, next to the fact that we are all practicing artists in some way wanting to create an exhibition, we take this time to get to know each other. Like mentioned above, the Group is our house. It facilitates a (immaterial) space to come together. 
I am also reminded of conversations on sameneis and difference. Relating to each other, to become a group and how you still keep the differences alive whilst being in this unity. 
Where do you find yourself -as individual- in relation to the group and visa versa? 
This email thread reminds me of one of the other email threads that’s going around, about doing/active criticallity. Perhaps, by doing this, we are putting ourselves to the task of active listening. This prompt for the email writing, ‘forces’ you to read = listen to each other. Really deliberatly practicing what we want in our Group. 


The collective that holds each of us, creates a whole but does not homogenize us, allows for the difference to be present, and honors that difference. As we talked before, in one way enables us to face the 'task' of the exhibition, to resist a temporality that pushes to productivity, to stand together in the uncertainty of the process. 
I like how the collective troubles the idea of 'the author' or authorship as a single body that carries creativity and knowledge. It rather puts in front the collective, the relationships as the inevitable base for creation (even when the product is individual).