Constant

Collective Conditions @ Code & Context

Femke Snelting — 2021-04-04T19:24:08Z

Elodie and Femke present and discuss Collective Conditions with students of Code & Context, an interdisciplinary Bachelor programme at the Technische Hochschule in Cologne, Germany.

View online : https://coco.study

Collective Conditions Reader (update)

Femke Snelting — 2020-10-30T15:55:22Z

This reader is an evolving companion to Collective Conditions, a worksession held in November 2019 in Brussels. Whether you prefer to read, watch or listen, this compilation offers different lines of thinking for non-divisive ways of doing “complex collectivity”. It contains materials from trans*feminist collectives on ally-ship, non-violent communication, score-making, anti-colonial and intersectional activism, but also ways of doing developed within Free Culture and Free, Libre and Open Source software. The reader was recently updated by Loren Britton, Peter Hermans and Constant.

Download compiled PDF: http://constantvzw.org/collectiveconditions/reader.pdf
On-line version: https://constantvzw.org/wefts/ccreader.en.html
To order a printed copy (5 euros excl. delivery), send an email to: donatella@constantvzw.org

View online : https://constantvzw.org/wefts/ccrea...

Collaboration Guidelines: An Update

Femke Snelting — 2020-05-28T10:52:23Z

The collaboration guidelines assembled by and for Constant set bouncy delimitations that curve, bend and re-situate ... yet they should provide something to hold on to when needed. They are an active articulation that stays open to corrections and modifications over time and throughout welcome modulations in Constant's constellation. The first version was tested and discussed in different situations over the last months, and then updated.

Please add your questions, comments, scores, considerations, instructions, expectations, ideas and codes here. We are planning a next update for Winter 2020.

View online : https://constantvzw.org/wefts/orien...

Warp: Collective Conditions

Femke Snelting — 2020-04-07T08:20:06Z

This Warp* documents the worksession Collective Conditions, a temporary research residency organised by Constant in collaboration with Ateliers Mommen, a place for artists to live and work. Collective Conditions was an experiment with the generative potential of socio-technical protocols such as codes of conduct, complaint procedures, bug reports and copyleft licenses. The warp guides you through recordings, proposals, pictures, notes, interviews and other materials generated in the session.

*Warp and weft are weaving terms, which Constant uses to weave stories about and in-between different projects.

View online : https://constantvzw.org/wefts/colle...

Collective Conditions: Brunch

Femke Snelting — 2019-10-19T17:28:45Z

At the last day of this collective residence in Ateliers Mommen, participants would like to share and discuss the ideas, observations and prototypes that emerged over the week.

The Collective Conditions worksession experimented with the generative potential of socio-technical protocols such as codes of conduct, complaints procedures, bug reports and copyleft licenses. A group of 35 artists, activists, theorists and performers came together from different places in the world to explore complex collectivities otherwise.

Constant worksessions are temporary environments where different types of expertise come into contact with each other. During worksessions we develop ideas and prototypes that in the long-term lead to publications, projects and new proposals. Auto-documentation and generous exchange of ideas and knowledge is key.

A light vegetarian brunch will be served; your edible input(s) to the buffet are very welcome.

With contributions from: Aay Liparoto, Agustina Andreoletti, Andreas Dzialocha, An Mertens, Areti Gontras, Aymeric Mansoux, Caterina Mora, Cristina Cochior, Donatella Portoghese, Elli Vassalou, Elodie Mugrefya, Enrique Cesar, Femke Snelting, Gemma Copeland, Helen Pritchard, Input Saturday, Joana Chicau, Lilia Mestre, Livia Cahn, Loren Britton, Maëlle Delaplanche, Martin Garriga, Martino Morandi, Marzia Matarese, Nina Stuhldreher, Paola Pisciottano, Peter Hermans, Peter Westenberg, Pierre Coppens, Raphael Pierquin, Reni Hofmüller, Rica Rickson, Ruth Catlow, Seda Guerses, Sky M. J. Carranza , Tere Badia, Thomas Keating, Varinia Canto Vila, Verena Hahn, Wendy Van Wynsberghe, Zeljko Blace.

Collective Conditions is part of Iterations, a long-term artistic research into the future of collaborative practice in a digital context.

Collective Conditions: Opening

Femke Snelting — 2019-10-18T16:03:01Z

Join us for the festive opening of Collective Conditions, a worksession which experiments with the generative potential of socio-technical protocols such as codes of conduct, complaints procedures, bug reports and copyleft licenses. For one week, a group of 35 artists, activists, theorists and performers from different places in the world will explore complex collectivities otherwise. 'Complex collectivities' are collectives where participants with radically different needs, backgrounds and agencies come together. This 'Complex collectivity' can be self-chosen, or be the result of structural forces such as laws, racism, technology, wars, austerity, queerphobia and ecological conditions.

The session is hosted by Ateliers Mommen, the last of the 19th-century cité des artistes still active in Brussels. Ateliers Mommen is a collectively run space where artists live and work together, interact and exchange with their public and neighbourhood.

At this worksession opening, delicious vegetarian snacks will be served and the bar is open. We'll present the Collective Conditions workbook and discuss the questions that lead up to this session. Environmental conditions are set by artist, Loren Britton, who made tables, pillows and painted the windows for the room that we will be working in. Loren wants to offer these objects as opportunities to play with the room, create directional flows with the tables and to consider metaphors around way finding and orientation as ways to imagine what collaboration can be.

Collective Conditions is part of Iterations, a long-term artistic research into the future of collaborative practice in a digital context.

Welcome!

Call for participants: Collective Conditions

Femke Snelting — 2019-06-23T14:29:18Z

Collective Conditions is a worksession which experiments with the generative potential of codes of conduct, complaints procedures, bug reports and copyleft licenses. We understand these socio-technical protocols as artistic and activist media and are curious about the role they can play in the (different) imagination of complex collectivities.

By 'complex collectivity' we mean, for example, non-normative human constellations, or collectives where participants with radically different needs, backgrounds and agencies come together. 'Complex collectivity' can be self-chosen, or be the result of structural forces such as laws, racism, technology, wars, austerity, queerphobia and ecological conditions.

We will work with different modes of 'writing' that go beyond typing protocols on a keyboard. We invite you to experiment with codes, rhythms, frequencies, scripts, scores and non-verbal agreements that regulate, challenge, stumble and collide; that pose questions and problems. We articulate conditions using time, material, bodies, spaces, machines, habits, repetition and chance.

The worksession is inspired by trans*feminist collective practices, anti-harassment and allyship-work, non-violent communication, score-making, decolonial and intersectional activism, but also by ways of doing developed within Free Culture and Free, Libre and Open Source software. Collective Conditions focuses on a-polarizing methods, affirmative habits that can stretch and reorient frameworks, that represent new vocabulary, gestures and forms of expression:

Making room for support, sympathy, misunderstanding and difference in network protocols?
Codes of conduct for servers, collectives, networks, rooms, authors, data, software ... that accommodate intra-collective alliances, or multi-species participants from different zones and eras?
Considering material circumstances in the formulation of collectivity?
Articulating togetherness but not avoiding problems and conflicts, or re-affirming existing boundaries and barriers?
Interpreting techno-social protocols as changing infrastructures?
Temporary, polyphonic, generative procedures?
... ?

Collective Conditions is part of Iterations, a long-term artistic research into the future of collaborative practice in a digital context. Through a relay of residences and presentations, alternating groups of artists work on joint installations with copyleft source material and open source tools. A reflection on the conditions for collectivity is part of the artistic experiments that cross institutions and technological infrastructures. Iterations is subsidised by the European cultural program Creative Europe and developed in collaboration with Hangar (ES), esc medien kunst labor (AT) and Dyne.org (NL).

→ background material (ongoing)

This session is developed in collaboration with Ateliers Mommen, with contributions by amongst others Queering Damage and Loren Britton.

Worksessions

Constant organises a worksession every six months. They function as temporary research labs, collective working environments where different types of expertise come into contact with each other. Worksessions are intensive otherwise-disciplined situations to which artists, software developers, theorists, activists and others contribute. During worksessions we develop ideas and prototypes that in the long-term lead to publications, projects and new proposals. Auto-documentation and generous exchange of ideas and knowledge is key. For this reason, we prefer to work with and on Free Software and distribute work under Open Content Licenses.

Practical

The worksession will take place in Brussels from 8 to 16 November 2019. Participation is free; Constant will reimburse travel costs, and provide accommodation and lunch. You are welcome to participate in the full period, or you can join one of the blocks mentioned below:

Transmissions, activations and experimentations
Full period, Friday 8/11 12:30 → Saturday 16/11 15:00
Transmissions
Friday 8/11 12:30 → Sunday 10/11 18:00
Transmissions and activations
Friday 8/11 12:30 → Tuesday 12/11 18:00
Activations and experimentations
Monday 11/11 10:00 → Saturday 16/11 15:00

We will work with ca. 30 persons in total, and there is room for another 15 participants. Attention: the main workspace in Ateliers Mommen is only accessible by two flights of stairs.

We are looking for individuals and/or representatives of collectives, such as: ecological software programmers, copy-left lawyers, intra-performative choreographers, other-autonomous artists, queer network managers, experimental activists, federated composers. Constant chooses participants based on available travel budget and diversity of expertise and experiences.

To apply, send an example of an existing or imaginary socio-technical protocol that interests you and explain why. Also let us know what block you would like to join. E-mail before 10 September 2019 to femke@constantvzw.org and we will let you know by 21 September latest.

Image: TransHackFeminist Agreement

Collective Conditions

Femke Snelting — 2019-06-23T13:27:22Z

Collective Conditions was a worksession on the conditions for/of collectivity and collaboration that took place from 8 until 16 November 2019 in Ateliers Mommen in Brussels. It was organised in the framework of the European project Iterations.

Artists, software developers, theorists, activists and others experimented with the generative potential of codes of conduct, bugreports, licenses and complaints. They thought of such performative documents as platforms to experiment with the conditions for complex collectivity in troubling times.

Image: TransHackFeminist Agreement