Perfect Performance

Along with performances by artists from around the world, the Perfect Performance festival last week hosted an interesting seminar about the relationship between “free groups” and institutions, examining the principles underlying the financing by the institutions of theaters, theater groups and performers. This was a new opportunity to discuss the precarious condition of those who work with culture, and the arbitrariness of the principles that govern the relationship between the cultural workers and the institutions that should support them. Thinking about this relationship between performative artists and money (and therefore the laws of economics that seem to dominate this relation), it would be interesting to start a discussion on the status held by performative art when virtuosity is one of the elements that characterize contemporary production. Consider, for instance, how fashion relies on people creating their outfits to be shown around, giving social meaning to styles and brands, and how “social workers” and jobs that involves public relations, in which workers, facing different situations, must manage their emotions and their ability to conduct and perform a sort of unique performative piece.

From a logistical point of view was very interesting the use of clarion hotel as the setting for some of the initiatives of the festival, which have made a resignification, or détournement, of the original purpose of some spaces. Think, for example, of the installation of three beds, available for a nap, in the hotel lobby; or the performance “bed-in for peace” (a tribute to John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s classic performance), which has seen two performers locked in a hotel room for 7 days in a row (and broadcasted online 12 hours a day); or the entertaining piece in the bathrooms, where skilled vendors offered the possibility to buy everything that one might need in a hotel, even the possibility to rent professional minglers to have a chat. The relationship between the hotel and the festival was very interesting for its inconsistency: Clarion Hotel in fact had the opportunity to back up their claim of being a hotel with an “arty” profile, but their management has been rather problematic. The hotel, which wasn’t among the sponsors of the festival, demanded a fee for using the room for the performance Bed-in (breakfast purchase required), and even the administration (due to some misunderstanding of the internal management) at one point ordered the guards to expel the performers from the bathroom with the same approach they normally use to throw out drunks. Despite the high visibility the event offered the hotel, and the particular crowd that the festival drew to spend money in the hotel bar (in fact, the hotel had rarely been interesting until that week), it seems again that somebody has not been able to understand the value these creative events can provide.

Flash mob in Stockholm

It is not easy to follow all the spontaneous events that take place in Stockholm during the summer, but certainly we could not miss the flash mob that happened yesterday in the city. The flash mob is a practice of urban happening born in the United States in 2003, but that was spread throughout the world and still arouses interest and curiosity. Flash mob means to coordinate in a horizontal way people via internet or sms in order to make a surprise performance in public places, producing a resgnification of urban landscapes that are transformed from space of mere passing by or consumption to a stage for a performance or an interactive game. Sunday, the dance group bounce (group interested in the development of the idea of interaction between performers and audience) has launched a flash mob for all the dancers in order to commemorate Michael Jackson. The appointment is a Sergelstorg at 17:00 for the first of the three flash mob. At 17:15 the flash mob begun and the effect is truly massive! More than one hundred dancers (after a training that took place a couple of hours earlier) realized in the central square a choreography based on the style of MJ while a car was spreading his music. All with great joy and curiosity of the audience and the unaware passers-by. Interesting to notice that in the meantime ten young persons were distributing flyers to promote an on-line shop of “streetstyle” clothes , which thought that that was a perfect situation for their target. The second event (the only one held with the permission of the authorities) is half hour later in the main hall of central station, but here we are dealing with something really surprising. The entrance hall of the station hosts continuously event marketing campaigns for several major brands.  Event marketing is the creation of events in public spaces in order to achieve max visibility for a commodity or a brand where a billboard would receive a much lower effect. So that hall becomes a tennis field, a dance floor or a catwalk, depending on the brand of the day. Today a famous multinational company of music and electronics was promoting there their new cell phone. The station is full of posters bearing reliefs and three-dimensional operating video displays to advertise the multimedia capabilities of a new type of cell and at the center of the station  a fake gigantic mobile phone, that produces a video of a hypothetical event, is hanging from the ceiling. The second performance (same as before) is photographed again by dozens and dozens of real phones. When the music starts we see that it comes from the amplifiers of the promotional table of the big company (that owns also the label company of MJ) in the hall. We reached the table and we met Joakim Liljedahl, who works in the business management of the company. He tells us that in the morning the promoters have asked to use their amps and they willingly consented, sensing, although there is no commercial agreement between them and the flash mob, that the event would turn into a peak of visibility for the product they were advertising. “But this looks exactly like a marketing event organized by you to promote your brand”, was our comment, “well, the people will assume that”, was the response of the businessman, “It couldn’t work better” is the final comment that one of his colleagues as we dismissed. At 23:00 new appointment for the third flash mob in Stureplan, the square is packed, the rain did not deter the crowd. The crowd danced blocking the traffic in the main street of Östermalm for several minutes and even after the flash mob, the crowd turned Sture plan in an outdoor dance floor.

Trying to summarize so far who got a benefit from the flash mob: a daily newspaper published a curious article about it for their readers, a store that sells clothes associated with street culture has found a place with high concentration of potential customers for promotion, stockholm kommun had a free dance performance in central public spaces that citizens and tourists enjoyed, SJ has entertained travelers that were waiting for the train, a major company had a free service of event marketing that will be shown in videos and photos on the internet and the press (very expensive service in economical terms), Stureplan would have been a desert because of the rain but instead was more crowded then a Saturday night. We should also mention the advertisement for the music of Michael Jackson that throughout the world people are making because of spontaneous happening. In short, an example of the capacity of the “community” of dancers in Stockholm to aggregate and how spontaneous activities are sources of value in terms of immaterial economy.

Elections, Pirates and the Venice Biennale

One positive note about the elections is the surprising result of the Pirate Party. On the other hand, Vänsterpartiet experienced a substantial decline (along with all the socialist parties in Europe). Emblematically, Vänster has lost exactly the percentage of votes taken by the Pirate Party (7.1%). Aside from the anger about the way the PirateBay issue turned out, the Swedish electorate has probably felt that today the issue of Labor is increasingly related to the way knowledge is exploited by the cognitive capitalism through Intellectual Property Right. Once again in Europe, the moderate left (Social Democrats) are merely imitating the enemy while the left-left is demonstrating its inability to renew its tradition through a reading of the changes in the production process. Those interested in contributing to a more fair society would therefore be well advised to openly take the prospect of immaterial production as the most effective and in step with the times.

With its electoral victory, the Pirate Party put itself in a significant position in the political scenario in case that they would candidate again in the next election. Aware that they have this support, they would benefit at this time to develop a political platform that is more mature and less controversial. Perhaps some suggestions in this regard can come from the special liaison between Italy and Sweden that took place during the Venice Biennale (a liaison that ideally reconnects with the symbolic occupation of the Swedish embassy in Rome on the eve of the first of May, made by collectives of precarious and immaterial workers that have organized the MayDay parade in Rome). In Venice, Embassy of Piracy, a Swedish project connected to the PirateBay, in collaboration with a team of artists with a background in part similar to the one of the immaterial project, have realized a demo in support of cultural workers. The slogan related to piracy was “give me back my money.” The demonstration showed how the issue of piracy is linked to the issue of the immaterial work that we are dealing with. Piracy is indeed in our view not only a widespread will to refuse to submit to the proprietary standards which by their nature must remain free and available to the entire collective flows, but also a form of indirect income through a reappropriation of immaterial goods par excellence (film and music) — essentially a form of spontaneous mass recognition that you have the right to download, instead of making more paid work in order to allow you to purchase such goods. This is the correct response to the ongoing privatization and subsumption of languages, culture and knowledge for the benefit of others every day by those who produce them (give me back our money, in fact). It is therefore natural that the issues of digital freedom, file sharing and reappropriation of knowledge are linked to the fight against precarisation of life and labour in the knowledge economy. This can be done by putting forward a new claim for a social income and for the protection of all flex- and immaterial workers. Some of the parties in the European liberal coalition in which the Pirate Party is included, albeit with a different perspective, are pro basic income. Is the Pirate party ready to pick up this challenge?

One positive note about the elections is the surprising
result of the Pirate Party. On the other hand,
Vänsterpartiet experienced a substantial decline 

(along with all the socialist parties in Europe).
Emblematically, Vänster has lost exactly the percentage of
votes taken by the Pirate Party (7.1%). Aside 

from the anger about the way the PirateBay issue turned out,
the Swedish electorate has probably felt that today the
issue of Labor is increasingly related to the way knowledge
is exploited by the cognitive capitalism trhough
Intellectual Property Right. Once again in Europe, the
moderate left (Social Democrats) are merely imitating the
enemy while the left-left is demonstrating its inability to
renew its tradition through a reading of the changes in the
production process. Those interested in contributing to a
more fair society would therefore be well advised to openly
take the prospect of immaterial production as the most
effective and in step with the times.

With its electoral victory, the Pirate Party put itself in a
significant position in the political scenario in case that
they would candidate again 

in the next election. Aware that they have this support,
they would benefit at this time to develop a political
platform that is more mature and less 

controversial. Perhaps some suggestions in this regard can
come from the special liaison between Italy and Sweden that
took place during the Venice Biennial 

(a liaison that ideally reconnects with the symbolic
occupation of the Swedish embassy in Rome on the eve of the
first of May, made by collectives of 

precarious and immaterial workers that have organized the
MayDay parade in Rome). In Venice, Embassy of Piracy, a
Swedish project connected to the 

PirateBay, in collaboration with a team of artists with a
background in part similar to the one of the immaterial
project, have realized a demo in support of 

cultural workers. The slogan related to piracy was "give me
back my money." The demonstration showed how the issue of
piracy is linked to the issue of the 

immaterial work that we are dealing with. Piracy is indeed
in our view not only a widespread will to refuse to submit
to the proprietary standards which by 

their nature must remain free and available to the entire
collective flows, but also a form of indirect income through
a reappropriation of immaterial goods 

par excellence (film and music) -- essentially a form of
spontaneous mass recognition that you have the right to
download, instead of making more paid work 

in order to allow you to purchase such goods. This is the
correct response to the ongoing privatization and
subsumption of languages, culture and knowledge for the
benefit of others every day by those who produce them (give
me back our money, in fact). It is therefore natural that
the issues of digital freedom, file sharing and
reappropriation of knowledge are linked to the fight against
precarisation of life and labour in the knowledge economy.
This can be done by putting forward a new claim for a social
income and for the protection of all flex- and immaterial
workers. Some of the parties in the European liberal
coalition in which the Pirate Party is included, albeit with
a different perspective, are pro basic income. Is the Pirate
party ready to pick up this challenge?

Comments on Copyriot’s post

Reply to the very interesting post about the pepp-march and the immaterial project on the Copyriot blog.

 

Here are a few comments from me, Merrok:

Where biopolitics, according to the distinction made by Agamben, concerns the naked life (what the Greeks called zoe), immaterial labour puts into profit the bios as a whole, the particular forms of life, including that of “being speaker” – the very nature of the speaker, through immaterial labour, is separated by force from his nature as a living being (which in turn produces a series of problems of great importance and is possibly the main cause of existential discomfort). As it is impossible to cease either speaking or engaging in processes of socialization, we continue to produce value even through small daily gestures, something we try to emphasize through our questionnaire online. It is difficult to employ the methods of a classical strike (an interruption of work in the factories), and it is up to the coming politics to discern the new forms of negotiation and how to change the conditions of this process. In this sense, the comment on the value produced by this kind of march is completely appropriate. Indeed, the march has also animated the city for the benefit of citizens and tourists (present in the areas around Central station, a location possibly unsuitable for the march). It might, in fact, be justifiable to demand compensation from the tourist industry or local municipality for these actions. This was precisely the meaning of the flyer: “Art is working, and so are you.”

Therefore, it’s unlikely that speaking of immaterial labor results in talking about a virtual world. The wedding of art to life, as realized by performance before the march, was intended also to imply that art should not be perceived as ideology, a world distant from life and its materiality. Here, the contradiction is only apparent.
On the other hand, the march through the streets of the city is a very “material” activity which potentially annoys some who see art as a privileged sphere, separate from politics and economy. We supported from the start the process of the march, the clear absence of controversial content could be criticized, but it must also be read in terms of its positive value: the thrilling physical affirmation of sociability — a way of affirming the artist as a subjectivity in a highly visible manner. The spirit of the march was not a provocative one, seeking the effect of being involved in a debate, of which the terms were already established by judges and media.

It is true that artists are an emblematic category in the discourse of immaterial labor. This discourse, however, is not only about them, but about all social and creative production elicited by all members of society. Goethe and Strindberg admitted that the task of the writer is a constant borrowing of ideas from the social environment around him. From them to the cool hunters of the marketing agencys, the tune hasn’t changed.
The issue of physical spaces therefore deserves increased attention. Surely, the joyous appropriation late into the night, and early into the morning, of Konstfack was a good exemple that should be extended (finally, a
DJ who has captured the feeling of a dance floor and engaged this spirit by playing good music — a rare thing in Stockholm). Indeed, we are probably talking about a gray zone: immaterial labour is most likely the point at which life and politics converge.

Report: Pepp-March for Art

Norrmalmstorg

Today, saturday May 23rd, we participated in the Pepp March for Art. We gathered at Fredsgatan in front of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts where Karl from the Immaterial Project celebrated the marriage beetween art and life. We also gave a speech, along with many of the other organizers of the demo. The weather was less than inspiring, but by four o’clock the sun came out and we began to march through the streets singing the slogans of the demo: ART MUST STAY SHARP, ART MUST STAY BRAVE, ART MUST STAY CRITICAL. We were about 200 in total. During the march, we spread the flyer that you can see below. The demo ended with a spirited pepp-dance in Norrmalmstorg. See you later tonight at the party at Konstfack.

Pepp-March

Kära Livet och Konsten, familj och vänner, våra vittnen.

 Vi har samlats här idag för att fira Livet och Konstens inträdande i det äkta ståndet.

Innan ni avger era trohetslöften, skulle jag vilja välsigna er med några ord att bära med er på er resa genom Livet.

Konsten (vänd mot Konsten), i mången rastlösa skepnader har du visat dig för oss: i marmor, brons och trä; på duk, som ljud och ljus; I kroppens rörelser, i dans och ord – och som vore du immateriell, upplöst i luften. Ständigt på väg är du, i blivande, mot en ny skepnad.

För många namn har du burit för att nämna här.

Vi har sett dig, under olyckliga år vanka, än från den ena till den andra, utan att finna någon ro. Som när du slog dig ner hos Teorin, för vilken du endast blev till ett virtuellt objekt för den sanning som denna “verkliga vetenskap” sade sig besitta; och förförd blev du, under ett ögonblick, av Lagen som ville låsa in dig mellan sina pärmar; ett brott mot dina innerligast egna lagar; Innan du ens hade lärt dig gå, ville man dig till att böja knä, du, som ständigt är på väg, mot ännu suddiga livs-former och uttryck ännu utan namn. Du, smältande avtryck I snö, som knappt låter oss röra vid dig med några som helst positiva utsagor, innan du blivit till ånga, bortburen på tövinden.

The Marriage of Art to Life

Tillåt mig därför, kära vän, att med all den anande, trevande osäkerhet som ditt bräckliga väsen kräver säga vad du inte är:

Du är inte en fråga för juridiken och lagen. Denne – din ovärdigaste av alla uppvaktare, som du idag visat inte vara mer värd än din loja lek – denne, hade oförskämdheten, att med order från sin fader kapitalet, försöka infånga dig, du anomali, i sin våldsamma strävan efter att vara allt, och förbli normaltillstånd – ett gödande av sig själv i den omöjliga drömmen om ett förblivande mot tidens ström av oupphörlig tillblivelse. Det är en stor skandal att tanken ens föddes, föreställningen om ett dylikt tillbakavikande hos konsten inför lagen. Lagen känns alltid igen, den är vår alldaglighet, konsten när den verkar som konst är uppöppnandet av något främmande, en rörelse i livet som om lagen inte vore där, ett upplåtande av andra, möjliga former.

Ja, detta är i sanning en lycklig dag, föreningen mellan er båda, Livet och Konsten. Eller, kanske skulle vi säga återförening.

Hamann sade en gång, “poesin är människans modersmål”. Här avser vi inte med ordet poesi uteslutande diktkonsten, utan detta ord rymmer – om vi faller tillbaka på dess grekiska ursprung, poeisis – alla våra göranden och låtanden. I grunden var ni en och densamma innan ödet skiljde er åt, frestade er med annat; för att idag åter komma hem, I varandras armar.

I denna mening, Livet, har du aldrig vikit av från Konstens sida, utan stått den bi och troget tjänat den under dess irrfärder, I skymundan, I kärlek, I lidande, men idag är också dagen för ditt erkännande.

Mången gång, Konsten, har du liksom strävat efter att frigöra dig från din hälft; lösa dig, frälsa dig från livets vedermödor, men med den märkliga önskan om att göra detta ännu med livet I behåll. Men detta var då du ännu inte upptäckt din kärlek till Livet, och Livets kärlek till dig.

Ja, återigen, detta är I sanning en lycklig dag, återföreningen mellan er båda, Livet och Konsten.

Och låt nu detta nu bli känt!

Om någon har något att invända är tiden för detta nu, annars må du för alltid tiga…

För fram ringarna!

I närvaro av vittnen, familj och alla ni övriga:

Tager du, Livet, till att älska I nöd och I lust, Konsten och vara Konsten trogen tills döden skiljer er åt?

Tager du, Konsten, till att älska I nöd och I lust, Livet och vara Livet trogen tills döden skiljer er åt?

Härmed förklarar jag er för äkta makar (kyss)

Glöm nu aldrig det löfte ni givit varandra.

Och jag vill även säga till dig Stockholm, besinna Ert ansvar inför dessa bådas kommande släkten, vars avkomma, det vill säga, varje blinkning eller viftande på höften; varje ord som födas vid varje människas läppar. I vissa fall har denna avkomma kommit att kallas arbete, för vilken vi erhåller en lön, men oftast inte. För denna avkomma, den skönaste, vilket nu borde stå klart, vore det därför inte för mycket att begärt att förse med ett skäligt barn- och bostadsbidrag! Än mer! Vi kräver vår stats fromma tillbedjan och offervilja inför oss, för som Hölderlin skriver “utan kärlek till skönheten … är varje stat ett torrt skelett”.

Edit:
Copyriot skriver om Pepp March och Immaterial

 

Today's flyer

Questionnaire

Your creativity is free labour. Find out much you are working for free.

Fill in the questionnaire here

Project statement

The Immaterial Project is an investigation of immaterial production and its role in an economy in which value is increasingly created through the circulation of ideas. The signifying elements that are produced daily in processes of socialization actively valorize commodities, while the consumer is further drawn into the coproduction of marketing strategies through the collection of tastes, behaviors and information.

Social, affective and cognitive competences are constantly put to work, which places creative and cultural workers in a priviledged field within the process of production and transforms the figure of the consumer into a more productive and creative role. We aim to investigate these issues from both a theoretical and practical perspective. We will pay careful attention to the current scenarios this situation presents in terms of mutations of the idea of contemporary politics and the welfare state.

Marriage

Invitation to the marriage of Life and Art

Pepp march for art

In recent months we have witnessed an absurd juridical repression that threatens to criminalize the freedom of artistic activity. Art students have been portrayed as criminals by legal authorities, politicians and media because they have realized artistic projects that are at odds with a strict interpretation of Swedish law. We will demonstrate in order to call attention to the freedom of artistic expression and its contribution to society.

Western economies are now reorganizing in an attempt to escape the current economic crisis by developing new ways to appropriate the value of diffuse creativity and intellectual property. This means that anyone participating in the circulation of ideas, innovation of styles and the experimentation of language is at the center of a new productive paradigm, which is rapidly replacing the Fordist model of production that has characterized most of the history of modern capitalism. We call this kind of production immaterial labor and its subjects/agents immaterial workers.

In this context, art as a space of the free circulation of signs and uninhibited experimentation of language represents a privileged territory and an authentic source of value. Confronted with this situation, the art world in Sweden paradoxically suffers under attacks that would repress its expressive autonomy by reducing it to merely an issue of blind respect for the law.