Art critic, curator, and historian Nicolas Bourriaud coined the term “relational aesthetics” in his 1998 book of the same name. He’s pretty much inseparable from the concept itself, so chances are you’ll see his name attached (or quoted) wherever you see relational aesthetics pop up. In the book, he defines the term as:
A set of artistic practices which take as their theoretical and practical point of departure the whole of human relations andtheir social context, rather than an independent and private space.
Relational aesthetics is still redolent of the 1990s that it came of age in — the beginnings of internet culture, instant communication, and the instantaneous gain and loss of celebrity, but without the same cynicism we’ve developed today. Relational aesthetics pits the artist as experience curator and, I think, has contributed to the destabilization and popularization of the term. Relational aesthetics also carries the baggage of artist-as-celebrity. [Editor notes that it’s not important really what art critics say]Art critic Hal Foster pointed out in the 1990s that with relational aesthetics, “the institution may overshadow the work that it otherwise highlights: it becomes the spectacle, it collects the cultural capital, and the director-curator becomes the star.”[Editor notes that it’s nice to cite people named ‘Claire’ thus leaves this citation unstricken] Claire Bishop, Antagonism and Relational Aesthetics, pg. 54-55).
Nicholas Bourriaud’s “Relational Aesthetics” (1998)
I love this stuff, like what’s in the picture, just above. So fun! The movie ‘Reality Bites’ comes up sometimes when I read about the academics talking away about ‘relational art’. Dunno why. Or the movie ‘The Wall.’ Or.. well. I’ll talk about it in the series of S P A C E that I’m working on right now, set to be published in the autumn.
Almost all of my events and workshops have places like this embedded in them, for people to engage and interact and connect… with themselves, and the objects that are just… there. I could put some pictures here now to prove that? Maybe I’ll put a few below, whatever’s already been uploaded, okay here they go. Pasted. Also I could point you to the list of all my favorite such ‘installations’, at dipikakohli.com. I called them ‘conversation installations’ sometimes, or ‘salons’ or ‘workshops’ or ‘experiential learning workshops’ or ‘opportunities’ or whatever. I just think they’re fun, though, and when I feel like doing them, I try. I invite. I invite and include widely until the time comes to start. Then the doors close and latecomers will not be admitted. A guest once said that was what was unique, to her, about this stuff. ‘You include a lot of people at hte start of something and then, when it begins, it’s very exclusive.’ Well, yes.
How many emails have I sent to people now inviting them to something in S P A C E? The ratio of the number of people who I’ve invited to become members, a subset of that large group, is very very small. I mean I’m talking less than 1%. Maybe less than 0.1%. I send a hell of a lot of email, as anyone who reads this blog and gets my emails and is like, What is this for?, might wonder. about why, sure. You are included at the start, but not later. Because it takes showing up, for me, to make it be a good moment for the people who make the time and effort to be there, with me, and with each other. For me ‘N’ was about that. Watching the filters do their job and people self-select to be at ‘N’. I love ‘N’.
Okay here are a few pics, below. Excellent. Now, let me get back to writing this week’s issue, working on a sequence for the fall, on ‘Relational Aesthetics.’ See editorial calendar here. Accepting submissions, but from members of S P A C E, which includes anyone who took part in Papers in 2020-21. Cool. See you in S P A C E.
‘Expat’, Durham NC 2012
Breakout groups at State of Publishing roundtable, Durham NC 2012
Vertices are points where particles collide and interact.
Evie S.
Mathias P. R. Redin
Viktor Vasicsek
Daniele Levis PelusiI
Ben Sekulowicz-Barclay
Evie S.
Berenice Melis
Larisa Birta
What is a vertex?
Quoting here from Wikipedia. On Vertex: ‘(Latin: peak; plural vertices or vertexes) means the “top”, or the highest geometric point of something, usually a curved surface or line, or a point where any two geometric sides or edges meet regardless of elevation; as opposed to an apex which is frequently a highest angular point such as possessed by a triangle, pyramid, or cone.’
I’m in Ho Chi Minh City (‘HCMC’ is this city, if you’re not familiar with that acronym).
We’re in social distancing, currently, and have been, since the beginning of June.
Trinh Minh Thu
Bady AbbasI
So many emails. So many zooms. I’ve had time.
Been writing the updates, but felt like starting a brand new slate for sharing online with those whose paths I haven’t crossed in some giant stretch of time. (Could you resubscribe to the mailing list if you want to keep in touch?) Cool.
I told you about it? About #newcuizines? I’ll be curating here and there some of my favorite food-related [various media pieces] and original stories from the kitchen-atelier of our studio itself. Atelier S P A C E, because. Cooking. Is happening. It has to. There are no take-aways allowed and so, um, you have to prepare things.
I’m glad I have a kitchen, to do that. I’ve made some [deleted]… but these look pretty good…
Yes, you know I am not a foodie. But I do like good food. I mean, eating it. How could I not after three years in the gastronomic paradise of West Cork, Ireland (thank you lads). Well. After all that, I am in Vietnam, one of the most brilliant places to be for food especially if you want to see how creative everything can get with texture, color, composition. Style. I’m enjoying it. Continue reading “I <3 New Cuizines”
Been thinking about this since the phrase fell across my radar a few years ago, in response to some things I was making like 16N (‘most people, ‘What the…’?’) and other salons, workshops, conversation spaces in real life for the serendipitous encounter. A few pics:
‘Expat’, Durham NC 2012
Breakout groups at State of Publishing roundtable, Durham NC 2012
‘Origin,’ Phnom Penh 2017
‘N’ Hanoi, 2017
‘Designers Korner,’ Seattle 2006-9
So what is ‘post post modernism?’ Large, cumbersome, and unwieldy topic. Also not much is talked about there, yet. It’s a good time to bring it up; so let me try.
Post-Postmodernism is a general term used to describe new developments emerging from postmodernism. A similar term is metamodernism. Put less simply, post-postmodernism is a wide-ranging set of developments in critical theory, philosophy, architecture, art, literature, and culture which are emerging from and reacting to postmodernism.
Modernism began around 1900. It was a rejection of tradition and an attempt to see the world differently. Events such as World War 2 and the Great Depression made many feel modernism had failed. This led to postmodernism, which is cold and skeptical of the grand narrative of Western Society. This grand narrative is explained by Jean-François Lyotard as something.[2] Postmodernism is a very broad term that cannot be defined by specific themes. It is an all-encompassing way of thinking.
Advances such as the internet have changed the way we live, making the world a smaller place but also making communication and interaction with things around us less intimate. Post-Postmodernism takes this as a key reason why a return to sincerity and authentic expression is the way forward for the 21st Century.
Post-postmodernism is a very new idea that is still forming. There are many different ideas about how post-postmodernism could evolve and shape culture. They look to where faith, trust, dialogue, performance, and sincerity can work to overcome postmodern irony.
‘The search for authenticity’
Most scholars would agree that modernism began around 1900 and continued on as the dominant cultural force in the intellectual circles of Western culture well into the mid-twentieth century.[1]
Like all eras, modernism encompasses many competing individual directions and is impossible to define as a discrete unity or totality. However, its chief general characteristics are often thought to include an emphasis on “radical aesthetics, technical experimentation, spatial or rhythmic, rather than chronological form, [and] self-conscious reflexiveness”[2] as well as the search for authenticity in human relations, [Emphasis mine] abstraction in art, and utopian striving. These characteristics are normally lacking in postmodernism or are treated as objects of irony [Emphasis mine]
May 2021
Postmodernism arose after World War II as a reaction to the perceived failings of modernism, whose radical artistic projects had come to be associated with totalitarianism[3] or had been assimilated into mainstream culture. [Emphasis mine] … Since the 1960s, postmodernism has been a dominant, though not undisputed, force in art, literature, film, music, drama, architecture, history, and continental philosophy. Salient features of postmodernism are normally thought to include the ironic play with styles, citations and narrative levels,[6] a metaphysical skepticism or nihilism towards a “grand narrative” of Western culture,[7] a preference for the virtual at the expense of the real (or more accurately, a fundamental questioning of what ‘the real’ constitutes)[8] and a “waning of affect”[9] on the part of the subject, who is caught up in the free interplay of virtual, endlessly reproducible signs inducing a state of consciousness similar to schizophrenia.[10]
Since the late 1990s there has been a small but growing feeling both in popular culture and in academia that postmodernism “has gone out of fashion.”[11]
A common theme of current attempts to define post-postmodernism is emerging as one where faith, trust, dialogue, performance, and sincerity can work to transcend postmodern irony. [deleted]
In his 2006 paper The Death of Postmodernism and Beyond, British scholar Alan Kirby formulated a socio-cultural assessment of post-postmodernism that he calls “pseudo-modernism”.[23] Kirby associates pseudo-modernism with the triteness and shallowness resulting from the instantaneous, direct, and superficial participation in culture [Emphasis mine] made possible by the internet, mobile phones, interactive television and similar means: “In pseudo-modernism one phones, clicks, presses, surfs, chooses, moves, downloads.”[23]
Feature image: Zines by DK, S P A C E | Autumn 2020, ‘Trust.’
Today we share a story that will be published in a July issue of S P A C E. ‘Ready for Anything’ was written by Anonymous in response to a prompt that was part of our May series of ‘Papers’. ‘Papers’ took place over email and in asynchronous, international conversation threads. Anonymous, author of the below, wrote the following in reply to a prompt called ‘Arrivals.’ With permission, we publish it here for you..
‘This prompt is actually not abstract at all,’ writes Anonymous. ‘This“arrival” thing, for a long time, became my most problematic concept that forced me to form a very solid protocol to deal with it…
‘And I think this can be one of the most important life skills that’s worth sharing and talking about!,’ Anonymous continues. ‘Thank you for inviting me to such an important talk! I have been quite stressed these days so hopefully it doesn’t sound too depressing.’
Ready for anything
by Anonymous
I.
Calibration:‘How am I feeling?’
So, the very first thing I do when something’s coming, is to check myself out.
To see if I’m in the state of“Subhuman”:that is, one in which you experience low arousal level, low motivation, and a disconnected mindset. Sub-human is inevitable, and it’s not always a bad thing. It’s just a sign that’s telling me that my body and mind are“not ready”. When I discover that, yes in fact I am in this state, I know what to do. I should be relaxing, nursing my health, and even enjoy the moment as it usually is the post-satisfaction effect.
If I have to do something, I’ll choose what I’ve already known how to do, with almost zero creative thinking. And most importantly, AVOID the arrival of those sorts of things that can expose me to unexpected forces. I know to sidestep them because it’s very clear to me that when I’m in this state, I definitely won’t have any energy at all, not even to feel the best news.
If any surprise arrives at this time, which is the exact wrong time for that to happen, then I will have to take a pretty direct and concrete measure in order to correct course. That is, I will have to execute a specific non-sleep-deep-rest(NSDR)session and/or using other stimulants in order to get out of the Subhuman Zone as fast as possible, before moving forward with any action, real thinking or important planning.
Else, the Sub-human will consider every news as bad news, and do destructive things in an attempt to try to remove everything and anything that it thinks causes“bad news”. Here is how I prep. Right before the arrival happens, I use all of my willpower to drag my expectations to the lowest level that is possible. That will prevent dopamine crashing, which would instantly bring me back to the Subhuman state again.
II.
Evaluation:‘What’s best for me, right now?’
The next step is to seek counsel, within.
As my Personalities wake up, I can deal with arrivals many different ways, depending on what it is, and its relation to my current context. If the news goes against my flow, but requires me to do something, or change something; that means we have a pretty big problem.
So I will summon all of my Personalities to form a council and execute a“Problem Solving” protocol, including many continuous sessions of writing, thinking, sacrificing… so as to tackle this challenge, and with the aim of generating an optimized solution. If the news blends well with my context–like this prompt comes just as I’m studying a neuroscience learning curve– then I can allow myself to act positively, let it tweak my behavior a little bit, and even allow it to let me change a few sessions on my schedule, as it shouldn’t affect the bigger vector.
III.
Towards blankness
If the news is not on my way, but interesting, and doesn’t force me to do anything, then there’s another tack. Depending on how good it is, and how far it is, related to my context, I will put it aside as“influence” or“potential project”. This usually comes up as I scroll through random online media, or consume my favorite offline media, and my mind just renders out ideas from that.
As I eliminate distraction for the sake of tight focus on my immediate, current project, Ideas from the media later will always compete for concern, as I search for it. I manage my youtube feed tightly, and my facebook loosely; to make sure they will support my growth instead of blunting it. I hope that explains why I’m saying‘no’ much more than‘yes’ when being invited to someone else’s project.
I plan out every hour in a day to be disciplined in my education, and to make a relatively long to-do list come true. I would have to quit my job, my growth, and my personal ideas to be involved in teamwork projects, no matter how much I like it. For now, it’s risky, for everything I have.
For those interested in finding out more about what sorts of personal ideas that list might include, Anonymous recommends several courses if you are inclined to teach yourself how to do things, and learn online, because everything is ‘just there.’ For those interested in teaching themselves things online, for free, Anonymous suggests this site called ‘online courses club’. Interesting! More soon, about DK’s new project, an online gallery. Watch this… S P A C E.
It reminded me of 2006 in Seattle, when DK had just gotten started and when we had, way back then, as we aim to now, I feel, patronized other labels that also support environmentally (and especially socially) sustainable ideals. Truly and sincerely doing this, I mean. Not greenwashing or BS or nonsense. Just. Doing. Good things, in good ways. No one is perfect and of course we all have to make money to live; but that doesn’t mean we have to sacrifice things. Things like, for example, taking the time that it requires to nurture relationships that add value to our lives in other ways, or do the work it must require to foundationally, and bolsteringly, build the communities we want to be a part of because they help us grow. You need to have a structure in place for a form to work well; the structure is the engineering bit. The form is all image-y these days and lacks substance, I feel*, which is why I’m getting back to my core work in Engineering and related fields (environmental work, sustainability, et al). It’s not something I can talk about publicly yet, but maybe, maybe I can later.
[*Aside: For further reading, refer to Guy DeBord’s Society of the Spectacle.]…
But yeah.
If LOHAS came about in the mid-2000s, what about ALOASS. A Life of Authenticity and Social Sustainability, for 202Xs? Hrm.
Much, much more to say about this. Soonish, or whenever it makes sense to share, I’ll get to it. If I want. For now, this is this. Here is this snippet, a kind of footnote for my future post. This bit’s from Wikipedia…
Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability (LOHAS) is a demographic defining a particular market segment related to sustainable living, “green” ecological initiatives, and generally composed of a relatively upscale and well-educated population segment. The author Paul H. Ray, who coined the term Cultural Creatives*:“What you’re seeing is a demand for products of equal quality that are also virtuous.”[1][2] Included in the cultural creative demographic are consumers of New Age goods and services.[3][4]
Just under half of the CC population comprises the more educated, leading-edge thinkers. This includes many writers, artists, musicians, psychotherapists, alternative health care providers and other professionals. They combine a serious focus on their spirituality with a strong passion for social activism.
The more secular and extroverted wing of the “Cultural Creatives”. They tend to follow the opinions of the core group and have more conventional religious outlooks. Their world views less thought-out than the core group and less intensely held.
Ray and Sherry Anderson created a questionnaire to identify “Cultural Creatives” in Western society. The characteristics below were identified as qualities of a “Cultural Creative”. Agreement with 10 or more indicates status as a “Cultural Creative”.
love of nature and deep caring about its preservation, and its natural balance.
strong awareness of the planet-wide issues like climate change and poverty and a desire to see more action on them
being active themselves
willingness to pay higher taxes or spend more money for goods if that money went to improving the environment
emphasize the importance of developing and maintaining relationships
emphasize the importance of helping others and developing their unique gifts
dislike the emphasis of modern cultures on “making it” and “success”, on consuming and making money
like people, places and things that are different or exotic
Ray and Anderson: “Values are the best single predictor of real behavior”. The list below outlines the values dictating a “Cultural Creative”‘s behavior:
Authenticity, actions consistent with words and beliefs
Engaged action and whole systems learning; seeing the world as interwoven and connected
Idealism and activism
Globalism and ecology
The growing cultural significance of women
Core “Cultural Creatives” also value altruism, self-actualization, and spirituality.
The concept of “innerpreneurs” to denote persons who create a business that focuses mainly on their own inner goals and development was first introduced by Rebecca Maddox in her 1996 book Inc. Your Dreams[3] The “innerpreneurs” concept is also central to Ron Rentel’s 2008 book Karma Queens, Geek Gods and Innerpreneurs, in which he identified the “Cultural Creative” subculture in entrepreneurship. Rentel named entrepreneurial “Cultural Creatives”, “innerpreneurs”.
While entrepreneurs use their business for monetary gain, “innerpreneurs” use their business to find personal fulfillment (creatively, spiritually, emotionally) and create social change.
“Innerpreneurs” have the defining characteristics of an entrepreneur:
high need for achievement
high need for independence
low need for conformity
internal focus of control
love of ambiguity
propensity for risk-taking
obsession with opportunity*
[*Editor’s note: Super true, for me, here. Ahem.]
In 2008, there was much discussion in the Western media on the ‘creative economy’ and the importance of the ‘creative class’. Richard Florida published a series of books on this identified ‘creative class’ and their upcoming economic importance. Bill Gates spoke at the World Economic Forum 2008 on the need for ‘creative capitalism’ as a solution to the world’s problems. They theorize that being creative and inventive will be the key to business success in the 21st century and that a country’s economic success will be determined by its capitalists’ ability to mobilize, attract and retain human creative talent. See Douglas Rushkoff for an update on how this evolved.
Ray gives the term “Integral Culture” to the growing subculture. He also refers to this as transmodernism, which he refers to as the “Cultural Creatives”. They are concerned with ecological sustainability and in the case of a core group have a commitment to personal and spiritual development. These are individuals who can meld the best of traditionalism and modernism to create a new synthesis, having a cognitive style based on synthesizing varied information from many sources into a big picture.[4][1] This term can also apply to integral theory, a conceptual framework expounded by Ken Wilber.
I found this quote in our 2017 short anthology, S P A C E | ‘Circumference.’
The student then asked, “What should I do next?”‘
‘Oh, look at the fish,’ professor and zoologist Jean-Louis Agassiz said, and left the room.’
Later the prof would say, ‘That is right. A pencil is one of the best of eyes… Facts are stupid things.’
This week in Atelier S P A C E we’re in ‘social distancing’ week three in Ho Chi Minh City. So I have even more time than I did when I was merely doing the existing-today stuff of, um, waiting. Waiting for the pandemic to end. Cause now I can’t really hang out and peoplewatch, even. So I’m home. Naturally. Okay, no problem. I’ll search the archives, then.
“The jigsaw classroom was first used in 1971 in Austin, Texas,” says psychologist and University of California in Santa Cruz Professor Elliot Aronson. He is the author of Nobody Left to Hate: Teaching Compassion After Columbine.
Here’s why DK got curious about him, and the jigsaw method. As Jiddu Krishnamurthi said, insight comes from seeing without prejudice. Freedom is seeing this kind of insight. And this method is a way to get there. He also said not to quote him, so I’m using indirect quotes, hey. Cool.
Aronson: “My graduate students and I had invented the jigsaw strategy that year [1971], as a matter of absolute necessity to help defuse an explosive situation.” Why should we pay attention to his research and ideas?
Two reasons.
First, I personally experienced the jigsaw method of learning when I was 10. Thank you Mrs. C. And my teammates, whom I wrote letters to after moving from the north to the south of those United States. We had really bonded, after all. Kids. Kids who work together. In nurturing spaces. It was the best part of my education, up until I got to calculus class and the stars fell out of the sky. Okay. I love math. More about that in a bit
.
I loved the jigsaw method (which I didn’t even know that’s what we were doing) so much it is half of the base for everything I make with my group projects, salons and workshops. The other half are ideas that I learned from Bar Camp in Seattle about letting people choose to go where they are interested; an idea that was outlined in a textbook MC had left at Kinyei, in Battambang, and I happened to go there, and happened to find it. What are the rules of Open Space? The people who come are the right people, the things that happen are the only things that could’ve, it starts when it starts, it’s over when it’s over and you can leave anytime if you aren’t learning anything. Now you know why I left the US in 2013.
But yeah.
This style of self-directed learning (Open Space) as well as collaborative learning (jigsaw) together form the structure of the stages I make in S P A C E’s ateliers, that is, Atelier S P A C E. Here’s what it looks like. A quick collection of five randomly selected images from my archives (I searched “workshop”, “jazz” and “16N“).
‘Origin,’ Phnom Penh 2017
Afterparty for ‘N’ Bangkok at jazZ happens! // DK 2015
But let’s get back to our psychologist’s story, shall we?
Now, then.
Let me share what the method’s aim is.
The Jigsaw Classroom — a cooperative learning technique — is an efficient way to teach material that also encourages “listening, engagement, and empathy by giving each member of the group an essential part to play in the academic activity.”
“The city’s schools had recently been desegregated, and because Austin had always been racially segregated, white youngsters, African-American youngsters, and Hispanic youngsters found themselves in the same classrooms for the first time. Within a few weeks, long-standing suspicion, fear, and distrust between groups produced an atmosphere of turmoil and hostility. Fist-fights erupted in corridors and schoolyards across the city. The school superintendent called me in to see if we could do anything to help students get along with one another. After observing what was going on in classrooms for a few days, my students and I concluded that inter-group hostility was being fueled by the competitive environment of the classroom.”
What do we need to do to better connect, better engage, and better collaborate?
An architecture of social engagements that happen at work as well as independent of work, outside of focus group, as well as within them. Design. Let me get back to actually engineering things.
Or check out the Jigsaw Method. If you’ve read to the end, I know you know how to find things out, on your own. Because the people who read to the end are those kind of people, independent, and stuff, and also, I like that I don’t have to tell you where everything is. I mean, heck. I don’t even know. How can one person scour the entire internet? Anyway. I loved the jigsaw method and true collaboration is at the heart of everything Design Kompany cares about. Collaboration, co-creation, jazzy mix-it-uppy improvisation. With the results that are modern, and speak for themselves.
Comments are open so if you find cool stuff, just say. Ta.
Image: Shunya Koide / ‘I’m a developer / designer. Also, love taking pictures. Based in Tokyo.’ shunyakoide.com
Dipika Kohli put together the essay, ‘A Life That Isn’t Yours,’ in response to the feelings at that time (February 2020, Phnom Penh)… feelings, to be more specific, like wonderment. Why are people so influenced by posts on social media, and why do those ‘other people having so much fun’ trouble them so much? Obviously everyone is faking it. Why get ruffled? Why care?
Such was the reaction, for DK, and this was the impetus for pulling together photography from copyright-free websites and writing the captions to go with them. The result, ‘A Life That Isn’t Yours,’ is below. Reposted today. Originally posted in February 2020.
Dipika Kohli: ‘I will refrain from editorializing it and let you decide how what it means… to you. The role of the artist is not to ‘inform’, but rather, I feel, to respond to the things around us in the everyday, everywhere and give it a form that reminds those of us who are still asking questions, still interested in changing towards improvement, to go, ‘Waitaminut. Let me look a little closer at the things I consider meaningful, to me, and not just told to me.’ Oops. I think I am starting to editorialize. Let me stop here. ‘Kay.’
Nicholas Bourriaud’s “Relational Aesthetics” (1998)
