gallery as an art blackhole – the practice (with brighton’s fabrica testbed in mind)

How to imagine the Art gallery as an art blackhole? (HtItAGaaAB)

The following attempts to describe the concepts, backgrounds and possible way to investigate & test how Fabrica’s existence as an art related space, can be used and imagined at times of mass internet-based networking.

Internet networking, has affected how we can imagine the gallery because the culture of artefact exchanges is changes the significance of reference-points/contexts. These changes, by relying on negative – rather than anti – network based affirmation & allowing an abundance of times, places and frequencies to experience artistic fruits-of-practice, alters the nature of the traditional art gallery from a place that focuses on art to that where art is Not at. In other words, the gallery can now be imagined as art blackholes, where art can not live.

The HtItAGaaAB investigation imagines and attempts to question How to do art visa-vie this negative of the No. Instead of anti-art based practices, with a blackhole we can imagine two negatives the non-art, (practices that do not rely on their artefacts to Be) & a blackhole of art-no (practices that consume & disintegrate art). The investigation imagines the gallery and its space as the location where art no is at. Through focusing shows on objects, projects, processes, materials and other exhibited outcomes in the gallery are being disintegrated from art, exhibits become art-no. Hence exhibiting the effects, the ripples of practices rather than a space critical sharing of the practices themselves.

In that sense, the art practice is left right outside the gallery, turning galleries into art blackholes. Therefore HtItAGaaAB will use the geographical location of fabrica as well as it’s socio-cultural one.

To begin with the investigation’s set up will be of me situated just outside the gallery, in a cafe, a pub and perhaps at times on a bench, or sitting on a pavement, etc.. (..as a critical practice, I will question the location through the research itself..) This will allow another person/artist(?) to testbed another element/stuff in the gallery, stuff that will, through not linking to this investigation, be visible as an art not.

Outside the gallery building, I will attempt to imagine and investigate, through talking with people, how to enhance the showing/visibility of the art not which will occur in the gallery. This process will be done via network based chatting to friends, colleagues and attempts to link to & with people physically and digitally based on this practice.

Background concepts, ideas, thoughts and related musings

Galleries (as well as museums) serve as social places where people can focus & network in relation to art. The galleries are, in a sense, a sort epitome of art’s autonomy in their traditional role. In that sense, galleries have evolved through the 20th century into sort of cultural telescopes where people come to examine closely art objects, projects, and effects of related concepts, ideas, activities & processes.

As a cultural space where, the very attempt to focus on exclusively on art as exhibit and show, art increasingly remains outside. Precisely because such a focus breaks the link between practice & outcomes. It fetishises the outcome despite practices being the para cultural links between people.

With the increasing usage of internet networking, where connectivity is done across a wide variety of unrelated, and disinterested reference points, all of which allow people to share activities, projects (p2p etc), and objects, the role & practice of art is evolving as well. Through the vast abundance of art artifacts and the speed of getting them via networks, perhaps the notion of gallery has changed a bit? Can it be that high octane media rich networking, where old-school art, that is based on spectacle showing, telling & sharing of encapsulated, context-based processes, enclosed by time and the exchange mode of numerical trade, are the very focus of networking exchanges, turn galleries into blackholes? Spaces where art is not? (maybe even where art can not?)

In mass networks, connections are made based upon extractions of basic human traits from their daily, physical and geo-cultural contexts. This is done through rejection of the complex and embracing the lowest common, e.g. LOLcats. Miscommunication through quick information sharing that gives rise to public outrages which, arguably, comes through missing the context, e.g. twitter.

Indeed, networking in sites like facebook is possible through actively exclude, filter out, information & people. Such networking related activities are based on negative actions. (eg exclude, miscommunicate, misunderstand, etc.) Based on such affirmative negativity, the practice of imagining non art investigation can develop its language, if there is one.

Art gallery imagined as blackholes practice/s

The following describes the concepts, backgrounds and possible way to investigate & test how Fabrica’s existence as an art related space, can be used and imagined at times of mass internet-based networking.
This kind of internet networking, has affected how we can imagine the gallery because the culture of artefact exchanges is changes the significance of reference-points/contexts. These changes, by relying on negative – rather than anti – network based affirmation & allowing an abundance of times, places and frequencies to experience artistic fruits-of-practice, alters the nature of the traditional art gallery from a place that focuses on art to that where art is Not at.
In other words, the gallery can now be imagined as art blackholes, where art can not live.

The investigation imagines and attempts to question How to do art visa-vie this negative of the No. Instead of anti-art based practices, with a blackhole we can imagine non-art. Practices that do not rely on their artefacts to Be. Therefore the investigation imagines the gallery and its space as the location where art not is at. The objects, projects, processes, materials and other exhibited outcomes in the gallery are detached from art, become none art, because they are the focus on which shows are based upon. Hence exhibiting the effects, the ripples of practices rather than a space critical sharing of the practices themselves. In that sense, the art practice is left right outside the gallery, turning it into an art blackhole.

Therefore the practice of investigating the gallery as an art blackhole will use the geographical location of fabrica as well as it’s socio-cultural one.

To begin with the investigation’s set up will be of me situated just outside the gallery, in a cafe, a pub and perhaps at times on a bench, or sitting on a pavement, etc.. (..as a critical practice, I will question the location through the research itself..) This will allow another person/artist(?) to testbed another element/stuff in the gallery, stuff that will, through not linking to this investigation, be visible as an art not.
Outside the gallery building, I will attempt to imagine and investigate, through talking with people, how to enhance the showing/visibility of the art not which will occur in the gallery. This process will be done via network based chatting to friends, colleagues and attempts to link to & with people physically and digitally based on this practice.

Background concepts, ideas, thoughts and related musings

Galleries (as well as museums) serve as social places where people can focus & network in relation to art. In that sense, galleries have evolved through the 20th century into sort of cultural telescopes where people come to examine closely art objects, projects, and effects of related concepts, ideas, activities & processes.

With the increasing usage of internet networking, where connectivity is done across a wide variety of unrelated, and disinterested reference points, all of which allow people to share activities, projects (p2p etc), and objects, the role & practice of art is evolving as well. Through the vast abundance of art-like artifacts and the speed of getting them via networks, perhaps the notion of gallery has changed a bit? Can it be that high octane media rich networking, where old-school art, that is based on showing, telling & sharing of encapsulated, context-based processes, enclosed by time and the exchange mode, numerical trade, is the very focus of networking exchanges, turns galleries into blackholes? Spaces where art is not?

As a cultural space where by focusing on it and all that’s contained in it – art constantly remains outside. In a sense, the gallery as the place where art practices and cultivation ends and objects, materials, projects etc. pop-up in precisely because they have lost the link, they have been excluded from art.