Zines

It seems to be a very zine-tastic time at the moment in the library. Last week Sonia attended the It's Your Write event at the Museum of Childhood organised by The Papered Parlour . Sonia presented a talk along with The Women's Library, to discuss our respective zine collections. It was a fantastic event with extremely positive feedback and it was a great chance to promote our zine collection to fellow zinesters and the uninitiated. Please do check The Papered Parlour website for further information as recordings and documents of the evening will be uploaded shorttly. And continuing our current zine frenzy, we are getting excited about the 2011 London Zine Symposium taking place this Sunday. The event takes place Sunday 17th April 12-6pm at The Rag Factory, Heneage Street, London, E1 5LJ. The full programme of events including workshops, stalls, and the radical history of Brick Lane is now available on their website. With over 60 zine and comix distros on the day we are looking forward to buying lots of new zines for our library collection. We hope to see some of you there!

We gonna pop a cap(ital) in your (cl)ass: Karl Marx’s Capital volume III

Stuart Hall Library reading group discussion post

Thursday 14th April

Malik, Suhail. 'We gonna pop a cap(ital) in your (cl)ass: Karl Marx's Capital volume III' in Nav Haq and Tirdad Zolghadr (eds.) Lapdogs of the bourgeoisie: class hegemony in contemporary art. Sternberg Press, 2007. pp.53-68

Thanks to everyone that attended this month's reading group discussion. For those unable to attend the audio recording of the discussion is now available to download via the library website here. You can also listen to all previous audio recordings and download a copy of our reading list from the website.

If you are interested in attending future reading group discussions then please contact library@iniva.org

We welcome all attendees to the discussions, and the Stuart Hall Library reading group is open to everyone, whether you are in formal education, academia, artistic practice or have a general interest.

Please note that as of next month we will be changing the time of our reading group meeting. The sessions will now run from 6:30pm-8pm starting Thursday 12th May.

Key questions and points for discussion:

• Is there a class struggle between artists, owners, and institutions? Malik argues that '[...]the politics of class struggle in art will be to...recover the primacy of the artist as producer[...]'

• p.59 According to Malik, 'the real action is now happening between dealers and gallerists- and the producers of the commodities who are becoming less and less important agents.' Do you think this is true?

• p.66 'You can see why conceptual art is a great benefit because you just get rid of the commodity thing and start circulating freely.' Does conceptual art disrupt the idea of art as commodity? What is the 'use-value' of art?

• Malik claims that the 'inflation of the art market will change the arts.' Do you think this statement is true?

• p.68 Malik concludes ' I just don't see the bourgeois or for that matter the proletariat as the relevant figure for understanding capital today.' Do you agree, as the audience member asks, that the relation between one class oppressing another no longer exists?

Next Meeting

Our next meeting will take place Thursday 12th May 6.30-8pm in the Stuart Hall Library. We will be discussing Shilton, Siobhan. 'Transcultural encounters in contemporary art: gender, genre and history' in Michelle Keown, David Murphy and James Procter (eds.) Comparing postcolonial diasporas. Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. pp.56-80

A copy of the text is available in the Stuart Hall Library. If you are having any problems obtaining a copy of the book then please contact us and we will make this available to you.

Email the library for further information or to book your place: library@iniva.org

The cultural biography of things: commodification as process

Stuart Hall Library reading group discussion post

Thursday 10th March

Kopytoff, Igor 'The cultural biography of things: commodification as process' in Arjun Appadurai (ed.) The social life of things: commodities in cultural perspective. Cambridge UP, 1986 (reprint 2003), pp. 64-91

Thanks to everyone that attended this month's reading group discussion. For those unable to attend a recording of the discussion is now available via the library website here. You can also listen to recordings of all our previous reading group discussions and download a copy of suggested reading materials.

Key questions and points for discussion

• What did you think of the text - any initial thoughts?


• Koytoff defines commodity as 'an item with use value that also has exchange value' p.64 - do you agree?


• According to Kopytoff, commodities are subject to value judgements and are also subject to historical cultural shifts in value. They are also subject to classification and taxonomic practices. (p.64;70)


• Commodities and people are viewed as being at either end of a continuum, but individiuals have and continue to be 'commoditized'/commodified under the term slavery.


• P.65 Kopytoff's description of enslavement asserts that the processes of commoditization of an individual are short and occur at the early stages of enslavement: individuals 'acquire a new social identity'.


• Questionable as to whether a slave has a social identity, as commodification leads to dehumanisation, etc. Perhaps a further question to ask is what differentiates a 'free' human being from a commodity.


• P.66 'In doing the biography of a thing, one would ask [...]: what, sociologically, are the biographical possibilities inherent in its status[...]? Where does the thing come from and who made it? What has been its career so far[...]?


• P.69 Is 'saleability', as Kopytoff state, 'the defining factor of a commodity in the West'?


• P.69. Kopytoff notes differences in other societies where commodification and exchange may be based on 'gift giving' or 'relations of reciprocity'


• P.68 Kopytoff states that commodities area a 'universal cultural phenomenon', that 'exchange' is a 'universal feature of human social life[...]'


• P.73 'Commoditization as becoming', an ongoing process of 'expansion' and 'diversification', plus the availability of more items for exchange, for example Apple's multiple versions of similar products.


• Is it possible for art making/practice/the artists to avoid commodification and systems of exchange?


• P.90. Kopytoff characterises the identity and status of things as 'uncertain' and shifting. Does this mean that our 'value'/status/rights as human beings shift?

Next meeting

Our next reading group will take place Thursday April 14th. We will be reading Malik, Suhail. 'We gonna pop a cap(ital) in your (cl)ass: Karl Marx's Capital volume III' in Nav HAq and Tirdad Zolghadr (eds.) Lapdogs of the bourgeoisie: class hegemony in contemporary art. Sternberg Press, 2007. pp.53-68.

A copy of the text can be found in the Stuart Hall Library. To find out more about the reading group or to reserve a place please email the library library@iniva.org

All that is solid melts into air but I can't change anything

Stuart Hall Library Reading group discussion post



Thursday 10th February





Dimitrakaki, Angela. "All that is sold melts into air but I can't change anything": on the identity of artists in the networks of global capital' in Jonathan Harris (ed.) Identity theft: the cultural colonisation of contemporary art. Liverpool UP, 2008, pp.221-245.

Thanks to everyone that attended our reading group discussion. Unfortunately due to technical problems we were unable to record the discussions from the evening. Previous audio recordings can be found here

Key questions for discussion

• What did you think of the text?

• Dimitrakaki seems to be asking, 'what is the role of the artist in the age of globalisation?'

• p.224 Interesting quote from Rashid Araeen about the 'logic of multiculturalism', and 'how the dominant culture can accomodate those who have no power in such a way that the power of the dominant is preserved.' How far do you think that multiculturalism has been about acknowledging difference without questioning or changing exisisting power structures?

• p.240 '[...]today identity has become suspect, and this happened as it exchanged the 'soft' realm of culture for the 'hard' realm of non-cultural politics'. Diitrakaki then asks, 'What fills identity's negative space'?

• p.240 Would you agree with the statement, '[...]art appears to be disempowered in a milieu where power is reportedly everywhere[...], including the institutions where this powerless art circulates'.

• p. 241 '[...] we are witnessing the return to a subject in terms of economic relations [...]' and Dimitraki sees this as the interrelation of aesthetics and politics. What does this locate us as thinking subjects (who might be artists)?

• Dimitrakaki acknowledges the historical and cultural shifts that have taken place, the forces of globalisation, ie. p.239 ' the persisten and meticulous transference of meaning from the economic to the cultural subject', and in addition I would argue that September 11 was an ideal justification for the demonisation of 'cultural difference'. - Arguably cultural difference has never been seen as harmless, particularly in the West.

Next meeting

Our next reading group will take place Thursday 10th March 2011.

We will be reading Kopytoff, Igor 'The cultural biography of things: commodification as process' in Arjun Appadurai (ed.) The Social life of things: commodities in cultural perspective. Cambridge UP, 1986 (reprint 2003), pp.64-91

To reserve a place please contact us library@iniva.org

Our newly updated list of upcoming texts for discussion is now available here

Race Revolt zine launch

Race Revolt zine launch

On Thursday 27th January we were very excited to launch the new issue of Race Revolt zine in the library. Ever since May last year when we launched our library zine collection, we have been hoping to collaborate in some way with Race Revolt as the zine is a personal favourite of the library team. We wanted to engage with the themes raised in each issue and hoped that the Stuart Hall Library would be a space for discussion and interaction as well as a chance to introduce the zine to new audiences.

Race Revolt compiles contributions on race politics by feminists and queers; the zine began in 2007 'as an intervention into the silences around race in queer, feminist and activist communities.' To launch Issue 5 of Race Revolt we invited editor Humaira Saeed , along with contributors to the zine: Yasmine Brien, Su Real , and Melissa Steiner, to discuss their contributions to the zine.

The evening was a fantastic opportunity to collaborate with one of our favourite zines and to interact with the specific points and issues. Each presentation was also grounded in personal and accessible language which is extremely refreshing and something I've really enjoyed in our series of zine events in the library.While it's not to say that zines and zine culture can't be intellectualised or theorised, it's so much more engaging to hear writers and artsists talk in extremely personal ways, particularly as many attendees at our zine events are new to the world of zine cultures. It was particularly exciting to overhear a member of the audience discussing the event afterwards saying "I didn't know zines were that easy to make. I want to make one now!"

If you weren't able to attend but would like to hear these presentations for yourself then audio recordings from the event are now available here

Thank you to all our guests and to everyone who attended. It's so encouraging to hear all your positive feedback and to see such excitement for zines and zine culture. We hope to continue our series of zine events this year so please stay tuned for further info. And an extra big thanks to Charlotte Cooper for her extremely generous donation of zines for the library collection!

Copies of Race Revolt can be found in the Stuart Hall Library, as well as online via the Race Revolt website.

Our library users might also be interested in the related race Revolt event Towards New Forms of Queer Belonging. This event sees a series of workshops and roundtable discussions challenging the ways in which gay rights are being used in nationalist, anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim rhetoric and ask what an effective form of queer solidarity might look like. For the full schedule of events please visit the Race Revolt website.

Stuart Hall Library reading group discussion post

Thursday 13th January 2011

Boyce, Carole. 'From "post-coloniality" to uprising textualities: Black women writing the critique of Empire' in Black women, writing and identity: migrations of the subject. Routledge, 1994.

Our first reading group of the year was a small discussion but fascinating nontheless. For those unable to attend an audio recording is now available via the library website.

Key questions for discussion:

• What did you make of the text?

• Would you say that we are in a post-colonial era?

• Post-colonial theory emerged in the 1990s. How relevant is it to contemporary life, both inside and outside of academia?

• What is the importance of gender in relation to post-colonial and other theories? Does if matter that most of the theorising has been done by men?

• P.81 What do you think of CBD's statement that: 'post-coloniality represents a misnaming of current realities?[...]'?

• P.83 What do you think of the statement: 'We are not beyond Western colonialism... Western colonialism is not the only colonialism around.'?

• P.84 Quoting CBD: '[...] the ideology of most "postings" convets the that the older systems, as well as their after-effects, are carried over into the present of future'. CBD gives 'post-feminism' as an example. Can 'post-racial' also be added to this as examples of ideologies/theories which have an element of denial about them?

Next meeting:

Our next reading group will take place Thursday 10th February 2011. We will be reading Dimitrakaki, Angela. "All that is sold melts into air' but I can't change anything': on the indentity of the artist in the networks of global capital', in Jonathan Harris (ed.) Identity theft: the cultural colonisation of contemporary art. Liverpool UP, 2008, pp.221-245.

To reserve a place please contact us library@iniva.org.

Our new updated list of upcoming texts for discussion is now availalble here, along with audio recording from previous reading group discussions.

Reading group discussion post

Stuart Hall Library reading group discussion post

Thursday 9th December 2010

Vidal, Carlos. 'Globalization or endless fragmentation? Through the shadow of contradictions,' in Gerardo Mosquera and Jean Fisher (eds.) Over here: International perspectives on art and culture

Thanks to everyone who managed to attend last week's reading group discussion. For those unable to attend, an audio recording of the discussion is now available here

We appreciate that many of you were unable to attend and that some of you also had difficulties in obtaining a copy of the text. A copy of the text is always made available in the library, if you have any problems accessing the text during library opening hours then please do contact us and we can make alternative arrangements for you to access a copy.

Key questions for discussion

• What did you think of the text?

• Carlos Vidal addresses some of the fundamental concerns of visual representation. What do you think of the way he develops his argument?

• P.32 Vidal gives examples of artists who are redefining “ethnocentric representation”[which I think is a questionable phrase. Is most Western art not ethnocentric too?]: Lygia Clark, Helena Almeida, Mona Hatoum, Jimmie Durham, Francis Alys, Gabriel Orozco, Cildo Meirles, Santiago Sierra, Jac Leirner, David Hammons, Shirin Neshat and Abbas Kiarostami, Hou Hsiao. Are there commonalities between their works?

• P.32 Vidal says that postcolonialism has been instrumental in redefining categories in aesthetics and politics such as ‘culture’, ‘vanguard’, ‘ideology’…’identity’, and ‘nation’. Do you think this is true?

• P.32 The question of difference is approached when referring to the artists, but is then sidestepped, p.34, citing Badiou, who seems to be advocating a form of ‘universalism’ and rejecting the commodification of difference. How does this affect the development of a ‘cosmopolitan policy’?

• P.35 What do you think of the idea of ‘representation as communication’? (Vidal argues that, ‘[…] without doubt it is […] one of the inevitable faces of the reality of the world.’)

• P.40 Walter Benjamin quote: ‘Truth is an intentionless state of being, made up of ideas. The proper approach to it is not therefore one of intention and knowledge, but rather a total immersion and absorption in it. Truth is the death of intention.’

Leave your comments

We would like to use this blog as an online space to continue some of the ideas and discussions from the reading group. Please do use the comments section below to leave your feedback or interact with some of the ideas discussed in the audio recording.Leave your comments
We would like to use this blog as an online space to continue some of the ideas and discussions from the reading group. Please do use the comments section below to leave your feedback or interact with some of the ideas discussed in the audio recording.

Next Meeting

Our next reading group will take place Thursday 13th January 2011. We will be reading Boyce Davies, Carole. ‘From “post-coloniality” to uprising textualities: Black women writing the critique of Empire’ in Black women, writing and identity: migrations of the subject. Routledge, 1994.

To reserve your place please contact us library@iniva.org

We are also keen to hear your suggestions for texts for next year's reading group. If you would like to suggest books, articles, papers for discussion please leave your feedback in the comments below or email us.

.

Reading group discussion post

Stuart Hall Library reading group discussion post

Thursday 11th November 2010

Archive Fever: photography between history and the monument. By Okwui Enwezor

Thanks to everyone that attended last night's reading group session, it was a fascinating discussion and it was great to hear everyone's input. For those unable to attend, an audio recording of the discussion is now available here.

We would like to continue these discussions online giving those who were unable to attend a chance to add their thoughts to the discussion or respond to some of the ideas discussed last night. For those that were able to attend we hope that you make use of this blog to expand on these discussions.

Key questions for discussion

This month's text is the introductory chapter to the exhibition catalogue Archive Fever: uses of the document in contemporary art. It was publised in conjunction with the exhibition of the same name, curated by Okwui Enwezor and held at the International Center for Photography, New York from January 18 to May 4 2008. Archive Fever presented works by contemporary artists who use archival documents to rethink the meaning of identity, history, memory, and loss. A review of this original exhibition can be found here.

Artists include: Christian Boltanski, Tacita Dean, Stan Douglas, Harun Farocki, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Jef Geys, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Craigie Horsfield, Lamia Joreige, Sherrie Levine, Zoe Leonard, Ilan Liebermann, Glenn Ligon, Robert Morris, Walid Raad*, Thomas Ruff, Anri Sala, Fazal Sheikh, Lorna Simpson, Eyal Sivan, Vivan Sundaram, Andrei Ujica, Gediminais, Nomeda Urbonas, and Andy Warhol.

* Walid Raad has a show on at the Whitechapel Gallery, Miraculous Beginnings, from October until 2 January 2011.

• What did you think of the text?



• Can an archive like Iniva's, which documents the work of new and emerging artists, be categorised as 'counter-archive' to, for example the archive, the Tate?



• Can your own personal archive (of photos, letters, Facebook account, etc) be described as a 'counter archive'? Does it leave traces and evidence of you as person beyond the memories of others?



• Uses of the archive as tools of social and political control: p.13 Enwezor refers to Alphonse Bertillon's police archives in Paris, & his images of the 'criminal type', and Francis Galton's use of photography in his eugenics project - using images to wield power. This relates directly to Autograph's WEB Du Bois exhibition at Rivington Place, in which Du Bois is emphasising 'the human' in black people, using some of Galton's methods of 'types', but for the opposite reasons.

Summary of discussion

Below is a summary of points raised during the reading group discussion:

• The idea of the archive is positioned as objective, a collection of statements rather than judgements but is this true? Important to question who has created or controls the 'archive'.



• Exploring comparisons between photography and the archive. Is a photograph an archive/archival document? How are archives used as a form of social control in shaping the understanding of history and contemporary thinking?



• As photography and all forms of information are subject to manipulation how far can photography be considered an archive. What is the relationship beween memory and archive? Do archives lie?



• Is everything worthy of being archived? Does the act of archiving an object or piece of information legitimise and validate its worth?



• Is the book itself an archive/document of the exhibition?

Leave your comments

To take part in the discussion please leave your thoughts and response in the comments below. We welcome all opinions and discussions, please feel free to respond to any of the key points as well as elaborating on your own thoughts and ideas.

Next Meeting

Our next reading group meeting will take place Thursday 9th December. We will be reading Vidal, Carlos. 'Globalization or endless fragmentation? Through the shadow of contradictions,' in Gerardo Mosquera and Jean Fisher (eds.) Over here: International perspectives on art and culture. MIT Press, 2004.

To reserve your place please contact us library@iniva.org

We are also keen to hear your thoughts on possible outcomes of the reading group. If you are interested in writing papers, taking part in a library symposium, or have any other ideas regarding possible outcomes then please let us know.

Reading Group discussion post

Stuart Hall Library Reading Group discussion post

Thursday 14th October

Mercer, Kobena. ‘Diaspora didn’t happen in a day: reflections on aesthetics and time’, in R. Victoria Arana (ed.) Black British aesthetics today. Cambridge Scholars, 2007.

Online participation

We received an overwhelming response to the news that we were starting a Stuart Hall Library reading group, and last night saw our very first meeting. We would like to thank everyone that attended and participated in the discussions, and we hope that many of you return for future meetings.

Each month there will be an opportunity for you to take part in our online discussion posts allowing those unable to attend a chance to participate online. And for those that did attend, this is also a space for you to continue some of the discussions that took place within the meeting. Each month we will post a summary of the key discussion points as well as opening up questions to stimulate debate. Please feel free to join in with your thoughts and ideas as well as links to other online materials, artists, cultural events as part of your response.

Key questions for discussion

During the meeting we asked a series of questions to structure the discussion:

• Firstly, what did the group think of the text?

• Over the past decade or two, or since the symposium in 2006, do you feel there have been significant changes in the way we think about contemporary art and also changes in the way we think about cultural diversity?

• p.69 How do you feel about 'institutionalisation' of the arts? Does it provide a platform?

• p.76 Has there been a shift in critical analysis from emphasis on the aesthetic to cultural policies?

• p.78 Is 'institutionalisation' equivalent to 'commodification'?

• p.78 Kobena Mercer states, 'The art history of the black diaspora is still an 'undiscovered country'. Are there any examples of contemporary research taking place in black British and other 'non-mainstream' visual art?
  

Summary of discussion

Kobena Mercer's essay is very relevant to the questions that Iniva is asking itself now, such as defining and exploring what cultural diversity means in relation to visual art. What happens when recent art is institutionalised? What is Iniva for?

Below is a summary of points raised during last night's meeting:

• Interesting vocabulary used in that 'Black Britishness' and British Blackness' follow each other throughout, how do we define this?



• The notion of 'Post Black' is ultimately as problematic now as it was at the time of writing. 'Post' assumes that the past is a fixed defined concept that can be agreed upon.



• Assuming that this isn't a level playing field and assuming that the goalposts are moved each time, is it possible to create another playing field or is it more important to address the current state of play?



• Are issues of cultural identity used to a certain extent to achieve international acclaim? There is an elementt of self exoticisation as cultural identity is merchandised. Can this help others achieve?



• The western canon of art histories overshadow the invisible art histories. Can those in the spotlight help make those non traditional histories visible? Art education at all levels is responsible for maintaining the Eurocentric canon of art history. What about international histories and art education, how does this differ?



• As an arts practitioner you can feel silenced by your surroundings, your peers, and by academic hierarchies as issues of cultural identity and difference prevent certain conversations. It's a way of avoiding the topic.



• Noting the shift away of artists who don't want to focus their work on identity politics or be defined (by others and by themselves) in terms of cultural identity.Is this self censorshsip or an attempt to demand autonomy as a practicing artist?



• 'Diaspora didn't happen in a day' seems a positive note as the essay concludes, as we tend to always look back and reflect on what has already happened, but this implies it is more of an ongoing process.

Leave your comments

To take part in the discussion please leave your thoughts and response in the comments below. We welcome all opinions and discussions, please feel free to respond to some of the key points and questions listed above, as well as elaborating on your own examples and ideas.

Next meeting

Our next reading group will take place Thursday 11th November 6:00-7:30pm. We will be reading Enwezor, Okwui. ‘Archive fever: photography between history and the monument’, in Okwui Enwezor Archive fever: uses of the document in contemporary art.

To reserve your place please email the library: library@iniva.org

As this was our first reading group we are also very interested to hear your ideas on how you would like the reading group to progress. If you have any suggested texts for the reading group then please let us know either by emailing us or suggesting texts in the comments below.

We are also keen to hear your thoughts on possible outcomes of the group. If you have any interest in writing papers, taking part in a library symposium, or have any other ideas regarding possible outcomes then please let us know.

Reading group news

It's a whirlwind of activity in the library at the moment as we jump from our hugely successful zines event last week (thanks to all that came, we will be blogging our report of the event next week) to our new library reading group beginning next week.

We have received an overwhelming level of interest from those wanting to be a part of the reading group and we can't wait to get down to some interesting discussions and debates with you all. Our first meeting will be next Thursday 14th October 6-7:30pm and we will meet on the second Thursday of each month until March 2011.

Our first text is Kobena Mercer's essay 'Diaspora didn't happen in a day: reflections on aesthetics and time' in R. Victoria Arana (ed.) Black British Aesthetics Today. Cambridge Scholars, 2007.



You can find a copy of this text in the Stuart Hall Library for reference use only prior to the first reading group meeting.

If you are unable to attend the first meeting you can still take part in the online discussions which will appear here on the library blog. A summary of discussions will appear here on the blog following the first meeting as well as a series of follow up questions, so please feel free to take part and get involved in any way you can.

If you still haven't booked for the reading group next week please email us library@iniva.org to reserve your place.