Dear all,
I realize that this list serve should not be
for spam and project advertisement, but
after conferring with one of our hosts, and
due to the nature of the posts so far, I
thought it would be intersting to ask for
comments and proposals for a
book/DVD/web project i am involved in
right now.
It would be great to just hear people's
thoughts on it, since I think there is a lot
to be discussed, but certainly also to get
proposals for text and projects to be
included, whether they are already
published or 'new'. (We are not interested
in exclusitivity, but in the flow of
discourse(s)). I should note though, that
we would – in case there actually are
ideas – need to finish the whole project
by late february, so the earlier we get
suggestions, proposals etc. the better. In
any case, any response would be great.
happy new year
Simon SheikhHERE & ELSEWHERE
Here and Elsewhere is an
interdisciplinary, multimedia project and
publication centered around themes of
movement and migration, transferal and
transport, the familiar and the foreign,
and not least the relationship between
spaces. As such it will, hopefully, offer
both site-makings and markings, as well
as escape routes. Rather than choosing
a regular book/magazine (or exhibition)
format, we would like to propose a
framework that in it will indicate
movement between places and focus on
transporting. The project will unfold onto
three spaces of presentation: printed
matter, DVD and a web site. We would
therefore like to work with you on projects
that involve one, two or all three spaces
actively. We have set up some
preliminary guidelines - or rules for
passage, if you will. We are interested in
theses three spaces as functional sites,
and therefore propose a low-tech usage
of them: printed matter for text, images
and graphics, DVD for sound, animation,
moving and video and web site for signs,
connections, references and further
travels (for example links).
To exemplify: imagine taking a longer
essay and separating the text, the
images and the notes into three different
places, each one developed according to
its own characteristics and potentials in
relation to the specific content; as its own
entity, its own work. But put together,
however, forming a more complete
and/or confusing picture. - Likewise of
course with art projects, related thinking
and everything in-between.
The title Here and Elsewhere is,
obviously, twofold, but also quoting from
two very different and distinct sources. It
is, on the one hand, a translation of the
name of a famous Danish weekly gossip
magazine that focuses on gossip,
glamorous people and events both at
home and (far) away (like Hollywood). But
the magazine's choice of title also refers
to the relationship between the homely -
the context of the (mostly) women
readers who buy it and their safe, if
boring homelife - and the exciting, if not
dangerous, life of the stars and others
(people in natural disasters etc.). It is, in
other words, a highly repressive and
affirmative magazine, whose claim is to
tell about the world outside, but whose
aim is to confirm the validity of life at
home (esp. within the nuclear family
structure where the position of women as
housewives qualifies the category
"home").
Rather than confirm, our aim is to
complicate matters, which is where the
other reference comes in. Here and
Elsewhere is also the title of a film by
Jean-Luc Godard and Anne-Marie Mieville
from 1974. This film was actually a
revisitation of old film footage shot in
Palestine by Godard and Jean Pierre
Gorin in 1970. However, in their reediting
of this material Godard and Mieville
focused on the relation between the
documentary material from "elsewhere",
and how this type of material is
presented to the public "here" (at home,
in France) as "other" through television.
Ici et ailleurs focused on the relation
between different places as presented in
the private sphere at home through
television. - Or, through a specific
televisual framing and division of events
and places. On the one hand we see the
nuclear family watching television, seeing
the elsewhere as a double negative
confirmed the 'here' of the living room and
the family. But this is juxtaposed with the
reality of the Palestinian struggle, an
exiled people who represents the
elsewhere. The focus of the film is the
crucial "and" of the title, that these spaces
and categories are always connected,
always placed in a political and
economical relationship to each other -
an aspect that has become all the more
pressing in our times' debates about
globalization, migration, nomadism, the
movement of goods and global
capitalism, not to mention refugees from
wars, the closing of fortress Europe with
its open, inner markets, the closing of
borders for people from 'poor' countries
to 'rich' countries and the resulting
growing xenophobia in these countries.
----------------------

There will be a small fee of 150 Euro for
participating, which - as we are painfully
aware of - is not very much. We apology
for this, but hope that it will still be worth
it.
Katya Sander & Simon Sheikh
sim-*at*cultur.com