As stated in the proforma, we would like the proposal published alongside our drawings (see attached image). These will also be projected during the event.
The event, which will take the form of a discursive seminar, will think through the relationships between three anchorages: the ending sequence of Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises; Gerald Raunig’s A Thousand Machines and the recent death of Mark E. Smith. These varying cultural references have recently formed a point of intersection for us; a composition of materials that have been present in our thoughts and daily lives. Rather than acting as parameters, these locations will be worked through and out of, to feel out ideas of slowing, automation and repetition in our current socio-political moment.
The accelerationism of capital is reflected by art institutions and educational systems that favour ‘progression’ in it’s most tradable sense. Relatedly, our daily life is structured by immediate connections and fleeting communication. For us, there is an urgency in resisting the accelerating speed of creative production and thought, where the language and structure of which has become increasingly narrow. After re-watching The Dark Knight Rises six years after its release, Andy has been thinking about how the fixings of the batwing’s autopilot system could be thought of as relating to Raunig’s ideas of a social machine. Rosie has been thinking about Franco “Bifo” Berardi’s suggestion of the silent apocalypse and what happens to language in the resulting period. Together, we have been thinking about the concept of no future, that is, how to think outside of end goals and culminations. Soundtracking this has been Mark E Smiths repetitious but ferocious consistency; ‘my heart and I agree.. i’m totally wired..’.
Out of this, we will work into the concept of no future through the proposed anchorages. During the seminar nothing may concretise itself. Rather, we hope to establish a conversation through bringing together cultural material and feeling out the concatenations between them. This is not directed towards outcomes or goals, or, as Raunig states, is ‘not about is, but about and, about concatenations and connections, compositions and movements that constitute a machine’. No future is not the antithesis of progression or development, but tries to resist commodifying these terms for capital gain.
We want the conversation to happen free of financial means. The event will be accompanied by a online resource that consists of our ongoing research, conversations, writings and readings. We hope this website will grow to feature many contributors and kinds of material, both from within artistic dialogues and elsewhere. It will be up and running during February for people to follow prior to the event. We will use the material on the site as a departure point for the seminar.
Image: Batwing accelerates over bay (sketch)
List materials and equipment: Chairs; projector and stand; small, low table; single ring induction hob (for tea which we will serve during the event)
48
Sunday 20 May 2018
7-8pm
Interrupting Autopilot:
Rosie Woodhouse & Andrew Wyatt
............................................................................................................................