'Art and Work' is a study group of artists and curators that had gathered in Art Space Pool during the past 6 months. While reflecting on the topography of art and social environment in which 'art workers like ourselves' are living, we have planned projects to work on together. By contemplating on various issues such as contemporary 'social art', art and labor, web environment culture theory, open source and copyright, website building skills, we are in the process of preparing the big frame for a new website that operates through 'technology'. We have created the platform as a public symposium to share what the 'Art and Work' community has come up with. Anyone with an interest is welcome to participate.

* The symposium discussions will be published and distributed.

 

◆ Program of the Symposium

    1. Used-up Alternatives and 'Art and Work' /  Eunbi Jo

    2. Gendered Web Territory, Struggle of the 'Female Maniac League'

       / Sooyoung Kim

    3. Do-it-yourself x Open Source / Dayeong Choi

    4. Telekommunist Manifesto, the Making of the Artists' Sharing Domain

       / Donghyun Gwon

    5. Proposing a Technology Knowledge Website / Dongkyu Kim

 

◆ Members: Donghyun Gwon, Dongkyu Kim, Sooyoung Kim, Ikkyun Shin,

                   Jiwon Lee, Yongsuk Jeon, Eunbi Jo, Narae Jin, Dayeong Choi

◆ Date: 30^thNovember, 2014(Sun) 4-6pm

◆ Venue: Art Space Pool(Segeomjeong-ro, 9-gil 91-5, Jongno-gu, Seoul)

◆ Contact: 02-396-4805 / altpool@altpool.org (Please contact us for

                  participation until midnight, 29^thof November.)

◆ Host: Art Space Pool, Art and Work

◆ Organizer: Korean Artists Welfare Foundation

◆ Sponsor: Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism

 

 

≪Preface, Art and Work Document≫  

 

‘Art and Work’ is the name of a study group composed of 9 young artists and curators who had gathered in Art Space Pool during the past 6 months. While reflecting on the topography of art and social environment in which 'art workers like ourselves' are living, the members of the group have planned projects to work on together. Alternative space and the flow of public art, art and labor, feminism, culture theories surrounding 'surplus' and the Web, the birth of Web and its development, website building skills, and technoculturecriticism were the main themes that we have studied together. Along with the studies, we have continued our discussions on the building of a homepage 'operable' in the public realm of the art field. As the answer for the questions brought out from the notion of what surrounds art and oneself, 'Art and Work' decided to create a new website that operates through 'technology' in the broad sense.

This document contains the various themes that were on the table of our study process, not without difficulties. There are 10 pieces contributed by members and the draft proposals of the website planning process.

Eunbi Jo reveals the dilemmas and worries she had while working as curator of an alternative space, under the title 'Used-up Alternatives and Art and Work'. Analyzing the issues unleashed by young artists and diagnosing the weakened state of 'alternative culture movement', she proposes opening a new 'ground' as a form of new existence. Dongkyu Kim's 'Professional and Layman, and (Non-)Professional' talks about the fundamental proposal for the artist's profession and social role, in a corner of the discourse on art and economy. Jiwon Lee expresses in ' and Work', what she felt as administrative manager of Art Space Pool while hosting the study group program, the issues of reality in 'work environment' in the broad sense. Sooyoung Kim begins with the  'discourse of surplus' which arose based on the phenomenon of web culture and explains the process of a certain web territory relating with reality through the example of a certain fandom case in 'Gendered Web Territory, Struggle of the Female Maniac League'.

Narae Jin who works on collage-writing works, attempts to perform acrobatic expression in between the 'total crisis' situation as an artist living under neo-liberalistic conditions. 'Total Crisis, and Zig-Zag' tells the chain of worries that were created during the process. Dayeong Choi's  'Do-it-yourself x Open Source' presents the notion of Open Source, as the basis to expand the discussion on our material condition and realization onto the horizon of the Web. Major notions of sharing culture based on open source and the ideals of the Web are dealt with. Donghyun Gwon introduces the discourses in Dmytri Kleiner's 'The Telekommunist Manifesto' and talks about guidelines for leftist actions on the Web to resist the reality where the past Web values of 'common production and sharing' are eaten up by capitalism. Furthermore, continuing in the line of multi-layered discussions about copyright issues of creative labor, Gwon proposes ideas for 'Creating Artists' Sharing Domain' on the Web. Ikkyun Shin's Essay on 'Production-Technology' is a description of technical know-how that the author obtained first-hand during the process of production; it portrays the technical aspect which comprises the work of an artist. It is one of the examples of showing technical know-how in the broad sense that are expected to be shared through the website.

Finally, you can find the blueprint of the website which will be operated based on the technology that suggests. Following Dongkyu Kim's contribution on the meaning of 'technology' understood by artists encountering the media environment and his expectations toward the experience of achievement enabled by 'sharing' technology, draft proposals of the website are presented. After numerous meetings, some ideas were accepted or omitted for various reasons during the planning of the identity of the website.

This document assembles the itinerary of the study group which approached the issues in multi-facets in order to solve 'my' problem, or to find the 'engine power' that would boost energy in the lethargic art field. We hope these contributions will become the foundation stones for the upcoming website and more concrete discussions in the next step.