10. Mai 2023
PhD-Workshop: THINKING WEED – INTERSTITIAL ONTOLOGIES Sliding through the membranes of experience, meaning, and representation of interstitial ontologies.
Hosts: Fabricio Lamoncha, Catarina Reis
Date: May 10, 2023
Location: Audimax
A call was issued for the design of the PhD Colloquium of the University of Arts Linz University on 9 and 10 May 2023; groups of PhD candidates were invited to design and submit one-day programmes. The following programme is among the selected:
Interstitial spaces are often marginal or neglected places that might be hidden, forgotten, or abandoned. Whether a large section of a landscape or a microscopic crack in a surface, these spaces are usually byproducts of regulated and aesthetically legitimized (capitalist) culture, represented as “unproductive” entities and disregarded by the traditional collective systems of political and economic administration.
On the other hand, interstitial spaces can often be buoyant diversity reservoirs, where counter-cultural actors and other feral beings, such as weeds, dwell on and thrive, despite the dominant efforts to neutralize them. Interstitiality might be a physical opportunity for the creation and proliferation of (bio) diversity, as much as an immaterial space to unfold otherness. There are cracks yet to be discovered in the digital and virtual topologies surrounding us, and there are gaps in the realm of ideas and words. Like a weed growing through the interstice of a wall, we—as artistic researchers—can slide through the membranes of old concepts to find new meanings.
Could interstitial spaces be magic circles? Could the gaps between our definitions become a kind of heterotopic “third space” - a place that is both real but freed from political designation and cultural identification, where researcher and subject could finally meet?
The workshop Thinking Weed. Interstitial Ontologies challenges the participants to discover sub-represented lives, entities, or concepts potentially present in narrow (but rich) physical and immaterial gaps. We aim to provide a space for discussion, exploration, and alternative forms of representation of these realities, through a series of brief exercises, which include fieldwork and artistic experimentation.
Time schedule:
09:00am – 10:00am Welcome time
10:00am – 12:00pm Introduction of materials by Catarina and Fabricio
12:00pm – 01:00pm Vegan Lunch Break
01:00pm – 02:00pm short field trip and documentation
02:00pm – 03:00pm individual work
03:00pm - 03:15pm Coffee Break
03:15pm - 05:00pm group work & presentation
05:00pm – 06:00pm Wrap up
Registration: Please register for the workshop and send a short motivation via mail to simon.hochleitner@kunstuni-linz.at until May 2, 2023.
The workshop is open for PhD-candidates.
Maximum number of participants: 12 participants