Commons Tense

“Commons Tense” exhibits the works of new media artists from Turkey. Being a sub-theme of amberPlatform’s 2012 theme entitled “Paratactic Commons”. Commons Tense points out that it is now time to talk within a new category that embeds the Commons in.

 

The decade that followed 9/11 witnessed a radical regression of communal energies, forcing us to live strictly in individual spheres; the fear and control society in the guise of a war on terror, the tendency of nation-states to impose their ideological agendas onto everyone and everything under their control and the conflicts and collaborations of a global consumerist economy that urges the rapid privatization of public goods have all taken a toll on the common values of human societies around the Globe. The commons that we need to regain entail a broad spectrum. They range from ecological unbalances, which result from the privatization of natural resources, to the ‘de facto’ privatization of judicial systems, which has led to the degradation of a justice that is common to all.

 

Meanwhile, the ever-popularizing digital media, beginning with the Internet itself as a common resource, has been a major source of inspiration in revitalizing the idea of the commons. More specifically, the capacities oered by new media have helped to re-understand that information is a “common” as well as the right to access information.

 

Can digital commons be an alternative platform to launch a political thought whose main aim is sharing, transparency, and freedom to access information? What can we learn from free software’s, copyleft movements, peer-2-peer systems, the logic of open source, and creative commons? Could the digital-commons help for the creation of another form of economy and ecology? Could humans share their common resources rather than exploit them? What kind of paratactic artistic strategies could digital commons consist of? Realized in collaboration with TodaysArt Festival in Den Haag and Academy of Fine Arts Saar in Saarbrücken the artworkspresented at the exhibition will oer various interpretations of the theme. Theco-events, which consist of two workshops and artist’s presentations will be held in the week before the exhibition. One of the workshops focuses on building Arduino Boards, an  open-source, easy-to use hardware and software electronics platform for artist and designers.In the second workshop participants will experiment with Arduino Boards using python and processing programming languages.

 

 

Exhibition:

8.–21. October Galerie der HBKsaar / Saarbrücken Kepler str. 5 /D-66117 Saarbrücken Opening: 7. October 2012 / 19:00

 

Workshops:

4. October 2012 10:00–12:00 h & 13:00–17:00 h  Osman Koç, “Processing for Arduino”, Digitale Produktionszentrum der HBKsaar

5. October 2012 10:00-12:00 h & 13:00-17:00 h Ekmel Ertan,“Paper Arduino” Digitale Produktionszentrum der HBKsaar

 

Video Documentary