THE
PUBLIC
SCHOOL
NEW YORK

This proposal is "copied" from a recent class taking place in Los Angeles (http://la.thepublicschool.org/node/1893)
It is conceived as an extension and compliment to ongoing conversations in New York (Free Schools - http://nyc.thepublicschool.org/class/1845 & AARG - http://groups.google.com/group/art-research-reading-group).  

From Los Angeles proposal:

Within the arts, cultural capital often describes how value, authorship, credit, etc. is distributed within collaborative projects (particularly when there is not actual money exchanged). At a broader scale, although web sites like YouTube and Facebook generate actual revenue for somebody, most of the people who use the sites are giving their labor in exchange for something non-monetary.

 

I guess this could go with the Pierre Bourdieu class that someone else just proposed, given that he wrote the book on cultural capital, but at the same time I think the class should try to apply these ideas specifically to ostensibly progressive, collaborative cultural (artistic) practices. Why? It seems as though most collective or collaborative projects that fall apart tend to do so when what they've been doing produces capital of some kind and it's been distributed in a way that seems inappropriate to those involved. How is it distributed? You can't count it out like dollars.

 

Also, collaborative extends beyond simply "I am collaborating with you" activities, but it also refers to a system of activities within a community, which may or may not recognize their codependencies and interrelations. What ethics is required by an acknowledgment of how cultural capital functions? Is anxiety about cultural capital used cynically by careerists to take credit for work they didn't do?

 

How can cultural capital be mobilized in the arts (which largely functions in this kind of economy) towards more exciting ends than making an individual into a commodity? Perhaps this also intersects with the accreditation class in a weird way, because cultural capital isn't just a narrow art-world concern about dividing up credits and acknowledgments... it refers to the connections someone has/ makes, to the manners they learned by hanging out with the right people, etc. which, in a way, validates certain forms of education over others.

The readings may include the following, but this could be discussed and decided upon by the interested participants

• Temporary Services (Editors) Art Work
• A Constructed World Chapter 3 : Verification
• Hans Abbing The autonomous artist still rules the world of culture
• Pierre Bourdieu Pierre Bourdieu Collection 1 - The Field of Cultural Production
• Diedrich Diederichsen On (Surplus) Value In Art
• Katja Diefenbach New Angels. On postoperaist messianism and the good fortune of being communist. - The paradoxes of the political. On the post-workerist reading of Marx
• Pascal Gielen The Art Scene-An ideal Production Unit for Economic Exploitation?
• Analysis Group Transmission: The Rules of Engagement 8
• Brian Holmes Artistic Autonomy & the Communication Society
• Sonja Lavaert and 2 others The Dismeasure of Art
• Jason Read The Micro-Politics of Capital: Marx and the Prehistory of the Present
• Gigi Roggero The Power of Living Knowledge
• Edward Said Orientalism
• Raymond Williams Cultural Theory

 

This might be a bit much, but I would also be interested in touching on how cultural capital accumulates and is generated within open source development, reality television and political activism.

If someone would like to teach this class, that would be great.  But it could also function as a group-led reading group.

In collaboration with Self Help Graphics, a nationally recognized center for Latino art, The Public School will offer a class that introduces silkscreening (and printmaking in general) as a powerful political tool.

- The first meeting will take place at The Public School in Chinatown. This meeting would be discussion based to introduce screen printing as an art/political tool within public space. The teacher will discuss their practice and provide a broader historical context. This session will conclude with a brainstorming session by the class participants to develop a screen-printing project/intervention to do in this city.

- The second meeting will take place at SHG where the instructor will lead a silkscreening workshop. Students will be taught about silkscreening techniques, shown how to prepare artwork and then to burn a screen. Printing on paper (for posters?) will be the focus.

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Self Help Graphics is a nationally recognized center for Latino arts that develops and nurtures artists in printmaking. SHG seeks to advance Latino art broadly through programming, exhibitions and outreach to diverse audiences in East Los Angeles and beyond. SHG seeks to identify and engage young and emerging artists from the community in all aspects of its activities.

_______
Victoria Delgadillo, The politics of being a woman and a marginalized citizen has played a predominate role in Victoria's artistic vision. She was the Art Director for a public stained glass window project at the world's first glbt Jewish temple. In addition to printing, painting, curating, production and lectures, Victoria creates short films and is featured regularly on public radio, commenting on issues of art and activism.

Redefining the 'Three R's' as a Review, a Response and a Reception, media
artist and curator Tom Leeser will lead a Public School class in three
parts based on the current June show at the Distributed Gallery, titled
'24/7 Truth.'

'24/7 Truth' centers around two videos, each documenting twenty four
drawings by the artists Mark Allen and Perry Hoberman. The
'video/drawings' are displayed on the Distributed Gallery's four video
monitors and are accompanied by twelve audio works by twelve writers. The
writers were asked by the curator to create a response to the drawings
using only their first impressions.

The first part of the Public School class will be a Review of the show.
The Review will be in the form of a meandering tour of the four locations
of the Distributed Gallery. The tour will begin and conclude at the
Public School.

The class will be encouraged to take pictures, field recordings, videos
and written notes while on the tour. The class will also engage in
discussions with the curator about the show and its premise of “the
illusionary nature of truth, narrative, media and the gesture.”

After the tour, the class will retreat back to the Public School environs
to engage in the second part, a participatory 'Response.' The goal of the
Response will be to solicit first impressions of the show and the tour and
transform the impressions into individual and collaborative forms of
written and spoken texts. We will be working with word games, exquisite
corpses, renga and other rule based response systems.

The third part of the class will be a closing Reception for the show with
snacks, drinks and unrestricted dialogue.