Conditions of Spectatorship: interdisciplinary symposium on artistic research

EN: The one-day symposium Conditions of Spectatorship explores (in) how (far) artistic (research) practices can challenge this ‘politics of spectatorship’ (Claire Bishop) in order to disturb the divide between active and passive. It triggers a fundamental reflection on the conditions and the conditioning of creation and reception of what we call ‘content’ today. Consequently, it addresses the ethical and political-ideological responsibility of artists, collectives and researchers, which is inextricably bound with basic questions such as: from where do we speak, from where do we see (or hear) or from where do we show?

Every act of spectating is thus determined by a specific spatio-temporal context. In this vein, the campus of RITCS School of Arts (Brussels) will function as a locus for intervention, reflection and conversation. At a scripted pace and rhythm, the spectator (listener) will circulate through the building. The specific architectural parameters of RITCS will be used as a tool to explore and question conditions of spectatorship. In this process, multiple presentation formats such as lectures, lectures-performances, workshops, screenings or performances will be probed. These forms and formats will enable artistic researchers from the most diverse disciplines (music, theater and performance, visual arts, film, etc.) to put to the test the artistic strategies with which they manipulate the power dynamics inherent to spectatorship.

We receive, hear, see, access and interact with the world through a myriad of tools and modes of presentation. The democratization of these very tools enables us to use and create, receive and diffuse content, to comment on it, to have a point of view. It fosters the idea we’re at the same time consumer, spectator, producer, player and performer. The question is, however, if this model of interactivity isn’t an illusion. Is ‘a sense of powerlessness’ - or passivity - not ‘one of the primary conditions’ of spectatorship or - to put it more bluntly - of ‘docile spectatordom’ (Samuel Weber)?

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NL: "Het eendaagse symposium Conditions of Spectatorship onderzoekt in hoeverre artistieke (onderzoeks)praktijken het onderscheid tussen actief en passief kijken (en luisteren, voelen,...) naar een kunstwerk, "toeschouwen" dus, kunnen uitdagen. Het symposium geeft aanzetten tot een fundamentele reflectie over de voorwaarden van creatie en receptie, van de relatie tussen maker en toeschouwer. Het gaat dan over de ethische en politiek-ideologische verantwoordelijkheid van kunstenaars, collectieven en onderzoekers, die onlosmakelijk verbonden is met fundamentele vragen als: van waaruit spreken we, van waaruit zien (of horen) we of van waaruit tonen we?

Elk "toeschouwershap" wordt bepaald door een specifieke ruimtelijk-temporele context. Op 23 maart zal de campus van RITCS School of Arts (Brussel) fungeren als een locus voor interventie, reflectie en gesprek. De toeschouwer (luisteraar) circuleert in een gescript tempo en ritme door het gebouw. De specifieke architecturale omstandigheden van het RITCS zullen worden gebruikt als instrument om de voorwaarden van het toeschouwerschap te onderzoeken, in vraag te stellen. In lezingen, lecture-performances, workshops, screenings of performances zullen artistieke onderzoekers uit uiteenlopende disciplines (muziek, theater en performance, beeldende kunst, film, enz.) door middel van artistieke strategieën de machtsdynamiek manipuleren die inherent is aan de ruimtelijke en mentale positie van de toeschouwer."

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Program

10:00 - 10:45 CINEMA RITCS
Igor C Silva
Zone #1 (fake homeostasis)
Installation / Performance

10:45 - 11:00 CINEMA RITCS
Introduction

11:15- 11:45 RITCS bar
Nuno Cernadas
Scriabin’s Music and Mysticism: Present-Day Incantations
Recital

12:00 - 12:20 Listen and vision cell
Artificial Intelligems
Mirrored Dwellers
Performance

12:00- 13:00 Laad-en loskade (backside of the RITCS building)
Katinka de Jonge & Renée Goethijn
Soup Opera. A Theatrical Exercise in Collectivity or a Collective Exercise in Theatricality.
Workshop

14:00- 14:30 Listen and vision cell
Eleanor Ivory Weber
Endure This Now
Lecture

14:45 - 15:30 RITCS bar
Caterina Daniela Mora Jara
25’18” minutes promise of a bastard cheap lecture-performance
Lecture-performance

15:45 -16:15 Listen and vision cell
Chryssi Dimitriou
Remembering of Bright Times: Inside the Gaze’s Palimpsest
Lecture

15: 30 - 16:15 Tour through the building starting in the RITCS bar
Sara Oklobdzija
CSI BXL Division: Invisible Social Crimes & Polite Violence
Artistic Intervention

16:30- 17:30 CINEMA RITCS
Simon Allemeersch
On camérer
Lecture

16:30- 19:00 Listen and vision cell
Vision Machine (in a loop)
Sirah Foighel Brutmann and Eitan Efrat, Is It a Knife Because…, 26`
Maxime Jean-Baptiste, Moune Ô, 17`
Deimantas Narkevičius, Once in XX Century, 8`
Eli Cortiñas, Walls Have Feelings, 13`
Film Program

Evening Program
CINEMA RITCS

19:00- 20:00
Graham Kelly
Skull Island Parts III and IV
Lecture-Performance

20:00- 20:45
Ryan Cullen and Henrik Olai Kaarstein
The Displaced Subject
Lecture-Performance

20:45- 21:30 CINEMA RITCS
Toon Leën
Homage to an Absent Pony
Lecture-Performance

Met / with

Igor C Silva, Nuno Cernadas, Artificial Intelligems, Katinka de Jonge & Renée Goethijn, Eleanor Ivory Weber, caterina daniela mora jara, Chryssi Dimitriou, Sara Oklobdzija, Simon Allemeersch, Graham Kelly, Ryan Cullen & Henrik Olai Kaarstein, Toon Leën, Deimantas Narkevičius, Eli Cortiñas, Maxime Jean- Baptiste, Sirah Foighel Brutmann & Eitan Efrat