The Research Center for Proxy Politics aims to explore and reflect upon the nature of medial networks and their actors, that is, machines and things as well as humans. The proxy, a decoy or surrogate, is today often used to designate a computer server acting as an intermediary for requests from clients. Originating in the Latin procurator, an agent representing others in a court of law, proxies are now emblematic of a post-representational political age, one increasingly populated by bot militias, puppet states, ghostwriters, and communication relays. During the period of the project (September 2014 to August 2017) the center will host a series of workshops at the Universität der Künste, Berlin, revolving around a wide range of relevant topics including the politics of digital networks, the political economy of crypto-currencies, the genealogy of networked thought, the mediality of physical landscapes and strategies of opacity. The center will also conduct material, experimental, investigations into the conception and construction of alternative networks, or alternets.
RCPP RCPP RCPP @ AUTO ITALIA

(Workshop) 25/10 2016  14:00-17:00 @ Hardenbergstr. 33, Raum 115
 

Shell Corporation*

Auto Italia South East

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What are the desired conditions to produce artwork? What is enabled by working collaboratively that is greater than what we can achieve alone?

Marianne Forrest and Edward Gillman of the London-based artist-run project and studio Auto Italia South East will lead ‘Auto Italia: Shell Corporation’, a half-day session presenting research and references informing Auto Italia’s current programme and studio practice.

Touching on alternative methods for producing and distributing artwork through collaborative production, the session will consider the potentials for art and artistic practice enabled through operating under the guise(s) of Auto Italia. The session will encourage a collective imagining of what ‘artist-led’ groups might look like and operate as in the future, touching on histories of group production and seeking enlightenment from examples found in theories of group work, esoteric decision-making strategies and role-play.

*A shell corporation is a company which serves as a vehicle for business transactions without itself having any significant assets or operations.

RCPP RCPP RCPP @ AUTO ITALIA