Constant

DiVersions v2: workshop, guided tour, publication

Femke Snelting — 2020-11-29T09:46:37Z

Here: https://bbb.constantvzw.org/b/fem-rzq-99g

DiVersions engaged with the potential of on-line cultural heritage for welcoming various forms of collaboration, allowing conflicts to show up, and make space for other narratives. In dialogue with cultural institutions and their collections, the project experimented with digitized and digital heritage to open up databases, metadata, catalogs and digital infrastructures for other imaginations. This month, we close off the four year project with a guided tour, workshop and a publication:

Guided tour

Monday 14 December 15:00-16:00

Last chance! Elodie Mugrefya and Femke Snelting guide you through the on-line exhibition, find us here: https://bbb.constantvzw.org/b/fem-rzq-99g

A New Browser Ceremony

An afternoon on-line with Zoumana Meite and Martino Morandi
Tuesday 15 December 2020, 14:00-17:00
Here: https://bbb.constantvzw.org/b/fem-rzq-99g

Zoumana and Martino share their ongoing research into digital catalogs of museums, cultural institutes and heritage platforms and possible alternatives to their current forms. Their experiments point at the historical issues with current models and policies for knowledge administration: colonial heritage, imperial intentions, gendering structures, hierarchical values...

Participants are invited to look closely at the data structures, models, information systems and graphical representations which format online catalogs. It is also an occasion to open up or break out of some of the restrictions that stop visitors from imagining different relations to "the collection".

Print + on-line publication

https://diversions.constantvzw.org
January 1, 2021

Launch of the second version of a digital and printed publication with new and reworked contributions by among others Daniel Blanga Gubbay, Z. Blace, Hari Prasad Adhikari-Sacré, Kris Rutten, Gert Biesta and Anne Laforet. Designed with Open Source Publishing (Sara Magnan + Gijs de Heij).

On-line exhibition

http://di.versions.space

In seven on-line installations, artists show how digital collections of cultural institutions could welcome very different and even opposing views. Decolonial and intersectional perspectives call for a rethinking of on-line cultural heritage. What if we would arrange otherwise, invent material ways to move with data and listen to metadata's uncertainties?

With: Collection of uncertainties (Marie Lécrivain, Colm o'Neill), Sketchy recognition (Michael Murtaugh, Nicolas Malevé), When organic trees meet the data tree (Anaïs Berck), Material Journeys Through Other Realities (Phil Langley, Mia Melvær), The weight of things (Cristina Cochior), A new fire ceremony (Zoumana Meïté, Martino Morandi), Diff3r3ntVversionsArePOSSIBLE?!. (Z.)

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Please register for tours and workshop or to pre-order your printed book by sending an email to Donatella Portoghese: donatella@constantvzw.org

DiVersions is a project initiated by Constant, Association for Art and Media, in collaboration with UGent - Department of Educational Studies, Department of Educational Studies, Werkplaats immaterieel erfgoed, VIAA/PACKED - Expertisecentrum Digitaal Erfgoed, RoSa - Kenniscentrum voor gender en feminisme. The second version of the DiVersions publication will be published in December 2020.

Image: Zoumana Meïté, Martino Morandi, A New Browser Ceremony (2020)

Guided tours: DiVersions v2

Femke Snelting — 2020-05-28T09:56:06Z

The installations in the on-line exhibition were first shown in De Pianofabriek in October 2019. On the basis of reflections and discussions among the artists and with visitors, this second version of DiVersions has been completely reworked.

Guided tour: Monday 14 December 15:00-16:00, find us here: https://bbb.constantvzw.org/b/fem-rzq-99g. If you want to visit as a group on other dates, please contact: donatella@constantvzw.org

Scenography: Mia Melvær and Cristina Cochior.

Mid-December a new version of the DiVersions publication will be available as well, both in digital and paper format.

Image: Zoumana Meïté, Martino Morandi, A New Fire Ceremony (2019)

View online : https://di.versions.space

Paul Otlet: An Omissum

An — 2020-04-28T15:11:16Z

Following from a discussion that took place in the framework of DiVersions in Pianofabriek in October 2019, participants in Algolit and Mondotheque have tried over the last few months to address a blindspot in the way Paul Otlet has been portrayed in general, but also in their very projects. Terms like ‘visionary' or ‘pacifist' portray Otlet as a charismatic, heroic figure, omitting to signal the fact that the figure as well as his oeuvre were committed to a colonial and racist project.

An 'omissum' was therefore attached to digital and physical publications by these research groups. In addition they made an intervention in the English Wikipedia page on Paul Otlet. The Omissum can be commented upon via the Constant gitlab issuetracker.

Omissum @ Constant Gitlab: https://gitlab.constantvzw.org/diversions/paul-otlet-an-omissum
Intervention in Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Paul_Otlet&diff=950711784&oldid=949099522&diffmode=source

View online : https://diversions.constantvzw.org/...

Heritage collection data: Are 'facts' static?

Femke Snelting — 2019-09-30T09:37:12Z

Debate organised by VIAA/PACKED in the context of DiVersions.

Metadata of museal collections are generally thought of as static, but in reality they often include a degree of uncertainty or are subject to change. Therefore throughout time, new versions of datasets come into being, which may or may not be stored or documented. When a museum describes their collections, they make certain choices. To what degree are these conscious choices? How actively are metadata being changed and by which logic/strategy? Which role does scientific research, geopolitical changes or changes in personal play?

The Diversions project gathers artists intrigued by the versions of collections data and who engaged with them artistically. During this debate we bring artistic perspectives in conversation with the practices of people who work with data at institutions on a day to day basis.

DiVersions is an artistic project initiated by Constant. It explores the potential of digital archives as sites for decolonial and intersectional practice and speculates on how cultural institutions and cultural heritage can work with and through difference. The debate provides an opportunity for the wider public and for people working in heritage institutions to engage with the work of the artists.

With amongst others:

Nacha Van Steen (Collection analist, Museum for Art & History, Brussels)
Anais Berck (artist, Wikified Colonial Botany)
Marie Lecrivain (artist, Collection of uncertainties)

Moderated by Sam Donvil + Bart Magnus (VIAA/PACKED)

Image: Marie Lecrivain, Colm o'Neill, Collection des incertitudes

DiVersions: installations + publication

Femke Snelting — 2019-09-18T18:01:13Z

Opening and publication launch: Thursday 10 October 18:00 - 21:00

DiVersions experiments with online collections of cultural institutions as sites for decolonial and intersectional practice. Inspired by the way 'versioning' functions in networked software tools, seven interactive media installations and a publication explore how online collections can accommodate radically different, and sometimes opposing perspectives. A second version of DiVersions will be hosted by De Krook (Ghent) in the spring of 2020.

Collection of uncertainties (Marie Lecrivain, Colm o'Neill)
Sketchy recognition (Michael Murtaugh, Nicolas Malevé)
Wikified Colonial Botany (Anais Berck)
Material Journeys Through Other Realities (Phil Langley, Mia Melvaer)
The weight of things (Cristina Cochior)
A new fire ceremony (Zoumana Meïte)
Diff3r3ntVversionsArePOSSIBLE?!. (Z. Blace)

Monday 14 October Heritage collection data: Are 'facts' static?, a debate organised by VIAA/PACKED with a.o. Marie Lecrivain, An Mertens and Nacha Van Steen.

Editorial team: Constant (Elodie Mugrefya, Femke Snelting)
Scenography: Mia Melvær, Cristina Cochior
Graphic design: OSP (Gijs de Heij, Sarah Magnan)

DiVersions is an initiative of Constant and developed in partnership with: UGent - Department of Educational Studies, Werkplaats immaterieel erfgoed, PACKED - Expertisecentrum Digitaal Erfgoed, RoSa - Kenniscentrum voor gender en feminisme. With the support of: Vlaamse Overheid, Vlaamse Gemeenschapscommissie, Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles Arts Numériques."¨

Image: Zoumana Meïte, A new fire ceremony

View online : https://diversions.constantvzw.org

DiVersions: archive

Femke Snelting — 2017-03-31T18:49:06Z

DiVersions took place from 4 to 11 December 2016 and was inspired by the way versions are inscribed in daily software-practice. With 35 participants we explored how we could produce divergent histories through supporting difference. At http://diversions.constantvzw.org you can find links to the materials that were produced during this week.

The worksession was organised by Constant and hosted by the Royal Museum of Art and History in Brussels.

With: Adva Zakai, Alexandre Leray, André Castro, An Mertens, Arianne Marcolini, Catherine Lenoble, Cristina Cochior, Donatella Portoghese, Laurence Rassel, Femke Snelting, Christine De Smedt, Gottfried Haider, Geraldine Juárez, Guillaume Bernier, Julie Boschat-Thorez, Joris Vermeir, Kristien Van denbrande, Lionel Broye, Loraine Furter, Magnus Lawrie, Marie Lecrivain, Martin Campilo, Martino Monti, Mia Melvaer, Michael Murtaugh, Serge Lemaitre, Sophie Balace, Emile Van Binnebeke, Saskia Willaert, Chris Vastenhoudt, Myriam Arsenault-Goulet, Nicolas Maleve, Peter Westenberg, Phil Langley, Sam Muirhead, Sarah Magnan, Seda Guerses, Wendy Van Wynsberghe, Zeljko Blace, Zoumana Meite.

View online : http://diversions.constantvzw.org/

DiVersions - an afternoon in the museum about collaboration, divergence and the digital archive

Femke Snelting — 2016-10-06T13:31:56Z

Constant started its worksession DiVersions with an afternoon in the Royal Museum for Art and History. Inspired by the way versions are embedded in the daily practice of software-development, we explored tools and infrastructures that invite different and divergent histories

The program included two lectures and a performance.
Laurence Rassel joined us to reflect on how digital archives can transform institutions. How to do things when we consider the institution as a space for encounters, creativity, possibility and risk? Organizing information is never innocent. This is the motto for Geraldine Juárez' pre-emptive history of The Google Cultural Institute, an effort to "make the world's culture accessible online". Viewing Google Art, Google Cultural Institute and Google Art & Culture through the lens of digital capitalism, she critically tracks the evolution of services that appears at a moment in time when public institutions are increasingly de-funded.
Christine De Smedt performed a first sketch of a series of movements based on her work Untitled 4. 4 choreographic portraits. Her radical appropriations have now become historical material that could be archived in a museum context. These transformative gestures allow for new readings that are not only determined by the logic of the archive, but also by the context in which they are read.

Like all other federal museums in Belgium, the museum is in the final stages of digitizing its very diverse collection: some 330,000 objects including clay tablets, tapestries, mummies, ancient jewellery, vases, coins have been inventoried. What types of alternative collectivity does this digital archive make possible and impossible? How can we use these time lines, histories, traces for other ways of inscribing multiplicity and variety?
The week following this public afternoon, The Museum hosted a group of artists, designers, archivists, writers, programmers and performers. They collectively experimented with archiving, versioning and digitisation. By working through and with tools that operate on data along temporal and social dimensions, DiVersions explored the potential for divergence within technological infrastructures.

Laurence Rassel (Brussels) is a cultural worker who can act as a curator, teacher or organizer. She was recently appointed director of the école de recherche graphique (Brussels). As director of the Fundació Antoni Tàpies in Barcelona, Laurence initiated Arts combinatóries, a place for education, exhibition and research situated within the archive of the institution.
Geraldine Juárez (México, Sweden) works with and across different media-technologies and its histories, stories, materials and contexts to understand how how information, knowledge and property is organized, regulated and exchanged under technological culture and within the market economy.
Christine De Smedt (Brussels) is a choreographer. As a way to come to a self-portrait she created choreographic portraits of four artists who have influenced present-day contemporary dance and still do: Jonathan Burrows, Alain Platel, Xavier Le Roy and Eszter Salamon. She assumed their words and stories based on interviews about their relationships between life and work.

Price: an entrance ticket to the Museum

DiVersions

Femke Snelting — 2016-06-29T13:11:14Z

DiVersions took place from 4 to 11 December 2016 and was inspired by the way versions are inscribed in daily software-practice. With 35 participants we explored how parallel to their conventional narrative of collaboration and consensus, we could produce divergent histories through supporting difference. This one week session was organised by Constant and hosted by the Royal Museum of Art and History in Brussels.

With: Adva Zakai, Alexandre Leray, André Castro, An Mertens, Arianne Marcolini, Catherine Lenoble, Cristina Cochior, Laurence Rassel, Femke Snelting, Christine De Smedt, Gottfried Haider, Geraldine Juárez, Julie Boschat-Thorez, Kristien Van denbrande, Lionel Broye, Loraine Furter, Magnus Lawrie, Marie Lecrivain, Martin Campilo, Martino Monti, Mia Melvaer, Michael Murtaugh, Serge Lemaitre, Sophie Balace, Emile Van Binnebeke, Saskia Willaert, Chris Vastenhoudt, Donatella Portoghese, Myriam Arsenault-Goulet, Nicolas Maleve, Peter Westenberg, Phil Langley, Sam Muirhead, Sarah Magnan, Seda Guerses, Wendy Van Wynsberghe, Zeljko Blace, Zoumana Meite.

Documentation

All documentation can be found here: http://diversions.constantvzw.org/

Call for participants: http://www.constantvzw.org/site/Call-for-participants-DiVersions.html
An afternoon in the museum: http://www.constantvzw.org/site/DiVersions-an-afternoon-in-the-museum-about-collaboration-divergence-and-the.html
Images: http://gallery.constantvzw.org/index.php/DiVersions-Worksession

View online : http://diversions.constantvzw.org/

Call for participants: DiVersions

Femke Snelting — 2016-06-26T18:49:18Z

Deadline: 12 September

DiVersions is inspired by the way versions are inscribed in daily software-practice, and explores how parallel to their conventional narrative of collaboration and consensus they can produce divergent histories through supporting difference. This one week session is organised by Constant and hosted by the Royal Museum of Art and History in Brussels.

The Museum is, like all other federal museums in Belgium, in the final stages of digitizing its very diverse collection: some 330,000 objects including clay tablets, tapestries, mummies, ancient jewellery, vases, coins will be inventoried this year. The concrete practices of art-history and digitisation technologies will be put in relation with the reflections, prototypes and other types of experiments generated during the worksession.

Version-control systems, Wikis, Etherpads and other digital writing tools save log files and 'diffs' routinely, potentially changing linear relations between original and copy, redefining questions of authorship and the archive through technological conditions. Meticulously logged workflows promise to make the process of shared editing a transparent process because any action can be reversed or repeated at any time, and errors or unwanted inputs can be later corrected. But what types of alternative collectivity do they make possible and impossible? How can we use these timelines, histories, traces not just in terms of safeguarding production, but for other ways of inscribing multiplicity and variety?

The worksession brings together collaborative practices, active archives and Free Software tools; each of them long time interests of Constant. By working through and with tools that operate on data along temporal and social dimensions, DiVersions explores the potential for divergence within technological infrastructures. We want to experiment with conditions for multiple authorship (including machines as author) and explicitly make space for ambiguity. We want to speculate on digital practices that do not erase conflict and variation,Â and can work with, not against, misunderstandings between people and machines, and among machines and people themselves.

Worksessions are intensive transdisciplinary moments, organised twice a year by Constant. We aim to provide conditions for participants with different types of expertise to temporarily link their practice and to develop ideas, prototypes and research projects together. We primarily use Free, Libre and Open Source software and material that is available under Open Licenses. DiVersions starts on Sunday afternoon with a public event. We will start from 5 different cases prepared by artists, designers, performers, programmers and historians that will no doubt mix and merge as the session develops.

Practical info:
DiVersions takes place from Sunday 4 until Saturday 10 December 2016 in Brussels. Constant has invited twenty participants from different disciplines and backgrounds to ground the subject. We are currently looking for an additional ten participants to extend our perspective. Participation is free and Constant provides lunch, two dinners and hosting for all participants. There is a modest budget available to support travel costs. If you would like to participate, please send an e-mail to an@constantvzw.org and femke@constantvzw.org motivating your interest before 12 September. We will answer you by September 20 latest.