Transacting as Art, Design and Architecture

Description

Transacting as Art, Design and Architecture: A Non-Commercial Market re-performs the original event #TransActing: A Market of Values as a printed text with the ambition of investing in the published word and image at least some of the original market’s depth and liveness. Holding fast to the experimental ethos of Critical Practice, this anthology does not shy away from risk when the aim is expanding the fields of art, design and architectural research. The authors’ distinct but also overlapping forms (practical, poetic, analytical, etc.) track with the plurality of voices, the processes that have nurtured the cluster as it has worked internationally for more than a decade to produce unique projects.

The book opens with contributions that reflect on TransActing as collaborative practice-based research. The introduction contextualizes this popup market within London’s long history of local marketplaces. Cued by emerging government policy on market sustainability, the tripartite of place, people and prosperity helps to frame TransActing. Taking a different approach, a partial self-portrait of Critical Practice traces TransActing’s becoming over more than a decade of activity and five years of research on value. This is followed by an account of the market’s physical infrastructure: the prototyping of bespoke stalls which were built from recycled materials, an approach inspired by an early example of open-source furniture design. This comes to life in the next section: polyphonic observations on the stalls in use and the market more generally. The stallholders’ reflections capture the experience of those directly involved and are richly illustrated with images of or related to their stalls.

The second part of Transacting as Art, Design and Architecture is composed of commissioned texts to contextualise the market by weaving together references from various fields. These include celebrating the value system of TransActing, especially its critique econometrics. Closely connected to the latter, which was occasioned by Critical Practice’s tenth anniversary, is the subsequent paper's consideration of invisible, feminized labour, which is as undervalued as it is indispensable to cultural production. Taking a slightly different tack is the use of architectural theory (past and present) to trace the transforming nature of the public market, especially as an arena of consumerism. This is followed by an account that looks at the experience of TransActing from the perspective of its local currency. This story is followed by a conversation on the art market and/or the markets of art. This brings the reader to a manifesto-like text that calls for solidarity through publishing, understood as the co-production of meaning through a distributed social process. The penultimate contribution to this collection considers TransActing as a built environment with reference to the market’s shelters and platforms. Finally, a glossary rounds off and opens up the publication as a resource. This compilation of key terms adds nuance to the language used throughout this publication to indicate its resonance in the discourse of Critical Practice.

The collection aims to prioritize practice-based insights as an alternative to knowledge-based ones. In this way the book aims to be a refreshing take, one that moves art-research discussions beyond the creation of knowledge. As such, this book will appeal to all those involved in the ‘research turn’ in contemporary cultural production, including those working in institutions and organizations, especially ones with strong community engagement programmes, as well as independent practitioners working in social and socially engaged practice.

Primary readership will be practitioners of art, design, curating and architecture and students studying in these fields. The secondary audience will include cultural producers, theorists, educators and others who are interested in how art and other forms of creative practice can challenge the ‘usual’ financial circuits of value and open up alternatives.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

FOREWORD

MALCOLM QUINN

PREFACE

MARSHA BRADFIELD

INTRODUCTION: TRADING IN PUBLIC GOOD

MARSHA BRADFIELD, CINZIA CREMONA AND VERINA GFADER

PARTIAL SELF-PORTRAIT OF CRITICAL PRACTICE

INTRODUCED BY MARSHA BRADFIELD

TAKING ENZO TO MARKET

OPEN STALLS

NEIL CUMMINGS (and Critical Practice)

and ANDREAS LANG (and public works)

STALLHOLDERS’ REFLECTIONS

INTRODUCED BY AMY McDONNELL 

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY CRITICAL PRACTICE

MARSHA BRADFIELD

TRANSACTING AS AN ICEBERG

KUBA SZREDER

REMEMBERING AND FORGETTING IN CONSUMERISM

NICHOLAS TEMPLE

TECHNIQUES OF ABERRANT EXTRACTION: TRANSACTING SURPLUS ACTS IN AN AGE OF SPECULATION

EMILY ROSAMOND

A CONVERSATION ON VALUE WITH ANDREA PHILLIPS

VERINA GFADER AND ANDREA PHILLIPS

MINOR COMPOSITIONS: NOTES TOWARDS A PUBLISHING RESONANCE

STEVPHEN SHUKAITIS

PLATFORMS AND SHELTERS: A REFLECTION ON #TRANSACTING: A MARKET OF VALUES

AMY McDONNELL AND EVA SAJOVIC

GLOSSARY

CINZIA CREMONA

LIST OF CHAPTER CONTRIBUTORS

Sujets

• Arts visuels
• Arts visuels
• Architecture
• ECONOMICS
• EDUCATION
• Hágalo usted mismo
• Critical Practice
• Consumerism
• General officer
• Design
• Art
• General
• Do it yourself

Informations

• Publié par: Intellect Books
• Date de parution: 10 février 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781789384451
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 42 Mo

Extrait

TRANSACTING AS ART, DESIGN AND ARCHITECTURE

TRANSACTING AS ART, DESIGN AND ARCHITECTURE
A NON-COMMERCIAL MARKET
Edited by
MARSHA BRADFIELD CINZIA CREMONA AMY McDONNELL EVA SAJOVIC
First published in the UK in 2023 by
Intellect, The Mill, Parnall Road, Fishponds, Bristol, BS16 3JG, UK
First published in the USA in 2023 by
Intellect, The University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th Street, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
Signed texts, their authors
Rest of the book, the editors
The publication of this book was made possible through the generous support of Arts Council England and University of the Arts London.

The electronic version of this work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) Licence. To view a copy of the licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ . The Open Access version can be accessed from this link: https://www.intellectbooks.com/transacting-as-art-design-and-architecture .
Some rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, any part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise).
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Copy editor: MPS
Cover and book designer: Aleksandra Szumlas
Cover image: Courtesy of Neil Farnan. The currency for #TransActing: A Market of Values was a collaboration between Metod Blejec, Neil Farnan and Neil Cummings. Frontispiece image: #TransActing: A Market of Values . Photo credit Marsha Bradfield. Production managers: Naomi Curston and Sophia Munyengeterwa
Typesetter: Aleksandra Szumlas
Print ISBN 978-1-78938-443-7
ePDF ISBN 978-1-78938-444-4
ePUB ISBN 978-1-78938-445-1
To find out about all our publications, please visit our website.
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This is a peer-reviewed publication.
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
FOREWORD
MALCOLM QUINN
PREFACE
MARSHA BRADFIELD
INTRODUCTION
TRADING IN PUBLIC GOOD
MARSHA BRADFIELD, CINZIA CREMONA AND VERINA GFADER
PARTIAL SELF-PORTRAIT OF CRITICAL PRACTICE
INTRODUCED BY MARSHA BRADFIELD
TAKING ENZO TO MARKET
OPEN STALLS
NEIL CUMMINGS (and Critical Practice) and ANDREAS LANG (and public works)
STALLHOLDERS REFLECTIONS
INTRODUCED BY AMY McDONNELL
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY CRITICAL PRACTICE
MARSHA BRADFIELD
TRANSACTING AS AN ICEBERG
KUBA SZREDER
REMEMBERING AND FORGETTING IN CONSUMERISM
NICHOLAS TEMPLE
TECHNIQUES OF ABERRANT EXTRACTION
TRANSACTING SURPLUS ACTS IN AN AGE OF SPECULATION
EMILY ROSAMOND
A CONVERSATION ON VALUE WITH ANDREA PHILLIPS
VERINA GFADER AND ANDREA PHILLIPS
MINOR COMPOSITIONS
NOTES TOWARDS A PUBLISHING RESONANCE
STEVPHEN SHUKAITIS
PLATFORMS AND SHELTERS
A REFLECTION ON #TRANSACTING:A MARKET OF VALUES
AMY McDONNELL AND EVA SAJOVIC
GLOSSARY
CINZIA CREMONA
LIST OF CHAPTER CONTRIBUTORS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This publication considers the work of Critical Practice Research Cluster, which in 2015 included the following members: Metod Blejec, Marsha Bradfield, Helen Brewer, Fangli Cheng, Cinzia Cremona, Neil Cummings, Neil Farnan, Verina Gfader, Angela Hodgson-Teall, Karem Ibrahim, Amy McDonnell, Claire Mokrauer-Madden, Eva Sajovic and Kuba Szreder. Hundreds of additional members, enthusiasts and others operating in solidarity with Critical Practice also enriched the first decade of the research cluster s activity. We are grateful for all their wide-ranging contributions.
With prismatic effect, this anthology spans art, design and architecture by refracting a single project. #TransActing: A Market of Values (henceforth TransActing ) was a non-commercial pop-up market organized by Critical Practice in central London that took place in July 2015. We would like to thank all those involved, including the stallholders, both for their contributions to the market and their texts which comprise the section Stallholders reflections .
As a research output, this anthology depends on the articles that serve to contextualize and elaborate TransActing . To the contributors of these texts, we express our deep appreciation. This also extends to Verina Gfader for her invaluable help in commissioning three of these texts on behalf of Critical Practice. These do important work in establishing the collection s common view that culture plays an integral role in how markets broker the values that they organize and produce.
TransActing as a project marked the culmination of five years of practice-based research, a sustained and dynamic season that brought together builds, cycle rides, hacks, seminars, screenings, walks, workshops, unconferences and other formats and events led by many generous and inspirational practitioners. This programming was made possible thanks to support from Malcolm Quinn, associate dean of research and director of Camberwell, Chelsea, Wimbledon Graduate School (renamed Research at Camberwell, Chelsea, Wimbledon Colleges of Arts in 2018). Quinn s foreword to this publication exemplifies his long and strong support for Critical Practice and his regard for the cluster s work as vital to the rich research culture of the University of the Arts London.
We gratefully acknowledge the financial support that TransActing received from Arts Council England and University of the Arts London. The administrative team of Research at Chelsea College of Arts - Claire Mokrauer-Madden, Gabriele Grigorjevaite, Ellie Pitkin, Wendy Short and Nick Tatchell - will always have a special place in our hearts. Furthermore, TransActing coalesced as the central project of Marsha Bradfield s postdoctoral fellowship (2013-15 based at Chelsea College of Arts). Without this opportunity, neither the market nor this publication would have been realized with such ambition. Critical Practice has also been core to Neil Cummings s research as professor of theory and practice in fine art based at Chelsea College of Arts. Words cannot express our sincerest thanks for his constant nurturing, organizing, mentoring, convening, provoking, advocating and so much more.
Many of us in Critical Practice resolutely identify with a generation of practice-based researchers whose ways of doing and being coalesced at Camberwell, Chelsea, Wimbledon Graduate School between 2005 and 2015. The personal and professional generosity of David Cross, Neil Cummings, Mary Anne Francis, Hayley Newman, Malcolm Quinn, Stephen Scrivener and others was indispensable to this rigorous and relevant community of practice.
Typifying the mixed economy that sustains Critical Practice, the paid labour of TransActing was dwarfed by unpaid and invisible work. Like most not-for-profit initiatives - and many for-profit ones too - our efforts rely on terrific good will, unbridled generosity and a complex economy of favours where we find ourselves perpetually in debt to each other. We would also like to express our deepest gratitude to all those who pitched in to help across TransActing s many phases. Special mention goes to our collaborators Andrew Belfield, Andreas Lang, Carlotta Novella and other members of public works, the London-based art and design practice that collaborated with Critical Practice to develop the stall architecture and infrastructure. public works also helped with the project s aftercare by rehoming the stalls with organizations that share Critical Practice s values, such as accountability, transparency, peer-to-peer exchange, self-organization, a strong sense of social justice and the power of critical creativity to change the world. In this same vein, thanks also go to staff and students of Chelsea College of Arts programme of Interior and Spatial Design (ISD), who have helped Critical Practice with its various builds for more than a decade. May the programme find novel opportunities for community-based collaboration further to its move to Camberwell College of Arts in 2019.
Finally, we would like to thank all the readers of Transacting as Art, Design Architecture: A Non-Commercial Market . We have envisioned this as above all a resource to grow the field of interdisciplinary practice-based research and would welcome feedback on how this anthology has been used or abused by others (please write to us at [e-mail] ). Thank you also to our publisher, Intellect, and especially to our production editors Naomi Curston and Sophia Munyengeterwa, whose light but caring touch proved exactly what we needed to get this anthology to press. Finally, we would like to thank our designer Aleksandra Szumlas for all her help with making the images and texts work together.
FOREWORD
MALCOLM QUINN
#TransActing: A Market of Values was a collective work of art and one of a series of artistic practices that have taken place under the rubric of Critical Practice Research Cluster, which continues to demonstrate the importance of artistic research in the best and most meaningful sense of this term. The publication which has been developed from it shows us how markets first appeared within the aegis of traditions and social practices that determined their character, but also reveals that what we now call the market determines the character of those same social practices. One of the social practices that is determined by the abstraction of the market is the practice of art, in which all the apparatuses of scholarship, curation and exhibition feed into the price of art on the market.
No photograph of the interactions and exchanges that occurred during TransActing can convey the importance of an event that, firstly, managed to contain multiple frameworks of evaluation within a single space on a single day and secondly, brought the market into culture rather than taking culture to the market. TransActing off