The Summer of Content
More info about WorkSpace, the media laboratory
Documenta X, june 21 - september 28 1997

- first draft -

By Geert Lovink/Pit Schultz


Table ot Content

A Letter to all
B Workspace FAQ
C Workspace text
D addendum: DX 100/100

............................................................................A

dear friends,

we would like to invite you to join the WorkSpace project which will take place at the documenta in Kassel (Germany) from june 21 till september 28. WorkSpace will be an informal production unit, a 'content machine', not an art space or an exihibit hall. Once we have sent you allready a general announcement of the project. In this letter we would like to be more specific about the possibilities (and limitations) WorkSpace is offering.

WorkSpace has two goals:
1. to support and comment the '100 days' lectures series. Every evening there is a big lecture, organized by Catherine David. The participants of WorkSpace will have access to the guests (if she or he wants this) and their textes, video and audio recordings. But we will not become an alternative press conference space. If the atmosphere becomes too formal or if it get too busy, then we can close the space. One can make an interview, arrange a dialogue, organize a discussion (with remote participants), ask a lecturer to response on ungoing threads etc. Much of this will depend on the person. Some of them are there only one day, others might stay three days or longer.

WorkSpace is not supporting an art system. Allthough we are aware of the environment, we think that institutional criticism is boring by now. There are other, more urgent and less self-referential themes. This counts both for the arts and for the field of new media. We hope that the participants will all have enough social, political and cultural commitment to use this space in a tactical and creative manner. To produce the weired stuff. It should be more than an editorial office. More than the extension of your working environment at home. It will for sure not be a cybercafe or techno club. WorkSpace wants to be a experimental social interface to the many realities which we bring to Kassel and to the ones of the lectures and other (unexpected) guests.

Basically it is about providing facilities to combine different technical media in a processual production of content. What is content? Any day again it gets redefined. If it affects you it was done by yourself. We assume that there are people which have something to say, that there are shared fields of interest, expectation and desire outside the hype of new digital media. It is about experimental transmissions, formats, genres, the generation of events and room for decisions. The DX is mainly a place where certain people meet during the summer 97. And about a lazy joy to use electronic media to transmit, transpose and connect a heterogenity of
perspectives. Such a practise of d.i.y. publishing, operates from the individual sphere opening up a collective field of possibilities to leave trails which can later recombine to ensembles of collaborative imagination.

............................................................................B

FAQ about *Hybrid* WorkSpace

How could one of those 100 days look like?

There is a five room appartment for the three months available for us. Its four stops with the tram from the Orangerie, or 20 minutes by feet. We were thinking to have some daily, routine activities like a dairy about the previous day, the answering of the WorkSpace mail, monitoring of the newsgroup, initiating and announcing upcoming themes and lectures, anwering faxes and phonecalls. Besides this, there is the possibility to produce RealAudio, or a radio program for a radio station that might collaborate with us. Same with collaboration with newspapers or other media channels. Some people will work on a video (we have access to a video studio outside of the Orangerie), others might be somewhere in town with one of the lecturers, again others will sit in the sun, on the terasse of the 18th century building with a marvelous outlook on the baroque park. And some are glued to the screens, like allways, in remote contact with some electric souls from the other side of the globe. When there are too many 'lurkers' (visitors) or too few people to run the place, the WorkSpace will be closed alltogether. In the early evening there is the lecture, after that the WorkSpace might open again, till late in the evening and perhaps turn into a PartySpace (but not every evening!).

How did this WorkSpace idea start and how is it financed?

Officially, WorkSpace is a co-production of Documenta and the Berlin Biennale. It's an off program space, never meant to be used to exibit semi important art works. At the last moment, in february, it was decided to develop an 'moveable architecture' for the space, which would have a social function, parallel (and seperated) to the '100 days program'. Because WorkSpace is not an hi-culture project like the others, there was no budget... anymore. But Documenta helped with tech equipment and other infrastructure. And Berlin found some money, of course not enough to pay for all the work. We will try to pay the travel costs and see if we can get the money from cultural foundations etc. The basic idea is that people should not pay to work during the 10 days periods. That's minimal. But we hope that you understand this situation.

What will happen with the content that WorkSpace is producing?

Much of it will be stored on the server or will go out to affiliated sites on other servers through a mailinglist or via a news-gateway. We will try to build up a large network of persons and groups that will be in contact with WorkSpace, like radio stations, on-line journals, web sites, mailinglists, etc. Exchange with outside will be an important part pf the project. The produced content of course belongs to each individual or group that will be part of WorkSpace. At the end we will bring together all the produced data. We are planning to publish a book and CD-ROM that might appear at the opening of the Berlin Biennale, in 1998. The content will be available under fair use copyright.

But what are the themes people will be working on in WorkSpace?

With the 100 days / 100 guests program of the DX each night there'll be a different lecture. But besides this we could narrow it down to the following: the current social, economical, political and cultural situation of the world is full of unquestioned myths and dirty realities. The so-called globalization is one aspect. There is the very real unemployment, the not so real money markets, the hysterious nationalism, migration and position of the illegal workforce, there are cyberdreams and ecological nightmares. This is our world, after 1989, before 2000. There is not the question (how) to engage. But there are urgent questions about basic infrastructure and education, freedom and survival, the public sphere and the victory of the markets.

What are those media facilities and are we allowed to use it as we like?

A local server, a leased line, a server in Dortmund, a startpage at DX. The nuclues is build up on a local news-server and a realaudio-server. Plus e-mail gateways and a wais-search-engine. All is running under an easy to use interface which has a temporal and a social interface, a time schedule and segmented spheres signfying categories and aggregates of content. There is also a user data base where participants of workspace can set up their own profile. Through the news-gateway and a mailinglist the workspace server is communicating with neighboring projects. The teams and participants of Workspace can easily use the 'engine' without any HMTL design. There are several small daily tasks, like a maintaining a logbook , scheduling events and certain responsibilities of the host. It is easy to create new discussion groups or combine the formats based on a flexible and easy to use interface. Some of you should be able to write in English, others might bring some programming knowledge, and againothers will do the deformation, distortion and mixing of the media realities with audio and video equipment or set up connections to various sound archives.

If I want to participate just a bit what should i do?

There are several levels of participation beyond the basic teams which stay between 10 and 14 days. On another level we expect shorttime guests which come with own stuff, give interviews, do short lectures, add new views or data objects. Through the 100 days the project will mutate several times. Via the internet there is a certain degree of possible partipitation. It is easy to subscribe, and follow discussions and events from remote and add on levels which may be not possible in Kassel.

What will I get back and how should i participate?

In the summer of content... this you should answer yourself. You get back what you invest and maybe more. Remember that it is an exclusive production space. We'll organize official invitations to make funding more likely. We'll provide a big name list of participants, respect the rights of the authors and take care of the documentation and publication afterwards. In any way it is not a back door to enter the art system of dx but the serious trial to use the whole situation as a carrier of free content generation.




Here again comes the official announcement and the address of the Berlin
office, please contact us <geert@xs4all.nl> or Thorsten Schilling
<berlin.biennale@kunst.b.shuttle.de> if you have any questions.

............................................................................C

Hybrid WorkSpace
a temporary laboratory in the Orangerie
at Documenta, Kassel (D) june 21 - september 28 1997

a project by Eike Becker and Geert Lovink/Pit Schultz,
Micz Flor, Thorsten Schilling, Heike Foell, Thomax Kaulmann, Moniteurs
the dX team and many others

intitiated by Catherine David (documenta X), Klaus Biesenbach, Hans Ulrich
Obrist, Nancy Spector (Berlin Biennial)


The Orangerie will be transformed into an open media studio to collect, select, connect, record, and distribute information and content. It will deal with current social, political and cultural issues. Hybrid WorkSpace will provide possibilities to comment, interview, discuss and present the resulting data objects and will forge connections with material brought in from outside. Distribution beyond the Orangerie will be realised via selected zones on the Internet as well as through print media and radio broadcasting. A subsequent publication will allow the content flow produced throughout the documenta X to be widely accessible.

Hybrid WorkSpace can best be described as a temporary laboratory that produces its own type of content. It also condenses the viewpoints and positions brought to Kassel by the '100 days - 100 guests' program into streams of subjective approaches, represented in digital data. Most importantly, it allows remote participants to directly access the developments and debates in the Orangerie. This includes input from external areas into the physical setting of the Orangerie.

The architecture itself reflects a non-hierarchical perception of different functions, zones, images and situations. Similar to icons on a screen, the different elements of the set can be decomposed and rearranged. Projection columns, pedestals, and tables create an interface between the real and the virtual. The polymorphous and movable architectural elements precipitate a playful dialogue among themselves, including the hosts and guests. Furthermore the chosen interior appears useful as a laboratory and workshop for programmed and sponteneous interactions and presentations. Multifunctional video and audio facilities are included into the movable projection columns that structure and serve the space. The visitor can expect Hybrid WorkSpace to appear dark or light, full or empty, full of images or sound, noisy or completely silent.

Hybrid WorkSpace is an ambient space and document store; it is a pin-board and global newspaper; and it is both local and world wide radio channel. Out of this heterogeneity, the project constitutes itself professionally improvised as a media laboratory involving both transparent and opaque fields of activities. In this way, it becomes simultaneously a dynamic system - open and closed, private and public.

Hybrid WorkSpace mixes old and new media, connecting data streams of different sources. The polymorphous structure allows spontaneous rearrangements to suit the demands imposed on the space by discourse, presentations, events, and guests working in the Orangerie. This could be interviews, dialogues, group discussions and informal gatherings.

It is a zone of critical thought and productive conflict, a social space to manufacture consent, initialise dissent, a place where distribution, reception and production compress and expand. Within the social context the relation between senders and receivers make things happen. Meanwhile traditional broadcasting media like radio, video or journals become technical metaphors to put information onto the Internet. The organisation of time, the scheduling, and the architecture of a collaborative archive as an arena of memory will be modeled in space as in software. We strongly encourage collaborations with radio producers, virtual communities, video makers, magazines, etc. to provide the technical facilities to easily produce vivid net content.

In addition to the co-ordinators of the space there will be temporary teams of 2 to 4 editors who will be in Kassel for a 10-14 days period. After the preparation and realisation in Kassel, the WorkSpace will be transferred to Berlin as a part of the first Berlin Biennial scheduled for summer 1998 in various locations throughout the city.

adresses will be:
http://www.documenta.de/workspace
e-mail: workspace@documenta.de


the current office address:
Berlin Biennale
Auguststrasse 69 - 10117 Berlin
berlin.biennale@kunst.b.shuttle.de
tel: +49.30.285 99148
fax: +49.30.285 99150

............................................................................D

addendum

the documenta X 100 days / 100 guests lists , see also www.documenta.de

BUNDMEDIA Berlin will provide full internet access to the lecture material as realaudio, VDO recordings and transscribed text. We *can* connect to this program, but it runs independently from Workspace.


ABBAS, Ackbar Kulturkritiker - Hong Kong
AGAMBEN, Giorgio Philosoph - Italien
AL-AZM, Sadik Philosoph - Syrien
AZOULAY, Ariella Kunstkritikerin - Israel
BALIBAR, Etienne Philosoph - Frankreich
BASUALDO, Carlos Kunstkritiker - Argentinien/ USA
BECK, Ulrich Soziologe - Deutschland
BENSLAMA, Frankreich Fethi Psychoanalytiker - Tunesien/
BIELEFELD, Ulrich Soziologe - Deutschland
BISHARA, Azmi Philosoph - Israel/Palästina
BOERI, Stefano Urbanist - Italien
BOMPIANI, Ginevra Literaturwissenschaftlerin - Italien
BRAECKMAN, Colette Journalistin - Belgien
BRANZI, Andrea Architekt/ Designer - Italien
BUCHLOH, Benjamin Kunstkritiker - USA
BURNETT, Charles Filmregisseur - USA
CAMARA, Ery Kunstkritiker - Senegal/ Mexico
CIRET, Yan Theaterkritiker - Frankreich
CORNELIS, Jef Filmregisseur - Belgien
COUTO, Mia Schriftsteller - Mozambik
DAVIS, Mike Urbanist - USA
DEFERT, Daniel Schriftsteller - Frankreich
DELISS, Clémentine Kunstkritikerin - Großbritannien
DIEDERICHSEN, Diedrich Kritiker - Deutschland
DISERENS, Corinne Kuratorin - Frankreich
EICHER, Manfred Musikproduzent ECM - Deutschland
ENWEZOR, Okwui Direktor der Johannesburg Biennale - Südafrika/ USA
FARAH, Nuruddin Schriftsteller - Somalia/ USA
FAROCKI, Harun Filmregisseur - Tschechien/Deutschland
FEHER, Michel Philosoph - Belgien
GARCIA , Alexander Philosoph - Deutschland/DÜTTMANN, Australien
GATTI, Armand Theaterregisseur - Frankreich
GENTE, Peter Literaturwissenschaftler - Deutschland
GEORGE, Susan Wirtschaftswissenschaftlerin - USA/ Frankreich
GHEZALI, Salima Journalistin - Algerien
GLISSANT, Edouard Schriftsteller - Frankreich
GODARD, Jean-Luc Filmregisseur - Schweiz
GROSSARTH, Ulrike Künstlerin - Deutschland
GRUZINSKI, Serge Historiker - Frankreich
HUYSSEN, Andreas Kulturkritiker - Deutschland/ USA
JOST, Jon Filmregisseur - USA/ Portugal
JOXE, Alain Geostratege - Frankreich
JULLIEN, François Philosoph - Frankreich
KEENAN, Thomas W. Philosoph - USA
KELLEY, Mike Künstler - USA
KOOLHAAS, Rem Architekt - Niederlande
LACOUE-LABARTHE, Philippe Philosoph- Frankreich
LAMUNIÈRE, Simon Kurator website dX - Schweiz
LERCH, Antonia Filmregisseurin - Deutschland
LIAN, Yang Dichter - China/Großbritannien
LIPIETZ, Alain Wirtschaftswissenschaftler - Frankreich
LOUPPE, Laurence Tanzkritikerin - Frankreich
LOVINK, Geert Internetaktivist - Niederlande
MARKER, Chris Filmregisseur - Frankreich
MASHARAWI, Rashid Filmregisseur - Palästina
MENDES DA ROCHA Paulo, Architekt - Brasilien
MIYOSHI, Masao Kulturkritiker - Japan/ USA
MONÈNEMBO, Tierno Schriftsteller - Guinea/Frankreich
MONSIVAIS, Carlos Schriftsteller - Mexiko
MUDIMBE, Valentin Y. Schriftstelle- r Zaire/ USA
NANCY, Jean-Luc Philosoph - Frankreich
NORDEY, Stanislas Theaterregisseur - Frankreich
OPPITZ, Michael Anthropologe - Schweiz
PAPOULIAS, Christos Architekt - Griechenland
PECK, Raoul Filmregisseur - Haiti
PELJHAN, Marko Künstler - Slovenien
PHILIPP, Claus Filmkritiker - Österreich
PISTOLETTO, Michelangelo Künstler - Italien
POCOCK, Philip Künstler - Deutschland
RANCIÈRE, Jacques Philosoph - Frankreich
ROLNIK, Suely Psychoanalytikerin - Brasilien
RUIZ, Raoul Filmregisseur - Chile/ Frankreich
RYKLIN, Mikhail Philosoph - Rußland
SASSEN, Saskia Urbanistin - USA
SEITTER, Walter Philosoph - Österreich
SHIVA, Vandana Wirtschaftswissenschaftlerin - Indien
SINGER, Wolf Neurobiologe - Deutschland
SISSAKO, Filmregisseur Mauretanien/Abderrahmane - Frankreich
SOJA, Edward Urbanist - USA
SOKUROV, Aleksandr Filmregisseur - Rußland
SOYINKA, Wole Schriftsteller - Nigeria/ USA
SPIVAK, Gayatri C. Kulturkritikerin - Indien/ USA
TELLES, Sophia Architekturhistorikerin - Brasilien
TEN CATE, Ritsaert Theaterregisseur - Niederlande
VAN DER KEUKEN, Johan Filmregisseur - Niederlande
VATCHAGAEV, Maerbek Historiker - Tschetschenien
WALL, Jeff Künstler - Kanada
WEIBEL, Peter Medienwissenschaftler - Österreich
WEINBERGER, Lois Künstler - Österreich
ZOURABICHVILI, François Philosoph - Frankreich


.............................................................................*

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