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| ibex:radmin [2019-03-13 14:22] – katerich | ibex:radmin [2019-03-31 13:41] (current) – 146.199.27.108 |
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| RADMIN was also and specifically a festival in, of and about the Cube Cinema, crucible of much of this thinking. [[https://cubecinema.com/pages/about/cube|The Cube]] is programmed, staffed and governed on an ad hoc basis by approximately 150 volunteers. A foundational intention for RADMIN was to open out the infrastructure, processes and organisation of the organisation, how it is managed and administered, as programme content. An internal operating memo in the form of a festival. | RADMIN was also and specifically a festival in, of and about the Cube Cinema, crucible of much of this thinking. [[https://cubecinema.com/pages/about/cube|The Cube]] is programmed, staffed and governed on an ad hoc basis by approximately 150 volunteers. A foundational intention for RADMIN was to open out the infrastructure, processes and organisation of the organisation, how it is managed and administered, as programme content. An internal operating memo in the form of a festival. |
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| Another more practical trigger was the Feral Business Research Network (FBRN) a proposed academic networking project for artists thinking with business, that despite being unselected for research funding played out anyway across two workshop gatherings in [[http://companydrinks.info/event/feral-business-research-network|London]] and [[http://laforesta.net/feral-business-research-network|Rovereto, Italy]] in 2018. RADMIN was the third and final network-building event in this series. | Another more practical trigger was the [[http://companydrinks.info/event/feral-business-research-network|Feral Business Research Network]] (FBRN) a proposed academic networking project for artists thinking with business, that despite being unselected for research funding played out anyway across two workshop gatherings in London and Rovereto, Italy in 2018. RADMIN was the third and final network-building event in this series. |
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| //Production// | //Production// |
| //Organising through a RADMIN lens// | //Organising through a RADMIN lens// |
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| The container of RADMIN had the upside of rendering the usual stumbling blocks and dull administrative grooves vivid and poignant, even if just a performance to ourselves. This included getting caught in each others' spam filters, the online ticket-seller software hardcoding Valentine's Day into the event description, and our out of business hours email habits triggering a starburst of out of office autoresponders. Questions of //how to be handbuilt and powerful// were vividly rendered in the sub-project of the [[https://feraltrade.org/radmin/RADMIN_READER_FINAL.pdf|RADMIN reader]], a zine-like collection of short texts and DIY endeavour by design. Graphics students from the University contributed the design and layout as part of their professional practice module. However when it came to print, fold and staple, not passing the 70-unit job over to University Print Services (a design decision) caused an operating logjam played out in the art department printer queue, where I spent almost two entire days negotiating with (supportive) IT technicians, network log-in protocols, office supply enclaves, line-management protocols, (irate) institutional hierarchies, beneficial staplers and the whole situated process of production which was really the entire point. | The container of RADMIN had the upside of rendering the usual stumbling blocks and dull administrative grooves vivid and poignant. Questions of //how to be handbuilt and powerful// were vividly rendered in the sub-project of the [[https://feraltrade.org/radmin/RADMIN_READER_FINAL.pdf|RADMIN reader]], a zine-like collection of short texts and a DIY endeavour by design. Graphics students from the University contributed design and layout as part of their professional practice module. However when it came to print, fold and staple, the decision to not pass the 70-unit job over to University Print Services caused an administrative drama played out in the art department printer queue over two full days, negotiating with technicians, log-in protocols, office supply enclaves, (irate) institutional hierarchies, high-end staplers and the whole situated process of production, which was really the underlying point. |
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| //Logistics// | //Logistics// |
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| II | II |
| The festival was designed to demo a wealth of resources, counter to a litany of monetary scarcity that surges through many conversations in the arts (as elsewhere). These included a feast, a mansion, several outbursts of cash and the richness of innumerable projects and lives' works. In the end, life rather than money loomed over the programme as the scarce resource, as a slew of health-related events caused a number of last minute cancellations and re-orderings. Conversely two days of brilliant winter sun set the scene well beyond our ability to stage-manage. | The festival was designed to demo a wealth of resources, counter to a litany of monetary scarcity that surges through many conversations in the arts (as elsewhere). These included a feast, a mansion, several outbursts of cash and the richness of innumerable projects and lives' works. In the end, life rather than money loomed over the programme as the scarce resource, as a slew of health-related events caused a number of last minute absences and interruptions. Conversely two days of brilliant winter sun set the scene well beyond our ability to stage-manage. |
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| III | III |
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| IV | IV |
| The Business Experiment Raffle, announced at the gala dinner: a raffle with one ticket available to each RADMIN delegation. A manouever in dissociative funding. Entry was gated by requirement to be present at the Day 3 Raffle Draw, where each entrant was obliged to deliver a 30-second plan or dream for a business experiment to the assembled room, after which the £2,500 prize was randomly drawn and issued to the winner with no strings attached. | The Business Experiment Raffle, announced at the gala dinner, had an equal and opposite effect. A manouever in dissociative funding. Raffle entry (one ticket per RADMIN delegation) was gated by requirement to be present at the Day 3 Raffle Draw, where each entrant was obliged to deliver a 30-second plan or dream for a business experiment to the assembled room, after which the £2,500 prize was randomly drawn and issued to the winner with no strings attached. |
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| {{https://feraltrade.org/radmin/RADMIN_Raffle_winning_ticket_39.jpg?4500}} | {{https://feraltrade.org/radmin/RADMIN_Raffle_winning_ticket_39.jpg?4500}} |
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| This might reflect a determinedly decentring impulse in the event organisation, where organisers (both from RADMIN and The Viriconium money experiment) did not seek to issue explanations or reassuring commentary. A source of both discord and generative insights all round. | This might reflect a determinedly decentring impulse in the event organisation, where organisers (both from RADMIN and The Viriconium money experiment) did not seek to issue explanations or reassuring commentary. A source of both discord and generative insights all round. |
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| | Form followed function. |
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| A general division in reception. Many attendees reported feeling fed with a dazzling array of inspiring inputs while for others - primarily those thinking for decades in these areas already - that the programme was nowhere near hard, deep or business enough, crystallising a desire for deeper work to follow. This also provokes questions of: how to still speak to the street / bring in business / not alienate those already 20 years in to the the process / and still keep the peripheries open. | A general division in reception. Many attendees reported feeling fed with a dazzling array of inspiring inputs while for others - primarily those thinking for decades in these areas already - that the programme was nowhere near hard, deep or business enough, crystallising a desire for deeper work to follow. This also provokes questions of: how to still speak to the street / bring in business / not alienate those already 20 years in to the the process / and still keep the peripheries open. |
| A general request: for more takeaway actions, radmin tips and tricks to apply for life. More administrators and fewer artists! | A general request: for more takeaway actions, radmin tips and tricks to apply for life. More administrators and fewer artists! |
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| How to engage (or not) with lines of conversation that circled back to 'privilege', 'struggle', ' exploitation', 'clique' and money. And how the psychological/ spiritual level may trip up politics (and aesthetics) and how that collision could be managed/valued. | How to engage (or not) with lines of conversation that circled back to 'privilege', 'struggle', ' exploitation', 'clique' and money. Also, how the psychological/ spiritual level may trip up politics (and aesthetics) and how that encounter could be managed/valued. |
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| | How to get the right kinds of diversity in the room, in recognition of the different forms diversity can take, while still not stretching the consensus so far as to breach the possibilities of real communication. |
| | Recognising how deeply embedded assumptions about 'art' and 'business' often are. |
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| How to get the right kinds of diversity in the room, in recognition of the different forms diversity can take, while still not stretching the consensus so far as to breach the possibilities of real communication, | A programme constituted by actual research - rather than content delivery for an audience - is contributory also in that where it fails to work smoothly, it offers up opportunities for all round learning. |
| Recognising how deeply embedded assumptions about 'art' and 'business' are. | |
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| A programme constituted by actual research - rather than content delivery for an audience - is contributory also in that where it fails to work smoothly, it offers up opportunities for collective learning. Along similar lines, radical decentring as an organising technique, instinctively adopted by RADMIN organisers (in part through experience from running the Cube), will throw people off balance but likewise opens up real space for conversation. | Along similar lines, radical decentering as an organising technique instinctively adopted by RADMIN organisers (in part through experience from running the Cube), will throw people off balance but likewise opens real space for conversation. |
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| //Next steps// | //Next steps// |
| b) Administrative | b) Administrative |
| c) Vegetal | c) Vegetal |
| d) Pscyhological / coaching | d) Psychological / coaching |
| e) Enterprise imaging | e) Organisational portraiture |
| f) Creative accounting (not present at RADMIN, but critical) | f) Creative accounting (not present at RADMIN, but critical) |
| g) Activities for translating administrative thinking into other realms (personal training, hitchhiking etc) | g) Activities transposing administrative thinking into other realms (personal training, hitchhiking, music etc) |
| h) And critically the role of artist/practitioner in all this. How to both be resourced and have agency, which brings themes of scarcity and abundance questions together. Lines of enquiry from RADMIN that lead into this include the artist-tradesperson double identity (PlumbMaid, Feral Trade), the history of the Incidental Person from APG, and an understanding of the value the art practitioner in a interdisciplinary research context. | h) And critically the role of artist/practitioner in all this. How to both be resourced and have agency, which brings themes of scarcity and abundance questions together. Lines of enquiry from RADMIN that lead into this include the artist-tradesperson double identity (PlumbMaid, Feral Trade) and an understanding of the value of the art practitioner in a interdisciplinary context (the Incidental Person, for eg). |
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| An immediate task to organise around, the post-RADMIN reader. | An immediate task to organise around, the post-RADMIN reader. |
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| Assemble the raffle pitches | Assemble the raffle pitches in [[ibex:radmin_raffle|transcription]] |
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| An annual retreat | An annual retreat |
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| An annual counter-capital raffle! | An annual counter-capital raffle! |
katerich